English Language

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

That must be a great boon to the charmless.

[Ozz]

Originally posted by Paul Hanson


Maybe. Soon I'll have them walking around the house wearing socks too (I was just told by an Italian that I was clearly English because I don't wear shoes in the house ).

Northern peoples don't (snow, sleet, mud and muck)

[Sten Sture]

Originally posted by Ozz

(snow, sleet, mud and muck)

What are those?


I have been astonished by the quality of English on these boards - though I assume that anyone that isn't a lazy American like me is fluent in about 12 languages.

I tip my hat...

[Jaakko]

Juu aar partli korekt Siikr. Vii Fins kan tsenrli rait inklis preti vel, pat auör pronaunssieissön oftn niids impruuvment.*





* You are partly correct Seeker. We Finns can generally write English pretty well, but our pronunciation often needs improvement

[Buck Birdseed]

It always amuses me how finns cant pronounce the "sh" sound.

[Dr Strangelove]

Re: Re: English Language

Originally posted by Provost Harrison


I should bleeding hope so as I am English and of English descent Anyway, I don't know whether I should feel honoured being mentioned as my English being 'good' or insulted as my English is 'good for a foreigner'

Well you're not an American, so what were we supposed to think?

[Dis]

How about my English? How is it?

[aaglo]

It always amuses me how finns cant pronounce the "sh" sound

And swedes cannot pronounce "j" (for example: just)

[Seeker]

We teach all ages and levels at EHWA 'American' Language School .... oddly named because we have ONE token USian. Apparently NZ, AUS, CAN, IRE, are all considered 'America' here.

I myself teach mainly Middle School students, some HS, one college, 4-6 kinder, and 2 adults.

[Dry]

Originally posted by Rogan Josh
In fact, my main difficulty in learning French is that I don't have enough opportunity to speak it - even though I live in France!

To learn french, try - what I do for english - french forums.

[Traianvs]

imagine learning chinese or japanese etc... that is so ****ing incredibly difficult...

i have trouble pronouncing the english r as i usually use the french or dutch r... i still can't seem to get that r right

it sounds like a hugely molested american r or even worse

[Seeker]

You WANT to learn French?

I've spent 8 years of my life studiously trying to ignore French lessons.

[Wraith]

--"imagine learning chinese or japanese etc... that is so ****ing incredibly difficult..."

Actually, speaking Japanese isn't that difficult. The main problem is getting the proper level of politeness into the speach, which doesn't have anything to do with the pronunciation.
All the basic sounds used in Japanese are in English as well (although the "tsu" - つ - is rare enough to give people trouble for a while) with only some slight variation. It's also not really a tonal language; only two tone (high and low) are used and they don't impact the meaning of the sentence (just make you sound funny if you get them wrong).

Wraith
"Yoroshiku, Baby"
-- Risky ("Risky/Saftey")

[SpencerH]

Swedes also have trouble with ch so chair becomes share.

One of the things that may be a factor is dubbing movies as compared to subtitles. I've noticed that the english is better in scandinavia where the movies and english (speaking) tv is subtitled compared to Germany where its mostly dubbed.

[ThePantaloonDog]

I have a good friend who's Croatian and in many ways his English is better than mine. I often use slang, incorrect grammer ( 'got' instead of 'have') and poor pronounciation (Baltimore=Balmer, water=wooter, Norton=Nor'in.) He sometimes gets the pronounciations wrong but for the most part is grammar is right on. Another interesting thing is when we met a couple of Polish girls down in New Jersey. I couldn't understand a thing they were saying in English but my Croatian friend did a great job as a translator.