English Language Infusion and Confusion
What is ” THE RIGHT WAY” to use a language? I have always loved the printed word. I determined to spell and write CORRECTLY at an early age. And I did, and it continued. I moved to a large northern US city and was told, “you don’t speak the ENGLISH LANGUAGE” by people who were 2nd or 3rd generation American. So then I began more interested in the SPOKEN Word as well as the WRITTEN word. I just knew the Language that I spoke was ENGLISH since I had been exposed to no other neither had many generations of ancestors.
Well, I noticed that there are spelling differences with the various English speaking countries. Now I have lost my belief in ONE RIGHT WAY to say or write the English Language. The language is still fascinating for me to study and tells a lot about the history of the countries. I have sympathy with anyone who tries to study the subject. The more you study, the more confusion you may have.
The idioms and expressions are very difficult and slang is just impossible to understand, so most people don’t use it except with their “HOMMIES”. Hommies is slang for “bosom buddies or closest friends. I just took a quiz on British expressions, and knew about 4 out of 15 and guessed about 8 more to get a good score. I think this might explain some communication capability, and confusion among all the English speaking people on this site.
I have also learned that there are huge differences in the spoken language of the UK as there are in the US. When US northerner travel south, they will not feel comfortable or understand each other very well at all. I grew up in the eastern mountains of the USA and since most of the people are poor, many people deem the language inferior which is a snobbish and incorrect assumption. All the snobbishness of language gets lost on outsiders but if we study a language we want to study one that serves our purpose. Many people in India are studying American dialects because they are working for the “yankee dollar”.
I wanted this to be short and I hope some of you find this subject as fascinating as I do but I doubt it. So, we all love to be with our “HOMMIES” but that has to be dropped if we expect to communicate around the world. I am amazed at how well we do that on Senior chatters. It also may explain a lot of our little squabbles or misunderstandings. The “RIGHT WAY” to speak or write is the BEST WAY that enables you to COMMUNICATE most EFFECTIVELY.
In conclusion I say “GET OVER YOURSELF” and enjoy the content and Character and forget any SNOBBISHNESS about how you speak or write or whether you are rural or country, rich or poor etc.. Most people on this site do that extremely well, but we all love our “MOTHER tongue” and feel most comfortable with our “HOMMIES. To respect a person, you must also respect their language and try to adapt somewhat even if it is learning only one or two words or phrases, and language has to change according to time and place and purpose. Happy CHATTING and WRITING to all.
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Have to tell you this Rose, many things are lost in translation… i.remember when you first joined and we were chatting in private…….I asked you ” how are you finding the site ” you replied, the same way as you Star……just go to the site and login,…….what I actually meant was are you enjoying it…….soooo easy to misunderstand by the short cuts we use……and the English language is indeed hard to grasp……so many words sounding the same, but spelt differently and with different meanings……good blog Rose, you raise some good points….xx
I agree with Star…The English language is one of the hardest languages to learn….a good blog….x
Thank you tania. I guess that is what kept the eastern world separate so long.
TY starlette. Funny that you should remember that, and that is a perfect example.
I am glad you are ok with this blog. Since language is so personal, things can be unclear and feelings can be hurt. thank you starlette.
I think that different Dialects make English harder for people to understand. Let’s face it I was always top of the class in English but even I can struggle with Dialects having travelled up and down this country working most of the time.
tania, that is what I am learning since being on this chatsite and watching British television. Doc Martin takes place in Cornwell, I think, but the local dialect is so impossible to understand that the actors were told to use their own version of an English dialect.I am sure about the message, but may not have the exact town.
Is it Cornwall Rose?….they have a mixture of Welsh in with their dialect.
If so Ann than you will understand the feelings of a foreigner.
I do Michael, and I did pick up some German when I lived there. Easier than English.
The English Language is really not that difficult to learn as you grow up with it, because you are inundated with sentences daily throughout your young life.
To a newcomer with his or her own language, yes it can be a nightmare anymore than if I as an English speaking subject was to learn French. Throughout my scholastic life and further I had no desire to learn another language, it was bad enough to be forced to learn Latin only because I attended Catholic schools , in my eyes I never thought it was that important to know, nobody spoke it outside of the classroom unless you were a attending mass etc, exactly the same reason I never learned algebra, what was the point if I was never to become a scientist or in that job description. In everyday life do you use algebra ,,no you don’t fancy calculating your shopping bill with algebra I don’t think so.
I excelled in other things and one of them was the English language an another literature.In all my years of travelling up and down this country I have yet to fail to understand another persons accent its not really that difficult when its used on various TV programs, so you pick up the idioms and slang words as you go along in life.
The correct way of spelling in English and its pronunciation of words is governed by the OEM (Oxford English Dictionary). Its not the English language that is hard its the grammatical use of the language that’s difficult, so many people make errors that are overlooked by others, even I make an awful lot of mistakes yet I studied it at college. so we are not infallible and yet thank somebody we are not perfectionists, then it would be boring.
teddyted, sometimes education is clinging to the past too long. At one time Latin was a universal language of science and religion. Latin is also the foundation for many western European languages, so you probably did do better with English due to your Latin study.
I would be robbing Rosinbloom’s blog if I answered that with a blog of my own in this particular section so I will Leave it for now butt thanks for input. Ted.
teddyted, you are welcome to answer with a blog of your own, and I would love to read what you say. I could only skim the surface and I am an american and We both are entitled to our own opinions.
That’s Rose is a matchpoint, indeed. You see it is now more than 50yrs ago I first got into contact with the English language. Since the mid 60ths I have not made use of it cos there was no need for it. ( a matter of the repercussions of WW-2 I think? ).
