English, Gotta Like It

by Guy Soffer
(Rehovot, Israel)

English has it's origins in French, German, and Latin, it is therefore a relatively young language, and so is generally easier to learn. English has become an international language for this reason, and this makes it even easier to learn, because it is much more receptive to changes, as compared to other, older languages.

I am a native speaker of Hebrew, and while I ran across many languages over the years, I've always had the easiest time with English, because it seemed so logical and easy.

Of course, English has its bad sides too - irregular verbs, strange spelling occasionally, and weird sentence structure. To actually know English, you better be prepared with your French, German, and Latin, since you'll need more than a mediocre knowledge of each to be able to make sense of some of the more obscure English words.

To get a basic grab of the language, on the other hand, you just need to switch your TV on, as millions of teenagers around the world can testify.

Basic English is so successful because of the fact that it has distinct sounds for each word, and even if you get your tenses completely wrong, and mispronounce every other word, you'll still be perfectly understood, although native speakers will wrinkle their nose at you before kindly answering your question.

There is an e-mail making the rounds, where the middle letters of each word are mixed up to generate garbage words, and only the first and last letters remain fixed in place. The letter is still very readable. I've tried doing this with a random text, and while a little harder to read, it's still possible. This does not work with other languages I've tried - the text comes out as complete garbage, simply unreadable.

I hope you decide to join the community of English speakers around the globe.