English as the Universal Language

Pretty funny.

http://www.wocka.com/7463.html

We've been there before. It is now called Old English. Very Germanic.

http://www.thekjvstore.com/articles/161 ... ames-bible

Even the British Royal Family are Germans.

LOL... that's some funny stuff franco.

When I was on the phpBB team there was people from all over the world, most spoke English but for those that didn't they needed to know it. All communications were in English, had to be. Most of the developers did not speak English natively but German.

The Germans and the Dutch generally speak very good English. Usually better diction than Americans

I know many of them can write it very well, there was one forum owner from Sweden I'm acquainted with that can't speak English at all but he can write it as well as anybody. English is the main language for many of these international communities. Even the most common programming codes are written in English, I have no concerns about Spanish taking the world over.

Everybody is now trying to learn Engrish.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsmtzERXg9k

About language:

Quotations
language: An instrument that sometimes expresses thought, sometimes obscures thought, but most often replaces thought.
—Evan Esar, Esar’s Comic Dictionary


The tongue is the only muscle in the human body that never gets tired [talking].
—Evan Esar


If thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought.
—George Orwell (1903-1950), British author


I see a lot of people converging on a standard [English language], but there are just as many going in a divergent direction.
—Heather Littlefield, Professor of Linguistics at Northeastern University (February 19, 2004)


Someone has stated that there are three races of humans—men, women, and children; and none of them speaks the same language.
—A revision from a quote in the Kaiser News, 1965


In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.
—Mark Twain (1835-1910)


England and America are two countries separated by a common language.
—George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)


We have really everything in common with America nowadays except, of course, language.
—Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), The Canterville Ghost 1882


We need a president who's fluent in at least one language.
—Buck Henry


Political language–and with variations this is true of all political parties, from Conservatives to Anarchists–is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
—George Orwell (1903-1950), 1946


"Do Not Disturb" signs should be written in the language of the hotel maids.
—Tim Bedore


He can compress the most words into the smallest ideas of any man I ever met.
—Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865)


Language exerts hidden power, like a moon on the tides.
—Rita Mae Brown, Starting From Scratch, 1988


Speak properly, and in as few words as you can, but always plainly; for the end of speech is not ostentation, but to be understood.
—William Penn (1644-1718)


Perhaps of all the creations of man, language is the most astonishing.
—Lytton Strachey


A people's speech is the skin of its culture.
—Max Lerner


There are three races: men, women and children. And none of them speaks the same language.
—Kaiser News, #3, 1965


If you will scoff at language study how, save in terms of language, will you scoff?
—Mario Pei


Language is the armory of the human mind, and at once contains the trophies of its past and the weapons of its future conquests.
—Coleridge


You acquire a language most readily in the country where it is spoken; you study mineralogy best among miners; and so with everything else.
—Goethe


If your foot slips, you may recover your balance, but if your tongue slips, you cannot recall your words.
—Martin Vanbee


In human relations a little language goes farther than a little of almost anything else. Whereas, one language now often makes a wall, two can make a gate.
—Walter V. Kaulfers


Because everyone uses language to talk, everyone thinks he can talk about language.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


Women speak two languages, one of which is verbal.
—Steve Rubenstein


A silly remark can be made in Latin as well as in Spanish.
—Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616) Spanish novelist

P. J. O'Rourke told a story about a hotel clerk in some place like Bangla Desh who could not pronounce his name. When P.J. tried to help him the clerk replied "please sir if you make me I will break my teeth"

franco b wrote:In Paris they simply stared when I spoke to them in French; I never did succeed in making those idiots understand their language.

Quebec still speaks French. French was taught in high school, but, if you went to Quebec and tried to order a meal, they'd laugh. It was not the same French at all!