Two years ago I started a new attempt in using the rest of what I’ve kept in mind on here with the SC. And I was told, oh boy, English is such a simple, easy to learn language. That’s absolutely true and valid for the very first 100 words. But to go into a serious talk or discussion, to read a decent newspaper that language asks for a lot of brain.
On the other hand, that is the challenge a great challenge for me. That’s why I like the POSH English quite a lot, that’s why I like to watch BBC documentation and that is the reason why I spent a lot of time with English history.
ROB I have to admit this, has done a great job, maybe without noticing it himself! He created a podium where people from all over the earth can talk to eachother in one language. At this point; thanks to ROB!
The Americans use the simple form of English. As always they make every thing much more easier than in England. In England it is very hard to understand people of different regions and as I’ve said this before, the spoken language in England contains out of three classes:
1. the lower class
2. the middle class
3. the high class
The reason for that is to be found in history of this country. These and other idiosyncrasies make the country and its people so pleasant and the search for an answer to the ( WHY ) is the icing on the cake for me.
Sorry for the mistakes in here.
Thank you vonMichael for your comment and your are mostly correct, but both UK and USA have a great deal of variance in our countries, and The other British countries are a mixture of countries with their own differences.
We have economic,regional, ethnic, educational differences also. I am glad you are happy and learning English and you do extremely well. We also have formal, informal and vernacular language as well, but I did not want to write an extremely long blog and that can come in discussion for the people who are interested.
And dear Rose there is a great difference between the written and the spoken English!!
Going off the subject a little Michael, but was discussing the origins of the word POSH the other day……turned out it was something to do with the port side of a ship being cooler, therefore more pleasant to have your cabin situated there during the hot weather………only the more wealthy could afford these cabins……so hence the word was an abbreviation of the exact location of the cabins…..all boring stuff…..just saying that’s all….lol xxx
Startlette and that is a good example of how history is woven into words and it is always and ongoing process, I won’t write an F word but at one time it was a POLITE word For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge. Now it is defintely a NO NO word in America. You may not know snafu, but it is now acceptable but was not and stands for, Situation Normal All Fouled Up. Naturally another F word may be used instead of Fouled up. Language can be totally fascinating. There is a B word that is used a lot and I don’t know how acceptable it is, but a lot of Americans find it very unacceptable. I am offended by gross talk, it can be a form of sexual harrassment or disrespect, but also I know there is a wide range of acceptance and I have to stay cool and consider more carefully what the person is really intending.
Well if someone told me to f..k off…..I would understand exactly what they meant…….no probs…lol xx
I can’t imagine anybody would be that rude to you Star! xxxM
Pleased to say they never have Michael……but no mix up with that word over here……..oh no…..xxx
Rose, I think it is fascinating that we all express ourselves in unique ways. I love expressions or words that are specific to certain places. I once lived somewhere where a lady told me she had bought a jar of jam and there was a clock in it. I thought she meant a clock as I know it, and said, ‘Wow! Did you keep it?’ I was thinking a free clock would be a bonus for the price of a jar of jam. She replied something like, ‘No! I certainly did not keep it. I stamped on it.’ I eventually found out that ‘clock’ was the local word for a beetle!
I love the word ‘Posh’… Port Out, Starboard Home.
I did leave a reply to Starettes definition of the word posh but it got lost somewhere. but also I’m not writing it all out again but just to say she is wrong.
teddyted, as with most things, facts differ. I think she may be right. Sounds logical and language is spoken then written. Maybe the ship workers started using the term. I never heard the word posh until about 1990 when I talked with a Swiss man. I don’t think it started over here, USA, and it is not used much either.
Posh? according to the OED (Oxford English Dictionary the word posh has no basis for the acronym P.O.S.H. meaning, port out, starboard home, referring to the choice of the more expensive berths on a ship. The OED states that it is first recorded in early 20th cent’, its origin to this day is unknown but could come from the obsolete thieves slang for a dandy or money, it does however say the the meaning now has stuck to the upper class group of people and also means elegant. Now call me a nitpicker if you will but its nice to know real facts from a real source instead of a lot of hearsay or for that matter guess work if anyone else can come up with something that’s factual and disputes the OED then I will hold my hands up somewhere.
See Rains reply above…..that’s where i was coming from……whats your definition of it Teds…..
Thank you all for the comments. It has been fun.
I have noticed the differences and love them! so much to learn about the English language both UK and American!!
Probably too late to post on this…….
Here is a quote from my English Teacher…
“Bad spelling and grammar is like wearing your pants on the outside of your clothes…you have got it covered but you look like a fool.”
Great blog,fantastic comments,and yes very good fun and thanks for making me grin.
Try telling that to Superman, Gyps….lol
hahaha Rose I loved this… im sure you decided to write this after posting the link you did on my FB wall .. it was good that and so is this post.. 🙂
Pollie that quiz on British expressions made me think of all this.Thank you for taking the quiz also. I am amazed that I guessed most of them correctly.
Really interesting subject, rose, and you’ve triggered some great responses. For me, language is the biggest living organism on the planet, always changing to account for new lifestyles, new approaches, different viewpoints. It’s beautiful music whose sole purpose is to help us share the infinite experiences of social life – in that, I think it will always lag the richness of our thoughts a bit – it’s why there’s so much kerfuffle, pedantry and semantics in the mix. Humour is the lubricant to reduce friction between words!
Whatever, if it communicates, it’s cool and okay, should be the rule… if you take my meaning…