BristolUK

There just seems seems to be something about the liquid in the version I'm used to. For the real thing it's a few splashes. It flavours it and keeps it moist and there's a little leftover liquid to drizzle over some potatoes.

Fresh garlic is good, obviously, but it doesn't provide the liquid. Paste and garlic/lemon vinaigrette might.

caretaker

Mine seems fine - don't under estimate how pungent garlic is. 2 cloves was plenty, and the short teaspoon of chili-garlic sauce I added for punch made it just right. The Lea & Perrins looked like a cross between aioli and a marinade so I checked a few recipes and just made it.
I forgot about the chives sitting in the crisper, or I would have chopped and added some of them.

BristolUK

[QUOTE=caretaker;12692561... don't under estimate how pungent garlic is. [/QUOTE]

One Saturday evening back in England I had something that involved garlic mayo - probably baked spuds. The following morning my mum was due to drop in for lunch and I heard her car outside.

I opened up the front door for her to come in while I went back to the kitchen.

"Have you had something garlicky" she asked the moment she came into the hall.

It must have been strong and come through my pores

scrubbedexpat142

The British are equipped with an inbuilt garlic detector - it compensates for that missing part of the brain that does languages!

BristolUK

Thread drift warning....

I always get a bit annoyed with the too lazy to learn a language thing.
I understand it may be a bit different now but I don't imagine my school days were so different to must people over, say, 40? Just guessing on that.

I went through primary school that did not have French or any language other than English. Half way through the last year I transferred to another school - after the family moved, my dad having got a better job in Bristol. They did do French there, so I was a bit behind.

6 months on we go to senior school and there are two French classes of 30 each out of 300 pupils in each year.

So immediately, 240 out of 300 either stop learning French or continue to not learn it. I was put in Latin and that didn't help, going from no additional language to two. I was able to "choose" to drop Latin in the second year but had to replace it with Spanish or German - of which there was one class of 30 each. So that's a tenth of the pupils who can do German or Spanish, with some of those also in the fifth who do French. I chose Spanish but I found that hindered my French and dropped it a year later for either Sociology or Tech Drawing, one or the other, and maybe it would help my French. It did.

It's a small minority being exposed to another language at the age of 13 and then in not ideal conditions.

All these decisions have zero to do with parents or those learning and maybe it can be argued that we were "too lazy" to learn other ways, but if it's out of our hands at school, what do we do, all go to college outside school hours? Have private tutors?

Meanwhile, second and even third languages appear to have been the norm at European schools from an early age.

It's not really a surprise that Brits are behind Europeans when it comes to second languages.

For my part, I was doing quite well in French. Me and another kid were top of our class - the B class. There were two kids who were behind in the A class. So they swapped us over. The B class had a 'cow' of a teacher. Of course she was only a cow because if we didn't do the homework, we were kept in after school to do it. We learned.

The teacher in the A class had zero control and we stopped learning.

In my French exam I described the colour of the sea in my bedroom

scrubbedexpat142

Some very good points here BristolUK! As you say, languages need to be taught from the earliest possible age - & taught, not as an academic exercise but as a practical one, to equip the pupil for the future. Our current Magyarul teacher has very strong views on these points! In fact she refuses to use set text books preferring to write her own (& therefore ours) as we go along.

Pulaski

It's not always about being "lazy", I tried and I tried. I excelled at most other subjects, got a string of A's in other GCSE's and very good A' levels too, comfortably exceeding what I needed to go to uni, got a decent degree, and I have taken, and passed multiple professional qualifications and certifications since then, both in the US and UK, so it isn't a matter of intelligence or laziness, languages just never gelled with me.

My junior school taught French from 3rd year (age nine), and I had good French teachers at grammar school from age 11, which pretty much enforced a requirement for at least one foreign language to age 16 because most uni's require at least a GCSE in a foreign language.

I also tried Latin, which was painfully harder for me to learn than French, and German, which was even harder. They were along side French, which I persevered with until I took my GCSE, in which I got a grade C. That is probably the qualification I am most proud of even though it was the lowest grade (and the only C) I ever got in a public examination. A few weeks after the GCSE results came out my mother bumped into my long-term French teacher in Sainsbury's and he told my mother that my C grade was a "bloody miracle".

I wish it was different, but I tried, I really did, but my brain doesn't seem to be wired for foreign languages.

