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Learning English?
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P. Rockwell
P. Rockwell
Well-Connected

Jun-30-2005 20:23

I'm trying to learn Italian. But since I'm from Potato Land, where we speak with as many grunts as we do nouns. So this semester while everyone has been learning Italian, I have been learning English. (Did anyone else not know that the Perfected Present is really in the past?)
So with all these non-native English speakers around I thought ya'll (3rd person plural-Italian Loro :) might enjoy some of these.

Replies

Lisa Carol Freemont
Lisa Carol Freemont
Well-Connected

Jul-2-2005 01:58

DaRu, I study languages and unfortunately it's not just a matter of literal translation, when tranlating you need to take into consideration the grammar and sintax differencies between languages, not to mention their cultural and sociological context. Hope this helps.

DaRu
DaRu
Well-Connected

Jul-2-2005 10:39

Thank you Lisa:) Here's more like what you shared P.Rockwell: ....Lets face it,the English language seems crazy, & English speakers should be committe to an asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do peole recite at a play & play at a recital?
There's no ham in hamburger. No apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or french fries in France.
Sweetmeats & candies, while sweetbreads are meat.
We take English for granted, but if we explore it's paradoxes we find:
Quicks and can work slowly. Boxing rings are square.
A guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor a pig.
And why does writers write, but fingers don't fling?
Grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?
One goose, 2 geese, so one moose, 2 meese?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend?
That you comb through annals of history but not a single annal?
If you have a bunch of odds & ends & get rid of all but one, what do you call it?
If teachers taught,why doesn't preachers praught?
If a vegtarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Ship by truck & send cargo by ship.
Have noses that run & feet that smell.
How can a slim chance & a fat chance be the same, while a wise man & a wise guy are opposites?
How can overlook & oversee be opposites, while quite a lot and quite a few are alike?
How can the weather be hot as hell one day, & cold as hell another?
Have you noticed we talk about certain things only when they are absent?
Have you ever seen a horseful carriage, or a strapful gown?
Met a sung hero or experienced requested love?
Have you ever run into someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?
And where are all those people who ARE spring chickens or whould ACTUALLY hurt a fly?
You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of the English language which:
Your house can burn up as it burns down,which you fill out a form by filling it out?

Lisa Carol Freemont
Lisa Carol Freemont
Well-Connected

Jul-2-2005 11:26

Love that.

Lewis Carroll played with words, "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking Glass".

And how "to break a leg" can stand for Good Luck.
Just how lucky can you be with a broken leg?

jstkdn
jstkdn
Well-Connected

Jul-2-2005 11:46

I think that it is particular slang that takes a while to get used to. I remember in French class, I once had to describe what I had planned for the summer. So I went on saying, I am doing this, that etc. But I used Dutch slang to say I was looking forward to this cool thing to do.

In Dutch we say in this case, and I literally translated "I can see it sitting!"

My teacher nearly fell of her chair from laughing, when she finally realized what I was trying to say.

Also using a dictionary literally, you can come up with the most interesting things. Using words that are just not quite appropriate, in place, or even old fashioned.

John Hale
John Hale
Yarn Weaver

Jul-2-2005 12:53

Lisa Carol Freemont: the 'break a leg' thing with actors come from teh belief that if you tell someone 'good luck' they will have bad luck. It's the sort of cynicism that appears in professions that tend to be Murphy's Law incarnated. So 'break a leg' is their way of playing the rule of opposites and acknowledging what is probably the sort of fortune string you'll be working with.

Lady Grey
Lady Grey

Jul-2-2005 15:05

It is my understanding that the person who assassinated President Lincoln fell as he tried to escape accross the stage and broke his leg, thus originating the phrase "break a leg" which is said to anyone going on stage.

Greyling
Greyling

Jul-2-2005 15:25

Oooo, yes, loved Lewis Carroll's play with with words and Norton Juster's in "The Phantom Tollbooth" as well, especially the Which who wasn't a witch but a which :D

Llolly
Llolly
Well-Connected

Jul-3-2005 05:50

Oh the Phantom Tollbooth is my favourite kids book! I read it way back, then wanted to get it again a few years later. All I could remember was that it had a picture of a dog with a clock for a body (for those that haven't read it, guess what he was!). I sent 2 librarians and a bookseller round the bend trying to unearth it!

P. Rockwell
P. Rockwell
Well-Connected

Jul-3-2005 14:14

I found this kids book and I love it!! Its called:

Hooway fo Woodney Wat!

it's sweet any one else know it?

biga1
biga1

Jul-4-2005 20:48

actually the hardest language in the world to learn is navaho language. second hardest would be japenese followed by chinise.

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