They are repeating a very old English learning course for beginners of about the 60ies or 70ies & in real good funny old british - I saw it in my youth sometimes, but now it's cult -
Of course, you know that british accent? - anyway, that british english is what is taught here in German & French schools & probably in most European schools, - we learn English pronounced very British - not the American or Australian or Indian variation -
Meanwhile I got much more used to the american accent, since I'd lived in the States in the 80ies for about 3 months - I'll never forget the nice atmosphere in Massachussetts in the university towns of Amherst, Northhampton & Holyoak - I've been visiting my poet & musician friend Ed Morgan there who lived in Springfield close to all these university towns with nice students atmosphere - I really missed MA afterwards & 'll never forget it
Boston the town where I arrived the USA was almost british, all this red brick english like houses & even the language was still not so very american than more inside the country.
Ah yes that's one of my faults, - by following the streams of my thoughts, that often quickly jump by association from theme to them - I tend to loose my story line - what was I about to say?
So: What made me write these lines? - Yes: in this english lesson there was a girl entering a journey office (Reisebüro) - she was arguing with the trip seller (vendor?) (trip seller is probably worst english) about where she wanted to go with her friend. They talked a long time & in the end it was revealed, that he had all the time thought, that she was talking about a male friend, while she was talking about her girl friend.
& this is a theme that has always disturbed me in english language. You talk or tell about a friend or cousin & it's remains totally unclear, whether this friend or cousin is male or female - has this non-information origins in the old well-known english puritanity? - In spanish there is amiga & amigo - in french 'amie' et 'ami' - in German 'Freund' und 'Freundin' -
So if you write in english you always have to write somehow added in a second sentence, something refering to the friend, that tells by 'she is' or 'he's' etc. about the gender.
I think for most people it's important in a storyline to name the different sexes. I think it makes a slight difference whether I sleep with a friend or with a friend.
Of course there is a stupid & total senseless gender giving to words here in Germany, France, & in light version in Spain etc. by giving each substantive a female or male article - that makes learning these languages so difficult - in France & Germany even 3 genders, because there exists not only the fem. & male article, but also the 'neutrum' article. & there is no reason that in french 'the window' is male 'le fenetre', in German neutrum 'das Fenster' , but was in latin: 'fenestra' -that was female. Even the Romans (Latins) using no articles told clearly the gender in the last syllable 'a' was female, 'us' male, 'um' neutrum & there where more endings like 'ix' 'er', 'ns' 'uus' etc - I forgot what genderer these had..
There's really no point in giving genders to things! - The 'the' in english makes learning it much easier - I don't care about, whether a stone is male or female or maybe a child stone - maybe some of them are female & some are male? & if you put a male stone next to a female stone then they get a lot of (neutrum) children stones - that's how our house once grew..
But as to humans & animals there should also be in english a difference. Why not call friends he-friend or she-friend or fem-friend or male-friend? That would make some relation stories easier to understand. I could image writing a whole long story including a friend. But give you in 400 pages of writing not the least hint about his/her gender. Your imagination could give the story a total different meaning
So dear english speaking folk: If you give genders to persons & animals, then we other Europeans import your neutral 'the' to all our not person- or animal- related substantives. Isn't that a deal? - Hmm - I still don't know yet, whether the Europian Union gives agreement, who apparently in the moment can't come to any conclusion at all..
