German is my first language, and also my third. When I started school I had to learn English; over the years I didn’t speak much German and I have forgotten a lot. Now I have started to re-learn German again.
But over the years I’ve dabbled in learning other languages — and not mastered any of them — (French, Spanish, Latin, Klingon, Esperanto, Yiddish); I find the differences in syntax and sentence structure fascinating. Now that I’m (involuntarily) retired and have plenty of time, I should go back and study some more.
Even just the weirdnesses and inconsistencies of English I find fascinating — why do “flammable” and “inflammable” mean the same thing? How can I be “disheveled” or “disgruntled” but not “sheveled” or “gruntled”?
And my boss told me off for being ambiguous on the phone:
“Hello, Kevin’s phone”
“Oh. Is Kevin not there?”
“Yes, he’s not. May I take a message?”
“Can I speak to him?”
“He’s not here”
“But you just said he was!”
“No, I agreed with you that he isn’t here”
“You should say what you mean” …
Paint