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"52% of Britons want to leave their homeland"

Started by 23 Daves, May 06, 2004, 12:34:05 PM

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fanny splendid

Maybe Chinese, I only know a tiny bit of that, but Japanese wasn't that difficult. Admittedly, I only did a 6 month course, but the hardest thing about it was remembering the symbols. Korean is pretty damn easy, too. And the symbols are very easy to learn. Only takes you an hour to get the basics, then it's just practise.

I was, however, reminded on numerous occasions that Chinese and Korean were very difficult to learn for the western person, because we weren't advanced enough.

Yeah, and that's why I'm here teaching you English. Detention anyone?

Smackhead Kangaroo

yes yes you're absolutely right you're 'not advanced enough' and generally gentically inferior to the hordes of vat grown asian workers who carry vials of booster steroids so they can enter a special state of combat rage at any point.

That said what I've found about the learning of alien languages - obviously like english to chinese rather than french- is what a terrible system is generally used, with little emphasis on any kind of phonetic accuracy. It's the same for learning chinese over here for chinese offspring (weird and annoying bit of patriotism and that whole embrace your own culture because you only live here you're not one of THEM) their learning system is just rote which is appalling for a language, even if you're partially acquainted with it.

Auntie Ovipositor

Quote from: "The Unicorn"Yeah, I miss English pubs. There's some cool pubs here, but you always feel like you're an alcoholic when you're in them, there's just not the social aspect that we have in the UK. Also, it's a pain in the arse having to tip the barperson after EVERY FUCKING DRINK! There's one place I go to where the drinks are 50 cents each (about 30 pence) on SUndays before midnight, and as the rule is $1 tip per drink you actually tip twice as much as you pay for the drinks! Mind, they do them VERY strong. They don't do measures so you get pretty much a treble/quadrouple spirit drink each time.

The only place in the US that even comes close to English pubs is Chicago. Not the same by any measure, but similar. It's where people go to relax and hang out, and get out of their homes, and there are always a dozen bars within walking distance (even when it's -30 degrees farenheit out). There's a wide mix of people and everyone's pretty affable.

New York has some of that, but it's just too big for neighborhood places to really be neighborhood places and they tend to market towards cliques of some sort or other. San Francisco has some great bars to hang out it, but it's mostly hipsters, and the homogeny of that whole scene gets really depressing after a while.

There's just nothing like an afternoon in an English pub.

23 Daves

Quote from: "The UnicornYeah, I've found that to be true. My wife has a very dry, British style sense of humour, but I've noticed that when we're out with others, if I make a sarcastic comment or say something dry nobody laughs or even smiles, it just goes totally over their heads. One of my wife's friends, she never knows when I'm joking. I sent her an email a while back talking about people from the UK being able to drink more, and I said "yeah, you only have to sniff half a shandy to get drunk" and she replied: "What? No I don't, I can drink loads before I get drunk"...then the other day she mentioned she was moving and I said "I hope you're not expecting me to help, I may just stand there and say 'bit to the right' and 'put some back into it'...if you're lucky!" and she replies with: "Erm, well I think maybe you could help a bit, y'know"......I'M FUCKING JOKING!!!!

This has got me into serious trouble with Americans in the past.  Yeah, bloody Yanks... I've actually had the following argument with a Californian:

"DON'T talk to me like that!"
"Well, I was only joking, actually..."
"No you weren't!  What sort of a joke is that?"
"Well, other people find it funny"
"I don't see how!"
"Well, maybe you just don't understand the English sense of humour..."
"And don't use that excuse to me!  I think I understand the English very well!".

Yeah, right you do, you sucker.  That's what they all think.

My girlfriend's Canadian and even she sometimes struggles with English humour (even after going out with me for a year and a half and living in Britain for four years) but if it's pointed out to her she'll get all huffy and defensive and say she understands the joke, she just doesn't think it's funny.  It's not always true, though.  I made a joke about having to wear plimsolls in PE the other night, and she asked me what they were.  A long, long explanation followed, with a lot of toing and froing.  If she reads this post, she'll get huffy that I'm trying to paint her as an ignorant North American, but I don't think it's her fault or anyone else's fault, really... I just think you have to actually grow up in England to understand a lot of the bizarre things that go on there. I've witnessed hoardes of foreign students from the rest of Europe watching "The Day Today" in the TV room at university with horrified and confused expressions on their faces, so that sort of reaction to English humour isn't exclusive to the North American continent.

Oh, by the way, we told all the foreign students that "The Day Today" was a real news programme to see how worried they'd get.  They watched a bit more, then walked off shaking their heads, probably to call their parents to get them to send them money for plane tickets home...

Lt Plonker

My mum and her man-friend have just bought a plot of land in the Dominican Republic and are having a big bastard house built there. The thing is though, it's cheaper, tax-wise, to buy the land as a company or something (I can't remember the ins and outs) and, as a result, I am now a company director for a their company. They placed my sister, her man-friend's sons and me as directors so, if they pop off, we're in charge of the estate.

