Makes sense though. Some people are interested in football simply as a form of entertainment and despite how often they're derided by those who support through thick and thin, I think that is fair enough.
Dutch, French, Lebanese and pretty good German I think he said. And English of course. Bloomin' clever chap that 5 Goals!
Yes but in these foreign countries they are learning lesson from the age of 3 or 4, where as in England we don't start learning foreign languages till we are 9 or 10.
Why would we need to when nearly every country in the world speaks English [NSFW]That's not actually my view, just the general consensus that us English speakers seem to have[/NSFW]
This is an interesting point though really. I find that sometimes English people put themselves down for not knowing other languages when other nations can speak English well. The difference is that English has become an international language that people of many languages learn from birth. What are you going to do? Learn every language in the world in order to appease your guilt for not knowing theirs? In fact, English people should be slightly concerned that idiomatic and colloquial British English will likely become slowly extinct over time because of the popularity and importance of international English.
To answer with a joke: Two Aussies are sitting having a beer in a pub in Melbourne when a Swiss man taps one of them on the shoulder. "Excusez-moi", he says. "Parlez-vous Francais?" "What?" The two aussies say. "Ah. Sprechen sie Deutsch?" Blank looks. "Habla usted español?" More blank looks "si parla italiano?" Yet more blank looks "spreek je Nederlands?" The aussies continue their blank looks, and the swiss man eventually gives up. After he leaves, one aussie turns to the other and says "'ey mate, maybe we should learn a foreign language?" to which the other replies "Why, that guy knew five and a **** load of help that got him."
But it is true than an Englishman will rarely have to make use of a foreign language outside of academic institutions and holidays abroad, until China takes over the world anyway... Living in a country like Belgium means that you're surrounded by multiple languages (French/Flemish/Dutch/English) which you'll actually get a chance to use on a somewhat regular basis. It is a shame that England doesn't have a very multilingual culture, and that we aren't taught languages until secondary school. I'd like to have been able to keep up at least one language, but within a few years of leaving school my Spanish and French are back to being terrible.
we can speak every language known to man 1.Stand really close to johnny foreigner if you can tower over them the better 2.Speak really loudly almost a shout 3.Adopt a really strange accent 4.Wave hands wildly around with lots of pointing and descriptive gestures 5.Add the odd added letter to the end of words I.E. O when in Spain as in 'one Drinko/Beero' 6.Add the odd smattering of the actual language I.E. (Spain again) gracias but we all know it's pronounced grassyarse voilà perfect foreigner
My cousin is going out with a half Colombian half American Jew who lives in Luxembourg and study's in Scotland. Not joking either.
. Spot on. Loud waving and gesturing is an important point of accuracy. When in Paris, I saw this hilarious US family trying to order some crêpes in a loud Texan accent. "I'll take... oon fro-mayge. Uhm... oon jam-bon, Ett... uhm.. oon one of these."
It's true that it is hard to motivate yourself to speak a language when the chances are that when abroad the locals speak your language better than you speak theirs. And like skalpel says, where do we start ... there are a heck of alot of languages out there to choose from, whereas English is really now the lingua franca of the world. I've tried french and german and given up in disgust both times. Just don't seem to have the knack for learning languages unfortunately.
why do people do it i've seen it loads it used to make me embarrassed but now i just laugh at them on another note i've just seen this on twitter sort of sums up the press/tv pundits/journos
My old History teacher is married to a Sri Lankan with a Swedish passport, who has German and Australian parents, and has a kid with a Canadian passport, and they live now in Saudi Arabia. Beat that bitches.
What annoys me though is when British people don't bother to learn a language when in a country on holiday. I've been in Spain and seen a man yell at a (confused, sweating) waiter 'Do you have LAGER? LA-GER'. Secret Ingredient pretty much summed it up actually.. Like Calaye said it would be better in my opinion if languages were more a part of British culture. Though maybe I'm a bit biased as my mum teaches languages
