English as she is spoke...
How do we expect Thais to be able to deal with English when we native English speakers cannot agree on either pronunciation or spelling.
Most other languages, including Thai, only have one version of the language; however, English seems to have no fixed abode, or rules.
Some of us see zeebras, while others see zedbras. Some of us salute lefttenants, while others salute lootenants. We can't even agree on how to pronounce the alphabet. Some say aich, others haitch.
I have to admit that I can't watch BBC, because I can't understand most of the talking heads, even though they are ostensibly speaking my native language
When Thais are listening to us, is it any wonder that they have difficulty learning our language. I have studied five languages in my lifetime, and find English the most convoluted of the five. For a non-English speaker, it must be extremely difficult to learn all of the rules, which really don't exist in English, such as the rule of "i" before "e" except after "c". How do you explain "science"? Or do we go to skool or shul?
Even the meaning of words can be difficult for native English speakers. For example, the "thing" on the end of a pencil, with which we make erasures, may be an "eraser" or a "rubber", while a "rubber" to other English speakers is a "condom". Why do some of us go into a building and take a "lift" while/whilst some of us take an "elevator". As you can see, in the last sentence, I provided the answer to the problem. If we English speakers simply adopted the convention of including both versions of our language, we could see zedbras/zeebras. Now, wouldn't that make it easier for Thais to understand our language? They would still have to get over/beyond the problem that in English a "fat" chance and a "slim" chance mean exactly the same thing?
We won't even approach spelling. I have noted over the years that this newspaper rewrites letters to conform to their bias as to English spelling. This, in spite of the fact that their bias is no more correct than other correct versions of spelling in English.
Maybe English should be abandoned in favor or Latin. As a dead language, there would only be one version. Even better, maybe we should all switch to Thai. Then we would not have to deal with past perfect or past imperfect tenses, as the case may well be.
JM Joyve
