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

Good to hear , Obachan just called round with another big bag of green round things that's going to take some time to shuck .
Just in case anyone is interested I've decided to have a go at my Gingkowaterchestnutpinaplechicken dish tonight ,it took about 30 min's to deshell 20 gingko nuts I tried heating them they didn't open tried hitting them with a hammer but that was messy so I took them to my workshop and put them in the vise , going to try boiling in a small amount of water +some pineapple juice and a small amount of soy then put a little cornflour in at the end, already made some fried rice to go with it left over from lunch+ sweet n sour pork which tasted nice.

Lanza, what an excellant thing to do, learning the language of your second home country!
I couldn't speak any other language but many years ago decide to go backpacking in France and bought a book/cassette combination. I also did a beginners short evening class.
I used the 'A Vous La France!' book/cassette combo which was also a TV series. I found the combo worked really well as could keep replaying and repeat the words. Although many years ago i still remember a little of it and managed to survive for 3 weeks in rural areas of France where little English was spoken. I ate and camped OK. Sure I couldn't have deep and meaningful coversations, I couldn't even in English, but I got by. The first time I tried to speak French ever in France it was at a cafe in Calais late at night and it didn't go great as really nervous, however the next time it was easier and went ok. I still find speaking a second language odd as kind of talking and translating in your mind at same time.
I have thought of refreshing my knowledge and buying the series on Cd if still made as would be esier than starting afresh.

I've been In Japan for almost 30 years and still don't understand very much , I did come here planning to learn but found talking in japanese other potters were trying to get me to work their way so I stopped learning/using it then after a couple of years found they were starting to copy my work, one even broke his own kiln down and copied mine. I still don't use Japanese here very much and I manage , then again I tend to be a loner anyway

What I did like about book/cassette combo was it taught a very polite, even slightly oldfashioned French. It always aired(sp?) on safe side so that even if you had limited French you would at least say please and thank you which although doesn't sound much I believe it helped so ended up with free camping, sometimes even when campsite was closed. I met one man who enjoyed speaking English to me as worked at some sort of pssport control in Calais and only ever used a limited, small amount of English so wanted to practice a bit more. I found the French to be really nice and really helpful. I did find it tiring to have only a limited amount of French and was glad to come home to speak English again. It was also nice to get away from tourist areas and see a bit of rural France and interesting to try to understand the signs I saw on road and buildings.

I booked myself into a language school, run by the Ayuntamiento - that's the Town Hall - in conjunction with a university. It's an immersion course, once you are through the door they only speak to you in Spanish. In fact they tell you early on not to do that translating thing in your head - just to think in spanish. They do levels from beginner up to official translator and the aim is to enable everyone who wants to learn and speak spanish for work or being part of the community. I think it's sad when there are a lot of expats in a place that very few of them really speak a lot of spanish.

As for France SS, my french used to be fairly good, but there is an animosity from certain french people to the english, and whereas in spanish I can make mistakes and (spanish) people are extremely kind and helpful and correct my mistakes - french people often just look at you in that sort of gallic way, shrug (shrug) and I think they don't like to hear french spoken badly.

Japanese, I used to have a good friend from Nagasaki, and I couldn't get my head round any of the Japanese she told me. It is harder to learn a language with so little in common, whereas Spanish, French, Italian and English have so many similar words -

Did you know that and all the new smileys are still invisible in goo?

I think it is always better to be 'too' polite rather than the opposite especially when speaking a foreign language. Overly formal expressions might raise the occasional smile but the opposite can raise quite a few hackles.

I once met a woman in quite a formal context and she was proud of the English she'd learnt..... The effing and blinding was totally out of place and many people pretended not to understand

We had a 'serious' lesson on swearing in spanish - because the locals do swear a lot. We were being taught Castillian spanish, (proper) and we had to know not to copy the locals in *certain words, also to know if someone was being offensive.

ooo, just looked at time , must bye folks

Hy lanzababy,

I live in Bavaria. I am sorry about your earache. I had earache many years ago and I remember I had really hard pain. It was an inflammation of the middle ear and I had to take antibiotic.
You have the same problem like me. I am improving my English and sometimes I watch CNN. They talk to fast and use expressions of the economy and policy I did not hear before. But I give not up. Every day I learn vokabulary and I hope maybe in the future I am able to talk to someone in correct English and to understand the CNN news.
Bye

Hi Sissi,

I'm pretty new too. The English here can be strange at times because of wordplay. But somebody will always explain..... (maybe). I find the internet useful for learning new languages because video news snippets are usually pretty short and you can repeat again and again until you pick out the elusive term. A dictionary open on another page will usually make sense of your attempt at spelling....

In the meantime, have a glass of

Okay, who put Testesterone in the birds water?
I was walking back from shops and 2 male Blackbirds started screaching at each other and landed on floor having a right go at each other. One shot off across the road waist hight with the other about 4 inches behind. They actually flew only inches away from me as so intent on a fight again. They landed in bush across road and had another fight!
i know it is spring, but strewth what is going on, it's Testesterone city here, lol!

Hi Not-so-bald-eagle,

thank you for your advice. I have not thought about video news snippets, it's a good idea. I own a big dictionary, which is always beside me, when I'm writing in English, for example now. But the necessary grammar isn't there, and I hope everybody understand what I mean. After an exhausting afternoon, I had to loose the wallpaper from a ceiling (in the end it will be about 40 square metres), I allow myself a glas of beer. Cheers

Hi supersissi!

I think your English is very good!!

Better than my 'bisschnen Deutch' anyway!



'g'

Morning all, Got to go out driving for a friend again this morning.

'g'

Been up the mountain to deliver a bunch of plastic box drawer things for my friends children to keep their clothes in at the new apartment. .

It's the mountain between Osaka and Nara and as you go up you can feel it getting colder.

Think I should add that yesterdays dinner was quite nice I will definately cook that again not going to talk anymore about food for a while.
One of my friends here 's mother and father(retired uk bobbie) are now living in Spain and have been to my bbq about three times when they come to Nara on vacation

It is ok to talk about food Moonraker. You seem to do a mix of food from Japan and Uk to suit your mood, it is nice to have a choice.
.
Here is is going to be a rainy day again. I wasn't sure whether to go out today or leave it for weekend when Mr Noisey upstairs will likely be here, however I have just remembered I have a Neurologist appointment Saturday, yes a Saturday as weekday one was cancelled. Perhaps they are trying to clear a backlog. It is ok and nothing to worry about as have had the clear MRI brain scan results already as needed by my Shrink for mental health probs to test for any physical causes of probs, there are none.
.
Anyway, I digress, I could still go out if wanted to today. I can hear a Wren singing in garden but hiddedn somewhere.
I forgot to mention yesterday I was putting my pushbike away and thought there was an enormous Rat at my feet scurrying around by bike. I stood still to give it a chance to escape and saw the tail, it was a Squirelle Nupkin just looking around for food. It didn't see me and carried on scurrying around for a while and suddenly did, it made a yelp and shot like a rocket out from alcove and up a tree, bless!
Rats and Squirells have quite a similar colouring and it being in an alcove which really isn't a Squirelley type of place got me mixed up.

Hi SS yep I like it when animals or birds miss seeing you and just staying still allows you into their world. As for food , I think we eat more American or even Italian than English style food , looking back at mum's cooking It was too bland for my tastes now and I do like to experiment with food.(Italian Tonight)