Spelling 'loser' with two 'o's!

[Otho]

Very interesting debate though and I never thought I'd come across it while looking for pictures of ladyboys' cocks.

[marshal]

(Tomcat @ Mar. 07 2008,21:02) There are more people speaking English in India than in the rest of the native English speaking world according to the Daily Telegraph.

English as we know it is on the way out with at least 7 competing versions from India, Singapore , Chinglish and so on...


God save the Queen , fucking foreigners

I have only lost my temper once when travelling,this happened when an Indian man tried to tell me i could not speak English. I know this is off topic but is still about the English language.
I had been travelling for 10 hours, i had spent 2 hours lost in some unknown part of uttar pradesh India.This was due to an incompetent driver.
We eventually pulled up at my chosen hotel,as i was checking in, this little bollywood hero behind the check in counter starts to fill in my guest card. This boy thinks he is the coolest man around,tring to speak english very bad in rapid tongue, i really can not understand him, so i asked if he would repeat what he had said,this boy started to rant at me;
" if you can't speak english don't bother trying"
"passport says British,you not learn language"
I really do not know how i would have taken this,if i was just walking in from down the road,seeing how i was tired and overdosed on India, i lost it .
I very nearly pulled the little hero over the counter,to give him the worst English lesson he would experience.
My fiance took the situation in hand,speaking very slowly and explained to the little Indian guy that his English was really bad. With this i was now in the background cursing under my breath,only to find a massive Sikh security guard at the front door with a vintage rifle slung over his shoulder. This guy was at the door when we arrived as is common at some hotels in India,but i didn't want the rifle pointed in my direction.
After the situation calmed i asked to see the room, and was led away by the bellboy,who was truly sorry for the desk clerks behaviour,although i don't think he would have said this to the clerk as i sensed he was scared of him.
We stayed one night, in this overpriced dump,and moved the next day,but because of this idiots behaviour
and clever english the hotel lost £300.

Very bad idea to ask a native English speaker if he can speak English?

[Monkey]

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg.

The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.

Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe

[Road Runner]

What did he say?

RR.

[Grinder]

kfuc sknow!

[stogie bear]

Typos happen and are excusable but writing "looser" over and over again is not.

Spot on...

[seanbeag7]

Hoof arted, ices melted.

[Freebird]

I don't mind cause it might accidently happen to me (hey, I'm not a native speaker... I'm allowed to make mistakes like this).

[Otho]

(Tomcat @ Mar. 30 2008,23:03) Michael Erard a language buff has a 4 page report in this weeks New Scientist ., English;Why the language we know is vanishing fast,,  . Wont get to read it for a week but many Economic mags are saying the same thing over...

The days of the queens English are dead and buried

Hi Tomcat.

Well, I tracked down the magazine - actually in an excellent bookshop in the Emporium mall in BKK - and read it.

Far from saying that the language is vanishing fast, it says that it will probably be unrecognisable in, oh, a few hundred years time, in much the same way that Chaucerian English is very hard for us to understand now. Which, IMHO, was a statement of the bleeding obvious.

[Road Runner]

(Otho @ Apr. 22 2008,17:39) Which, IMHO, was a statement of the bleeding obvious.

And the reason that English will probably still be around and equally probably will still be a dominant language  -  
if not THE dominant language - is that it is easily adaptable.

For instance there are already lots of Hindi words in the English language  -  bungalo, umbrella,....  
-  which were adopted in the early 19th century when India and everything about it was in fashion in England.
It always makes me laugh when I read about the French trying to ban umbrella from their language because it's an English word!    
They try to micro manage their language to keep it pure.    

French used to be the language of diplomacy, banking and business.   I wonder why it isn't anymore?  

RR.

[Otho]

As George Bush once said, "the trouble with the French is, they've got no word for entrepreneur."