Missed an important anniversary

[hmpf]

2008 is, as I noted earlier, the year I turn ten in fandom. I just noticed that 2007 also was the year of an important anniversary for me. Sometime in the latter part of that year I should have celebrated the 20th anniversary of my first acquaintance with another great love of my life: 1987 was the year I began to learn English. Heh.

(ETA: It was not, however, the year I fell in *love* with English. That happened later - around 1993, I think.)

Comments

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

out of curiosity from one who's never been able to learn a language other than English - what made you fall in love with it? I'm intrigued.

Well...

[hmpf.livejournal.com]

I know that for most people the number one 'beauty criterion' for languages is musicality (which is why French and Italian usually lead the polls about languages people love), but I really appreciate the *rhythmicality* of English. Or rather, that's the first thing I learned to appreciate about English - due in no small part to the fact that the first English book I read was Fahrenheit 451. Ray Bradbury does some pretty interesting things with rhythm there.

Later, as my vocabularly grew, I began to love English also for its incredible wealth of words. I've read that English has about twice as many or even triple the number of words as German, and, speaking as someone who knows both languages intimately by now, I can totally believe that. So, especially as a writer, I appreciate that range of choice and nuance.

Also, I love the flexibility of the language. The way you can bend and twist it in the most amazing and ridiculous ways.

And then there's how alive it is.

Re: Well...

[amonitrate.livejournal.com]

that's cool. I'd agree that it's not the most musical language, but I can totally see rhythmic. And twisty. I didn't kno wthat about the number of words. Wow.