Bluejay's Blog

English

English can be a very difficult language, even for those of us who were born and raised in an English speaking country. I know sometimes our friends in England sometimes wonder if we Americans are even speaking the same language, but for the most part we understand each other pretty well. A few years back I taught some ESL (English as a Second Language) classes and gained an even better appreciation for those people trying to learn and use English.

It's hard enough just learning the words, but then to have to learn words that sound the same but are spelled and/or pronounced differently and have different meanings can seem impossible to someone new to the language. For example if I write the word "wind", did you think of air moving or what you might do with an old watch or alarm clock? And is "wound" what you did with that alarm clock or is it an injury?

Then of course there's always the problems with "your" and "you're" or "there" and "their" and "they're" as well as words like "unique" which is often used to mean "unusual" rather than "one of a kind". Even people who were taught English from childhood can have problems with finding the right word.

But that's where something that seems like a problem becomes something very, very good. With the rich history of English, borrowing and absorbing words from Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, German, Irish and so many others, there are so many "right" words to choose from, which is great for poets or novelists or journalists or anyone with something to say. We don't just have to say the sun is "bright". We can say "brilliant" or "dazzling" or "glaring" or several other words each with a different shade of meaning.

Now, I'm certainly not saying that other languages are in any way inferior. I don't know enough about other languages to say anything like that. I'm just saying I appreciate the beauty and diversity of the language I use and hope I continue to learn how to use it well.