Why English language is so popular ?

[infinia]

One example I remember from the article was you're pitching something to your boss and he replies with the phrase 'this is a brave proposal'.
If your boss is american it means you're probably up for promotion next time but if he is british you're very close to being fired.

mm OK that's a simple example of sarcasm, more a "personality style" than cultural difference.

 

[Charles Darwin]

If it fell into a tree the aircraft can't have been very big.

 

[snup]

normal size to transport half a polish parliament.
It didn't matter how big it was because the wing got halved just before the pilot lost control.

 

[snup]

by mathematical calculation it has been proved, that the plane couldn't have flown on as long as it did, with half a wing.
go figure.
A danish guy has

 

[jacco vermeulen]

as in ouiouioui ?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayfIoZ6n6pg

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[snup]

🙂

 

[snup]

Angry birds are not funny, Hitchcock said

 

[jan.didden]

How can you trust people that park in the driveway and drive in the parkway???

 

[snup]

you can't. but then again
you trust your breaks and steering, so what can go wrong ?

 

[ginetto61]

A few years ago there was a mid air collision between two passenger aircraft just outside Delhi.
The incoming Kazakhstan airline pilot didn't properly understand the air controller's warning in English asking him to change altitude as he was at the same ceiling as another departing aircraft.
They crashed mid air !

Hi and interesting. This is a dramatic evidence of the importance of effective communication.
Can we think of having one air controller for each language in the world ?
I think that pilots and air controllers instead should be trained in order to achieve a very good english. Doable.
Actually English is already a standard de facto and usually people complaining about its supremacy have a very good english. Weird ...

 

[snup]

on top of that
they eat potatoes and tomatoes

 

[snup]

it's a little bit like ordering aluminium

 

[jacco vermeulen]

American English is like a hamburger, it should have the minimum number of nutritional components, but usually less.

 

[snup]

and as much culture as a small tub of youghurt !

 

[SY]

I think you guys miss the most important point.

Well, at least I was able to demonstrate that, although your conversational French is far better than mine, my winery French is better than yours. 😀

 

[ginetto61]

However i have a friend who has worked in Bruxelles at EU.
The meetings are almost all held in English. 🙄
One day the a French delegate asked for translation to French
they all laughed like after a nice joke ... and after a while he laughed too
I mean, there is already a common language but nobody dare to say it. 😱
And the funny thing is that that country is not part of the EU 😀
They are so influential that they rule even when they are not present

 

[snup]

That must be insiderinformation, ginetto

 

[snup]

there are plenty of get-out-of-jail-free countries spread out over Europa.

 

[jackinnj]

For engineering purposes I prefer german to english in the work place as it is more clear cut and leaves less room for interpretation.

As a chem/physics major I had to take German --

I think the nicest language is to be found in "The Song of Roland" in late medieval Latin. I picked up a copy in a bookstore in Paris that had the tale in Latin, French and English.

 

[snup]

Pentangle-stuff