Engrish alive and well in New Zealand

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tonyhughes

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#9764 11-Oct-2006 16:41

I love Engrish. It makes me laugh, and I accept it for what it is - unfortunately funny attempts at using a second language. Im sure I would be much worse trying to master a foreign language...

So heres an example, from a New Zealand web site: any takers as to which one - Id say most people here have read this on the site in question several times. Extra points for giving me the names of both the people who use it.

"if you need one that good one"

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#48318 11-Oct-2006 16:46

Yeah, Engrish is sometimes very amusing...

Try http://www.engrish.com/

I've seen that line several times, but can't think where... Anybody else know?

freitasm

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#48321 11-Oct-2006 16:58

Hmmm... Can't find it through Google narrowing on New Zealand domains. I guess this thread will be the first occurrence in the index.

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3g

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#48323 11-Oct-2006 17:13

Hmm, that was a difficult one initially.

But " if you need one that good one " does appear all over TradeMe 8-).

Two traders, both with "1" at the end of their names seem to use it.

freitasm

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#48325 11-Oct-2006 17:16

I found it on Trademe, but discounted that. I thought it wasn't the case. Anyway...

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tonyhughes

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#48326 11-Oct-2006 17:17

Sure does. I wonder if anyone has told them. There feedback seems to indicate they are just 'box droppers' with very little customer service skills, so I guess no ones gotten into that conversation with them.

Any other examples from New Zealand sites? (looking for original/previously unpublished examples here...)

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#48327 11-Oct-2006 17:17

3g: Hmm, that was a difficult one initially.

But " if you need one that good one " does appear all over TradeMe 8-).

Two traders, both with "1" at the end of their names seem to use it.

and another called computerszone

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#48329 11-Oct-2006 17:19

Yeah, for example:

^^If you need one that good one^^

On the following auction:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Trade-Me-Motors/Car-stereos/CD-players/auction-73018339.htm

Knew I'd seen it somewhere...

Thanks 3G for sussing it out.

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#48374 11-Oct-2006 22:43

It can really be annoying trading with ones who aren't the greatest at english though, I know I had a lot of trouble once just understanding one persons payment instructions! how can they get english so mixed up?

tonyhughes

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#48376 11-Oct-2006 22:55

pebbles: It can really be annoying trading with ones who aren't the greatest at english though, I know I had a lot of trouble once just understanding one persons payment instructions! how can they get english so mixed up?

English is a terrible language with terrible structure and rules. Most kiwis I know fail to speak English correctly.

"Me fail English? Thats unpossible!"

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#48387 12-Oct-2006 06:46

tonyhughes: English is a terrible language with terrible structure and rules. Most kiwis I know fail to speak English correctly.

"Me fail English? Thats unpossible!"

What amazes me is that in my workplace of about 16 people, only around half of them are confident with the use of spelling and grammar, and the worst ones are often New Zealanders who supposedly speak the language natively.

freitasm

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#48397 12-Oct-2006 09:04

My pet peeves:

there != their

should of != should have

it's != its

your != you're

PDAs != PDA's

People should not use ' in plural!

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#48398 12-Oct-2006 09:04

One thing that amazed me when I travelled around Scandinavia was how well the people over there spoke English, particularly the Finnish & Norwegians. Maybe Juha can tell us why they speak better English that most NZers despite it being their 2nd or 3rd language!

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#48402 12-Oct-2006 09:15

hehe "eat, shoot and leave". That is a great book, though I have not read it yet. But it shows how bad some people can get in terms of wrong placement of punctuations, or incorrect formation of grammar in the sentences.

I know the first thing I want to learn with new language is how to use grammar to form a right sentence, then later learn vocabs and nouns. But my night-Spanish class that I was attending, some students were just completely lost when learning Spanish grammar, they cannot comprehend what is subject, object, conjunction, nouns etc... they just can't get their head around it!

I am glad to see that primary school now is focusing on grammar, and hope they carry that on to at least intermediates. I also have seen my work colleagues and most people in 20s and 30s having difficulty to use right words, and forming grammatically correct sentences or making sense with whatever they are trying to convey. In my job, I get requests from a lot of different people trying to get their work done, but the instructions they gave were largely vague and hard to decipher, and most cases, they are of no context in the message. HOW CAN I HELP IF YOU DON'T HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND YOUR REQUEST! *argh!*

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#48411 12-Oct-2006 09:43

freitasm: People should not use ' in plural!

Absolutely!

Misuse of the humble apostrophe has reached epidemic proportions in NZ. In other primarily English-speaking countries I've travelled to it doesn't seem anywhere near so bad.

Many people don't bother using apostrophes now, or if they do, seem to think that a plural requires one. Aaarrggghh...

One of the worst offenders that I come across on a daily basis is the writer of a Foreign Exchange commentary. You would think that such skilled professionals would have learnt to write sentences properly.

It may well be that the best solution is to ditch the apostrophe altogether in the same way that hyphenated words quickly lose their hyphen when they move into common usage e.g. e-mail ==> email, co-operative ==> cooperative, etc.

freitasm

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#48412 12-Oct-2006 09:48

Or Whitcoulls. They have "DVD's on sale" A bookstore!

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