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i`m only joking. calm down, we are at a disadvantage because at my age we did not start german until secondry/high school, while in most of scandanavia they start at the age of 5. now my son is 6 and he is starting to learn a few words in french.Bertros Bertros wrote:I said nothing of the sort! I said most people in the UK would like to have better language skills than they do which is very different from being too ignorant to bother. There are a lot of those sort everywhere, not just in the UK, but I believe they are in the minority for us. It really gets my back up the way brits are so quick to degrade ourselves without thinking, especially where language is concerned. I've said it before in these forums but what the heck. The reason that the number of people fluent in a foreign language in the UK is low is becuase nearly every other person who doesn't speak English and whats to learn a second language learns English. Its the international language; Portuguese businessmean speak to Danes in English, not Danish or Portuguese. The motivation just isn't there to learn another language in the same way as it is for those who don't speak English already as we are so much less disadvantaged by it. Thats not ignorant or lazy, its just common sense.DAZMCFC wrote:like bertros said, i feel most in the uk are to ignorant to learn a different language(probably me included).

It's probably the eternal optimist in me, but some of the first phrases I committed to memory were, in fact, "you're beautiful" ("Sei bellissima") and "may I have your telephone number?" ("Posso avere il suo numero di telefono?")btownmeggy wrote:And, then, of course, traveling to Italy, seeing amazing sites, eating delicious food, being surrounded by beautiful women who ride mopeds in high heels.
There are definitely unique elements of accent and dialect to Dundee (just as any local dialect has its own, everywhere.) I personally wouldn't be 100% sure exactly which words, etc, were unique to Dundee. I would prefer to just refer to "Scots" dialect.KiwiTaker wrote:Actually I was talking about Dundee in Scotland. There are a few words that are only spoken there. I may be a Kiwi but my dad is from Dundee. Lol the city in New Zealand is Dunedin. It sounds similar because a bunch of Scottish settlers from the highlands setled there.
i bow down to you Stopper, very good and well thought out.KiwiTaker wrote:Actually I was talking about Dundee in Scotland. There are a few words that are only spoken there. I may be a Kiwi but my dad is from Dundee. Lol the city in New Zealand is Dunedin. It sounds similar because a bunch of Scottish settlers from the highlands setled there.

Well, here's a short story for no reason. When I was 6 or 7, or something, my Mum sent me to get some stuff from the shop for her. We'd moved to England at that time, and I was (and still am) very deaf, so I was slow to catch on up on language of any sort, never mind dialect.KiwiTaker wrote:Lol my Dad remembers what a half-loaf is.
Bollocking meaning she spanked you or gave you a hard time? What is a half loaf? Is it like a cracker?Stopper wrote:Well, here's a short story for no reason. When I was 6 or 7, or something, my Mum sent me to get some stuff from the shop for her. We'd moved to England at that time, and I was (and still am) very deaf, so I was slow to catch on up on language of any sort, never mind dialect.KiwiTaker wrote:Lol my Dad remembers what a half-loaf is.
She sent me to get a half-loaf - to my mind, this surely only meant what it seemed to say - half a loaf of bread. So I went round three shops looking for "half-loaves", and ended up asking an (English) shop assistant if they had a "half-loaf".
"Well," she said, very sweetly, "we have all those whole loaves."
"Naw," I said, "My mum says it's got to be a half-loaf."
Got a bollocking when I went home empty-handed. But I found out what a "half-loaf" was...
~*Salva*~cawck mongler wrote:Your only option is to quit and become an anti-American Nazi that plays risk.
Well, either she or my Dad give me a clout oer me heid. I'm no sayin nowt aboot the half-loaf til the New Zealander replies, and you gotta gie them the chance, what wi the time zones bein as they are!salvadevinemasse wrote:Bollocking meaning she spanked you or gave you a hard time? What is a half loaf? Is it like a cracker?Stopper wrote:Well, here's a short story for no reason. When I was 6 or 7, or something, my Mum sent me to get some stuff from the shop for her. We'd moved to England at that time, and I was (and still am) very deaf, so I was slow to catch on up on language of any sort, never mind dialect.KiwiTaker wrote:Lol my Dad remembers what a half-loaf is.
She sent me to get a half-loaf - to my mind, this surely only meant what it seemed to say - half a loaf of bread. So I went round three shops looking for "half-loaves", and ended up asking an (English) shop assistant if they had a "half-loaf".
"Well," she said, very sweetly, "we have all those whole loaves."
"Naw," I said, "My mum says it's got to be a half-loaf."
Got a bollocking when I went home empty-handed. But I found out what a "half-loaf" was...
Damn Stopper, I gotta ask with the spelling tonight.. How much have you had!? lol.Stopper wrote:Well, either she or my Dad give me a clout oer me heid. I'm no sayin nowt aboot the half-loaf til the New Zealander replies, and you gotta gie them the chance, what wi the time zones bein as they are!salvadevinemasse wrote:Bollocking meaning she spanked you or gave you a hard time? What is a half loaf? Is it like a cracker?Stopper wrote:Well, here's a short story for no reason. When I was 6 or 7, or something, my Mum sent me to get some stuff from the shop for her. We'd moved to England at that time, and I was (and still am) very deaf, so I was slow to catch on up on language of any sort, never mind dialect.KiwiTaker wrote:Lol my Dad remembers what a half-loaf is.
She sent me to get a half-loaf - to my mind, this surely only meant what it seemed to say - half a loaf of bread. So I went round three shops looking for "half-loaves", and ended up asking an (English) shop assistant if they had a "half-loaf".
"Well," she said, very sweetly, "we have all those whole loaves."
"Naw," I said, "My mum says it's got to be a half-loaf."
Got a bollocking when I went home empty-handed. But I found out what a "half-loaf" was...
~*Salva*~cawck mongler wrote:Your only option is to quit and become an anti-American Nazi that plays risk.
*screams in her head* That hurt reading it for some reason! Maybe I shouldnt have tried contacts for the first time today! lol I'm gonna go shower and go to bed I've had a bunch of late nights due to stress and I'm really tiredStopper wrote:I've had a fair bit, but I've checked what I said, and there isn't a single spellin error there. "Clout" stands alone. "Oer" means "over". "No", as far as I put it there, means "not" (though no always). "Gie" sounds exactly like "gee" and means "give", "wi" rhymes with "wee" and means "with". G's at the end of words are omitted where they are simply not spoken, just as in ebonics.
No mistakes, there, bonny lass, trust me...
~*Salva*~cawck mongler wrote:Your only option is to quit and become an anti-American Nazi that plays risk.
looks gud to meStopper wrote:I've had a fair bit, but I've checked what I said, and there isn't a single spellin error there. "Clout" stands alone. "Oer" means "over". "No", as far as I put it there, means "not" (though no always). "Gie" sounds exactly like "gee" and means "give", "wi" rhymes with "wee" and means "with". G's at the end of words are omitted where they are simply not spoken, just as in ebonics.
No mistakes, there, bonny lass, trust me...
You sure don't speak English fluently j/k. And I doubt you know a language fluently just by learning it in school for 2 years.lord twiggy1 wrote:other than English i also speak Spanish and German
Spanish: I speak really fleuantly(sp?) because i went to a spanish immersion school in elementary and continued it through 8th grade(only one class in 8th though but in 6th and 7th about half the time) and im gonna be taking it again(which really sucks because i hate learning in it) this year in 9th grade
German: almost none just started taking lessons from those cassettes and CDs you get at the library.