Simplicity of English

[Grant Barrett]

On lundi 2 octobre 2000 06:41, Rudolph C Troike
<rtroike at U.ARIZONA.EDU> wrote:
>Whoever it was commenting on how easy English is to learn
hasn't had to do
>it as a second language, or taught ESL. Compared to most
languages, it is
>one of the most complicated, inconsistent, exception-ridden
linguistic
>systems on earth.

As I understand it, you are absolutely right on the
inconsistencies and difficulties--if one wants to speak and write the
language fluently. But isn't it true that a basic knowledge of English
goes a long, long way? Further, than, say, a basic knowledge of
Chinese? One need not even congugate "to go" and "to be" correctly
to be understood. This, of course, is no use in an academic or
scientific setting, but I was watching a BBC documentary last night
retracing Alexander's path through Afghanistan and Samarkand and
such places and was interested to see that to be understood in
English, one of the Aghani guides needed only to string nouns
together and perhaps throw a verb or two in where he pleased.
Effective, if inelegant.

There was also a militia leader who learned his English
delivering pizza in Pennsylvania.