English as a Queer Language

We'll begin with box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox is oxen, not "oxes"
Then one fowl is a goose and two are geese,
Yet the plural of moose would never be "meese,"

You may find a lone mouse or a whole lot of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not "hice."
If the plural of man is always men,
Why shouldn‘t the plural of pan be "pen"?

-English is a Queer Language, Unknown Author

For those who are not familiar with the word queer, these are the answers of Mr. Webster and the Google: It means strange, unusual, odd, or unique. From the meaning of queer, is there somebody who would agree with the title of the poem written above?

In my perception, English is a queer language because of its unique and unusual characteristics. Some of us may wonder why English is confusing, considering that it is practically the world's most common language. For instance, one cannot simply go on a business or talk to corporate people if he or she could not speak fluently in English. The same goes with travelers who go to different countries that they must speak in English to be able to communicate with various nationalities. 

We Filipinos are very fond of English and it somehow becomes our secondary language. Everybody knows a little English regardless of the age, gender, and educational attainment. However, does everyone realizes how strange English is? For example, we have he, his, and him for the masculine, so why not she, shis, and shim for the feminine?

Take a look at these pictures: 

        

                                  

See? That’s how odd English is.

Indeed, English is far from plain and ordinary. It is a complex language when it comes to pronunciation, intonation, word formation, figures of speech, and functions. In order to speak and write in English effectively, one must know the rules. However, more often than not, we get confused because most of us have different approaches to this particular language. We tend to do things that for us are right, but truly are wrong. One more other reason of our confusion is because of its broadness; unlike in Arithmetic that when you understand a certain formula, you can always get the correct answer from there. It differs from English language wherein you put your thoughts into words, thus must be in proper English form.  

We must conform with the rules for us to achieve accepted English writing. Moreover, one should use this language outside of a formal classroom setting to develop one’s proficiency in English. 

References:

http://www.burkhard-leuschner.de/fun/plural.htm

http://www.seiyaku.com/humour/english/index.html

http://www.google.com.ph/imghp?hl=en&tab=ii

Note:

The sizes of some photos that I have taken from the Internet are too large, for you readers to see them clearly. :)