Someone read this or similar to us at writers’ group the other day and I had an idea to write a blog in ‘alternative speak’ …perhaps with a photo of my favourite cuddly toys ‘Chocolate Meese’.
“English takes the crown as the most common second language around the world with 55 countries speaking it as a second language”. All those poor people struggling along with English, you have to feel sorry for them!
On top of that there are different English nations.
Not counting accents – which are hard enough to understand when you both speak “English”.
If I speak or write as a Kiwi here, there is much you wouldn’t understand. The Aussies & us don’t understand each other. They spell like the Americans, we more like the English = color colour.
If I said I was “crook” that means I’m unwell. When I was with the LAS I had to ask what was meant when someone was “poorly”. And the weather was “close” took me ages to work out.
Anyways yous fellas, its nearly brekky time here so i better get some kai. Knackered last sun but sweet as bros & got bugger all on today eh. Catch ya round.
I can imagine how hard it must be for them. My French friend used to ask me “Why is it ‘a’ chair, but ‘an’ elephant?” I tried to explain to her about vowels, and how it is similar to their masculin and feminin, but she never really understood. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
beetleypete 
Hey, Pete, thanks for the SO and sharing! Hope all is well with you 🙂
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I’m okay thanks, Tina. I hadn’t seen this one before. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Lol so true. I alerted my friend Tina to your share. 🙂
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Thanks, Deb ❤️
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Thanks for doing that, Debby.
Best wishes, Pete.
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🙂
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A good reminder! 🙂 xx Michael
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Thanks, Michael.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Someone read this or similar to us at writers’ group the other day and I had an idea to write a blog in ‘alternative speak’ …perhaps with a photo of my favourite cuddly toys ‘Chocolate Meese’.
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I’m sure you would do a good job of that, Janet.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I remember this poem from my 9th grade English class and that was surely one filled with fun and irony over the English language.
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Thanks, Devangi. It does illustrate some of the extreme difficulties.
Best wishes, Pete.
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To those who were not brought up talking English and study it later, it must be Greek to them.
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I can only imagine, Don.
Best wishes, Pete.
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That reminds me of the poem “The Chaos” by Gerard Nolst Trenité, starting with
“Dearest creature in creation
Studying English pronunciation,
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse”,
and ending with
“My advice is ‘Give it up!'”
[Full text here: https://www.learnenglish.de/pronunciation/pronunciationpoem.html%5D
During my time at university, we had native speakers try to read it aloud with the correct pronunciation, and none of the could do all the words properly.
Best,
Pit
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Thanks for adding that, Pit.
Best wishes, Pete.
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Love this Pete. I’m sending keeses your way!
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Thanks, Dorothy. I hadn’t seen this one before. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Love it! Thanks for this one. Saving it to teach English to my daughter. 🙂
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Glad you enjoyed it, Shaily.
Best wishes, Pete.
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it is a challenge to learn with all of its many exceptions to the rules, and that is an understatement
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Yes I was happy to be born into it, Beth.
Best wishes, Pete.
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I think English is one of the hardest to learn. It is full of pitfalls. Half of the english-speaking world doesn’t speak it correctly!
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Including me! Then again, I only ever bother to speak London. It’s easier.
Best wishes, Pete.
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All I can say is thank God I didn’t have to learn English as a second language! xxoo, C
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I had enough trouble learning it as a first language. In fact I didn’t bother, I used ‘London’ instead. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete. x
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So she is telling me that the plural of sister is not sistern? 🙂 Warmest regards, Theo
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Looks that way! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Pity, for when I think of our Supreme Court I think of the “brethren and cistern.” (the latter with a s) 🙂 Warmest regards, Theo
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“English takes the crown as the most common second language around the world with 55 countries speaking it as a second language”. All those poor people struggling along with English, you have to feel sorry for them!
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I think they do really well. It makes us lazy to bother to learn other languages, I reckon. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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On top of that there are different English nations.
Not counting accents – which are hard enough to understand when you both speak “English”.
If I speak or write as a Kiwi here, there is much you wouldn’t understand. The Aussies & us don’t understand each other. They spell like the Americans, we more like the English = color colour.
If I said I was “crook” that means I’m unwell. When I was with the LAS I had to ask what was meant when someone was “poorly”. And the weather was “close” took me ages to work out.
Anyways yous fellas, its nearly brekky time here so i better get some kai. Knackered last sun but sweet as bros & got bugger all on today eh. Catch ya round.
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We know ‘Crook’ from the numerous Australian films and TV shows shown here. Some of the rest might not be so obvious. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Je n’y comprends rien. La langue anglaise est trop compliquée pour moi.
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Ah, c’est peut-être parce que tu es Américain, mon ami !
Meilleurs voeux comme toujours, Pete.
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I taught English to non-english speaking students. It was very hard to explain. The question was often why? Often I had to say, just because.
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I can imagine how hard it must be for them. My French friend used to ask me “Why is it ‘a’ chair, but ‘an’ elephant?” I tried to explain to her about vowels, and how it is similar to their masculin and feminin, but she never really understood. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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More exceptions than rules! Or, the exceptions are the rules! Oops. My head just exploded.
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I feel sorry for foreigners, Liz. And we have enough differences between English and American to deal with too. 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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I give non-native speakers of English a lot of credit for managing to navigate our idiosyncratic language.
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Oh, one I’ve missed…very good!
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I hadn’t seen this one either, Sue.
Best wishes, Pete.
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😊
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An oldie, but a goodie! Logic is something of a stranger to English……… 😉 Cheers, Jon.
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Thanks, Jon. I have seen a few like this, but this one was new to me.
Cheers, Pete.
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