JarekSteliga
Member
- Joined
- Nov 30, 2011
- Member Type
- Interested in Language
- Native Language
- Polish
- Home Country
- Poland
- Current Location
- Poland
Perhaps native speakers who learned the language the easy way and for whom the adaptation to its variants is a seamless process couldn't care less. Not so with English learners. We indefatigably burn hectolitres of midnight oil in the hope of being able to understand and be understood by as many people as possible. The language learned from textbooks and through the participation in courses tends to be very orthodox and the smallest deviation from the rules renders it at best severly disabled. I had once my hopes mercilessly dashed when after years of study I found myself on a farm in Norfolk UK :-?
Nowadays with the advent of satellite TV and Internet I feel disappointed, even angry at times when trying to decipher Australian English. What worries me more here than in the example above is that this time it is the whole country rather than just a local population of farmers that is effectively beyond my grasp.
Hence these questions:
1. Is the process of language differentiation set to continue?
2. Is the uniformity of the English language as dear to anyone's heart as it is - for pragmatic
reasons - to its learners?
Nowadays with the advent of satellite TV and Internet I feel disappointed, even angry at times when trying to decipher Australian English. What worries me more here than in the example above is that this time it is the whole country rather than just a local population of farmers that is effectively beyond my grasp.
Hence these questions:
1. Is the process of language differentiation set to continue?
2. Is the uniformity of the English language as dear to anyone's heart as it is - for pragmatic
reasons - to its learners?