(no)Nonsense: Ainglish

Ainglish: it aint English but it is. It is the language of song-lyrics, the Coca-Cola commercials, the language of the political speeches we are bombarded with day and night, and it is the language of the news-flashes on cable TV (in Europe synonymous to CNN) that bring us reports about the consequences of those speeches, commercials and song-lyrics.

America is a nation called to great responsibilities: it has conquered the world, thereby forcing us to speak a language that is not ours. But we should not abandon this language as a protest. Instead we should feast on it: America has given the world a language and we should claim it as our own. We should start using it as the modern day version of Esparanto, a language designed to be easy to learn by everyone and thus designed as a tool to help spread world peace and revolution around the world: where there is misunderstanding there can be no peace.

Since the American language was forced down our throats, we should do with it as we please. An example: most of us use the words “I love” instead of “I like” thereby mimicking millions and millions of dollars worth of pop-songs.

Every non-native speaker who learned the language through radio, television, and the internet, mixes it automatically with the rules of its own mother tongue, much like Amos Tutuola did. And so should we.

Ainglish has no rules but one: If the other can understand what you are talking about you are using it correctly. If not rephrase it. Use your hands and feet, use images and drawings. No rules of grammar apply, no spelling rules are of any importance. And never, never let anybody tell you what you should and should not do while using Ainglish.