I’m spending a lot of my time lately speaking English with people who are for a large part not able to. This is for a large part due to the fact that English has been chosen as our academic lingua franca. All Master programmes at Delft, University of Technology are taught in English.
This would be all right if the people involved (teachers and students) in this international academical interchange were able to speak English at a certain level. Of course they are not. Most of them have had very basic English lessons and they can convey most concepts only in the most rudimentary of ways.
This is very nice if your complete communication is strictly business and consists of purely nouns and transitive verbs. If however you think communication should also include a certain level of figurative speech —or even colorful expressions and slang words— then you are in for something of a disappointment. These more subtle and interesting points you are trying to make will —all of them— not be understood.
The international English used by most you should best call Jip en Janneke-taal. Obviously this dirt poor linguistic landscape with misunderstandings lurking behind every corner is the best environment for academical interchange of ideas.
