Thanks, mi Lady. It looks like a good place. I'm trying to get used to it but may take a while. Thanks for the greeting.
I seem to be one of those people that knows quite a lot of words and phrases in a variety of languages, but never managed to settle on a second language to learn proficiently. I'm okay-ish in French and luckily my partner speaks French fluently, so sometimes we decide to have a 'French' day, whereby we can only speak French in the house. It's just a bit of fun, but it helps me pick up a bit more each time.
Funny thing is, our everyday mother language is changing and evolving so rapidly that it's enough keeping up with that.
This is very true and comes in handy when anybody ribs me about my monoglot qualities. I point out that having studied English at university, at least I am proficient in one language, a task that seems to be beyond large swathes of so-called native English speakers...
New words will always appear. I have a dictionary that was published in 1913 and there is a list of new words at the end. One of them is 'aeroplane'. One new word that I like doesn't appear in that list: Nonebrity: a 'celebrity' who is famous for nothing other than being a celebrity.
Not just students. I remember being foolish enough to use the word 'stoical' a few years ago in the office where I worked. Precisely nobody in a team of eight people knew what I was talking about. They had never heard the word. All of them were born and bred in the UK and all of them were aged 30 or over. I felt profoundly depressed.
Growing concern at being Axed a question. Depending on who is axing this and whether they resemble a potential serial killer, I usually enquire "May I axe if you mean ask" and hope for the best, but am usually met with a blank look . Axe it is now
Oh no, I thought that Adamant was a musician. And I'm not even a student. And gubernatorial must be referring to the early career of Jimmy Carter.
The way in which words are used get me confused. I see people using the combination of, "used to", instead of use to. What is with that? That is just one of the ways that words are wrongly put together.
Then we have the tedious 'should of' when people mean 'should have'. Something else my goat gets very angry about is the complete lack of understanding of the usage of the simple verb 'go'. Every time I hear someone say 'should have went' makes me want to scream. Further torture: the commentator I was listening to last night saying 'more deeper' and 'most deepest'. Sob.
Konnichiwa! I remember Sam Ervin's comment during the Watergate hearings..."English is my Mother-tongue"! John, I would suggest that you just begin studying the language, and see where it takes you. Sayōnara. http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/japanese-greetings-and-goodbyes.html
A personal favourite among language muddles came from when I lived and worked in Eritrea. We (the westerners) always tried to use the Tigrigna language whenever we could, but sometimes it didn't quite work out, such as when one of my colleagues asked the waiter for a light-bulb at the end of a meal. In fairness, the words for 'bill' and 'light-bulb' were quite similar, but I was a little disappointed that the waiter didn't come back with a light-bulb on a plate.