English, anyone?

The more I travel, the more I appreciate - even if English is not in fact my "mother tongue" - that I had an English language education. Despite the best efforts of supporters of French and probably several other  languages - not to mention the abortive efforts of the supporters of Esperanto - English has become the de facto world language. And having gone through the effort - which never stops - of learning another language, I appreciate the fact that English has become the universal language even more. But what an illogical and complex language English can be! Whenever I struggle with yet another seemingly illogical and unnecessarily complex rule of French grammar for example, I remind myself how difficult it must be for a non-English speaker to make any sense of English pronunciation as well as some of the grammar.

I was reminded of this yet again by a couple of signs I spotted while wandering the streets of Muscat. I particularly liked the idea of keeping the door "close" - after all you never know when you're going to need to have a door nearby! And this restaurant sign is crying out for some punctuation, or simply a complete re-write. Still, in both cases you know what they mean, so who's to say it's really "wrong"? Communication is after all about getting the message across.

Another example, just seen in the Oman Daily Observer: "... a major upgradation work of the main pipeline..." Sometimes the creativity is quite impressive! And who says this new word isn't an improvement?

And here follows a trilogy of images that has no direct relevance to the subject of this post. However, these pictures show a little of what there is to see in Muscat: characterless, quickly-built cubes of cement as buildings, stunning mountain backdrops to rather ordinary architecture, generally in white, with a liberal smattering of air conditioners, satellite and other dishes, and the odd unexpected innovative touch.

Home sweet home - complete with views (of a construction site)

Typical Muscat scenery - air conditioners, communication dishes and mountains

The view from the (glass) elevator - monochromes with a dash of colour