Sadly, the internet phrases "wth, Japan?" and "Oh, Japan, you" do have a reason to exist. Modern Japanese culture isn't of the most sane ones, in my opinion.

On a related note, anybody seen the Japanese movie "Battle Royale"?

Me not- but I saw "Dark Myth". It's a rather old cartoon animation, not as popular as Akira for instance.

 

It usually spoils the joke, but what do you mean with "don't carry owls to Athens"?

About the "Battle Royale" movie, it talks about a way the Japanese government supposedly adopted, in order to keep under check the wave of rebellious and disrespectful youth.

 

It usually spoils the joke, but what do you mean with "don't carry owls to Athens"?

About the "Battle Royale" movie, it talks about a way the Japanese government supposedly adopted, in order to keep under check the wave of rebellious and disrespectful youth.

Aren't owls a common motiv on ancient greek coins? And yes spoiling the joke because I did not see the movie, but same in Akira cartoon animation.

Weird graffitti, and discipline in the college + medical examinations. There even seem to be various kind of special schools for all kind of purposes.

The japanese government mainly adopted a strategy to have things done, or rather policies to become drafted, by so called NGO's. NGO's are omnipresent in Japan.

You can measure economies how well they could sustain keep running if you for instance draw off the oil supplies. Nigeria would survive, many western economical systems and also japanese, would collapse quickly.

I mean they are so bad they only survive because they are sustained by large amounts of cheap fossil fuels.

 

I believe there was the owl on the one side of the drachma, at some point in ancient Athens, but we don't use the word owl to denote money.

 

Well the thread title "why english is so hard to learn" is a bit like "Do these products to loose 18 stones weight in 3 weeks really work?"

Yes maybe but more likely, not.

English is the most common western language, after all, so it must be easier than the others, or more convenient to use.

Or is it that the Britains just have been the most pervasive imperialists?

When you watch the movie "The Kings Speech", which I did, you can encounter the Britains nearly succeeded running this entire planet. About 1910 or 1920.

 

Words with more than one meaning do exist also in Spanish. Hundreds of them. Context only denotes their meaning in the sentence.

There is a difficulty for those starting to learn English (reciprocal to the other side natives learning Spanish) where one verb has two different ones, equivalent, that cannot be used indistinctly:

To express doing and making we use basically the same verb: hacer.

"You do business to make some money." Usted hace negocios para hacer dinero.

In some cases, building adds to this confusion. Oh yes...!

But the opposite does exist as well:

The verb to be, depending where, in Spanish is expressed with two totally different ones: ser or estar.

The first applies mostly to a permanent condition while the other to temporary or occasional conditions.

The dog is a fox terrier. El perro es un fox terrier.
You are an idiot. Usted es un idiota. (No chances of change, sorry. )

My shirt is wet. Mi camisa está mojada.
You are tired. Usted está cansado. (Just go to sleep).

To add even more to this:

The examination given by the teacher is what the pupil takes, right?

Well, I you are translating that into Spanish, make sure to reverse the verbs.

Here, the one who gives (da) is the student. The teacher takes (toma) it.

After more than 17 years at sea and more than 21 still working with foreigners of any nationality and eventually travelling abroad I find all this funny and interesting.

Differences in lifestyle, foods and daily habits make for the colourful world out there. Enjoy it.

PD: Por aquí, hace tiempo que el tiempo no cambia. Still cold.

 

There are nine different ways to pronounce ...ough.. - If I was learning English as a foreign language and came across the following sentence;

"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

I would just give up and go home

 

Yes, English pronunciation can be troublesome indeed. You need regular oral contact with the language to refine your skills.

Greek, on the other hand is WYSIWYG.

 

There are nine different ways to pronounce ...ough.. - If I was learning English as a foreign language and came across the following sentence;

"A rough-coated, dough-faced, thoughtful ploughman strode through the streets of Scarborough; after falling into a slough, he coughed and hiccoughed."

I would just give up and go home

Hahaha, being a native speaker, I never realized that.
When you're immersed in a language all the time, the communication is more ideas and such, all the pronunciation and grammar is subconscious and goes unnoticed

 

Ploughmans don't really strode rough through the streets of Scarborough that often, after all...falling into a slough and all this.

That would be extraordinary effervescent.

 

That would be extraordinary effervescent.

extraordinarily lively?
is there a definition to effervescent that I'm missing?

 

is there a definition to effervescent that I'm missing?

I don't know, but that's twice I've seen him post it. It's wildly amusing to me, but in a good way (I'm not laughing at you takao).

 

The British and American English language differences don't make learning the language any easier.

Excuse my while I go out to my car, to search the trunk for a flashlight. I will take the elevator to the second floor.

Do you need to do the washing up?

Recently I heard a British auto-safety ad (THINK) about driving while tired. "You should pull into a Services..." A what? searching the web for this term usage, turns up nothing.


Archeology or Archaeology? Color or Colour?

American and British English spelling differences:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences



There are endless pointless battles over spelling on Wikipedia, and the organization has taken an arbitrary and random approach to solving it. "We'll just use whatever prevailing dialect was used to originally start this particular article." Oh, yeah, that's just great.

Wikipedia Manual of Style - National varieties of English
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style#National_varieties_of_English



What should the title of this article be? How should the word be spelled throughout the article?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color

Several of us have tried and failed for years to get Wikipedia to spin off an en-uk.wikipedia.org and en-us.wikipedia.org to put a stop to all the bickering.

 

Excuse my while I go out to my car, to search the trunk for a flashlight.

I always keep a torch handy in the boot along with the spare and a set of spanners.

 

Well I am pissed that Brits mis-use the term pissed to mean being drunk, as opposed to its real meaning which is of course in reference to being angry.

Furthermore I shall henceforth refuse to patronize the London "tube" until they can learn to call it a subway like everyone else, and I will not walk on the "pavement" there until they can learn to call it a sidewalk as God intended.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghoti

 

I honestly watch enough top gear and dr. who that I can interpret british and american english both seamlessly. I didn't think anything of mr. chips' comment until i realized he was comparing it with the american version.

 

Come on chaps, we invented the chuffin' language!

 

Then started an empire and made it global.

Then gave it all up.

Mine, all mine now.

 

I Me My Mine, All, That is
or I Me My Mine, All That is-

not that it would make a meaningful difference,
except for the Scarborough pluckering Ploughman.
I only hope Scarborough is not pluckering as well all over the place.

But- the Meaning could be different, like a good ol' Cigarette should've tasted.
Even if we don't know how to say it right.

I still don't get the difference between a meaningful difference, and at different Meaning!