Andrew, I am of those who think English language is an easy language -
at least when written and out of Literature level.
And yes, there are several very distinct forms of Spanish.
Spanish is difficult: this summer I happened to read two novels by
Gabriel García Márquez: "Cien Años de Soledad" which I had read for the
first time in 1974, and "Vivir para Contarla". I'm not a fan of GGM, but
found his last novel ( 2002 ) outstanding - despite there were complete
sentences I didn't understand !! - several nouns and adjectives I had
never read before, all in one sentence. I bet this wouldn't happen even
with the "Ulysses". If I turn to spoken Spanish, I do think that Pedro
Almodóvar films need subtitles: I'm almost convinced that I understand
spoken French better. A former list member who became a friend of mine,
lives at Almería, Spain - and very frequently I have to ask him what
does he mean by this or that, and we laugh a lot.
Here at this list I enjoyed when someone corrected my Latin when I wrote
"Et tu, Brutus" instead of "Et tu, Brute".
I felt it was an obvious joke my correction to David's written English,
but put emoticons and anything just in case - and wrote him privately
too. None of us are native English speakers, but both consider ourselves
native Spanish speakers. Isn't it funny that me, who never walked on any
English-speaking country, 'dares' to correct another native Spanish
speaker on English grammar matter? Perhaps it's not, but I still think
it was a very amusing situation - perhaps because I'm one of those who
always think I should know better :-)
Fernando.
Andrew Fildes wrote:
> I've had many non-native English speakers tell me that it's an easy
> language - it is simplified, after all with no obvious cases or
> complex inflections. That's offset by a high level of irregularity
> and by regional variations, but that's common to any widespread
> language I suspect. I imagine that there are several very distinct
> forms of Spanish.
> Now if you want a rule concerning the comment below, it's simple and
> applies to both sides of the pond -
> - Don't say 'utilise' when you mean 'use'.
> - Don't say 'issue' when you mean 'problem.' (Even if 'issue' is
> right, 'problem' suffices).
> It's Occam' Linguistic razor - prefer the simpler word.
>
> As to a list rule - I don't think we ever correct the several and
> welcome non-native English speakers here. Only those who should know
> better. :-)
> Andrew Fildes (aspiring to infallibility).
> afildes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
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