Language funs

As a foreigner, there will always be great laughs about certain language mistakes or misunderstandings. I have been very tired in the last couple of weeks, so I managed to have some funny situations, even though it is not very common for me. 'Vinegar ice cream' instead of vanilla, 'biscuit' instead of brisket (anyway, who the hell knows what a brisket of beef is? Even some of my English colleagues had no idea, which made me feel better).

As someone graduated from English and American literature and language, I am always fascinated by language differences and mistakes. And let's admit, English pronunciation is a tricky little 'alien' for everyone whose mother tongue is not English. Sometimes it can even be tricky for English people :))

I always try to detect the origin of words, English language is a great target from this point of view. Many times the word says it all.. Like I had one of those 'aha' moments when I realised why a cling film is a cling film. Isn't it obvious? It is so clingy! I keep telling myself that I will collect these language bits but then I am too lazy to do it. Such a shame... But never say never :) Usually it all comes during conversations, a bit more often nowadays as I have an English friend who is similarly interested n languages. We can have endless conversations about all these things. Last time we went for a walk around the lovely area here. So he came up with all these words for the same action: rambling, walking, wondering, hiking, roaming. How beautiful... But when we asked a walking group whom we met on our way, they had no idea about whether they were rambling or walking. And they added that the South African member would say they were hiking.
Same about the rain and moist here in England. Raining, drizzling, shower, pouring, hazy, misty, foggy, moggy. Us foreigners will always struggle using these, even if we have a thesaurus with us, as one has to feel it. Language is so varied, so changing all the time that even with our own mother tongue, we can never stop learning. Isn't it mesmerising? I wish I was better at linguistics, not literature... But I wasn't.... :)

Writing a blog in English is a new and exciting experience for me. To be honest, last time I wrote longer texts was at university when my writing skills were really good. Using academic language at an everyday basis was so much different. This is one of my great sadnesses. Finishing uni and stopping teaching resulted in the declining of my academic language skills. Years of customer service reduced my language use for basic sentences, especially in Central London where I had to 'dum' my English to be understood, as not many people speak highbrow English in the area I was based.
Here in Surrey it is the other way round. You would get phone calls like: "Hello, I am calling to enquire about the availability of a table at your restaurant for tomorrow at lunchtime." Ha-ha, well said :))) This was today :))

This post is less 'heavy' then the opening one, though I should not scare away the new readers, rather attract them :)

For real fun, here is my favourite poem that demonstrates the tricky nature of English pronunciation:

http://ncf.idallen.com/english.html

Hope you enjoyed it. I am happy  to get comments about language matters and I am always interested in rarely used words and phrases. Ah, by the way: who knows what a 'moggy' is? I will give the answer in the next post.