ABC Wednesday, E for English

We thank Denise Nesbitt, who created ABC, and we must thank Roger too for the weekly job to find  ten bloggers for each of the ABC Team members  to visit and to read their posts. We are beginning to find another round for all the 26 letters of the alphabet. This will be now the letter  E.

Even if we don't like to admit it, English is the most important language in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and last but not least Australia. In the Netherlands French used to be the language for the upper walks of life. The man in the street spoke a  Dutch dialect, and when he met a foreigner he spoke Dutch with the same accent only a bit louder, thinking: the louder I speak the more I make myself clear.

After WW II English became more and more popular. We thought: "Oh, English is not so difficult, if we only learn a lot of words we can translate everything".No wonder that there were a lot of hilarious anecdotes to be told of Dutch expressions literally translated into English, which changed the meaning of the expression completely, Fortunately British citizens also have problems with their own language. Here are a few exemples:

What shall I complain about now??

These are apparently genuine excerpts from English letters to local councils. We all know that English is a complicated language and not alone for non-English speakers. I think that we do not need to feel embarrassed if we read these letters of native speakers

Council complaints ( which one is your favourite?)

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1.This is to let you know there is a smell coming from the man next door.

2.I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is running away from the wall

3.I request your permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen.

4.Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces

5.Can you please tell me when our repairs are going to be done, as my wife is about to become an expectant mother.

6.The toilet is blocked and we cannot bath the children until it is cleared

7.The person next door has a large erection in his back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous.

8.Will you please send someone to mend our broken path. Yesterday my wife tripped and fell on it and now she is pregnant.

9.Our kitchen floor is very damp, we have two children and would like a third, so will you please send someone to do something about it?

10.This is to let you know that our lavatory seat is broken and we cannot get BBC2.

11.I am very annoyed to find that you have branded my son illiterate. This is a dirty lie, as I married a week before he was born.