I’m leaking oil
Well, children, todays lesson is to always use precise language! Language is such a beautiful and powerful tool, that is sometimes hurts to see (and hear) what many people do with it.
Sometimes I think Eric Blair (George Orwell) was right when he said that language is dumbed down deliberately. If you control the language, you control what people can think. I can vividly remember the point when I reached a level of Japanese, when I would start thinking in Japanese, and it literally opened up new avenues of thought, because the words and phrases were so different. That was probably the most amazing experience of learning another language…
I second that.
I reached that level about 10 years whilst living in London and studying there. Now I have dreams in English, and communication is happening on another level. But I still can’t reach the level of my native tongue, and I probably never will.
I know exactly what you feel. My native language is portuguese, but for like half of my life I’ve been studying English language. Sometimes I think in portguese, but a lot of times I start thinking in English. And sometimes I even dream in english. Yeah, language is really amazing.
That is indeed strange. For example I still count in Hungarian no matter if it is an English/German course. I believe, that no foreigner will be fully able to master a foreign language. Oh and by the way, the previous strip was just awesome, it was really well put to together!
Agreed!
Not only people are not able to express themselves correctly, but I think they also are unable to think clearly. And those who are unable to use their brains are more easily hoodwinked…
Specially in an age when image rules: the JFK – Nixon debate on TV is a good example, as people who watched and people who only HEARD it had different opinions on which candidate had been better.
I’m also portuguese, and sometime ago a maire was convicted, but when she was interviewed after the sentence was known, she was “confident and happy that she had been acquitted” (!?), and many people didn’t understand that she really had lost.