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

I took Latin 48 years ago. Or maybe it took me.

I never was allowed to study such a thing... Well, stands to reason, from the school I went too, no one expected us to require such a skill

In principle I was given a choice between Latin and French. Only there was no teacher able to teach us French...
- I'll take latin then, says I.
- Excellent choice, was the answer.
Not really. Never came to terms with it. Resembled school w*rk too much. Way too much. Close to mathematics, it was

I (with my mere 2 years out of date latin) really enjoyed mine (and my classical Greek) at school, some of my preferred subjects

I could never put english into another language, so the classics were nice and enjoyable

we were forced to learn French, although they taught German too, which I'd have prefered, and got on better with I think, it wasn't a choice... Mind, not sure why they bothered teaching us any languages, really, as the only route post that sort of school was either dole or manual work... although a few of us did go on to A-levels and further, the school careers advisor, told everyone, to become a farmer... really... So I guess the French might have been useful if they thought we'd make it over the pond, But, really, i knew people back then who'd not dream travlling the hundred miles or less, to London, as it was 'too scarey and forign a place'... seriously Kinda glad I escaped that town really

i was completely bored at school, dropped out when i was 11 or so, then found that I could "do a runner" and that was good! also the language that i found i was really good at was "gutter"

There's a 60 year old man (who is in better shape than I will ever be - could easily do a marathon or three if he wanted) who does the ocassional bit of work fixing stuff round the house - until last year he'd never been to London, I admit I was shocked (not a case of couldn't afford it, just felt it was odd)

I think he's now revved himself up for spending a couple of straight weeks there to do everything that can be done.

When I was doing my A-levels, at college, one of our lecturers, also taught on some kind of 'health and beauty' course (teaching the actual biology bits, I guess), anyhow, someone on that course, won some prize, and had to go to London, to a presentation etc, all expenses paid.... its about 2 and a half hours, from there, on train, I think, maybe less now... and, she didn't go, because she couldn't face travelling anywhere that far; scared, basically, of going to any big city Rurual mentality I guess..... which I'd have kinda thought didn't exist anymore (this was back in... err... 1996, I think), I had a lucky escape out of that* town though strangely, not living there any more, it still kinda has an apeal to it, I guess just knowing a small town so well, which one never quite gets even in a moderatly sized city or larger town Going back to visit is nice.... if a bit odd, given all my favorite pubs I've frequented since the age of 13, and their mostly being shut down, demolished, or turned into hidious plastic versions of what a pub used to be

In high school I had two years of Latin and four of French, followed by 24 credits in French in college. I tried to pick up some Spanish later, which never helped me in speaking the language, but has been an aid in doing crossword puzzles. Of all the languages that I've sung music in, Chinese was the hardest and Russian was the most fun. Italian is the one that I enjoy the least. Welsh seems very difficult.
Mind you, I rarely have any idea what the words mean, but I'm expected to sing them as if I did

I also had the choice between French and Latin and I chose French, which I now think was the wrong decision. I know almost nothing of it anymore and it gave me great struggles at school, it was the only subject I never got the hang of.

I was drunk in my GCSE French exam still somehow managed to get err, a D I think, lowest grade ever in any subject Didn't help much, the first two or three years of learning it, we had an actual French, French teacher... who's technique involved never speaking a word of English, and, well that technique didn't work for me, so I had learnt nothing of the language at all, by the time I went to high school, and started the GCSE/O-levels I'd have gotten on a lot better with German, as I can actually pronouce the words right My Polish pronouciation gets laughs from the girl behind the deli counter in the Polish supermarket (I've learn enough Polish to ask for cheese, which, I figure is about all I'd need to know to survive in the country )
I find I can often understand German, when reading it, if I know what the subject matterial is; I've found myself a few times, reading a webpage, about speakers, hiFi, computers or soemthing, and only par way through realise its in German I'd not be able to do the same, were it in French, despite theoretically, err, spending about 5 years learning French at school If I knew then... etc... what I knew now... maybe I'd have paid attention at school and not been such a ... bad student

Languages change over time. The way people spoke French in the 1960s, when I was taking French courses, is probably somewhat different form the way they speak it now....

