Matthew Winn wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 03:18:01 +0200, Tony Mechelynck
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
[...]
>> As I once heard say: it's easy to speak English at the level a Japanese uses
>> it to ask directions in Moscow, but to speak /good/ English is extremely
>> difficult for a non-native (and even for some natives, apparently, but this
>> is
>> a different question).
>
> It depends what languages you already know. A few years ago I was in
> Antwerp and several native speakers of Flemish/Dutch said they found
> English a laughably easy language to learn, and they certainly spoke
> excellent English to me. On the other hand I imagine someone whose
> native language was Latin would have terrible trouble with English,
> Latin depending on inflection to determine meaning where English uses
> word order. That may be why there are so very few Romans in Britain
> these days.
>
The British didn't speak English at the time anyway (neither the Anglo-Saxons
nor the Normans had yet landed), but something akin to Welsh.
About those Flemish: English is very "idiomatic", and in addition (unlike
Dutch) there's no obvious correspondence between spelling and pronunciation.
Also, English has a lot of sounds unknown to Dutch.
Best regards,
Tony.
--
When I was a kid I said to my father one afternoon, "Daddy, will you
take me to the zoo?" He answered, "If the zoo wants you let them come
and get you."
-- Jerry Lewis
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