This is a song just because...just because I like it...and just because we all butcher English with a frightening frequency...just because you know you want to laugh. :)
Higgins: Look at her, a prisoner of the gutter, Condemned by every syllable she utters. By right she should be taken out and hung, For the cold-blooded murder of the English tongue.
Eliza: Aaoooww!
Higgins: Aaoooww! Heavens, what a noise!This is what the British population, Calls an elementary education.
Pickering: Come, sir, I think you picked a poor example.
Higgins: Did I? Hear them down in Soho square, Dropping "h's" everywhere. Speaking English anyway they like. You sir, did you go to school?
Man: Wadaya tike me for, a fool?
Higgins: No one taught him 'take' instead of 'tike'!
Hear a Yorkshireman, or worse, Hear a Cornishman converse, I'd rather hear a choir singing flat.Chickens cackling in a barn, Just like this one here.
Eliza: Garn!
Higgins: I ask you, sir, what sort of word is that?
It's "Aaoooww" and "Garn" that keep her in her place. Not her wretched clothes and dirty face.
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? This verbal class distinction, by now, Should be antique. If you spoke as she does, sir, Instead of the way you do, Why, you might be selling flowers, too!
Pickering: I beg your pardon!
Higgins: An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him. The moment he talks he makes some other Englishman despise him.One common language I'm afraid we'll never get,Oh, why can't the English learn to
set a good example to people whose English is painful to your ears? The Scots and the Irish leave you close to tears. There even are places where English completely disappears.
In America, they haven't used it for years!
Why can't the English teach their children how to speak? Norwegians learn Norwegian, the Greeks are taught their Greek. In France every Frenchman knows his language from "A" to "Zed"
The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.
Arabians learn Arabian with the speed of summer lightning,The Hebrews learn it backwards, which is absolutely frightening. But use proper English and you're regarded as a freak.
Why can't the English,Why can't the English,Learn To Speak?
I love this song. There even are places where English completely disappears. In America, they haven't used if for years! o. O.
ReplyDeleteAnd 'The French never care what they do, actually, as long as they pronounce it properly.' makes me think of my French schoolwork. It doesn't matter what you say, as long as you pronounce it properly. ;)
Totally right about French. When I was in a French class, I dare say that I could have been silly and said something as inane as ""Ma grand-mere adore le jus d'oignon avec un chien" or something like that and the teacher would merely have noted that one does not pronounce the "i" in "oignon."
Delete(The sentence says "My grandmother adores onion juice with a dog.")
:D You girls are making me jelish, knowing French! I've always wanted to learn--it seems like such a refined language. :)
DeleteRefined? When I try to pronounce the nasal sounds my sisters say it sounds like I have a cold. So it might be refined, but not when I say it. :(
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