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A blogger on WTForum!! explains, “I question me off, or blogging in English would pull more readers on. You see, everybody cans English. Not as fluid as me naturally, but that speaks. For me, writing in English is a little egg, because English knows no secrets for me. In fact, my English is even good as my Netherlands. But make yourself no worries, because when you don’t snap a word or a sentence, can you always ask for outlay in the comments. O, in that fall, try to use correct English grammar and gaming.”7

Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has been called a hub of Dunglish with its signs, such as the one at the beginning of this chapter and another from the dunglish.nl website, saying, “Need Your Baby Some Rest? Visit Our Special Baby Room.”

FINGLISH

In Finland, the home of Nokia and other large international business firms, the influence of English has been huge despite major dissimilarities in the two languages.

Since English has become the principal language of international firms, it is natural that English terms would also drift into everyday conversations between Finns. In the past, they have borrowed more words from nearby nations, especially Sweden and Russia. But that has changed in recent decades.

According to Feodor Bratenkov, a business executive residing in the country, the natives may lapse into “Oh No,” the name of a Finnish-made movie; “What’s up?”; or when surprised, “Oh my god.” Finns also transliterate English computer terms into their own language. An example is the word for a mouse click: klikkaa.

Many Finns migrated to the United States from the 1880s to the 1920s, mostly to the upper Midwest and to mill towns in New England. Their descendants like to put the letter i at the end of English words. Examples are: elkki (elk), jarri (a jar), lemoni (lemon), resortti (resort), toiletti (toilet), and klerkki (clerk). The suffix -ata is also popular, as shown by the words kompleinata (complain) and taipata (type). A heart attack comes out haartatakki, and to be satisfied is satosfai.

FRENGLISH/FRANGLAIS

Despite substantial government fines for egregious use of foreign terms, French conversations and public media are replete with unchanged English or bastardized English words. Recent examples of the latter include le drug store, le fast food, le software, and my all-time favorite, les chicken nuggets. Others include je suis tired, je ne care pas, le marketing, le shampooing, un parking, and supercool.

Since 1975, use of such words has been against French law. Among other words banned in France are la call girl, le cocktail, le dancing, le showbiz, and le weekend sexy, just the words most needed by American tourists looking for a good time with beaucoup dollars to spend and a limited knowledge of Français.

In August 2006, the country’s Culture Ministry added e-mail to thousands of already banned English words and proposed a fine of up to $1,800 per violation. But the campaign has done little or nothing to stop e-mail from appearing—with or without the hyphen—in either the sent file or inbox.

The main reason for the bans, of course, is to help preserve what’s left of la culture française, but nothing the French government can do will stop la marche de l’Amglish. It has too much big mo, as they say in Paree. To show just how bilingual they are, many French retailers invent English-looking words to get the attention of shoppers. Two of most interesting are relooking for a makeover and destockage for clearance sale.

Most of the Amglish words in France get started in the media because of the natives’ efforts to keep current. However, serious French journalists covering the world and national politics tend to stick to the language formalities. A prominent exception for the news pages of Paris’s Le Monde for years has been think tank. The Academy’s tank is obviously leaking.

Except for the main newspaper sections, just about anything goes. A random perusal of Le Monde revealed this Amglish headline over a story about tennis player Aravane Rezai: “TENNIS: