h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm about to launch the English dept. for people to practice their English. However, it needs your help to reach its full potential. What sort of thing would you like on it? What sort of things do you want to practice? How good is your English currently? Do you still want an English Dept?


Some of you will probably have got this message delivered to your Messages centre. This is because you are on the list of people who would like to practice their English. Thank you for being on that list. It would be great to add others.

Thank you

Katkat

Ahem. Non-British is a bit off. I'm non-British yet in fact, English is my first language. It's this thing we like to call when America and NZ and Aus and actually quite a lot of places have English as their national county, but don't fit in Britian.

I think what you mean is all non-English speaking or non-English as a first language, etc.



Cat

Oh CHRRRIIISSS!!!!

Sorry about that guys. I was tired and all washed out and not really thinking.

Sorry, felt like being pedantic...



Cat

Thing is...where are they all? I've contacted three of them, one said she doesn't need help *dispite the fact I then corrected some of her post*, one was happy to have it, and one started bullying me into stuff about it *oh we can guess which Austrian that was!*

Ahem, I don't think I said I didn't need any help, I said I was writing English on here anyway, and some of my friends actually correct me
I'm sorry, I have been away for a really long time, but I am interested in language as such, be it English, French, German or Latin, which doesn't mean that I'm good at this ,

"i am interested in languages on the whole" might sound better.

Yes but the point is of course....do we want an English Dept? I suppose maybe for colloquisms, grammar etc? Im not sure. I really dont know what might be helpful, especially as everyone has to write in English here anyway.

Colloqialisms and grammar would certainly be helpful, but you would need somebody with enough time at hand to do all the corrections.

Btw, not criticising, just for my information : '..languages on the whole might sound better...'- but does it express the same as 'language as such' ?

Bel

Language as such doesn't make any sense in that sentence. If you wanted to use "language as such" it would have to be in something like...

"I'm not actually interested in the language as such, more the grammer".

As I'm generally around Ill be happy to run an English Dept. I'll run corrections, answer any questions etc etc and will find anything out you like. How does that sound?

Katkodl get your butt in here right now and talk about what youve been badgering me about.

But if I'm the only one to attend, we could go back to the thread you once left in my message center. Btw, do you remember that we talked about 'Oxford English', after I had had difficulties to understand people at the meet ? When I was in Gloucestershire this summer, I had absolutely no problems in understanding people, neither in any other part of Southengland we went to, it was great

Well we can carry on in here to be honest.

Im glad you could understand them all. It depends generally on how well the vowels are pronounced. As you probably know, dialects are generated by how vowels are said. As you move further north, the dialects get stronger and words move further away from the "standard".
On the south coast the dialect is the nearest to standard English. However if you go west to Somerset etc...it gets more like the typical "english farmer"....north it gets really complicated to understand in Liverpool, Newcastle etc...and then you get to Scotland...

It's similar here, only that here in Germany, the people in the North are nearest to standard, inthe south we have dialects which even I can't understand, and I don't know much about the east, I've never been there, I know that the Saxons have a very strong dialect, and for some reason, many ( west ) Germans despise it, but I just find it funny

We had lots of Germans in my school and getting them to help with homework was HELL!!! I shared a room with a girl from the south, and my friend shared with someone from the north...we both ended up writing in dialects

When I lived in the student's home, there was a student from Africa, who had spent his first years in Badem Württemberg ( the region with the dialect I can't understand, and I despise that dialect), his German was spoilt for ever

STTTOPPPP!!!!


"When I lived in the student's home,"

The student's home? That suggests there is only one in the entire country, and that there was one student and you were staying in their home...

You're right, it's always like this : once I start to think about what to say, you can bet pick the wrong expression, article, preposition ( even worse ), tense - whatever - I don't want to imply that I don't make mistakes when not thinking, but they're less

I wouldn't worry. I seem to have an inbuilt part of my brain which spells correctly and notices grammatical and structural mistakes. I never worked out why I do it...but if something's wrong then I have big problems actually reading it. I have this physical block.

Besides...someone else...as soon as she is tired or stressed or upset, her English goes out the window and it takes me ten minutes to work out what she's saying!

So what DID you mean?

Hmm, which of my posts was so unintelligible that you didn't understand it ? I meant a student's home, cause there were several in the area
And don't worry, I'm a terrible snob when it comes to the German language, the fact that my boys don't know how to write properly, is a constant pain for me

So was it one student's house that you happened to be visiting....or a house with lots of students in, where you were living at the time?

My german is APPALLING!!! I've GOT to do something about it! I'm thinking of chucking myself into Germany and getting on with it but I don't know anyone in Germany which puts a bit of a problem in my path.

A house with lots of students in, where I lived at that time
What did you think of for how long you'd want to come ? I could offer you a sofa in our living room, to start with, and have you had a look at the Germania Connection ? If you know Trillians Child, I'm sure she can provide you with additional information. , I really must now, my bed IS calling, see you tomorrow

Bel