We were enthusiastic about our daughter learning Spanish, which she did from kindergarten (Age 5) in the US, with lessons every other day and which still continue seven years later. We have encouraged her, without mentioning the struggles I had, and that Mrs P is also not gifted in the languages area, but the truth is that little Miss P has inherited her parents' gift for languages.

Novocastrian

Language acquisition has very little to do with schools in the UK, more to exposure. The lack of second language ability is more a refection of British exceptionalism and the underlying belief that them foreigners should bloody well learn to speak English (which, overwhelmingly, they do).

Like Mr. Pulaski I got top grades at O-levels in all 9 subjects I took, which included both French and Latin. Waste of time really because of the stultifying way they were taught.
Ironically, like BristolUK, I had to choose between German and in my case geography after one year of German.
Even more ironically German is now by far my strongest second language with French (learned in France) an increasingly close third. Knowing German also enables me to read and understand Dutch and Flemish (but not to speak those). Having French and Latin also makes Spanish and Italian accessible.

Funny how things turn out.

scrubbedexpat142

I remember well the fluent French speaking schoolmate (his Family lived in France) - who failed his French 'O' level.

Novocastrian

I expect the teacher would have been sick of being corrected and rigged the result.

Pulaski

Never mind "British exceptionalism", which appears to get used as an insult, as a merely practical point, a native English speaker has a decision to make when it comes to learning a second language - which language do they choose? For almost all non-English speakers, the answer to that question is obvious. …. In some countries/ regions such as India, the dominant local language may be the obvious choice, such as Hindi in India or Russian in Central Asia.

Obviously if they move to a (non-English speaking) country then the decision pretty much takes itself, but if you live in the UK, and wouldn't move to country X before hell freezes over, then learning X-ish is pretty pointless. No? Maybe that was ultimately the problem I have, inside my head, that I have no interest in moving to France, never did, never will, or Germany, so those languages have very little relevance for me. From the mid 80's I visited Italy many times, but in the following decade or so I noticed that English became much more widely spoken, and my motivation to learn even basic Italian waned.

I did work for a Dutch company for several years, but the company operated mostly with English as the corporate language and even training conferences, provided in the Netherlands, to employees from the Netherlands, the UK, and several countries in Europe, was delivered in English.

Novocastrian

Inadvertently you make my point perfectly. No insult intended or, I hope, taken.

Pulaski

No offence at all, that is more or less the point I intended to make!

Though the area where we disagree is that you want to derisively attribute it to "British (or presumably American, Australian, NX, etc) exceptionalism", whereas I would contend that it is a totally practical issue - English is, as a matter of fact, (it's not "exceptionalism", it's measurably, objectively, true) more widely spoken around the world than any other language today, and more widely than any other language has ever been. The trend is certainly continuing, and I suspect it is accelerating.

I doubt there is anywhere on the planet you could go today, with the possible exception of some remote jungle tribes in South America or SE Asia, where you could reasonably expect to find a town/ community where nobody had any understanding of English. I remember in the 1980s during the Russian occupation of Afghanistan and later in the 1990's as the Soviet Union collapsed, that the BBC was reporting from remote areas I have never heard of and was consistently able to find locals residents to interview in English.

Novocastrian

I give you Latin and Cantonese. But again you miss a point, the Brits think it's their doing that english is international, but it's really your adopted country's doing.

Anyway enough drifting.

Siouxie

At secondary school where we were given French lessons once a week I was a year behind the others when I started so about all I managed to learn in the year I attended that school were such things as "Ouvrez la fenêtre" "la porte est fermé" "je m'appelle Siouxie" ""ferme la bouche" " "ferme la guerre" "la plume de ma tante" "assayez-vous à la table" and sing "Alouette" and "Dominique"

Really useful in everyday situations! I've picked up a little over the years, but not enough for a conversation, just enough to get by if I needed to.

Conversely, I did learn a little Cantonese when I lived in Hong Kong - enough to get around by bus / taxi and to go shopping in the market, order in a restaurant and ask for the bill - and to say hello and goodbye, how are you and to curse I also started to learn Russian but that fell by the wayside when I moved to Hong Kong. I'm now fluent in Canadian though - does that count?

I also learned a little Italian while helping someone who was having lessons.. I can understand a reasonable amount of written Italian and speak a little - again mainly curse words, lol. I can recognise more languages in the written form. Like most things in my life, I can speak some of them a little bit, but nothing well!