Athletic shoes - many names, same thing

My Australian cousin and I were having a conversation about shoes worn when exercising. We had a good laugh because people from different countries call these shoes differently. I call them "running shoes". She called them "trainers" or "joggers". I did mention that I've heard the word "trainers" used to talk about sweat pants, or trousers worn during exercise.

Out of curiosity, I decided to do a Google search. Google defines "trainer" as "a person who trains people or animals" or "aircraft or simulator to train pilots". Hmmm. Most interesting. "Trainer" has nothing to do with shoes.

But, there popped up a site on Athletic Shoes. So here came a detailed explanation of all the different words used to describe shoes worn during exercise, in different parts of the world. Confusion? Indeed. A simple pair of shoes, yet so many different ways to call them. And we're all still speaking in English! No other foreign language is being used here. No wonder people say "a picture paints a thousand words".

Learning a foreign language can be tough. New sounds, new alphabet, new grammar, new ways of saying things. But, as I have discovered in this simple exercise, learning English is complicated enough. I should know. I used to teach English as a foreign language for some years. Confused students constantly asked about grammar rules which they had no clue how to use in forming sentences. Now, we English speakers confuse them even more with different words we use to describe the same thing - a pair of shoes.

What have we done? Nothing really. We're just speaking English the way we were taught. I prefer to look at it as having fun in communication. Let's endeavour to speak and write simply, so that everyone can understand us, no matter which country we come from or what level of English we speak. Our lives will be so much richer for that. Have fun learning different English around the world! Fun Language Tools