Why Are English Words So 'Haphazard'? Turns Out, It’s a 'Global Cuisine' Restaurant
Have you ever felt that memorising English words is a particularly painful task?
One moment it's simple, direct words like house and man, the next it's terms that seem 'high-level' like government and army. Not to mention those 'peculiar' ones with no rules for spelling and pronunciation. We always assume English, as an 'international language', should be 'pure', but why does learning it feel like navigating a hotchpotch?
That's precisely where the problem lies. We have a huge misconception about English.
In fact, English is anything but a 'pure' language. It's more like an all-encompassing 'global cuisine' restaurant.
Initially, It Was Just a Humble Local Tavern
Imagine, when this 'English restaurant' first opened, it was just a Germanic tavern serving local, homely dishes. The menu was very simple, consisting of core, native words such as man (人), house (房子), drink (喝), eat (吃). These words form the most essential, foundational part of English.
Even back then, this tavern had already started 'borrowing' from its neighbours. The powerful 'Roman Empire' restaurant next door brought in more sophisticated items, and so the menu expanded with 'imports' like wine (葡萄酒) and cheese (奶酪).
The 'French Master Chef' Who Changed Everything
What truly transformed this restaurant was a 'management buyout'.
Around 1000 years ago, a highly skilled and discerning 'French Master Chef', along with his formidable team, swept in and took over the tavern. This was the historically renowned 'Norman Conquest'.
The new managers were French-speaking nobles, who disdained the 'rustic' local dishes. Consequently, the entire restaurant menu was completely rewritten.
All sophisticated vocabulary related to law (justice, court), government (government, parliament), military (army, battle), and art (dance, music) was almost entirely replaced with elegant French terms.
The most interesting phenomenon occurred:
Animals raised by farmers in the fields retained their original Old English names: cow (牛), pig (猪), sheep (羊).
But once these animals were prepared as culinary delights and served on the nobles' tables, their names immediately 'upgraded' to fashionable French terms: beef (牛肉), pork (猪肉), mutton (羊肉).
From then on, the restaurant's menu became multi-layered, with basic dishes for commoners and sophisticated ones for the nobility. Vocabulary from both languages simmered together in one pot for centuries.
Today's 'Global Cuisine' Menu
Over thousands of years of development, this restaurant continuously introduced new ingredients and dishes from 'kitchens' around the world. According to statistics, over 60% of English vocabulary today consists of 'borrowed elements', with truly 'native' words becoming the minority.
This is not a 'flaw' of English; rather, it's precisely its greatest strength. It is this 'all-encompassing' and 'fusion' characteristic that has made its vocabulary immensely vast, its expressive capability incredibly rich, ultimately leading it to become a global language.
Shift Your Mindset, Make Learning English Fun
So, the next time you find yourself getting a headache over memorising words, why not try a different approach?
Stop rote memorisation of English words as a pile of haphazard symbols. Instead, view it as a 'global cuisine' menu, and try to uncover the 'origin story' behind each word.
When you encounter a new word, try guessing:
- Did this word come from the humble 'Germanic kitchen', or the elaborate 'French kitchen'?
- Does it sound simple and direct, or does it carry a hint of 'aristocratic flair'?
When you begin learning with this 'exploratory' mindset, you'll discover a rich and fascinating history hidden between seemingly unrelated words. Learning will no longer be dry memorisation, but an engaging adventure.
In the past, linguistic fusion took centuries, sometimes even requiring wars and conquests. Today, each of us can easily connect with the world and create our own fusion of ideas.
With tools like Intent, you no longer need to wait for historical shifts. Its built-in AI translation feature allows you to converse in real-time with people from any corner of the world, instantly breaking down language barriers. It's like having a personal portable translator, empowering you to freely initiate any cross-cultural exchange.
The essence of language, whether in the past or present, is connection.