3 ms·
As a non-native speaker living in a non-English speaking country who has started learning English decades ago at school in my teenage years, the sheer richness
by bluetomcat 5y ago
As a non-native speaker living in a non-English speaking country who has started learning English decades ago at school in my teenage years, the sheer richness of the English vocabulary never ceases to fascinate me. There are so many words with subtle and nuanced meanings (primarily of Latin and French origin) you can almost never hear in an American movie or a reality show. I have encountered them primarily in British news articles and documentaries. Using them among other non-native speakers even seems snobbish and counter-productive. I mean stuff like "subjugate", "rejuvenate", "reverberate", etc.
- D-Coder 5y agoThis makes me lugubrious.
- ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago> Using them among other non-native speakers even seems snobbish and counter-productive. Non-native here, but I have an opinion on your choice of examples. They aren't posh or counter-productive, on the contrary, they are just specific to fields under-represented in popular culture (political history, fantasy/longevity research, music/acoustics). I don't see any obvious ways to convey the same meaning using more common words.