Weak Verbs that Plague Germanic Languages

I knew a Russian language instructor, years ago, who, in a burst of unusual sympathy, told an American student in our class, after a wonderfully clueless attempt at producing a simple phrase, "You must be wondering, how do Russians even speak at all?!!!"  I suspect a portion of immigrant America likely feels the same way about English - for good reason, since it's such a random invention, and Daniel captured the whimsical wackiness of it in a nutshell.

Yesterday, he was telling Ian, "I sitted..." and Ian corrected him "sat," so Daniel continued with his story, "because nobody else was satting across from them."  Complete consistency in applying newly acquired knowledge, only to be corrected a second time by someone who has had two years and two months longer to master the local patois.

(June 11, 2012)