Pardon My English
Please pardon my English
sorry I did not understand?
It is not your English
which is not at fault.
These native speakers
are speaking in idioms.
Idioms are fixed expressions
with nonliteral meanings.
A natural way of using language.
A natural way for native speakers to speak.
Your problem arises
because a fixed
distinctive expression
whose meaning
cannot be deduced
from the combined
meanings of its
actual spoken words
is not directly translatable.
Jargon and accents
betray speakers
places of origins
social background
and educational
class privileges
intonation inflection
betray mood character.
Note a
greater stress
emphasis
in pronouncing
a syllable
within a word
or a word
within a phrase.
An aspect
of situation
or issue
that is
emphasized
reveals
each speakers
main emphasis.
The best
speakers
are employing
contrasting
detail because
contrasting
decorative
features used
adds interest.
However
the most
persuasive
speakers
weight
their argument
with
lateral thinking
outside
the box
revealing
themselves
to be
master
orators
par excellent.
poem by Terence George Craddock
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Related quotes
I haven't spoken English with native speakers in several months. I've been speaking Arabic.
quote by John Walker Lindh
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Blow Your Speakers Out
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
Under the stolen lights
feel the rhythm, the rhythm
and it will get you right
sweat it all out of your system
you gotta free your mind
let yourself unwind
cause it's your night night night
so get it right right right come on
can you feel it inside
it likes to go for a ride
i know you need it
i can see it in your eyes
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
I know you feel the heat
i see you feeling the fire
don't worry bout a thing
fulfill your every desire
the Dj's playing this song
so now you can't go wrong
cause it's your night night night
so do it right right right come on
Can you feel it inside
He likes to go for a ride
i know you need it
i can see it in your eyes
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
Oh whoa oh
Let me hear you say
Oh whoa oh
this party is never over no no no
oh whoa oh
ler me hear you say
whoa oh!
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
So hop in your ride
Roll your windows down
cause tonight's your night
get lost in the sound
gotta crank the music loud
baby blow your speakers out (Your speakers out)
poem by Jojo Jonna
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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Can't Stand It (Live On Letterman)
The way things go
You get so low
Struggle to find your skin
Hey ho
Look out below
Your prayers will never be answered again
Phones still ring
And singers sing
Speakers are speaking in code
What now
Well anyhow
Our prayers will never be answered again
You know it's all beginning
(It's all beginning)
To feel like It's ending
(Feels like It's ending)
No loves as random
As God's love
I can't stand it
I can't stand it
The way things get
You get so high
Funny how we make new friends
Oh hey ho
I gotta go
My prayers will never be answered again
You know It's all beginning
(it's all beginning)
To feel like It's ending
(Feels like It's ending)
No loves as random
As God's love
I can't stand it
I can't stand it
Speakers speaking
Speakers speaking
Speaking in code
Speakers speaking
Speakers speaking
Speaking in code
You know It's all beginning
(it's all beginning)
To feel like pretending
(To feel like pretending)
No loves as random
As my love
I can't stand it
I can't stand it
Your prayers will never be answered again
Your prayers will never be answered again
Your prayers will never be answered again
Your prayers will never be answered again
song performed by by Wilco
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Pronunciation Problem
Easily written poems mixing
languages Indonesian plus English.
Alas fatal flaw is found in
communication pronunciation problem.
Rhyming Indonesian words are
incorrectly pronounced by English speakers.
Compounding this problem English
is spoken by very few Indonesians.
poem by Terence George Craddock
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All the English speakers, or almost all, have difficulties with the gender of words.
quote by Bernard Pivot
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The Motown Song
(larry john mcnally)
Bring over some of your old motown records
Well put the speakers in the window and well go
On the roof and listen to the miracles
Echo to the alley down below
Lets dance together just for the night
Lets dont worry about the future or nothin else
cause just like the musics sayin you gotta take chances
Go ahead just do it and trust yourself
Theres a soul in the city
Watching over us tonight
Theres a soul in the city
Saying everythings gonna be all right
So bring over some of your old motown records
Well put the speakers in the window and well go
On the roof and listen to the miracles
Echo to the alley down below
They wish us luck
But they think were just dreaming
Lets prove them wrong baby
cause you know what luck is
Luck is believing youre lucky
Thats all and showing just a little bit of faith
Theres a soul in the city
Watching over us I swear
Theres a soul in the city
Theres a whole world waiting out there
Listen
I got plans for us
Playing like a skip on a record
Through my head all night long
But when we walk that darkened stairway
And step out on the roof
I know what were feeling cant be wrong
Bring over some of your old motown records
Well put the speakers in the window and well go
On the roof and listen to the miracles
Echo to the alley down below
Bring over some of your old motown records
Well put the speakers in the window and well go
On the roof and listen to the miracles
Echo to the alley down below
let the temptations sing it one time
Bring over some of you old motown records
Well put the speakers in the window and well go
On the roof and listen to the miracles
Echo to the alley down below
song performed by by Rod Stewart
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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A War of Words
There is a war here;
a war among the Words
where Meaning itself
is often
wounded or murdered,
taken from the Dictionary Battlefield
and buried in Arcane Cemetery,
or kept alive
twisted to opposite intents
or degraded,
or marginalized
or worse
sanitized by the French.
