We are drinking in Dublin.
P - A British guy visiting Ireland.
C - A french girl living in Ireland.
V - A Hangarian German living in Ireland.
A - An Indian visiting Ireland.
......
The topic is now on lanuages.
Me: I've learned German for half a year in a night school, but all I can remember now is Guten Tag...and Guten Morgan.
V：Yeah Guten Tag, good day, Guten Morgan, good morning. It's very similar to English, especially the beginning of many words.
Me：Yeah English came from German, isn't it? They are all Germatic languages，aren't they?
V: Yeah, that's why it's easy for me to learn English, not like French.
P: English is German. In fact English is French. We've been conquered by so many nations, we hardly have our own language. 
Me: Was England conquered by France as well? I didn't know that. I knew that there was a hundred-year war between England and France, but I didn't know that France actually conquered England. For how long?
P: 2-3 hundred years.
Me: WOW!
P: Yeah, our last conqueror. (looking at C)We'll never forgive you.
All laughing...
P: And that's why we've got so many words. We've got words from all sorts of other languages. So many different words for the same thing. Like beef, in English it should be cow. Beef is French.
Me: No wonder. I always thought, hm, why do you guys make English so hard to learn. There are so many words. So Pork is French too I suppose.
P: You are right. When French ruled England. We, the Romans, the Germans, the Vikings, ......, I keep saying we, but I am probably Norman. My last name Bennett has a French origin......all those people who came to England before the French, were not allowed to use the English words when we talk about food. We had to say that we eat beef, not cow......
C: And it's considered posh to use the French words, isn't it? It's still the case today. Often French people who talk in English are thought posh because they use the French originated words, when in fact, we use those words only because we do not know the more appropriate ones. Like we tend to say timid instead of shy since we have the same word timid in French. But people would think that we talk posh.
Me: What was it all about? How come everyone wanted to conquer England? Is it because that the land is extremely prosperous?
P: No idea. Everyone seem to like the idea, hm, let's go and conquer England... So how did you learn so many languages V?
V: I used Hangarian at home, went to school in Germany, English is compulsory starting from Grade 5, then you have to choose another language in high school for which I've chosen French. But it's so hard I gave up as soon as I was allowed...
C: Yeah same for me. Dropped the extra language at school as soon as possible.
P: For me there are so many foreign languages. People say that we are lazy. But it's very hard to make a decision about what to learn. There are French, German, Spain, Portugues...and then there are Chinese and Japanese......
Me: And Hindi......
P: Yeah, so what to learn? There seems no point for a English man to learn foreign languages since whatever you learn, when you meet people, you'll end up talking in Engilsh still. Among all the languages, I often wonder why it is English that has become an international language.
V: I think it's because it's easier to learn. For me anyway.
Me: Is it because that British has had so many successful colonies. America, Australia, Canada, Newzealand...
C: But French once also had many colonies. So did Spain and Portugual.
Me: Yeah and Spanish and Portuguese are used in Latin America now......then America has become so successful. Its influce has been massive which may also helped promoting English.
P: Yeah it must has something to do with that. But in the meantime, English is a easy language...
Me: Comparing to French or German...yeah I guess.
V: Definitely. It has no gender. German does. It gives things Gender for no reasons. For example, a table is male, a wall is female...
Me: A wall is female?! That's funny.
C: Wall is male in French. Window is female...
A: Do you have different words for mother side uncle and father side uncle in French?
C: No.
Me: We do in Chinese.
A: Yeah in Hindi there're different words too...
At this moment, the conversation was disrupted by the arrival of more people.
It's time for dinner
(甘陕总虎2010年10月于Dublin）
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