Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Jul 18th 2014, 4:38 pm
#183
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Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
If he needs Spanish in future, it's quite an easy skip from French; I find with fluent French that I can read Spanish and get 70% of it despite not knowing any Spanish whatsoever. If I actually learned the conjugation endings, the pronouns and the prepositions - you know, all the little high-frequency words - I could probably get it even higher for very little study.
Jul 18th 2014, 4:46 pm
#185
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Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Undoubtedly so, it's by far the most useful second language, but my son's going to do French as his HS language credit requirement. We established in Switzerland that he's NOT a natural linguist, and he has no interest in doing anything other than the two years box ticking required. Two years of beginner Spanish aged 14-16 wouldn't get him past ordering coffee and talking about his hobbies, whereas the school is jumping him up a year in French, so he'll do French 2 and 3 - the hope is that taking the higher classes and the layering effect of dredging up his previous, now-departed fluency, will at least leave him with a functional second language!
If he needs Spanish in future, it's quite an easy skip from French; I find with fluent French that I can read Spanish and get 70% of it despite not knowing any Spanish whatsoever. If I actually learned the conjugation endings, the pronouns and the prepositions - you know, all the little high-frequency words - I could probably get it even higher for very little study.
If he needs Spanish in future, it's quite an easy skip from French; I find with fluent French that I can read Spanish and get 70% of it despite not knowing any Spanish whatsoever. If I actually learned the conjugation endings, the pronouns and the prepositions - you know, all the little high-frequency words - I could probably get it even higher for very little study.
they consistently get the simplest French words that come up in everyday life totally wrong, and consider having an authentic accent "showing off".I have a bit of rusty Spanish but not good enough to talk to the tradesmen, which would be a major plus. Just laziness I suppose that I didn't work on it while here.
Jul 18th 2014, 5:15 pm
#187
Forum Regular
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 107
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Marry an American girl.
Jul 18th 2014, 5:28 pm
#188
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Posts: 49
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Jul 18th 2014, 5:55 pm
#189
Deep in the woods of CT
Joined: Feb 2010
Posts: 7,002
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Jul 18th 2014, 5:56 pm
#190
Account Closed
Joined: Mar 2004
Posts: 2
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Not that much actually. Shame her Parents to co sponsor?
Jul 18th 2014, 6:01 pm
#191
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Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Jul 18th 2014, 10:38 pm
#192
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Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
Jul 18th 2014, 10:43 pm
#193
Under blue skies
Joined: Mar 2011
Location: East Anglia->New England
Posts: 3,624
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
C'mon
You all were outraged that Caino thought America was a better place to live- If an American said "I want to live in the U.K. because its so much better!" 99.99% of Americans would reply "Thats great have fun!"
They wouldn't try to talk him out of it, tell him to try Spain instead, or look for deep psychological disorders to explain his insanity...They just wouldn't
Lets look in the mirror here friends
You all were outraged that Caino thought America was a better place to live- If an American said "I want to live in the U.K. because its so much better!" 99.99% of Americans would reply "Thats great have fun!"
They wouldn't try to talk him out of it, tell him to try Spain instead, or look for deep psychological disorders to explain his insanity...They just wouldn't
Lets look in the mirror here friends
Jul 18th 2014, 11:52 pm
#194
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Joined: May 2009
Posts: 1,309
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
To the OP, Here are two articles on (different aspects of) living here, they're old, but I still like them.
NY and the twang of knicker elastic:
I ♥ NY but will a New Yorker fall in love with me? | Travel | The Observer
How Americans would like to live
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/op...ooks.html?_r=0
NY and the twang of knicker elastic:
I ♥ NY but will a New Yorker fall in love with me? | Travel | The Observer
How Americans would like to live
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/17/op...ooks.html?_r=0
Jul 19th 2014, 4:37 am
#195
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Joined: Jun 2008
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Posts: 10,678
Re: Lived in USA for 3 months, now im depressed.
I can give you one example. When I lived in Geneva, the group I hung around with were the British, Australians, Americans, and Irish with an occasional Swiss and French. The group was really great and it was the best time of my life but there was one British girl named "Annie" that was a problem.
Annie lived with Devi who was an Irish girl in a 300 sq foot apartment in the hooker district of Geneva. Annie was a secretary and Devi was a beautician but Annie was born and bred in Wimbledon and she made sure everyone knew that. When I met Annie, she had a long distance relationship with a Dutch guy who had the class that she was looking for but whenever he came to Geneva to see her, she couldn't wait for him to leave.
To Annie, Americans were the same class as southern Europeans but she gave the British girls the hardest time constantly putting them down.
Eventually Annie started dating an Australian guy called Sab who was an executive and I started dating an English girl called Eve. Eve knew how to play the role of the upper English class even though her father was a milkman and her mother lived in council housing. Eve was a real nice person and didn't put anyone down but Annie once said "Eve scares me" and I suspect that was because Annie perceived Eve to be a better class than her.
Everybody liked Sab and we hung around with Sab and Annie with mostly just tolerating Annie. We all got engaged about the same time and planned our weddings in England. However Annie had a problem since Sab had to ask her father for her hand in marriage and the Australians weren't highly regarded in her household. So Annie trained Sab what to say when they went to England and when Sab asked her father for her hand in marriage, all there was only silence in return.
One night we had Sab and Annie over for dinner and at the end of the evening, Annie went into a rant accusing Eve of something. Eve remained calm and tried to find out what she was talking about but Annie just kept ranting and her and Sab left. When Sab and Annie got married in England, we weren't invited but since were didn't know what the rant was about, we invited them but they didn't come to our wedding. Eventually we socialized again but never with Sab and Annie only and Annie's rant was never brought up.
I suspect Annie is an exception especially for expatriates since all the others tried to fit in and nobody else put anyone down or created issues.
Annie lived with Devi who was an Irish girl in a 300 sq foot apartment in the hooker district of Geneva. Annie was a secretary and Devi was a beautician but Annie was born and bred in Wimbledon and she made sure everyone knew that. When I met Annie, she had a long distance relationship with a Dutch guy who had the class that she was looking for but whenever he came to Geneva to see her, she couldn't wait for him to leave.
To Annie, Americans were the same class as southern Europeans but she gave the British girls the hardest time constantly putting them down.
Eventually Annie started dating an Australian guy called Sab who was an executive and I started dating an English girl called Eve. Eve knew how to play the role of the upper English class even though her father was a milkman and her mother lived in council housing. Eve was a real nice person and didn't put anyone down but Annie once said "Eve scares me" and I suspect that was because Annie perceived Eve to be a better class than her.
Everybody liked Sab and we hung around with Sab and Annie with mostly just tolerating Annie. We all got engaged about the same time and planned our weddings in England. However Annie had a problem since Sab had to ask her father for her hand in marriage and the Australians weren't highly regarded in her household. So Annie trained Sab what to say when they went to England and when Sab asked her father for her hand in marriage, all there was only silence in return.
One night we had Sab and Annie over for dinner and at the end of the evening, Annie went into a rant accusing Eve of something. Eve remained calm and tried to find out what she was talking about but Annie just kept ranting and her and Sab left. When Sab and Annie got married in England, we weren't invited but since were didn't know what the rant was about, we invited them but they didn't come to our wedding. Eventually we socialized again but never with Sab and Annie only and Annie's rant was never brought up.
I suspect Annie is an exception especially for expatriates since all the others tried to fit in and nobody else put anyone down or created issues.
