YouTube and English teachers
A certain Vanessa, self-appointed teacher of English, declaims on YouTube about proverbs. She says that foreigners find them difficult to learn because they have "many words together" (?). She also says that many "native" speakers do not know English proverbs, so why bother? She tells us "not to use A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush " because it sounds "pretentious, snobby" and native speakers might think you are not a "normal person." Vanessa is a very young woman and we must make allowances for her youth and enexperience. She is also a native speaker, and so she depicts all the misconceptions people have about English monolinguists, those who manage in one language only. "A bird in hand is worth two in the bush" has been in the English language for centuries, since 1530 when it was rendered as "A byrde yn honde ys better than three yn the wode."It is part of the cultural and linguistic lore of Engl...