Jeremyrh Geo

The Reids a �crit :

    > Following up to The Rev Gaston
    > >In our local bar on Saturday, a drunk was gesticulating at us and
    > >making remarks about George Bush. He was quite amiable, but quite
    > >deluded, snce our table consisted of two Italians, a Greek, and a Brit.
    > I assume he was deluded about you, not Bush?

One or the other. I don't think he was drunk enough to think that Bush
is Italian :-)

G;

Chancellor Of The Duchy Of Besses O' Th' Barn And

The Reids <[email protected]> wrote:

    > Following up to chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
    > prestwich tesco 24h offy
    >
    > >But if someone is going to hate you for making language mistakes, they
    > >won't hate you any less because you're an American. IOW, it will be
    > >probably be obvious you're not a native speaker. If you can speak the
    > >language "pretty good" why would you worry about someone hating you for
    > >a few mistakes? I really wouldn't waste your time worrying about making
    > >an impression on that kind of person anyway- there are few on the
    > >ground.
    > >
    > >> Plus I think I am very different from what people expect from an American.
    > >
    > >What do people in Europe expect from an American?
    >
    > I think we expect Americans to be poorly informed on non US
    > issues,

They probably are, but I don't know that Europeans are always well
versed on international issues either.

    > in a rush to see major sites rather than holiday, be rich
    > and be conservative on food, wanting steaks all the time.

On my recent holiday in various central European countries, I saw plenty
of European tour groups rushing around to see major sites! Lots of
Spanish tourists in particular. I doubt that Americans are any more
conservative on food than anyone else. They have plenty of variety of
food in the US!

    > We
    > expect them to have had a lot of dental work and have big toothy
    > smiles.

There is truth in that stereotype, IME.

    > Oh, and right wing in politics of course.

Yes, again, that's true. The US Democratic Party would strike most
Europeans as being right of centre, never mind the Republicans.

    > We are
    > surprised by those who speak Spanish.

Ah, you haven't been to the US then! I don't know what the statistics
are, but when I meet an American who does speak another language, it's
often Spanish.

--
David Horne- http://www.davidhorne.net
usenet (at) davidhorne (dot) co (dot) uk
photos at http://homepage.mac.com/davidhornecomposer

Miss L. Toe

"Juliana L Holm" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Magda <[email protected]> wrote:
    > > ... On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:09:01 +0200, Mxsmanic <[email protected]>
    > > ... wrote:
    > > ...
    > > ... >Age is not an impediment to the acquisition of additional
languages.
    > > ...
    > > ... Yes it is. Younger people learn much more readily than older
people.
    > > No, it is not.
    > > If you really buy this urban legend, I pity you - in a few years you'll
think you are "too
    > > old" for many things.
    > I'm 49 and headed to Germany for two months of language training. A
couple
    > months ago there was a report in the Washington Post about older folks
learning
    > language.
    > It is true that we learn language differently than children do, but not at
all
    > true that we don't learn as well.
    > indeed, learning throughtout life seems to be the most reliable way to
decrease
    > your chance of getting Alzheimers!

Apparently nicotine is a better way.

Magda

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:18:18 +0100, in rec.travel.europe, The Reids
<[email protected]> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... Following up to DDT Filled Mormons and Magma
...
... >>If you really buy this urban legend, I pity you - in a few years you'll think you are "too
... >>old" for many things.
...
... there's a vast difference between acknowledging memory tasks
... become harder and thinking you are too old to do things. Your
... pity is misplaced.

Never mind. I hope he will still be here when he is 50, complaining that his brain is a
sieve, that he can't even remember the names of his wife and children and that he is
getting *old*... LOL

... >>(Don't stock up the Viagra - if you need it, you are too old for sex... :pp)
... >
... >I wont be needing it for a while yet.
...
... Me neither, even though I struggle with Spanish!

Kudos for trying anyway... Spanish, I mean!

Magda

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 07:40:26 +0200, in rec.travel.europe, Mxsmanic <[email protected]>
arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... Magda writes:
...
... > On which planet??
...
... This one. Learning is fun until one is soured on the experience by
... school.

Not this one. Earth is NOT your native planet, admit it!!

Magda

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:18:18 +0100, in rec.travel.europe, The Reids
<[email protected]> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... Following up to Mxsmanic
...
... >> Also, I''m nowhere near fluent in any language but English, and
... >> it's much harder to become so when one is elderly.
... >
... >Age is not an impediment to the acquisition of additional languages.
...
... its much harder to learn languages as you get older, or any other
... memory dependant thing.

It's not a trait common to all Homo sapiens, believe me.

Magda

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:18:18 +0100, in rec.travel.europe, The Reids
<[email protected]> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

... Following up to Gregory Morrow
...
... >I see plenty of foreign tourists here in the States. Except for their
... >language, they are absolutely indistinguishable from Americans...
...
... I reckon you have a fair chance of distinguishing an Italian from
... a Brit on dress.

