English in Europe

[wodin]

Joe Black do you live in Liverpool? I am at the moment.

[hgilmer3]

I'm not so sure the teaching of languages in all places in the USA is a novelty.  I took French in High School and the teacher was from just outside of Paris and an excellent teacher.  (Note: I have to make a confession that my great grandmother was Swiss French and spoke French fluently, and supposedly I was pretty good at it up until age 5 or so).  Anyway, I went on to take French for two semesters in college from another teacher from France and became fairly fluent in it and took oral exams and did quite well.  I also was able to read The Three Musketeers in French. 

Of course, this could all be an exercise of the student as opposed to the general class.  You only take out what you want to take out of your classes.  I have not had any opportunity to use French, though, for 20 years and so am not up to par for it, if I may say so.  I'm certain I could learn it/refresh it fairly quickly, though, if I took a few classes.

I am currently learning Japanese.  Just to speak it.  I am not sure I will ever try to learn how to write using Japanese lettering.

One thing I'll say about forums is that if you are hoping to go to forums to see correct usage of grammar at least in English, yes, you'll be disappointed.  It is an informal medium and people are not as vigilant in using correct grammar and punctuation. 

Anyway, my grandfather was from Poland and I know/knew a few curse words in Polish.  Does that count as even another language? [:D]

[joeblack1862]

ORIGINAL: wodin

Joe Black do you live in Liverpool? I am at the moment.

Sorry chap for not replying earlier, no I don't, I live in sunny Luton, but I am a lifelong Liverpool fan. Love the city to bits. I guess I would be called an OOT by some [:D]

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: Doggie
European girls love American G.I.s They can't get enough of them. Trust me on this one, I know.
If you're an American G.I., and you want to know what it feels like to have women fighting over you, you need to take a vacation in Europe.

And a time machine to go back to the 70s or 80s

[Marc von Martial]

ORIGINAL: GoodGuy

... Still, if you get to a German town, and say you'd ask for directions or help, many people (and not just youngsters) will try their best to reactivate their English and help.
That may be different in France, or say Italy. [:)]

To be fair, it has gotten an aweful lot better in both countries in the last 10 years or so.
I remember when in the early 90s you could barely talk english with french or italian people of your age. These days it is a lot better. Depending on the region though. I had not so much luck with english on Sicily last year [;)]

The French english accent, not saying a typical german one is any better, is making it hard though [:D]

[joeblack1862]

ORIGINAL: Joe D.

ORIGINAL: junk2drive

Joe Black, yes I used a broad brush. What I have noticed is that when I see a poorly done post, too many times the poster lists UK as his/her location ...

What was that line from "My Fair lady"?
"Why can't the English speak English?" or lyrics to that effect?

Hmmmm... using a stage show / movie as evidence. Bet some people believe we can talk to the annals as well [:D]

Oh... and the U-571 really did happen, didn't it http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/781858.stm (off topic, sorry)

[Lieste]

ORIGINAL: GoodGuy

Still, if you get to a German town, and say you'd ask for directions or help, many people (and not just youngsters) will try their best to reactivate their English and help.
That may be different in France, or say Italy. [:)]

Yes it is different - in Italy (or at least Venice), if you get in trouble with your Italian, they mostly switch to German to help... which is hilarious when my grasp of German is even more tenuous than my Italian. Still, a winning smile, body language and a few simple phrases allow most transactions to take place - and if asking directions I always produced a map, and determined where I currently was and where my destination could be found and then went from there.

[Knavery]

I'm curious why English is even considered the universal language now. Is it due to business? Is it due to the markets? Was it a decision brought on by the Pentaverate (some of you may get this)?

[Lützow]

English is considered as universal language due to the internet.

We had some English lessons this week - as part of my IT training - and I'm starting to realize how bad my grammar actually is. It's one thing to enhance your vocabulary by reading websites and newspapers, and another to master the rules of a foreign language. English has more verb tenses than German. [:(]

Anyway, I think it would be still good enough for war movies. I could contribute a genuine German accent and perfectly pronounce: Achtung! [:D]

[joeblack1862]

ORIGINAL: Lützow
Anyway, I think it would be still good enough for war movies. I could contribute a genuine German accent and perfectly pronounce: Achtung! [:D]

Don't forget "AAARGHH!" in a good German accent as you get shot. Most war movies I have seen this seems to be what happens to the Germans [:D]

By the way, I have read a lot of your posts in the past (whilst lurking) and I think your grammar is good.