Languages change over distances, too. The Haitian immigrants who work in my local supermarket speak to each other, but I have no clue what they're saying. Likewise the French-Canadians I've known.

Spanish is even more diverse. The Spaniards who settled South America in the 16th and 17th centuries probably spoke the language differently than they do now, and the local dialects have since had centuries in which to change. Can a modern-day Mexican understand what a Chilean or Argentinian is saying?

I wonder if the Spanish-speaking Latin Americans and the Spanish also say that they are "separated by a common language" as the North Americans and the British do.

I was doing an history display with a few others. One family came up and wanted to ask questions, but they only spoke Spanish. We had a presenter who has a Puerto Rican wife and is fluent in that language and he talked with them for a half hour or so.

A while later he commented how interested the family from Cuba were.

I asked him how he knew they were Cuban, when families from Puerto Rico and Mexico are also common here?

He replied he could tell almost immediately from their accent, they all have very distinctive accents. With my limited knowledge of the language I had never considered such a thing, although I did know that there is a very distinctive difference in pronunciation between European Spanish and the New World speakers.

There are certain words that have evolved in different areas as a local insult or swear word.


F S

Nice one, Florida Sailor...

'an history' display

Not seen that for a while

In my school we weren't even offered the opportunity to take a foreign language until grade 9. And then we only had three options, French, Spanish and German. I took three years of Spanish as Spanish is the second most common language spoken in Texas and the US. The first year was excellent. It was very immersive. Our teacher was American, but she spent much of her childhood in the Castillian region of Spain. My next two years the classes were more focussed on grammar than conversation and now my Spanish fluency allows me to order food in a Mexican restaurant and find my way to the library. As to the question above, Spanish speakers around the globe do have many different accents and colloquialisms, but the dialects aren't so different as to be hard to understand.

While I was in my first year, there was the German class across the hall and for one month, they hosted a group of German foreign exchange students. The local German teacher's name was Miss McDermot, not very German. About a week into the foreign exchange students' stay Ms. McDermot was called into the administration office and left the German sponsors in charge of the class. As soon as she walked out of the class room and out of hearing range, on of the German sponsors addressed the class as follows.

"I understand that many of you are going to come to Germany this summer. When you get there try to find older people, grandparents. Your teacher is teaching you High German and the only people who still speak it are the grandparents. No young people will be able to understand you very well."

Everyone in the class who booked the trip realized their last three years were almost wasted.




Oh, and here's one more story. When I was quite young, my father and a few of his friends and some of theirs sons, and I, went on a trip to a small town called New Ulm, Texas. We were there to check out a deer hunting lease out of season. Much of that part of Texas was settled by German immigrants during the early 20th century. The owners of the property were a father and son. The son was at least 65 and his father probably in his early 90's. One of my fathers' friends heard their accents and decided to try out his high school German on the father. He said something like, "Hello sir, how are you today?" The Old Man cocked his head sideways and said, "What's that? Mexican?"

He then explained that they were Czech, not German. All my dad's friends laughed and never let him live it down.

Later that evening the old man told my father he was fluent in German too, but just couldn't pass up the chance for a good laugh.

Of course he was Czech. Germans have no houmour

Can't remember where we moved the informal dropping of quotes, or if it stayed on this thread http://www.h2g2.com/dna/h2g2/brunel/F64235?thread=8310709&show=20&skip=0#pi16 Baron Grim "At home, DIY trepanning is a lost art. It's very rare that someone becomes an adept at it and passes along the lore"

Heh... I made myself laugh with that one.


Yeah, the QotD thread got a bit quiet out of the limelight of the front page.

F19585?thread=8309124

From post 62 - 2legs (who else?) : QUOTD

Quite
Unexpected
Opportunity
To
Delight

perhaps?