Comments on: The English language – not to be taken for granted

By: Michael Glass

Michael Glass — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:50:47 +0000

The greatest problem with English is its devilish spelling. I speak as an English teacher, and, frankly, I feel sorry for the poor kids who need to learn to write and spell correctly. Add to this the difficulties of the traditional system of weights and measures and you really have a problem.

Now there are reasons for the intransigence on the spelling and the weights and measures and that is the sheer insularity of British and Americans, a belief that English speaking people are special above all others and that they don’t really have anything to learn from others.

In the case of weights and measures something can be done. Fixing spelling is far more difficult. Plenty could be done to deal with both problems but don’t hold your breath while waiting for it to happen.

By: Martin Vlietstra

Martin Vlietstra — Sun, 03 May 2009 23:31:15 +0000

Han, I am half-Dutch and I have worked in the Netherlands for a few months – I certainly speak Dutch when I am in the Netherlands. I agree with you that in the Netherlands, English should only be used as a means of international communication. The point that I was making was that if the English-speakers want English to remain the language of international, rather than French or German, then we need to make it more attractive in international situations so that people like yourself choose the English-language version rather than the French or German version when Dutch is not available.

Your example of the American drill manufacturer is a good one – unless that manufacturer has a monopoly in that market sector (eg the oil sector), then it is likely that he will loose some sales because of his all customary unit approach.

By: Han Maenen

Han Maenen — Sat, 02 May 2009 10:27:40 +0000

English is my second language but I am fiercely opposed to the replacement of my maternal language in my own country by the English language. Marketeers are trying to destroy my language by bombarding us with English ads and signage in and around shops: many of our shopping streets look like streets in London. Our universities are getting rid of the Dutch language. We should use English only as a means for international communication.
Around 1980 I had a holiday job in a chemical company. One of the things I did was translating English language instructions to Dutch. Most of these were metric or metric and imperial/USC and in the latter cases I would use the metric data only. However, once I got instructions from a US manufacturer of drills to translate. The measurements in these instructions were rock hard inch-foot only. I have always been opposed to soft metric. A soft metric translation/conversion would have led to nasty and unworkable values, in other words, it was very measurement-sensitive. I did the unthinkable: I maintained the non metric units in the translation. It was a choice between two evils, but I knew that those working there had some practical experience with working with inches, although they used metric in the first place and most of the time. Nevertheless I was deeply ashamed because I had to do this.

By: john b

john b — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:20:00 +0000

India is a strange mix of metric and imperial – as in the UK, everything governmental is done in metric, but the consumer press veers randomly between feet, metres, kilometres and miles.

On the original piece – any manufacturer listing measurements *solely* in imperial would be deranged (any examples of this actually happening?), given that most people educated in the last 25ish years have a better understanding of cm and kg than of inches and oz. Given that, I can’t imagine a foreign-speaker refusing to read English language instructions because they say “25cm (9.8in)”…

By: lee kelly

lee kelly — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 12:19:42 +0000

This is the point I have been trying to make for months even years, thank you martin for pointing it out. It is nice to have someone to look at the facts rather than reading them in a newspaper, we face losing more than a system of measurement ( i.e imperial ) we face being held back, I know that we are doing it out of blind national pride & the fact the USA is not metric (according to some) . think about this in the next few years China (metric) & India (metric), will overtake the US (non metric) as the economic power in the 21st century, America will eventualy change to metric for economic reasons (no one will buy American if it is not metric).
Where will that leave Britain apart from a once powerful trading nation to one that is so scared of change it won’t trade with anyone, I like everyone else does not want Britain held back but at the moment I feel it may well be, I hope & pray im wrong. English is a world languge & Metric is a world system both can work together.