English 101

[REDY]

I don't know what English they are taught in Czech Rep. but that's the one they teach here in Sweden. Also, he said he went to London

British>others in Czech schools. Of course depends on teacher, he should be from USA or Australia. At my universityD) we have Americans, in school we had only one native speaker and she was from Australia. But Czechs teach British English.

 

[Winner]

The problem with this is that the British English is harder to practice. It is also harder in general, often counter-intuitive - which is probably a result of the fact that most English TV shows, films, books and other things I follow are in the American English.

BTW, you guys really should have some sort of regulatory institution with the power to decide what's correct and what's not.

 

[Yared]

British>others in Czech schools. Of course depends on teacher, he should be from USA or Australia. At my universityD) we have Americans, in school we had only one native speaker and she was from Australia. But Czechs teach British English.

In Sweden though, even if your teacher is American they're urged to teach you British English or, at least, point stuff out by saying something like "Yeah, that's how they spell program in the US but in the UK they spell it programme."

But I guess it depends completely on the teacher.

 

[Yared]

The problem with this is that the British English is harder to practice. It is also harder in general, often counter-intuitive - which is probably a result of the fact that most English TV shows, films, books and other things I follow are in the American English.

BTW, you guys really should have some sort of regulatory institution with the power to decide what's correct and what's not.

Yeah, like our Svenska Akademin who hand out the literature prizes. But at the same time, are we sure we want to bind the English language?

But it'd certainly be interesting to see how one would do such a thing...

 

[Winner]

Well, in the Czech Rep. there is Ústav jazyka českého (Institute for the Czech Language) which is solely responsible for codification of the language. In other words, they say what's correct and what's wrong. Without it, there would be chaos since our language is very irregular.

 

[Yared]

Well, in the Czech Rep. there is Ústav jazyka českého (Institute for the Czech Language) which is solely responsible for codification of the language. In other words, they say what's correct and what's wrong. Without it, there would be chaos since our language is very irregular.

Yeah, but Swedish and Czech can hardly be compared to the vastness that is English

 

[Winner]

Yeah, but Swedish and Czech can hardly be compared to the vastness that is English

Obviously, which only underlines the need for some sort of regulation.

 

[Shekwan]

No need for regulation. Its an instinct thing, you just know what the correct way to say something is.

Kind of like how one idnetifies woody or tinny words. This is of the utmost importance to the English speaker. Tinny words are dreadful and must be avoided in order to uphold order.

 

[Yared]

Obviously, which only underlines the need for some sort of regulation.

The world is doing just fine with the OED and Webster’s 2nd International Edition...

 

[Winner]

The more people use English, the greater the variance. It's inevitable, standards of the language will change differently in various countries and groups of people using it. There should be someone who decides what is the correct form.

 

[Shekwan]

Why? Can't we just let people have their own version of the language?

The variance isn't all that big, and the grammar doesn't change much from o****ry to country so its not confusing.

 

[Winner]

The world is doing just fine with the OED and Webster’s 2nd International Edition...

It's not that different from our system - there are official dictionaries and reference books, only we know which ones have the 'codification power' (our term, I don't know if this is how you say it in English). So if there's a conflict or uncertainty about something, there is an arbiter.

 

[jessiecat]

The more people use English, the greater the variance. It's inevitable, standards of the language will change differently in various countries and groups of people using it. There should be someone who decides what is the correct form.

Including introduced words from regional dialects (there are dozens of Cornish ones in day-to-day use here), the only major differences are in spoken English. Written English remains remarkably uniform between all its major variants wherever you are. I agree with Shelwan.

 

[Yared]

The more people use English, the greater the variance. It's inevitable, standards of the language will change differently in various countries and groups of people using it. There should be someone who decides what is the correct form.

I disagree. First of all, in these countries the language isn't spoken on a daily day basis.

Second of all, English is taught to us by professionals who have studied the English language and are sure not to make any trivial errors that would corrupt the minds of the students.

Third of all, the world is getting more and more "globalized" and connected.

But then again, maybe you know something I don't know and I'm wrong. Who knows

It's not that different from our system - there are official dictionaries and reference books, only we know which ones have the 'codification power' (our term, I don't know if this is how you say it in English). So if there's a conflict or uncertainty about something, there is an arbiter.

Yeah, I understand what you're saying but no one is going to question the verity of your spelling if you use well respected and trustworthy authority like the OED or Webster's.


Basically, what I'm trying to say is "Sure. It would help us all if there was some kind of official institution governing English but there's not really a dire need for it, at least not at the moment."

 

[eoc]

When I first posted at CFC, someone told me that "Your English is too academic"(It is because I started to learn English from books in the school, not started from my mom, my mom can only speak mandarin).
So I try to change other's "academic" views on me. I tried to imitate CFCers' free English styles.
After a while, someone told me that "Your English is broken".
Now, I figured it out, I can only use my "academic" English, I will never use English as freely as those whose mother tongue is English.
I decide that I will change my broken style to the academic style again.

 

[Yared]

When I first posted at CFC, someone told me that "Your English is too academic"(It is because I started to learn English from books in the school, not started from my mom, my mom can only speak mandarin).
So I try to change other's "academic" views on me. I tried to imitate CFCers' free English styles.
After a while, someone told me that "Your English is broken".
Now, I figured it out, I can only use my "academic" English, I will never use English as freely as those whose mother tongue is English.
I decide that I will change my broken style to the academic style again.

You should speak the way you want. My English speaking friends always tell me I'm too formal when I speak but that's who I am.

 

[Winner]

Besides, it's not such a problem in English. It would be a problem in Czech where there's a clear distinction between formal language and the language which is actually spoken by most people.

 

[Squonk]

thank you for corrections, facepilot

 

[Mirc]

When I first posted at CFC, someone told me that "Your English is too academic"(It is because I started to learn English from books in the school, not started from my mom, my mom can only speak mandarin).
So I try to change other's "academic" views on me. I tried to imitate CFCers' free English styles.
After a while, someone told me that "Your English is broken".
Now, I figured it out, I can only use my "academic" English, I will never use English as freely as those whose mother tongue is English.
I decide that I will change my broken style to the academic style again.

That's normal. It happened to every non-native speaker, and it will probably keep on happening forever. I've been through those phases a million times, moving back and forth before finding some stability somewhere in the middle. I disagree that you'll never be able to use English as freely as the natives, you'll just never have the need or the time to do so.

 

[Bill3000]

The more people use English, the greater the variance. It's inevitable, standards of the language will change differently in various countries and groups of people using it. There should be someone who decides what is the correct form.

No, not really. We're doing perfectly fine with our decentralized language, and the fact that it is so dynamic helps it be so useful as a lingua franca. Those committees tend to be a fool's errand in the long rule as populations decide what is grammatical, not committees.

Languages are self-regulating systems best left to themselves. Let the language market decide.