Moose Loc: North Carolina

I received an email today showing how difficult it must be for someone to learn English. I'd be interested in knowing if our British friends would handle these statements any differently to eliminate confusion.

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse .

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present , he thought it was time to present the present .

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

Ol' Frank Loc: Orlando,

How about "I tried to shoo a shoe".

Gitzo Loc: Indiana

Having been primarily an English speaker for my whole life now, I've heard all of these points made many times; so......whenever I hear some one who isn't a native English speaker complaining about how confusing many words are in the English language, I usually suggest, "after you have studied Farsi, Pashto, Dari, Urdu, Hindi and Punjabi, and possibly Arabic and Hebrew, let me know how you feel about how "confusing" English is........

Believe me.......English is "a piece of cake"!

nairiam Loc: Bonnie Scotland

Tried Portuguese. After a struggle initially, my Brazilian friend says I couldn't haven chosen a more difficult language. I gave up then!
(I'll stick with Doric and English)

bull drink water Loc: pontiac mi.

I had English down pat by the time I was 5.

Blasthoff Loc: Life halved NY and IN

Not only that, but English is not just English. The English language is comprised of words from many different origins so there are no hard and fast rules as to pronunciation, usage and god forbid, "slang".

I know plenty of Americans who couldn't pass a sixth grade spelling test, let alone a middle school English exam. Ironically, some of them have a lot of half baked opinion on the subject.

davidrb Loc: Half way there on the 45th Parallel

English (American) is definitely a difficult language. But, in all of my travels, both military and civilian, I have never been to a place where the inhabitants could NOT speak english. Those people may have hated the language, or the people who spoke it, but the still knew and spoke english. Kind of makes you think.

Blasthoff Loc: Life halved NY and IN

English language is somewhat universal. Remember, English is not universally tied to being "American". English is, after all, "English" and much of it's spread in the world can be tied to the UK (England). English has it's place in Europe and it's many former colonies throughout the world, including (shockingly to some Americans) the US.