On Wed, 16 Jun 2004 07:42:16 +0100, Jon Senior <jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk> wrote (more or less):
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Michael MacClancy [email hidden] opined the following...
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I'm so glad you wrote 'English' there. Of course the Scots, Irish and Welsh have such wonderful reputations for their linguistic skills, don't they? (Not counting those poor souls who feel oppressed because they have to speak a foreign language in their own countries, that is.)
The Scots don't tend to move that far from their homeland... after all, nowhere else in the world could be better! ;-)
No - they tend to move then start mythologising about how no place could be better.
I'm so glad you wrote 'English' there. Of course the Scots, Irish and Welsh have such wonderful reputations for their linguistic skills, don't they? (Not counting those poor souls who feel oppressed because they have to speak a foreign language in their own countries, that is.)
Speak for yourself. In my experience the Irish have a much better attitude to other languages than the average UKian. Certainly languages are in a much stronger position in Irish universities than in British.
Brendan -- Brendan Halpin, Department of Sociology, University of Limerick, Ireland Tel: w +353-61-213147 f +353-61-202569 h +353-61-390476; Room F2-025 x 3147 "][email hidden] ul.iebrendan.halpin.htmlOpen ↗
Jon Senior jon_AT_restlesslemon_DOTco_DOT_uk said:
When backpacking in Italy last summer, I was horrified by the lack of language skills possessed by many of the people we met. The non-native English speakers we met, all spoke reasonable-to-perfect English,
You evidently never went off the beaten track.
Outside the honeypots, few Italians speak any english at all.
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(We think the owner took pity on the obviously stupid foreigners!).
Broadly speaking, Italians have a much more laid- back/flexible attitude than Brits.
-- Nick Kew (who lived&worked nearly six years in Italy)
I'm so glad you wrote 'English' there. Of course the Scots, Irish and Welsh have such wonderful reputations for their linguistic skills, don't they? (Not counting those poor souls who feel oppressed because they have to speak a foreign language in their own countries, that is.)
Speak for yourself. In my experience the Irish have a much better attitude to other languages than the average UKian. Certainly languages are in a much stronger position in Irish universities than in British.
Brendan
I stand corrected.
Might that be because many Irish expect to continue the tradition of leaving Ireland for distant lands? ('Getting on your bike' a la Norman Tebbit, to bring this vaguely back OT.)
;-) -- Michael MacClancy Random putdown - "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker www.macclancy.demon.co.uk www.macclancy.co.uk
Graeme <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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Graeme <[email hidden]> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:
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I've not heard that in about 15 years! I must dig it out. "Length of the solar year, equinox to equinox, 365.something or other"
Oops, memory fading a bit. Just found the lyrics on a web site -
Maximum distance from the sun: 94 million 537 thousand miles Minimum distance from the sun: 91 million 377 thousand miles Mean distance from the sun: 92 million 957 thousand and 200 miles Mean Orbital velocity: 66000 miles per hour 0rbital eccentricity: 0.017 Obliquity of the ecliptic: 23 degrees 27 minutes 8.26 seconds Length of the tropical year: equinox equinox 365.24 days Lenght of the sidereal year: fixed star fixed star 365.26 days Length of the mean solar day: 24 hours and 3 minutes and 56.5555 seconds at mean solar time Length of the mean sidereal day: 23 hours and 56 minutes and 4.091 seconds at mean sederial time Mass: 6600 milion milion milion tons Equatorial diameter: 7927 miles Polar diameter: 7900 miles Oblateness: one 298th Density: 5.41 Mean surface gravitational acceleration of the rotating earth: 32.174 feet per second per second Escape velocity: 7 miles per second
This is that whatever foreign language native English speakers learn it's nearly always the wrong one.
Nah. I learned all my languages when I lived in countries where they are natively spoken. So they were all the right one for the time.
Oh, except french, which we supposedly did at school. But since our french teacher never turned up for lessons, we just played bridge instead, so nothing lost.
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(If someone had told me 20 years ago that I was going to spend several years working in Japan,
This is that whatever foreign language native English speakers learn it's nearly always the wrong one.
Nah. I learned all my languages when I lived in countries where they are natively spoken. So they were all the right one for the time.
Oh, except french, which we supposedly did at school. But since our french teacher never turned up for lessons, we just played bridge instead, so nothing lost.
What sort of elitist school did you go to that you played bridge? We played brag - and plenty was lost.
Anyway, don't you think that doing Italian in school would have been a more useful application of your time (than French or bridge)?
;-)
-- Michael MacClancy Random putdown - "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain www.macclancy.demon.co.uk www.macclancy.co.uk
"Tony W" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:<[email hidden]>...
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"Peter B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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A picture in yesterdays local rag showed a greengrocer leaning over some bananas on scales with the heading stating "Fed up with being pushed
around
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by Brussels".
