Ron Parker wrote:

> I really really tried not to offend you with my post.  If I did so anyway,
> please accept my most profound apologies.  My point was not to point out
> your mistakes, it was to clarify David's claim that you had made some.  As
> I said, many native English speakers have the same problems with the same
> words; I don't consider any of those mistakes to be a mark of stupidity.
> It's not an easy language to master.  I hope we can now drop any discussion
> of anyone's facility with a language that has become dominant not because
> of any technical superiority - indeed, it's got more special cases than just
> about any other European language, I'd guess -  but only because some of its
> users (i.e. most Americans) are too stupid to speak any other language. :)

Now THAT is offensive! Some people [RON] can be real jerks [RON] sometimes, you know?
I wouldn't say Americans are too stupid to learn another language; I'm taking Spanish
and am doing just fine in it. Actually, I would say most Americans have the ability
but never do because America is so damn big they don't need another language. In
Europe, you drive for two minutes and you're in a different country. Europeans learn
foreign language out of necessity. In certain cases I would agree with you, but that
kind of generalization is not acceptable.

Speaking of English:
Why do we play at a recital and recite at a play?
If the plural of mouse is mice, should the plural of house be hice?
Why do we drive on a parkway and park in a driveway?
(If this sounds familiar, yes, we had to listen to that stupid famous essay on the
English language in Biology, which was about the tenth time I've heard it to date.)
Also, English English and American English are completely different. Chips are fries
and all that nonsense. I heard there's a dish in Britain called "spotted dick" and
one called "f*gg*ts in their own oil". If you ordered that in America you'd be
arrested. I hear they used to repel many a tourist with their infamous bad food,
though now that has changed a bit I think.

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