And now I've seen someone saying the Dutch speak "better" English than Americans and I need every European out there to go acquire a working knowledge of dialects and linguistics because shit like the Académie Française has given y'all the idea that there is a single "good" version of languages

👍The sole benefit of the “immortals” (like that doesn’t sound like a vampire cabal or anything) is that it makes reading older texts easier for modern students and y’know what? Fine. 12yr olds reading Voltaire in the original is cool, but not de rigueur. That’s what historians/translators are for. 👍The sole benefit of the “immortals” (like that doesn’t sound like a vampire cabal or anything) is that it makes reading older texts easier for modern students and y’know what? Fine. 12yr olds reading Voltaire in the original is cool, but not de rigueur. That’s what historians/translators are for.

Some years ago in a dinner conversation with an Italian professor, he pointed out that the international language of academia is “broken English” and he wished that native speakers would slow down a little. He did compliment us Australians for speaking slowly enough that he could follow easily.

This reads far too much like a rant against learning a foreign language. Because that is very much a game of engaging with the standardised form - and not just because middle managers use it.

If that person said that the Dutch speak better English than just about everyone else speaks Dutch? I'd agree in a heartbeat. But the idea that the version of the language that's been simplified and formalised and written in a textbook is "better"??? That's absurd.

When I was in Sweden, a number of people told me they didn't speak much English, but they sounded like Lawrence effing Olivier saying it. Because their English teachers all came from England. But since their English was much better than my Swedish, we had to make do.

Dude an average Dutchman has a Master's and speaks at least 3 languages, and is a software engineer / raver / world traveling mutant

I hope you find peace

The English as spoken by the Dutch (and the Nordics) is formed by exposure to the culturally dominant versions of English in media. So will adhere to that imperial norm. Add in some classicism and racism, and presto. (For Dutch: here local dialects have long been oppressed)

Niche dialects and accents are fun. I don’t know why people get snooty about them. Sometimes I’m a little sad that my Southern California speech patterns are so indistinguishable from general American English. There’s something nice about your speech reflecting where you came from.

I literally had someone tell me just a few hours ago on this here website that Africans speak French with a "terrible accent" and that this was an objective fact because of, you guessed it, the Académie.