Re: Lichen Blamed for Elk Deaths in Wyoming


Posted by Amaranth Rose on Mar 24, 2004 at 05:28
(65.172.150.7)

Re: Lichen Blamed for Elk Deaths in Wyoming (Jean Pierre)

No apolgoy required. I didn't intend to criticize. You do a lot better at English than I would at French or Spanish. I honestly wish we had a halfway decent language program in this country. This may be the land of opportunity, but we lose a lot by not learning to speak a few more languages. The school my son attends offers only German or Spanish, and the German teacher is retiring soon.

Small wonder Dutch, German and English would speak English together; the languages are related in their origins. Danish even makes some sense to me, with my background in both English and German. I've even tootled a little with Russian, though long enough ago I've forgotten most of it.

Spanish, Italian and French all derive strongly from Latin, so have many more things in common with each other. Not only that, they're nice for writing rhyme and meter.

It's a shame that the "common language" that the internet seems to be defaulting to is one so full of idioms, irregularities, inconsistencies and incongruities as is English. I mean, the plural of goose is geese; shouldn't the plural of moose be meese, not moose? The plural of louse is lice, and the plural of mouse is mice; the properly logical plural of house ought to be hice, not houses. We refer to men as "hunks" and to women as "babes". To go fishing has nothing to do with fish or fishhooks, or even boats, and "reading the cards" has nothing to do with what is printed on them. "Spending a penny" has nothing to do with money at all. Things don't "be," they are.

I feel sorry for anyone who has to learn English. It's a very difficult language. :-)

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