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Nov 26 12 11:12 AM
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Shakobe88 wrote:Oui.
Shakobe, what interests you about the French language? I tried learning some French before going there and just ended up speaking English. They managed to colonise some poor African countries in the past and got them to speak the language, so learning French is a good thing if you are an aid worker or processing asylum/immigration claims in the UK, which is where they all want to come and live, but for anything else? I'd be interested to know!
The French language seems like a good one to learn as apparently there isn't much vocab, although I struggled to learn how to pronounce words properly without hearing them. The way they pronounce written words is odd to say the least! I can't remember much, but I think the grammar is quite simple, so that's good. If you do decide to learn it, I would be interested to know how you approach it, so keep us updated. I found it a lot easier to listen to than to read and might try to learn a bit more of it if I decide to go there again. Paris has some nice architecture and art and some things about it were quite quaint, such as watching old men play bowls, while other things were very odd.. All the pigeons in Paris have no feet...wtf!!! Is that some disease or are people going around cutting all their toes off and eating them? I wouldn't put it past the French. This is a group of people that eat snails, frog legs and baby birds and use the name "Roast Beef" as a racial slur against the British... They eat pigeon toes!!
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My main foreign language is Mandarin Chinese and it is a very rewarding language, especially if you use a set of course books such as New Practical Chinese Reader.. It teaches you a lot about Chinese culture and history. I started learning at SOAS, University of London and they use the Chinese in Steps books, which are great for learning grammar. Chinese in Steps was created by staff at SOAS and SOAS is one of the best places in Europe to learn Chinese. Definitely the best in the UK.
I am not a fan of Cantonese.. If I listen to it in a film or in music, it is very hard for me to listen to it and enjoy it. To me, they are just making very unpleasant sounds with their mouths and I dislike it how they often make words at the end of their sentences go on for a very long time when they seem to be trying to make a point.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYS9Cj96C3U
Listen to the way they pronounce every last word of a sentence! IRRITATING!!!!!!!!!!! Fortunately for Chungking Express, it is a masterpiece and one of my favourite films.
I have the week off work this week and I am going to try and get back to studying Japanese, although unfortunately I missed the cut off date for the Japanese language proficiency exam that I was hoping to sit this weekend. I did a Japanese course when at 6th form college and got taught by a Japanese person as if I was a young child, which I found really enjoyable. I have recently been using the Japanese for Busy People books and I am trying to transition to Minna no Mihongo I and II, which is proving very difficult, but I hope to get there by the end of this week. Japanese is a very big struggle for me as its grammar must be the most complex of any language. It is almost like several languages in one and speaking these different languages and transitioning from one to the other is like doing maths.. letters and sounds change depending on who you are talking to and how you are saying it. The actual verbs and adjectives change structure! Basic Japanese teaches you to speak politely. You need to know the rules of changing those pronunciations in real time. It's probably of not much use to me, but I don't want to be beaten by it.
Nov 26 12 12:22 PM
sukhoiman wrote:The slur roast beef is used because it is the only local (non-imported) food of note from that rainy little island of yours.
True cooks don't limit themselves to certain cuisines or dishes. They choose their own ingredients, whether local or not and see what works for them. The cook book I use most is actually an American one for vegetarians! There is nothing particularly American about the recipes, it is just good food using a large range of ingredients. You can often use the same ingredients and produce very different tasting dishes.
British food is amazing and you can tell that just by looking at all of the celebrity chefs and cooking programmes there are in this country (currently watching Masterchef). Cooking is very popular here and we don't limit ourselves to cooking the same things our families have cooked for generations. British cooking is very inventive and is only limited by ones imagination.
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Shakobe88 wrote:"Shakobe, what interests you about the French language? I tried learning some French before going there and just ended up speaking English. They managed to colonise some poor African countries in the past and got them to speak the language, so learning French is a good thing if you are an aid worker or processing asylum/immigration claims in the UK, which is where they all want to come and live, but for anything else? I'd be interested to know! "I'm surrounded by a French speaking province and a bilingual province. Also more people speak French in Maine (and have canadian ancestry) than in any other place in America. Half the veterans at my university's vet center are dual citizens. They come down pretty much year round to be tourists buy shit since canada charges 200% taxes to support HarperCare. Plus I want to be able to tell off those canadian border police fucks in french if they give me shit again. also, according to ancestry.com some of my relatives were french-canadian before they moved to the country that put a man on the moon.
Whoa, thanks Shakobe. I always knew Canada was North of the US, but I kind of thought it was 1000s of miles away from US civilisation. I also thought the French part was even farther away, in some place where they were cut off from the English speaking world, like those people that live deep in the Amazon jungle. It kind of feels wrong Shakobe..US and Canadian people mixing with each other...It feels like you guys are doing something that just isn't natural and should be stopped.
It is very amusing looking at Maine in Google Maps.. Didn't you used to live in New Hampshire? You guys and the Canadians seem to have named all of your towns after places in the UK. Maine has Belfast, Portland and Bangor, New Hampshire has Portsmouth, Dover and Manchester. Canada is even worse..they have London and an actual place called Cornwall! All of those places are in the wrong locations in relation to each other and somebody needs to reorganise all of their names. What were they thinking.
Nov 27 12 9:31 AM
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