United Europe would it work?

[SteveC]

What?!? Use these funny kilometer things on our speedos instead of miles per hour?!? Brag about my car not doing 0 to 60, but 0 to 100!?!? Measuring my weight in kilos and not stones??!?! Come on!! Next, You'll be telling me that there are 100 seconds in a minute and 100 minutes in an hour!!

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[Barbarella]

It's time for me to ansver to the uk guys

...
All things that we love and cherish,
Like ourselves must fade and perish;
Such is our rude mortal lot -
Love itself would, did they not.

DEATH (the end) by P.B. Shelley 1820
My favorite poet

Lot of french are learning 2 foreigns languages. English first, than german, italian, spanish depend where in France you live.

It's not truth that we are not able to speak other language like english, but it is a fact that we not speak and write it very well(like me ), but we do.

Since 10 years a lot of things has been done to avoid this. And now you can begin learning 2 languages very soon (before 10 years old).

[paulcs]

One hundred this. One hundred that. Very boring.

A united Europe. Everyone in Great Britain speaking French. Does this sound familiar? It sounds extremely Napoleonic, if you think about it.

And what do we know of this Admiral character. Is he really from Romania? We used to call him Andre, which sounds awful French to me.

DON'T GO FOR IT; IT'S A TRICK!! Before you know it, they'll change the name of this United States of Europe to the Third Empire and you'll all be eating snails!



Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net

[az]

no no, we germans won't ever let them get away with that - maybe we'll allow them a small empire within our big one... let me think about it... no

AZ

[The PIT]

So far no ones pointed out that us Brits are very poor at speaking different languages. Theres nothing more embarrassing than ringing up someone in say Spain or Germany and they can talk to you perfectly in English.

[az]

*lol although quite a few germans are able to write good english, when we talk we still sound as if we were all stupid

AZ

[omegaRED]

I noticed that ... but i wouldnt say it`s specific for Germans ...

I argue all the time with my Cousine, i`d say: " You Germans pronounce the as s in Season" (sorry, cant post sound, but you get the idea)

She : " Yeah, well you Macedonians pronounce it like d in Dean."

I`m better at it then she is anyway. Az, i always wanted to know, do u like it when the American Movies are translated in German, instead of subtitled? I mean, it`s weird, like having someone with a high voice imitating Samuel L. Jackson.

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Seth, are you ok ?
I`m peachy, Kate. The world is my oyster.

[The PIT]

When I was over in Germany the locals kept trying to get me to become there English teacher. When I pointed out that I didn't know the first thing about grammer etc they said it didn't matter you speak the way a typical English person would. They had a point.
This is the problem with most language courses and language teaching in schools. You do it parrot fashion taught by people who aren't Germans and probably never been to Germany in there life.
Certainly if I had a proper German German teacher I would have probably learn't a lot more. She/he would have the best qualification the fact they're are German.

[az]

actually i pronounce the th in "the" like the th in "though"

but you're right many of us don't and the worst part is, most teachers don't even tell them it's wrong (or they do once or twice and then never again)

AZ

[Jorden]

The isn't it pronounced as dze? I see the thread falling down again, so I'll give Barbarella a challenge

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Quoted by Barbarella:
Lot of french are learning 2 foreigns languages. English first, than german, italian, spanish depend where in France you live.

It's not truth that we are not able to speak other language like english, but it is a fact that we not speak and write it very well
</font>

How do you explain, Barbarella, that when I go to France, I can't speak English to anyone, and am only spoken back to in French?
It could be that the French aren't good in other languages, that they say that in France that you have to speak French, for they WANT to speak another language.

Ofcourse, if you're a Frenchman coming to Holland to buy drugs, buy BSE meat or have a vacation, aren't we expecting you to speak some other language than French as well?
What if we Dutch said to everyone from abroad that you have to speak our language as well?

Continuing this stance, I don't think we'll ever get a really united Europe. I won't even start about Nuclear Weapons, although... the French have 'em and don't want to dispose of 'em, boys

Jord's minor opinion

[Barbarella]

Hi jorden,


"How do you explain, Barbarella, that when I go to France, I can't speak English to anyone, and am only spoken back to in French?"

Well, when I wrote 'we' it doesn't mean all french. My general purpose was to indicate that we are working hard on that point. before 1980 you could go to the university whitout having learning 2 languages. this is no more the case. In the comming years all the young people (<10 years) will have to begin to learn 2 languages.


you are talking about drugs and nuclear. This is a sarcastic point of view. Ok, Like matrox I will answer 'no comments'

[omegaRED]

Well, i`d go for English and German (no offense to the French) being the 2 off. langs. English, pretty obvious i think, and why German, well you have Germany, Austria, Switzerland (1 part at least), Netherlands (ok, it`s not German, but Dutch & German are quite alike), Belgium (i think?) where German is spoken and understood.

Hmmm,

No kidding, if there is a United Europe, and France being the only one having Nuclear Warheads, it would have to give them up. Or everyone should have them. To be equal of course

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Seth, are you ok ?
I`m peachy, Kate. The world is my oyster.

[Barbarella]

hummm,

I have a strange feeling about what people, here on murc's MB, think about french people.

[KvHagedorn]

Perhaps you are beginning to understand why I simply said no. I would think omega red's thread would have taught us better than to even bring up the idea. Isn't it wonderful to go to France and see French things? Eat French Food? Isn't it wonderful to go to Germany or England or Italy for exactly the same reason? What a waste it would be to try and make one big mixed up country out of all these wonderful facets of Europe! Not that it would happen, but if some activist f$%#s try and force it to happen because they worship money or power (what other reason would there be?) we would have the same kind of mess they have in the Balkans right now. Most people like their own cultures and want to hold on to them. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this. I for one don't think it's worth killing each other over, and to subordiate any one culture to another for the sake of power or monetary strength or whatever else you might think up as an excuse is absolutely wrong. When I go to France, I want to go to FRANCE, not "The EU," thank you very much. We would all lose much more than we could ever gain, not that anyone cares about things human anymore.. it's all just about money and power now, isn't it? There is no difference between this and what Hitler or Caesar or Napoleon tried to achieve.. the only difference is that now it's a bunch of soulless bureaucrats who want to take over the world, not some ardent nationalist. You don't murder your heritage because of some idea cooked up in the mind of someone with no heart and no soul.. that is, unless you have forgotten yourselves that you still have a heart and soul. Actually, from what I've seen of the world, yes, we've forgotten this. Why can't we be mature enough to be friends without giving up our identities?

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Kind Regards,

KvH

[paulcs]

What's BSE meat? Do I want to know?

Paul
paulcs@speakeasy.net