It's a confusing matter, but they want to move out there when they retire. They say that crime is very low, tax is diddly and it'll be hot. I certainly couldn't envisage moving countries. It'd be far too much hassle and I'd miss odd things, I think.

fanny splendid

Quote from: "Smackhead Kangaroo"vials of booster steroids

Soju

Quote from: "Smackhead Kangaroo"so they can enter a special state of combat rage

Shibal-ya, migook saram!



"No, no, no. At least a little bit of you must be Japanese..."

Incredible Monkey Doctor

Quote from: "fanny splendid"Maybe Chinese, I only know a tiny bit of that, but Japanese wasn't that difficult. Admittedly, I only did a 6 month course, but the hardest thing about it was remembering the symbols. Korean is pretty damn easy, too. And the symbols are very easy to learn. Only takes you an hour to get the basics, then it's just practise.

Show off.

;p

Nearly Annually

Quote from: "Incredible Monkey Doctor"... any Asian language is a complete bastard to learn because unlike (say) French, you don't just change the words around from French ones to English ones - the whole language structure is completely different. It'll take 3 years before you can even string a halfway decent sentence together.
Hmm, I've managed dutch (>german) which is structurally harder than french, but I'm sure Mandarin is to the power of argh more harder innit.

Quote from: "Incredible Monkey Doctor"I wouldn't attempt to learn it on your own. Without tuition you will just come out with streams of poorly pronounced garbage that nobody would understand. However as an intellectual exercise it really will stretch your brain and is a solid challenge.
Scary. Perhaps I should first endeavour not to come out with streams of poorly pronounced garbage that nobody understands in english. I only wanted to learn Mandarin so that I could teach it to the littl'un at some stage. I think when the time comes I'll just pack him off to proper lessons and put me feet up in front of the footy. For his own good, like.

neuteredcats

Quote from: "bresker"It's the same in all first-world countries though. The mediterranean countries have an even lower birthrate.

Some governments, like Sweden, are belately trying to encourage folks to have more kids by offering tax breaks & maternity pay to breeders, but it's not making much of a difference.

.

They do that here too......it's called the Working Family's Tax Credit. Basically a pernicious bit of social engineering which means if you decide to overpopulate the world with your horrid offspring and work in a low paid job too, the Government will reward you handsomely.

I know about this because my neighbour left her tax return in our bin. Her yearly income was £12,000 and for having one child they rewarded her with £6,000. The reason her stuff was in our bin was that every week, without fail, her bin was full to the brim. Not surprising really, seeing as she is quids in Bliar's Lottery Britain...

This is another reason I fucking hate living here. Is why I should have to work my arse off in a meaningless, pointless job to fund other people's kids??? And fund a war that is costing the taxpayer £5 million a day and has already cost around £3 billion.

Some of the reasons why I don't work....

bresker

Still smiing at the irony of someone who refuses to work complaining about his neighbours tax bill.

The government is worried about not having taxpayers to fund you and your generation when you reach old age. If the current low birthrates continue, and there isn't an influx of educated skilled workers from abroad, then our western first world cushy societies will cease to exist. We'll have a society top heavy with coffin dodgers.

In future, Britain might be competing with other countries for these young, skilled migrants. They might choose to live in America, Scandanavia, Australia, or not to travel at all.

So start putting money in your pension now, or be prepared to work until you're eighty.

And start breeding, losers! That nice girl you see on the train every day, why not go up to her and ask if you can impregnate her with your fertile man-milk.

neuteredcats

Quote from: "bresker"Still smiing at the irony of someone who refuses to work complaining about his neighbours tax bill.

There's no irony in it!

I worked 10 years of my life already, during which time I paid my taxes, so I think that gives me right to comment. And anyway, perhaps when societal attitudes change things might improve for people like myself who wan't to get on but aren't prepared to brown nose our way to the top like most have to.

Secondly, I don't refuse to work. I am unable to work for medical reasons. My point was that I don't agree with a wide range of the policies of this government and would find it very hard to be working right now funding a bunch of neo-socialist toadying Christian thugs bulldoze their way from Serbia to Iraq without my or many others having any say in the matter!!!

QuoteThe government is worried about not having taxpayers to fund you and your generation when you reach old age. If the current low birthrates continue, and there isn't an influx of educated skilled workers from abroad, then our western first world cushy societies will cease to exist. We'll have a society top heavy with coffin dodgers.

I believe this whole we're not going to be able to support all the oldies line is a load of crap intended to frighten people into working longer than they actually have to. If people are worried about losing the standard of living they are used to when they get older then they should save more money. It's simple. And if you're not bothered, and are prepared to cut back on luxuries, then fine. I'm really not bothered. And anyway, how many of our generation will be left in old age if, as they predict, 1 in 3 adults will be obese by 2020???

QuoteSo start putting money in your pension now, or be prepared to work until you're eighty.

And start breeding, losers! That nice girl you see on the train every day, why not go up to her and ask if you can impregnate her with your fertile man-milk.

I would suggest a much better solution - downsize

That's right. I don't buy all this - 'oh we should be worried if the birth rate falls' crap. If you ask me, the planet would be in much better shape if it wasn't so fucking over-populated.

And anyway, if the bird flu makes the species jump, blips in the birth demographic will end up meaning jack shit my friend. Wait and see.....[/i][/quote]