Hi Wizz,
and sorry for taking my time to reply to you, I wrote you an reply on Friday, but before I was sure I can post it I ran out of time, my nephews came for an extended weekend and everything went, somewhere... Don't get me wrong, they are super cool, when they don't move too much
. Anyway, where was I? Oh, right, first...
Seems like your joining us has got a chit-chat corner, Fin_ ?
Yeah, cool, isn't it?
. I'm still seeing England from Paul's post,
, that brings back a lot of good memories, they look nicer now than then, but it is what it is...
"I am with Paul (
@VP9KS ) 100% and then some - especially in France, where they can be almost as parochial as some Anglos. We talk here in Oz about the "Ugly Australian" or the "Ugly American" or the "Ugly Pom (British)" and these are people whom travel and expect everyone to speak English. Why bother travelling?"
I understand, but, as I live in a Country where "the world comes to you"
(right)
, I've met a lot of people from other cultures, also known as foreigners. A lot of people from English speaking area come here, Brits, Americans, Australians, Brits, New Zealanders, Irish (a lot of Brits as you can see
, that was a typo). I understand what you are talking about, but I could say the same for my compatriots, we are not all equally eloquent, but that's just the way some things, sorry, people are... It is what it is... All in all, I only once had difficulties in understanding what an English speaker was telling me, the lad was Irish and he was so drunk that he could barley stand, but his compatriot wasn't, so he was the "translator" there... So, to conclude this part, I'll say "it is what it is, you can't blame people of being people, I guess..."
"My sister (two years older) started high school learning French & German and has now lived in France for over 17 years. The French can't tell she is Australian. & especially in France, where they can be almost as parochial as some Anglos"
I would choose France over Germany for living also, but I like it here
.
Regarding French and French people, Frenchmen... I wrote just about this on Friday, but forgot to save it. So I have to do it again.
First, I wold like to say that I have difficulties in seeing differences among people (I'm not talking about cultural differences). But the truth is that, when you remove the "filters" you're looking through and look at any man, you start to notice that you have more in common with them than you don't. We are all driven by the same needs, and the influences from the outside or the inside world affect us in the same way. Of course, within the context of the situation. I guess, we really are all members of the same breed.
So regarding Frenchmen and their English, when they speak it... They really do speak it, sort of... They can't get rid of their French accent, it's just impossible for them. Their speech reminds me of a certain British Tv show from 80' called "Alo, Alo!". That's it. When I speak to Frenchmen in English, I like to say to them "Wow, I didn't knew that I understand French.
" They laugh at that because they are aware of their accent. Few years ago, a friend from a friend was here, in Croatia for a few days. He was French. Cool guy, pretty clumsy (perspective is in the eye of the observer), but a really nice guy... He spoke English as his 2nd language. With heavy French accent, and barley. He went with us everywhere, like we grew up together, the only thing that reminded us that we didn't, was the language barrier. I remember once we were on some crafted beer festival and he was gazing at the girls the whole time. So I came to him and told him that "Croatian girls like guys with French accent a lot and that he, as one of them, had pretty good chances with girls because of it". I told him "You just have to go to the girl and start talking to her, and that's it." He went missing for about two hours. I started to worry... Then he came back looking tired and unwilling to speak. But without a scar, untouched. After a while, when I saw he started to come to his senses, I've asked him "What happened? How did it go for you?" He told me that Croatian girls don't care about French accent...
I felt bad for him, as I saw on him that he really tried to start a communication with local girls. Anyway, he was of better luck on the shore, summer and all that... You only live once mon "cherrrie".
Oh, and to add to this story, my friend, the guy who brought the Frenchmen here, if I remember his story well, once needed about two months to figure out about what our Frenchmen was telling him. The story goes that they were speaking about pets, and the Frenchmen used the word "amsta" a lot. So it was "amsta" this, "amsta" that... And my friend, also born to be mild (great guy), asked him after two months, what the heck was that "amsta" he was talking about. And he got an answer in the form of question "What do you mean, what is amsta? Well amsta is an amsta, you know, an amsta." In the end he managed to figure it out by himself, it was a story about a certain hamster.
I can't even write how he pronounced the name of a certain place here, on the shore, but I had to ask our mutual friend what the heck is "Vdjiče"? They were Vodice.
So, next time when you meet an parochial Frechmen, show him this post and tell him he can use the Google translate to see what is in it.
(No pun intended)
"When I started high school in 1970, it was the first year they conducted Japanese classes and I chose that, which pleased my father who visited Expo Japan in Osaka for work purposes. Did that for 5 years and in my final two years also took up an elective on Bahasa Indonesia, which also basically covers you with Malay.
In University, I went straight into 2nd year Japanese because of RPL (Recognition of Prior Learning) but thus began to run out of Japanese subjects before completing my degree, so took up Mandarin Chinese (Beijing Dialect) for the last 18 months. Loved it."
That's cool. And logical. From my perspective, those languages are pure exotic. And they seem very hard to learn. I have to ask you, how different those languages are when compared to each other? I would expect them to be different languages that have a lot in common among themselves. Like all Slavic languages. I'm guessing here. How much did I miss?
"I am a firm believer that if our children become multilingual and learn foreign cultures as well, then wars might not prevail."
I agree, knowledge is the only way up, the only right way. There are no dumb people, there are just people who have a certain amount of knowledge and those who don't.
"As for the science fiction and science fantasy books, they take us into a fertile world of imagination, and what is Linux if not about imagination and adventure?"
If I try to add something here, I'll just spoil it, again, well said...
Sorry for the amount of text, I've tried to make it less, but I just suck at that. I didn't tell even half of what I wanted, but there is time for that...
Sorry once again Wizz,
Cheers
Marko
P.S.
Galadriel is one cool chick