Hi Folks, Dave,
On Sat, 12 Apr 2003 05:15:47 +1000, Dave Ratti wrote:
> Not only English grammar, but also pronunciation!
> I'm told that this little poem came about as an exercise for multi-national
> translation personnel at the NATO headquarters in Paris. English wasn't so hard
> to learn, they found, but English pronunciation is a killer
> Supposedly, after trying the poem, a native French interpreter said he'd prefer
> to spend six months at hard labor than reading six of the lines out loud.
> English is Tough Stuff
>
> Dearest creature in creation
> Study English pronunciation.
<snipped>
I took my life in my hands and tried that out on my wife - Swiss,
German speaking but in Oz for 30 odd years. Apart from the few archaic
or obscure words, she had no real problems with pronouncing them all.
She made me very proud. :)
She also made it very clear that, for a native German speaker with a
good grasp of French and Italian, English was the easiest language to
learn.
I guess it does make a difference what your mother tongue is, or
existing language accomplishments are, as to how easy or hard it is to
learn English.
But, as has been mentioned before, English is a language still
developing. In Oz, which is very multicultural, it is easy to see the
influence of other cultures shaping the use of English in Orstrylia.
Regards,
Ron
Ron Clarke
http://homepages.valylink.net.au/~ausreg/index.html
http://tadpole.aus.as
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