--- mike wilson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi, > > Someone who wrote the teaching materials for one of > the better-known > English courses for non-native speakers seems to > have a sense of humour. > Sth for something, sbdy for somebody and various > other permutations > litter the course as "well known" abbreviations in > written English. As > the course is by either Oxford or Cambridge, and > therefore > well-regarded, it has spread to other courses and is > now commonly used > by non-native speakers. > > mike
I never much liked the Two Ronnies, but they did one hilarious skit that some of you Brits might remember, teaching English to foreigners by teaching them words based entirely on the phonetic sounds of the English Alphabet. Example, a convo heard in a restaurant: Customer: F U NE M? (trans: Have you any ham?) Waiter: V FN NE M. (trans: We haven't any ham.) Customer: F U NE X? (trans: Have you any eggs?) Waiter: S, V F X (trans: Yes, we have eggs) This went on for about 5 minutes (it seemed) with subtitles and the whole bit. It was hilarious. So, mike, your post reminded me of that skit. I'm unemployed now, so I have lots of time on my hands for way-OT posts. I guess I'll have to try to keep a lid on that from now on... <vbg> cheers, frank ===== "The optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds. The pessimist fears it is true." -J. Robert Oppenheimer ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