As a child I was sometimes admonished for 'playing with my food' when pushing cold and soggy brussels round my plate.
They never, as far as I can remember, fought back.
Is this a new GM strain?
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Had this appeared in The Stun I'd have assumed it deliberate but I imagine it went over the heads of most at the local rag :-) (Or it was some sublety like "Roger the cabin boy" which went over my head when I was five).
Is that like Muffin the Mule?
T
Cue Smirnoff joke.
If Brussels' are so nice why do we only ever eat them at Xmas?
(If someone had told me 20 years ago that I was going to spend several years working in Japan,
during which you presumably learned japanese.
Am learning, slowly, but it is hard going and will be absolutely no use to me unless I stay here for a very long time (which is not likely, but possible). More likely, I will go somewhere else, and have to start again...meanwhile the whole scientific world communicates in english so there is really no purpose in learning anything else.
In "]news:[email hidden], James Annan <[email hidden]> typed:
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Nick Kew said:
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(If someone had told me 20 years ago that I was going to spend several years working in Japan,
during which you presumably learned japanese.
Am learning, slowly, but it is hard going and will be absolutely no use to me unless I stay here for a very long time (which is not likely, but possible). More likely, I will go somewhere else, and have to start again
Presumably it's easier the second time round. Especially given that most of the research world speaks germanic or romance languages, unlike Japan.
On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 15:20:53 +0100, "Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> () wrote:
> In "]news:[email hidden], Daniel > Barlow <[email hidden]> typed: > >> "Ambrose Nankivell" >> <[email hidden]> writes: >> >> >>> accusing me of being an alcoholic instead. Because I >>> mentioned I was too ill to drink any beer, a relevant >>> symptom, IMHO. >>> >>> Anyway, I'm not bitter, honest. >> >> Just lager than you were? I hop this doesn't tun into >> another pun thread; that would ale be a bit much. > > I was going to draught you a reply, but I'm bottling it > up now. Can't see the pint.
Stout fella! I'm getting browned off with this punning. Anything geuze, or so it seems.
Well, it is starting to kriek at the seams a bit.
Yer not wrong there. I'm going to Hoe the gaarden...
What are you witte'ring on about? I think you're kwaking up.
"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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In "]news:[email hidden], Alan Holmes <alan@holmes- g4crw.freeserve.co.uk> typed:
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"Ambrose Nankivell" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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He wrote it in English.
You may not be aware that this country still measures distance in miles!
And plenty of English speaking countries don't.
Have you bothered to read the title of this newsgroup, it starts with the letters 'uk' which implies that it is directed primarily to the occupants of a small island just off the west coast of europe, otherwise known as Great Britain!
"Peter B" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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"Alan Holmes" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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Nowadays, not so fast, but about 55 years ago I was cycling home from work one evening and a motorist started to tail me, after a little while
it
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was begining to iritate me and I was just about to stop and say
something
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when he drew anlongside and shorted at me that I was travelling at 30 mph, I didn't know what to say as a response.
Oh, a pissing contest! Nowadays at 50 years old I travel downhill on a road bike at up to 40 mph with a tail wind in Leicestershire and 42 mph downhill on rough tarmac
roads
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in Derbyshire on an mtb. I once rode downhill at 50mph in Yorkshire. Speeds verified in 2 cases on 2 different bike computers on my bikes and
in
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the other case with a computer on a friends mtb. These are easier to use
at
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40mph than working it out with a map and stopwatch.
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Have you noticed that journeys home are always faster than the journey
out?
Only when I get the route and wind direction to work in unison.
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which means I had travelled 84 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes, which was an average of (if my arithmetic is up to date) 29.5 mph. Bearing in mind that the
bike
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was loaded for a fortnights holiday, self catering and clothing for that time, primus stove, paraffin, meths, water container, milk and etc, that wasn't a bad average, especially as the trip was across the Cotswolds.
And then the alarm clock woke you up and it was a wet Monday morning ;-)
"Dave Kahn" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...
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On Tue, 15 Jun 2004 09:01:44 +0100, "Just zis Guy, you
know? said:
Alan Holmes said:
travelled 84 miles in 2 hours 50 minutes, which was an average of (if my arithmetic is up to date) 29.5 mph. Bearing in mind that the bike was loaded for a fortnights holiday, self catering and clothing for that time, primus stove, paraffin, meths, water container, milk and etc, that wasn't a bad average, especially as the trip was across the Cotswolds.
See what happens when you get the decimal point in the wrong place? You look like an eejit!
I must have missed this, but if you try pacing a few cyclists when out in you car, you will be surprised at the speeds they do travel at.
25 is often a speed that some travel at and I have followed one or two at 30.
