Evaluate the level of irritation caused when a Swede says the phrase 'really much'.

I have noticed, as of late, that increasingly so I am hearing the phrase ‘really much’ being used amongst Swedes. Speaking now to all such people: I can fully understand that English is not your first language, and that Swedish, being a Germanic language by origin, will be significantly different regarding certain areas of grammar. However, when I remind you that that phrase does in fact make absolutely no sense, even in the slightest, but you then continue on to use it in front of me, I become a little disgruntled. Considering the abominable sentence ‘I like that really much’, I remind you that that is a pile of complete and utter manure. You could say ‘I like that VERY much’, or ‘I VERY much like that’, but trying to argue with an Englishman that ‘I like that really much’ is correct grammar is, to say the least, a mistake. Saying ‘I like that really much’ is about on par with saying ‘I really very like that’, or, to stray momentarily from the set phrase, ‘I cat flower run’ – do you understand where I’m coming from now?

                This having been said, I do not hold the Swedish children responsible for this outrage. If you track back slightly to where these gullible, naïve children are learning THEIR form of English (and I say THEIR form because at this point it’s strayed so far from true English at times that we don’t even want to claim it as our own language) then we can get slightly closer to the root of the problem. The Swedish teaching system is debatable, at the very least. Some argue that it does a magnificent job. Others would argue that it does a terrible one. I am of the latter. Any teacher who, supposedly, knows the English language and has even been given permission to teach the future of their country that language then you would be rather shocked to hear that they, for many years now, sit back and relax as their prosperous, or perhaps not so prosperous, students unintentionally pick up and start speaking complete rubbish. I would have thought that those teachers whose job it is, the job they are being paid to do, would have the common sense and courtesy to stand up every now and again and point out that the nonsense coming out of their mouths is so far from correct that they should really be ashamed of themselves, and go have a time out in the corner, perhaps. Yet alas, the teachers do nothing, and simply continue to eat their pickled Herring and admire their Volvo V70 – which looks EXACTLY LIKE EVERYONE ELSES, I might add.

                And so, to conclude, I sincerely hope that you, the Swedish people, realise exactly what you’re doing to our language, and I ask you from the bottom of my heart to simply choose a different set of words to describe how much you like something. I would really much appreciate that.