Metric vs Imperial System

[tuckerkao]

I'm talking about varieties within English. North American Englishes, Carribbean Englishes, Australian and New Zealand Englishes, Indian Englishes, Irish and British Englishes, all of them formal and informal, are equally valid. So Samson staying of England "How they do it is right", ie "the prestige variety of English spoken in London, and the orthography associated with it, is the correct one" is an absolute nonsense.
First, the ease or difficulty of learning a language depends pretty much entirely on the similarity or dissimilarity of the native language of the learner.

Secondly, being able to tell pronunciation from the written form isn't really a big marker of fluency or proficiency, it just means you can say written words out loud.

Thirdly, of all the reasons to name as a reason why English in particular may be easier, "pronunciation can be understood from orthography" is probably the least true. English has one of the least phonetic writing systems out there. Spelling is historical or etymological. It's not as far removed from the spoken language than the very old norms of Tibetan or Thai scripts are from their modern languages, but many European languages and a lot of non-European ones hew a lot closer to the ideal of "see word, know how to say word" than English does.

As far as I know about the Chinese language, nearly no foreigners(including Philippians and Vietnamese) want to learn that because the pronunciation aren't linked to how the characters looking like.

Almost everybody not too poor has a computer keyboard in every nation, so alphabets A to Z are familiar to most people when they are young despite the native language of the learners in some degrees.

 

[Arwon]

Right but nearly every other language using Latin Script is closer to being able to be pronounced based on spelling than English. German or Spanish for instance have roughly a 1-to-1 correspondence between how something is written and how it's pronounced. I can look at any Spanish word and know how to say it based on clear rules that don't require extra knowledge.

Whereas in English that's not the case, even as a native speaker an unfamiliar word can trip me up, and there are of course notorious examples like through, plough, though, cough, rough, thought, and borough. English is full of historical spellings and etymological spellings that reflect either very old pronunciations (like ough), or the spelling norms of a different language altogether (when we import words and don't change the spelling).

 

[tuckerkao]

I cannot type German alphabets directly from my PC keyboard, searching the character map, copy and paste taking quiet bit of time.

English was my 2nd language, It's even stronger than my 1st now, so there are some reasons behind it.

 

[Arwon]

That's not really about language acquisition, though. That's just the ease of using a particular keyboard to produce the standardised text variant of a particular language. And typing isn't reading, listening or speaking.

 

[tuckerkao]

When I was young, I had to learn how to say the name of each of the key on my PC keyboard.

"Windows 95" was the operating system at my childhood time, the logo and the boot screen were all in English, not in my previous language.

Also, in DOS, files liked command.com wouldn't show in any other language except English, so if I didn't learn the English alphabets, I couldn't use my computer.

 

[Truthy]

So Samson staying of England "How they do it is right", ie "the prestige variety of English spoken in London, and the orthography associated with it, is the correct one" is an absolute nonsense.

To be fair, I don't think he was being serious

 

[hobbsyoyo]

I did

 

[Valka D'Ur]

...you can figure out the pronunciations by just looking at the alphabet combinations.

Pronounce "ghoti."

 

[tuckerkao]

Pronounce "ghoti."

Fish, but is it an English word or from another language?

Jose is from Spanish.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Fish, but is it an English word or from another language?

It's a made-up word, for the purpose of illustrating how English pronunciation is anything but straightforward. We still hold on to spellings from centuries ago, even though the original pronunciations have shifted - sometimes so much that it's difficult to fathom how the words were originally pronounced.

There's a good documentary series called "The Story of English". I did find it online several years ago, although I've misplaced the link. It's dated by now, since it was made before the internet became a normal part of everyday life, but it's still interesting.

 

[Samson]

To be fair, I don't think he was being serious

FAOD, I was joking.

 

[GenMarshall]

It doesn’t matter for me since I use both in terms of length measurements. Though I’m more adjusted in terms of temperature to go by Fahrenheit since if you tell me that it’s 30 degrees, I’m going to think that it’s freezing outside.

Last I checked as to why we don’t make the switch over is due to the cost of retrofitting tools (thought not a big deal now compared to the 70s since there’s both standard and metric screwdrivers and screws) and machinery as well as cost for resigning highway and road signs.

 

[Arakhor]

There's a good documentary series called "The Story of English".

Presented by Melvyn Bragg, as I recall.

 

[civvver]

That's what pub owners would like, so they can sell smaller portions for the same amount of money. Thankfully, that practice is prohibited by law.

That makes me think of all the glasses in Germany that clearly have the size marked on the side of the glass with a little line so you know you aren't getting jipped. Also beer glasses leave a little room at the top for proper head. Even the mcdonald's have lines on the sides of the paper cups so you get exactly the amount of soft drink you paid for and they do not dilute with ice. Do other countries do this?

 

[Zelig]

The months referenced above are familiar to anyone who has taken French, and of course most product labels and government communications in Canada are in both English and French. The company that owns the apartment building I live in has buildings in Quebec, so when I call customer service, the automated greeting is in both languages (I've been transferred to an agent in Montreal a couple of times) and all agents have to be bilingual.

That's real unusual. The reason IVR has prompts for French/English is generally so you can get directed to the appropriate call centre. (e.g. Outsourced to the Philippines for English, Senegal for French.)

That makes me think of all the glasses in Germany that clearly have the size marked on the side of the glass with a little line so you know you aren't getting jipped. Also beer glasses leave a little room at the top for proper head. Even the mcdonald's have lines on the sides of the paper cups so you get exactly the amount of soft drink you paid for and they do not dilute with ice. Do other countries do this?

Well McDonald's in North America has free refills on soft drinks..

 

[civvver]

Well McDonald's in North America has free refills on soft drinks..

Yes I know, I'm from the US, I meant on my visits to Germany. I haven't paid enough attention/traveled enough to other places to tell.

 

[Manfred Belheim]

English is easier to learn as the 2nd language compare to most of other world languages since you can figure out the pronunciations by just looking at the alphabet combinations.

That has to be a joke, yes?

 

[cardgame]

English is a rough language. It can be taught through tough thorough thought though.

 

[tuckerkao]

That has to be a joke, yes?

If I say thing is different ways, then Americans will start to recognize why they keep wanting to stick with the Imperial measurement system.

The #1 reason because American Football field is measured by the yards and it isn't that easy to play the same sport league with the meter lines on the ground. Any major changes will alternate the basic rules of some professions.

Fix the fundamental quality of a language will be even harder than switching the measurement systems or counting math in several different bases. If English is really that strong of a language, the entire world would have adopted it as the default language.

 

[Arakhor]

The solution to that one is not to play American football.