[Lützow]

ORIGINAL: Joe Black

Don't forget "AAARGHH!" in a good German accent as you get shot. Most war movies I have seen this seems to be what happens to the Germans [:D]

By the way, I have read a lot of your posts in the past (whilst lurking) and I think your grammar is good.

Thank you for your courtesy. [:)]

By the way, German accent also seems to be plus for a governor career or winning the oscar. [:D]

[Doggie]

ORIGINAL: Joe Black

Don't forget "AAARGHH!" in a good German accent as you get shot. Most war movies I have seen this seems to be what happens to the Germans [:D]

.

If you pay attention, they tape generic conversations in german and use them in different movies and television shows. You will hear the same voice shouting the exact same commands in several different war movies. It's easier to keep them on tape an/d dub them in later than it is to find extras who speak german.

If you have seen Young Frankenstein you will recall the scenes on the train, where the passengers start out talking in English and then repeat the exact conversation in german as they cross the German frontier.

The secret agents in Mission Impossible spoke generic European. The bad guys in what ever country they were in spoke english with a translyvanian accent and the agents were so fluent zat zay vould never schuspect a thing.

[Doggie]

Villians always speak English with a British accent, because everybody knows the English are evil. Who would believe Gomer Pyle as bad guy?

[Nemo121]

Well, to give you an idea of some of what can happen with multi-lingualism in Europe... I had an interesting situation in work yesterday ( in Ireland ) where I had a German patient who required some emergency medical treatment but wasn't able to verify some crucial medical details so I ( born in Belgium and thus a native Flemish speaker but raised in Ireland since 6 - so learnt English and Irish - and having learnt German and French in secondary school/high school ) had to make a call to this German patient's doctor who had graduated from Medical school in Hungary ( where, presumably he was instructed in Hungarian ) and where we conducted our conversation through a mix of German and French as those were the two languages we had in common ( 90% German with 10% French for some German medical terms I wasn't familiar with ). I should also mention he had reasonably good English too although not in terms of medical jargon which was why we used mostly German and French.


Anyways my basic point is that in Europe many countries are effectively bilingual ( e.g. within the one country you'll find two languages in use although one will be by far the predominant one ) PLUS individuals in those countries tend to learn at least English and German/French in order to be able to communicate with foreigners. Several times I've found myself talking to other Europeans where neither of us know the other's native language but we find we have either English, German or French in common and then there's usually a shuffle to pick the language we both want to practice most .

Occasionally I've even had the comic situation in which they might speak to me in English while I'd speak in French or German because I'd want to practice them while they'd want to practice their English and we'd clarify errors the other was making as they were talking. It's actually more organic and easier than that.

Overall though Europeans do make an effort to learn the major "common" languages. It isn't perfect and certainly the older generations aren't as good at this as the younger generations. The UK is also much worse at this than continental Europe as there's a bit of "just talk more loudly, more slowly and point a lot and Johnny Foreigner will figure it out" [8D]

[JudgeDredd]

We are bilingual in the UK. We are all taught English and in most places, Chav is also fluent [:D]

[Toby42]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

We are bilingual in the UK. We are all taught English and in most places, Chav is also fluent [:D]

Chav? You lost me there!!!

[jackx]

No loss, really. Try "urban white trash" for an approximation... horrible people, worse slang/language. ;x

[Jevhaddah_Slitherine]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

We are bilingual in the UK. We are all taught English and in most places, Chav is also fluent [:D]

heheh Nice one JD [:D]

I am Scottish so English is my second language [;)]

I'll get my coat [8D]

Cheers

Jev

[JudgeDredd]

Chavs

And here they are...they have their own kind of language - innit blu!?

[Greybriar]

ORIGINAL: JudgeDredd

Chavs....

I learned a new word today thanks to you, JudgeDredd.