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The joys of living in England

Daniel Duffy said:
And everyone speaks English in Amsterdam!
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It's useful to know at least one other European language -- probably German or something close (like Dutch). France now seems to be joining Club Med so the romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian) are for losers. Pax Germanica is here to stay so may as well learn the language of the conquerors.
 
Bill Sun said:
if in the UK the wages are kissing the ground, in France it's already deeply under the ground, that's why
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Well, dunno about that; I can believe it for Poland, though. If you said that unemployment is higher in France or that there's more labor demand in certain categories in London, it might also make sense.
 
bigbadwolf said:
It's useful to know at least one other European language -- probably German or something close (like Dutch). France now seems to be joining Club Med so the romance languages (French, Spanish, Italian) are for losers. Pax Germanica is here to stay so may as well learn the language of the conquerors.
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Unless it was King Charles V
Charles is: "I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse."

50 years ago educated Dutch people spoke German, English, French.

No point learning German as Germans speak excellent English.
 
Daniel Duffy said:
No point learning German as Germans speak excellent English.
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It is the same in Norway -- but the English they speak is stilted and formal and of course they don't speak it among themselves but only with utlending (foreigners) and as an andrespråk (second language) or even fremmedspråk (foreign language). If you really want to deal with them, it has to be in their native tongue -- og man må øve uansett feil (and one must practice regardless of mistakes). So I speak in my botched and hideous Norwegian, with my atrocious accent, rather than English. In any case I consider it a personal disgrace that they can speak my language but I can't speak theirs.
 
bigbadwolf said:
It is the same in Norway -- but the English they speak is stilted and formal and of course they don't speak it among themselves but only with utlending (foreigners) and as an andrespråk (second language) or even fremmedspråk (foreign language). If you really want to deal with them, it has to be in their native tongue -- og man må øve uansett feil (and one must practice regardless of mistakes). So I speak in my botched and hideous Norwegian, with my atrocious accent, rather than English. In any case I consider it a personal disgrace that they can speak my language but I can't speak theirs.
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When in Rome, do as the Romans do!

I know people who have lived in NL for > 30 years and speak NO Dutch...
 
Daniel Duffy said:
I know people who have lived in NL for > 30 years and speak NO Dutch...
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They must surely be Brits, and probably take a perverse pride in not knowing a word of the local lingo ("I say, old chap, can't you understand a word of English?"). Used to see them in Spain all the time.

 
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