andrel wrote:
> English as lingua franca.

I just want you to know how much this made me giggle.

> - Also native speakers have learn to speak it.

It takes a certain awareness. It doesn't take a lot of "learning" as much as 
it takes "paying attention to your metaphors". The more parochial you are, 
the more likely you are to mess things up.

> - If a way of expression is commonly used that is not correct from a 
> linguistic point of view, you don't have to start a campaign to correct 
> that error. On the contrary, if you think it is wrong you are the one 
> that is wrong. 

This is kind of true of all languages, if I understand what you mean.

> Perhaps not a good example but one that I remember: a 
> Dutch politician talked about 'golden showers' to express how expensive 
> the bathrooms in a new European headquarters were. Some people ridiculed 
> him saying: what a fool he is for not knowing that golden showers mean 
> something else (if you don't know what, stay ignorant). My POV: what a 
> fool that commentator is for not knowing that in international English 
> that expression does not exist, he is confusing 'international English' 
> with 'standard English'.

Well, I don't know what the expression means in Dutch, but it would seem to 
be a bit of an embarrassing mistake, assuming you get embarrassed by such 
mistakes.

> - there is no literature and no history. You can e.g. not refer to 
> Shakespeare as a common background.

I would imagine you can refer to history (either ancient or recent) or to 
recent literature (say, Star Wars comments, perhaps?)  Yes? No?

> - slang does not exist in international English. If every expression 
> that has a different meaning somewhere in the English spoken world id 
> forbideed, there is not much to say anymore.

True. Keep it simple. My wife still asks me questions about slang and 
idioms, even tho she's been speaking English fluently for 20+ years.

> - Never use words expressions that force people to use a dictionary. I 
> should probably have not used 'lingua franca' above and the use of 
> 'liberally' was also questionable.

I think in writing it's not so bad, especially interactive writing like a 
newsgroup, where people can ask if it's unclear. In group speaking, you have 
to take care. I wrote most of my international English in highly technical 
places, so that may influence my thinking on this.

> - Jargon, smileys, and common abbreviations are allowed in international 
> communication. ASAP and IMHO are recognized by all. OTOH one should not 
> use 'on the gripping hand'.

That's because "on the gripping hand" comes from literature. :-)

> - It is not just dumbing down,

No. It's using a restricted range of expressions that are the most common.

> Any opinions?

Other things: Don't use sentences whose meaning depends on complex tenses of 
the verb. E.g., don't use a sentence where "I would have been X" means 
something different than "I would have X".

Also, when speaking, you don't have to speak slowly, but you do have to 
clearly separate the words. I've found that most non-native speakers 
understand *much* more easily if there's a distinct if brief break between 
words, so it's obvious where the word breaks are. It also helps me immensely 
when trying to understand a foreign language (of which I barely understand 
one, so ... :-)

-- 
   Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Why is there a chainsaw in DOOM?
   There aren't any trees on Mars.

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