stuart little
Established Member
Damn I forgot to add 'like', like.So, it gets on his wick, like.
Damn I forgot to add 'like', like.So, it gets on his wick, like.
So, damn I forgot to add “like” like, innit awesome!
A lot of Chinese people are interested in learning English as an intellectual exercise as well as a means of communication; I teach a large class of them over the internet, including lecturers of English in a number of Chinese universities. To be honest, the level of these university teachers' English is surprisingly low, as many of them are themselves prepared to admit. However, I do bolster their spirits with stories, and examples, of the pretty poor level of English spoken, and written, by many native speakers these days. That's not a dig at anyone here but merely a reflection of how standards have fallen over the past several decades.One of the benefits of empire is that English is the most widely spoken language internationally, although Mandarin (I understand) is the language spoken by most people.
This is probably why the English put so little effort into learning a foreign language - in business, trade, tourism they have little need so to do. The default - if Johnny Foreigner doesn't understand, shout louder and more slowly on the arrogant basis it is they who are clearly deficient.
Recent advice was that learning Mandarin was the key to career success. However, I suspect the Chinese in pursuit of world domination are far more willing to learn English than encourage the rest of the world to learn their mother tongue.
Wow! You grape crusher, you!P.S.: Dionysios is my actual name
That's true enough, but the etymology of "theatre" and "metre" long predates Demotiki, not to mention that "meter" (the US spelling of the measure and the instrument used to measure) all come from the same Ancient Greek root, "μέτρον", so the mention of "Contemporary Greek" is a red herring.@JimJay, Actually in Contemporary Greek is 'metro' and 'theatro' (even the oldest live language changes, that's why it's live) and the spelling is essentially the same with the english words. Though with that example I was pointing out the rationalization that the Americans try to imply between spelling and pronounciation and not the similarity with the Greek spelling.
As for your second post, I will totally agree with you about the fallen standards. Unfortunately the dismissal of reading as a way to learn, improve your language skills and broaden your mind, along with the intrusion of internet and social media has led to the creation of people who can barely speak and write correctly their native language. Even worse I'm afraid that after a while all these linguistic atrocities that we hear or read will be regarded as the correct use of the language.
P.S.: Dionysios is my actual name
"Mutating" is definitely the right word - it's so much more diplomatic than "dumbing-down"Has anyone actually noticed that the human race is also mutating and it is not just our language ?
Has anyone actually noticed that the human race is also mutating and it is not just our language ?
There was a letter in The Times some years ago from a chap whose business was translations, he didn't say in which sphere only that for legal reasons his work had to be very precise. For this reason he employed predominantly Polish and Hungarian English language graduates rather than English ones.However, I do bolster their spirits with stories, and examples, of the pretty poor level of English spoken, and written, by many native speakers these days. That's not a dig at anyone here but merely a reflection of how standards have fallen over the past several decades.
He was right - and he'd be even more so if he's still clinging onto his perch now; the only difference today is that so many people are proud of knowing nothing but still demand that their unwarranted self-esteem is respected. As I hinted at previously, the first thing I have to get through to my students is that just because the rubbish they encounter on the internet comes from a native speaker is no guarantee that it's grammatical, correctly spelled or even coherent - and I have to disabuse them of the notion that every English word is preceded by "f*cking"..There was a letter in The Times some years ago from a chap whose business was translations, he didn't say in which sphere only that for legal reasons his work had to be very precise. For this reason he employed predominantly Polish and Hungarian English language graduates rather than English ones.
In my first term of Latin in 1965 the master made us learn English grammar for the whole first term, as he maintained that as English was no longer taught properly we wouldn't be able to understand the grammar of a foreign language when we didn't know our own.
I'd say that you're more likely to bump into someone who speaks German than Ancient Greek, that said my Scottish Ancient Greek teacher used to lecture on the Swan Hellenic cruises and one year found that a fellow-lecturer was a Greek Orthodox priest. He decided to strike up a conversation and, since he didn't speak Modern Greek, launched into Ancient Greek; unfortunately the British pronunciation of the language, coupled with the accent, totally defeated the priest and they ended up conversing in Latin.Both my Latin masters also taught Greek. I had the option of Greek, but took German instead - I have long regretted it. Accents? I was taught French by a Corsican and German by an Englishman who'd lived for many years in Bavaria.
A true polyglot.As for other languages, we spoke Greek, English and French at home and I lived in Germany for a number of years; these days I live in Bulgaria, so perforce I speak Bulgarian as my in-laws don't speak any other language.
Don't be - I'm just lucky that I was started on that path when I was very young. Now I'm (a lot) older it's both tougher going when faced with a new language and very clear to me that my memory isn't what it used to be.A true polyglot.
I admire and am envious of your linguistic abilities.
I completely agree. (I had the fortune/misfortune to go to a traditional grammar school, for my sins.)@JimJay, Actually in Contemporary Greek is 'metro' and 'theatro' (even the oldest live language changes, that's why it's live) and the spelling is essentially the same with the english words. Though with that example I was pointing out the rationalization that the Americans try to imply between spelling and pronounciation and not the similarity with the Greek spelling.
As for your second post, I will totally agree with you about the fallen standards. Unfortunately the dismissal of reading as a way to learn, improve your language skills and broaden your mind, along with the intrusion of internet and social media has led to the creation of people who can barely speak and write correctly their native language. Even worse I'm afraid that after a while all these linguistic atrocities that we hear or read will be regarded as the correct use of the language.
P.S.: Dionysios is my actual name
I have known the owners of our local Chinese takeaway for over thirty years, a charming couple who have never lost their accent. She is always telling me " you learn Chinese, very easy". I have always taken the view that it was probably not very easy atall. We now have agreed that when I retire she is going to see if she can teach me. A process I suspect she will probably find more frustrating than I will. Their daughter is currently at Oxford, but works the counter in the shop when she is at home. She speaks the most frightfully posh 1940' s BBC newscaster English, certainly puts me to shame. Very funny when she has to give some instruction to the folk in the kitchen and let's go with a torrent of machine gun speed Chinese through the hatch, before switching seamlessly back again.A lot of Chinese people are interested in learning English as an intellectual exercise as well as a means of communication; I teach a large class of them over the internet, including lecturers of English in a number of Chinese universities. To be honest, the level of these university teachers' English is surprisingly low, as many of them are themselves prepared to admit. However, I do bolster their spirits with stories, and examples, of the pretty poor level of English spoken, and written, by many native speakers these days. That's not a dig at anyone here but merely a reflection of how standards have fallen over the past several decades.
Try reading a book (novel) written, say in pre WW1, & compare with present ones, to see how our language has changed - even disregarding the 'modern' verbs & pronouns now so common (in more ways than one!)A lot of Chinese people are interested in learning English as an intellectual exercise as well as a means of communication; I teach a large class of them over the internet, including lecturers of English in a number of Chinese universities. To be honest, the level of these university teachers' English is surprisingly low, as many of them are themselves prepared to admit. However, I do bolster their spirits with stories, and examples, of the pretty poor level of English spoken, and written, by many native speakers these days. That's not a dig at anyone here but merely a reflection of how standards have fallen over the past several decades.
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