I was greatly amused to read this expose of the effect that living in Brussels has on one’s use of English:
Even more irritating is the minimalist, English-as-a-foreign-language idiom that has become the EU’s lingua franca. If you are feeling smug about the fact that English has become universal, I suggest you listen to what has happened to it along the way: it has been eviscerated, my friends, traduced, pared down to just 1,500 words.
I’m told by those who have had to take them that the English often score poorly in the English language test required of officials working for European bodies, having been marked down for using idioms and vocabulary deemed too complicated for ready understanding.
Top marks to the Telegraph, by the way, for coining the phrase “Euro-prat”:
After a while, the Euro-prat begins to sneak French constructions into his own language, as in “I’ll take a coffee”, “Let’s profit from the good weather”, “Here are my co-ordinates” (ie, his email and phone number). At around this stage, his writing changes, too. He starts putting people’s surnames in upper case throughout and signing letters at the bottom right-hand corner. He might even take to pretending to have forgotten English words.