language influences

in every country, words of a different foreign tongue are borrowed and used in the daily oral language.
i've noticed that the dutch have borrowed a lot of english words in their spoken language. i sometimes will be listening in to a dutch conversation and suddenly, out of the blue, an english word will pop up and the conversation continues normally. i first found this rather strange until i considered america!
we borrow, "hola", "adios", "ciao", and many other words from our neighboring spanish speaking country, mexico. of course, spanish has the greatest influence on our language, but we do use words from other regions of the world as well. yiddish words have a somewhat common roll in our tongue as well... "oye vey"--used as an expression much like "oh dear" or "oh my"..."mamzer" (mumza)--used to express lame or gay mannerisms..."tushy"--in reference to ones behind..."mishmosh"--hodge-podge ...and then, there is, of course, many borrowed words from european countries.. "au revoir", "goeten tag" ... the list goes on! "schlecht" is a yiddish word meaning bad -- "slecht" is a dutch word meaning bad -- "shnech" is (rarely used) English for the expression of the word GROSS!

i find it funny when people work so hard to preserve their language and keep it pure of borrowed words and foreign language influence. its impossible to do so. sometimes, its easier said in a different language, sometimes the meaning of a word from a different language describes a situation in a different culture better than any word that is of that culture.

gezellig, for example, is a dutch word that describes the dutch well, but gezelligheid CAN also be found in america. i personally like the word lekker! it sounds so much better than tasty... i just might start borrowing some dutch words when i go back home, just to get my point across clearly.

languages are SOOO interesting. (and it is impossible to avoid influence... all languages relate in SOME way to each other and in SOME way express and amplify each other!

perhaps i will become a linguistics major!