The Brit is the one with a beer in his hand.

Miss L. Toe

"The Reids" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
    > Following up to EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque)
    > >> One of my favorites is the backpackers note not to wear jeans in europe
sinde
    > >> you will be identified as an American. On my last few trips to europe
it
    > >> seemed everyone was wearing jeans!
    > >
    > >I've certainly seen "designer" jeans on plenty of young
    > >people in Paris and Vienna and Brussels! (Jusging from the
    > >variety of languages I overheard them speaking, they were
    > >definitely NOT Americans.)
    > Jeans have been popular for at least 30 years, how do these myths
    > carry on so long? I didn't even realise they were supposed to be
    > American when I was young.

Where do you think the word denim came from ? :-)

Jeremyrh Geo

Ingeborg Denner a �crit :

    > "Magda" <[email protected]> schrieb:
    > > ...
    > > ... Europeans don't generally judge Americans monolithically though.
    > >
    > > They do - but never to the face of an individual.
    > >
    > The usual construct is "everyone, with the exception of everyone I know
    > personally." <G>

Don't you mean "construe" :-)

G;

Magda

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 10:46:55 +0200, in rec.travel.europe, "Ingeborg Denner"
<[email protected]> arranged some electrons, so they looked like this :

...
... "Magda" <[email protected]> schrieb:
... > ...
... > ... Europeans don't generally judge Americans monolithically though.
... >
... > They do - but never to the face of an individual.
... >
...
... The usual construct is "everyone, with the exception of everyone I know
... personally." <G>

I must know only very polite people. ;)

The Reids

Following up to chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy

    >> We are
    >> surprised by those who speak Spanish.
    >Ah, you haven't been to the US then!

I haven't, but I have friends there who speak Spanish and its
common to see Spanish speaking Americans in Spain..

    >I don't know what the statistics
    >are, but when I meet an American who does speak another language, it's
    >often Spanish.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" <-- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" <-- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Tim Challenger

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 21:50:25 +0100, DDT Filled Mormons wrote:

    > On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 16:12:31 +0200, Tim Challenger
    > <[email protected]> wrote:
    >
    >>On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 13:37:59 GMT, Rita wrote:
    >>> I like clothing that can stand up without frequent laundering,
    >>just like most of my clothes when I was a student ... ;-)
    >
    > Mine too. Now I use the expression on my wife's face as a reference.

I know what you mean :-(
--
Tim C.

B Vaughan

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 20:01:13 +0000 (UTC), Juliana L Holm
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >It is true that we learn language differently than children do, but not at all
    >true that we don't learn as well.

I don't know if my mode of learning languages was different when I was
young, but I know it was much more difficult for me to learn Italian
in my 50s than it was to learn Spanish, French, and German in my late
teens and early 20s.

One example is gender. I never had problems remembering the gender of
nouns when I was young, but now I still make mistakes of gender when
speaking Italian, even with words that I use fairly often. I used to
be able to glance at a list of words and remember them forever (with
their genders or verb forms). No more, unfortunately.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

B Vaughan

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:18:18 +0100, The Reids
<[email protected]> wrote:

    >Following up to Mxsmanic
    >>> Also, I''m nowhere near fluent in any language but English, and
    >>> it's much harder to become so when one is elderly.
    >>Age is not an impediment to the acquisition of additional languages.
    >its much harder to learn languages as you get older, or any other
    >memory dependant thing.

I used to have an almost photographic memory when I was younger. I
would say I still have a good memory, but nothing like it once was. It
has nothing to do with motivation; it is more or less involuntary.

I realized on my last trip to the US that I had left my little address
book at home. I sat down to see if I could remember the phone numbers
of the various friends and relatives I wanted to call, and realized
that I really had no need of the address book. There was exactly one
person whose phone number I hadn't already (inadvertently) memorized.
I'm always rather surprised when I see someone looking up a phone
number that it seems to me they should know, for instance someone
looking up his son's phone number.

However, when I was young, I used to remember phone numbers and
license plates that I had seen only once and had no desire to
memorize. When I lived in Philadelphia, I could have told you the
phone number of nearly every public office and a large number of
commercial establishments, just because I had had occasion to call
them at some time or other. Let's say that when I was young, I hardly
had need of the White Pages, now I'm reduced to hardly having need of
my personal address book.

--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup

B Vaughan

On Tue, 20 Sep 2005 09:59:09 +0100, [email protected]
(chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and prestwich tesco 24h
offy) wrote:

    >.... I doubt that Americans are any more
    >conservative on food than anyone else. They have plenty of variety of
    >food in the US!

I don't know any Americans as conservative on food as the average
Italian.
--
Barbara Vaughan
My email address is my first initial followed by my surname at libero dot it
I answer travel questions only in the newsgroup