More gripes! (sorry)

[Chuck52]

Danny,

True, both points. As an aside, I wish we as a society made more effort to learn other languages. I'm certainly no poster boy for the idea. I lived in Puerto Rico for four years and only learned how to order beer or coffee, and know when I was being cussed at. Two of my kids speak pretty passable spanish. Ever noticed how no matter where they are in the world, our journalists can almost always find a local to interview who speaks english? Our foreign graduate students not only speak english, their grammar is often better than that of the american students.

Chuck

 

[Mosey]

Chuck - "Our foreign graduate students not only speak english, their grammar is often better than that of the american students."

I have experienced that also. When someone learns a language as an adult in a classroom they learn the grammar better than someone who learns it by listening to others use incorrect grammar while growing up. I get real tired of hearing "I ain't never going to do that again!" and other similar stuff. Another one that cracks me up is "I'll unthaw the hamburger".

 

[Bird]

<font color=blue>I wish we as a society made more effort to learn other languages</font color=blue>

I sure agree with that. I took a year of high school Spanish in my sophomore year. It was a two year course and that summer we moved to another town and the high school there didn't teach Spanish. I've always regretted not getting that second year and completing my education in Spanish, but still wasn't smart enough to get into the Spanish courses in college./w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif

 

[Chuck52]

"I seen" seems to be entering the language as correct usage. You know, maybe we shouldn't worry about which language is dominant. If we wait a bit they're all going to inter-breed! Kinda like people? The French have periodic fits about the "americanization" of their language. We use numerous foreign words without even thinking about them. Maybe some day we'll all speak something like esperanso (sp?) without ever consciously deciding on that course.

Chuck