09 May 2009

You think you know English? You don't know English.

Compared to the British, Americans are newbie English users. In British hands, the English language is a tool of infinite subtlety. For example, when a Brit tells you that they “agree with you to a point”, this doesn't mean that, with the exception of a few aspects, agreement has been reached; it means they don't agree with you at all. The magazine The Economist once reported that English-speaking Dutch diplomats had to employ British translators in order to understand what their British counterparts were really saying. This adds a whole new dimension to arguments at the pub.

1 comment:

  1. However, even the most educated and skilled English have the atrocious habit of leaving out the sound sound letters or changing them hence the SouthWark( SUFF-IK) uh... Hello..

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