There is a War going on
at all times-
the War of the Words.
Bad is bad one day
and Traitorized
becomes Good the next day;
where Word Soldiers
don't know
who is who
what things mean
or who is on what side.
Then the French-
always the French-
arrive
with cleansing sticks
to pummel Words
and Meaning
to Haut Regarde!
Quivering, especially the Nouns
comply
and line up all the Foreign Words
march them to the border
ejecting them.
Webster's International
empanels the Word Police
who decide
what Words are Real
and which ones will be released
or serve time
in Archaic Jail.
So many Baby Words
seeking to get born
are exposed to the elements
unless
they are vouched for by the
Select Ones
who can rescue them
by uttering:
'You child
once appeared
in the Mouth
of the Learned.'
Brigades and Battalions
march each day
each time,
each year,
such that
Language itself
can become Confounded
and Previous Speakers
cannot understand Current Ones.
Parents vowel and separate
from their own children
whose Words
are foreign ones
Parents have never heard.
No mercy in this war:
non-speakers
not with the latest Word
are consigned
to Oblivion
where all their utterances
over time
make no sense;
uncomprehended
by those who have
donned
new
shiny
Word Suits
and carry batons.
.
Left behind
the Discarded Ones;
all marching
to Shakespeare's Grave
to complain;
whose haunting
voice from below intones
'Nothing Can Be Done'
now leave me alone.'
poem by Lonnie Hicks
Submitted by Poetry Lover
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There is the fear, common to all English-only speakers, that the chief purpose of foreign languages is to make fun of us. Otherwise, you know, why not just come out and say it?
quote by Barbara Ehrenreich
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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The attitude of independence toward a constructed language which all national speakers must adopt is really a great advantage, because it tends to make man see himself as the master of language instead of its obedient servant.
quote by Edward Sapir
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Most speakers speak ten minutes too long.
quote by James Humes
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers.
quote by Cesar Chavez
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Observations on Eloquence
precise speakers
don't coin metaphors
sloppy seakers,
for want of exact similies
create a new phrase
sometimes more colorful
originated for want of language
or poverty,
the test of a new phrase or metaphor
is time
if adopted or repeated
alas eloquence is the lilt
and cadence sonorus
baritone or tenor
poem by Shimon Weinroth
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St. Louis was dying
St. Louis was dying
Under the weight of
Lost telephones
Thrown away by
The deaf hands of
My computer speakers
The keyboard misspelled
The noon day sun
When St. Louis was dying
Under stress of crime
Thrown into the furnace fire
Where an angel was born
To save the weigh of
Telephone wires strung
Down the dirty and dingy
Alley in the back yard of
A renovated heaven
The key board of the noon day sun
Was dying under the weigh
Of a deaf tongue moved
By the speakers speaking
In a foreign language
Only understood by telephones
In the long distend night of long tongues
St. Louis is dying
Under the weigh of
Ten cent poverty
In a ten dollar year where
The furnace is stressing
Out on crime committed
In the noon day weigh
Of heaven’s back yard
Where an angel uses
The dark and dingy telephone
To call the long distend night
Heaven is dying under the weigh of
Misspelled angels dark and dingy
And lost in t he light of my computer
Where the thrown away weigh of
Poverty is spending counterfeit
Dollars worth ten cent crimes
Dying in the heaven of
The weigh of angels
Misspelling the word tongue.
poem by David E. Patton
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This Crazy English Language
English is crazy, we do explore
Singular and plural, probe for more
If goose for geese and tooth for teeth
Why isn't the plural of booth, beeth?
English speakers, verbally insane
Learning this language is really a pain
Index to indices, teachers taught
Why didn't those preachers praught?
Feet that smell, noses that run
Away with murder, such a pun
Play at recital, recite at play
Oral asylum, what else could it be?
poem by Noel A Medina
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Many after-dinner speakers remind us that to err is human.
quote by Frances Rodman
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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And some poets are far better read off the page because they're very bad speakers. I'm thinking of one in particular whom I won't name, a good poet, and he reads in such a dry, boring way, your eyes start drooping.
quote by Norman MacCaig
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Laptop speakers, too quiet for music, too loud for porn.
Ştefan Munteanu
Submitted by Ştefan Munteanu
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Just Playin Possum
(alan jackson/jim mcbride/gary overton)
I parked my car round back
Ive got the shades pulled down
I told everybody including my mama
I was leaving town
But Ive been right here
Since youve been gone
Belly-up at the bottom of a bottle
Listening to george jones
And just playin possum
Laying low
Ive got hundred watts of hurtin
Coming through the speakers of my stereo
Dont want to see nobody
Nowhere I want to go
Im just playin possum
And laying low
Im gonna hide my heart
And be a love recluse
Oh I could cry on my best friends shoulder
But there aint no use
I need an expert on
The pain Im going through
So Ill keep george on the old turntable
til Im over you
And just playin possum
Laying low
Ive got hundred watts of hurtin
Coming through the speakers of my stereo
Dont want to see nobody
Nowhere I want to go
Im just playin possum
And laying low
Hes playin possum
And hes laying low
song performed by by Alan Jackson
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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Some of the speakers we bring on campus may not reflect official church teaching, but that's how it is.
quote by William P. Leahy
Submitted by Lucian Velea
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