Our Crazy English Language

You know, I keep hearing more and more complaints from people everyday about having to deal with someone who doesn't speak English. It's understandably frustrating having to deal with someone in a service field that you can't communicate with, and I've done my share of complaining as well! But did you ever stop to think how HARD it is to learn our language?

I work in the office of a private Christian school, and one of our teachers gave me an article to read about our language, and it began with this poem:

We'll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes;
but plural of ox became oxen not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
yet the plural of moose should never be meese.
You may find a lone mouse or a nest full of mice;
yet the plural of house is houses, not hice.

If the plural of man is always called men,
why shouldn't the plural of pan be called pen?
If I spoke of my foot and show you my feet,
and I give you a boot, would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are teeth,
why shouldn't the plural of booth be called beeth?

Then one may be that, and three would be those,
yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
and the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother and also of brethren,
but though we say mother, we never say methren!

The article went on to say, let's face it - English is a crazy language! We have so many screwy pronunciations that can mess up your mind.... for example:
"If you have a rough cough, climbing can be tough when going through the bough of a tree."
or
"Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present."
or
"The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert."

We should be grateful that we grew up speaking English and don't have to learn it as a second language. All the people who ARE learning it probably think we should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane!