Can You Understand English?
There is a lot of talk about making English the official language of the USA. That would stop the need to spend so much money printing out things like drivers license, tax, voter registration and other official forms in so many languages. If people come here, they will simply have to learn English. However, is it really that simple? English is anything but a virgin language. It has roots in the tongues of many nations and one word can mean many things. If you travel around our great nation, you will discover some extreme examples of that fact.
Several years ago, I visited Pennsylvania Dutch Country with my family. Most people have read about the Amish people, but it’s something you have to see for yourself to believe. They first came to North America to escape religious and political persecution in Holland and the Netherlands. Most live in Pennsylvania, some in Ohio and Indiana and a few have established closed communities in Canada.
The religious life of the Amish tends to dominate all they do. While they appreciate the freedom that America offers them, they want none of what they consider our vices. Most of the traditional Amish people refuse the use of electricity and modern conveniences like telephones, cars and machine Автомобильные CD магнитолы цены driven farm equipment. The majority are Farmers who use horse drawn carts for their transportation and horses for plowing, pulling wagons and other heavy work.
The most amazing sight you can see in Pennsylvania Dutch Country is an Amish barn raising. The entire community gets together when someone needs a new barn and builds the bulk of it in just one day! The men construct Автомобильные телевизоры цены the barn while the women cook and provide refreshment. I guess that when it comes to the Amish, it takes a village to raise a barn!
Because they consider waging war a sin, the Amish are generally classified as Conscientious Objectors with Selective Service. They have their own schools and churches and teach that being self-sufficient is vital. They do use banks, save a great deal of the money they earn from farming for the future, give ten percent of their worth to the church and refuse to participate in the Social Security program. The Bible says to make no image of any thing on the earth or in heaven. You will not see any religious statues in their churches. They do not use cameras of any type and the Amish dislike having tourists take their picture.
Sometimes it is hard for tourists to resist the temptation to photograph these unusual people because they look so quaint. The Amish dress in what might be described as very plain clothing. The men wear dark pants with suspenders, light shirts, a wide brimmed hat and a dress coat for special affairs or cold weather. Most have beards and stop shaving when they are engaged or marry. The women wear dresses, no pants, and most will never cut or trim their hair. None of the Amish wears jeans, anything with a design on it or buttons. They use hooks and eyes on their clothes because of a tradition that says their persecutors in Holland wore large buttons on their coats as a sign of pride. real estate search engine rankings Most wear large dark colored shoes and none wear sneakers or dressy footwear.
The Amish speak their own language that has been described by dialectologists as an old form of Dutch mixed with German and some Old English. It is their attempt to speak modern English that really gets your attention! If I were outside our house and needed my wife to give me a diaper for the baby I might say, “Honey, throw a diaper out the window. I need one for the baby.” However, the Amish would say, “Father, please throw the baby out of the window a diaper.” Yikes! Maybe that’s where Michael Jackson got the idea of dangling his kid out of the window. I guess we’re all lucky that’s all he decided to dangle out the window?
This whole Amish style of speaking made me think about the English language and some of the odd ways in which we describe things in different parts of the USA. Like all Americans born here, I guess I have been short with those who come to America from somewhere else and have trouble learning our language. I mean, how many times should I have to say ‘BIG MAC’ at McDonalds to actually get one? It’s frustrating, but imagine how people who come from other places feel when confronted
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