Noo, that's too easy! Wasn't this topic supposed to be a very useful tool to improve our English?! ...

(Don't you know that I'm the world's leading expert on HOW TO (PRETEND TO) USE EQUIWEB FOR EDUCATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY!)



Enjoy your meal Nicola!

Andrea, you are so comic!

(comic si usa riferito alla persona? )

maybe "funny" is better...

No Julie, it should be "comical"!

Comical is stronger than funny... (which is also ambiguous because it can mean both "entertaining", and "strange").

Ok, no doubt, italians are unable to speak english.

But, now I've just read the italian version of a famos Real Estate company's web-site.

It's something dazzling. The worse automatic translator coul'd do it better!

So, Londoners, please, keep on writing just in your language!!!

Well, I was reading (or rather, trying to read!) the Italian version of the St Hip**lyt catalogue... totally unreadable!! Clearly it had been done by an Italian native speaker, or at least somebody with excellent knowledge of Italian, but s/he had no clue whatsoever about equestrian or nutritional terminology... I was really tempted to e-mail them and offer my services instead

great sele!
if they 'll pay...why not??

Ha ha, I think I'll do it one day. It's just that it makes me really mad -- it's the same with horsey books, the Italian translations are always appalling! Why oh why??

a chi ghel diset!!!!

Mi capìsi tùc scòs ma gho nigòt da scrìf
e pòe se vòr dì cus'è chel topic chi??
El servìs a fas bèi e a fà savè che vi oltèr asì mej ??

Daniela, why do you think always in therm of "contest"?

Maybe it's just a "leisure topic"

So, please, take a sit around our table and have fun!!

Well you know…’cos I have a reputation for making lucky finds and hope my luck still hold

Should I start with : the pen is on the table

Well said, Nicola

It was Giuly's idea and I think it's a good one too! I do believe it can be useful, if used appropriately. I never thought of it as showing off! Showing off what, exactly? I write, speak, think and work in English every single day of my life: it's just a part of my life, never a question of, to use your terms, being better or showing off or whatever. How could it be? This is not a contest, and it is not an exam... let me think of an example. I used to have dozens of penpals all over the world. Unfortunately, writing letters and having penfriends has gone out of fashion for some reason. But this doesn't differ, in some respect, from having penpals abroad (except everything is done electronically, almost in real time and not necessarily abroad!). What we have been doing here today is actually quite similar to what happens in social networking websites like Facebook: you just write whatever crosses your mind, often blurring the borders between languages, and you don't really care if people listen or not

We all make mistakes, in whatever language we write. Sometimes it just happens! But we also have a lot of fun! And I love this macaronic English that sometimes appears!

If you don't like this topic, stop reading now, instead of gratuitously ironising about it

Where is Arianna? She would have loved this