If you need urgent support, call 999 or go to your nearest A&E. To contact our Crisis Messenger (open 24/7) text THEMIX to 85258.
Options
Essential support for under 25s
Essential support for under 25s
Take a look around and enjoy reading the discussions. If you'd like to join in, it's really easy to register and then you'll be able to post. If you'd like to learn what this place is all about, head here.
Comments
Americans cant queue, they are far pushier.
I was toying with the idea of the UN, but found out I need to be fluent in at least one second language. Some parts of the civil service need it too, work with businesses, work abroad...
We as Brits like to moan about things, we like to blame the goverment and complain. Most of the people who do compalin sadly live in unforfilling lives and maybe dont like their job etc. this is found all over the world, in every country and on every street corner. Picknics in France? big deal, we have them all the time in the UK, I for one have BBQ's and partys frequently. France have serious policital and social issues, their ecomomy is doing terribibly becuase of their short working hours and they are having to pay great ecomomic costs for their large amount of free time. Sure, the UK is an expensive country compared to some other developed nations but its just one of those things, Australia is murder capital of the world, crime in south africa is astronomical, disease is killing millions in africa, these are real problems. As I said, we like to moan, just becuase someone has a low quality of life doesnt mean every one does, far far far from it. You'll find alot more of them in France, but they dont complain as much...
Hello? I said that on the last page!
Thought that was Scotland now
I'm thinking of learning Polish, cause I could do with an Eastern European language for my career. I've heard it's hard to learn though, how've you found it.
Also, on foreign languages, anyone used one of these Teach Yourself books? Are they any good? A friend of mine was learning Japanese, and he seemed to learn it a lot quicker just hanging around with a load of Japanese people, than he would by doing a course. Not many Polish people around that I know of though.
The problem with the UK in my eyes is the education. I remember attempting to use the French that you learn in school on a trip to France, and I could ask for a sandwich no problem, but as soon as he asked what type of bread I wanted, or if I wanted mayonnaise on it, I didn't have a clue (don't actually know what he asked me). You know a collection of phrases, and which verbs are regular and irregular, but you can't have a conversation with that. Maybe if it was better, more people would carry on. A friend of mine from the Seychelles came to the UK for the first time, with the equivilent of a GCSE is English having had about four years learning it, but he was fluent. This was the first time he'd ever been to Britain, but he could speak as if he had been living here for years. Most kids who have a GCSE in French or German have been learning it for at least five years, yet show them a French film without the subtitles, and they wouldn't have a clue what's going on. What are they doing that's so different from us? Obviously some lessons to be learned.
and i agree about languages, i'm taking german gcse, i've been learning it since i was 12 but i can't really have a proper conversation in german
The French worker actually works a lot more productively than us so they dont have to work as long to produce the same. Their social issues are more related to their inability to deal with change and wanting to seal France in a time capsule.
Australia? Got a source for that?
well i'm only a few weeks in but i think i've made reasonable progress considering how much time i've spent on it........it was very daunting at first because the pronounciation is just something else, and the phonetics have several different sounds each depending on the accents, but i'm not focusing so much on understanding the written language for now, i'll work my way up to that.......i found audio lessons quite useful for the basics, i downloaded pimsleur's polish which is pretty good........i'd say it's harder than any of the languages i've learned previously, i found the other european languages tend to overlap and so compliment each other (french/spanish/italian etc), but this is just another level.......funny you should ask about that teach yourself book, i've just bought the exact one but haven't opened it yet, it looks pretty good though..........of course being around some native speakers is good for learning more about the culture etc, i happen to be living with a couple of polish girls which helps......
You'll find that the French ecomomy is suffering badly, they are being forced to change their short working days scheme because of unempolyment rates set stubbornly at 10% rates, low economic growth and uncompetitivness, it is true that French workers are some of the more productive than the USA and most of Europe, but thats becuase they work less hours and are therefore happier and less stressed, but it cant continue becuase of the economic problems it causes. The Australia thing, i've heard that many times, dont have any sources.
Thanks for the info. Wish I was living with a couple of polish girls
Porky pies! You need a lisp to speak Spanish well. I wouldn't even bother trying unless i had at least one speech inpediment!
Sure, people will know you are a foreigner from a mile off, and you will speak with an accent. But you will be understood by the locals easily, even if reading from a book/dictionary and having little idea how to pronounce words.
English on the other hand... well, I had been here for years and still some people would misunderstood what I was saying unless I put a pronunciation worthy of a BBC newsroom.
Spanish might be very difficult to muster, getting all the verb conjugations right, etc, but it is infinitely easier than English to learn an everyday level of.
Only in Spain do you need a lisp. For the other 350 million people who speak Spanish, a lisp will get you laughed at. Out here in kinda-rainy Ecuador, a lisp will mark you out as much as being a white boy like me will.