Something I don't like about Germans

[kokopup]

Kirsten , Barbara

Your English skill background is given away by your use of one word.
Learnt is the English version for the American word Learned.

All of our European PT friends do amazingly well with their post. If i had to post in German, French, Flemish, Spanish or Swedish I would be lost. I refer to various language dictionaries from time to time and am able to construct maybe a simple phrase if it doesn't contain more than 2 or 3 words.

I envy people that are Multlingual. When I lived in the Netherlands about 70% of the population spoke English. I went to Dutch lessons for a while but every time I spoke to someone in Dutch, when they heard my accent, they switched to listening in English. If I told them I am going to try to speak Dutch they would undestand me then. The only time I found an audience was when i spoke Dutch to someone that didn't speak English. I finally gave up because everyone I had dealings with spoke excellent English. Most of them thought they spoke Queens English but because they watched so many American movies it had taken on more of an American flavor.

[Kirsten]

Learnt is the English version for the American word Learned.

See, this must be one of the remnants of what we have learned in school. I will try to keep that in mind! LOL

The Dutch, as far as I know, speak an excellent English, like the Danes, or people from the other Scandinavian countries. Much better than the Germans do, btw. I guess it's because they - unlike the Germans - see American or English movies or tv shows in undubbed versions.

Kirsten

[Randi]

It's annoying that on some boards people are very arrogant, but then, if you want help with something, you have to put up with it. Luckily, I'm not particularly interested in posting anywhere, but PT.

Speaking of learning other languages, I had English in school from I was 11 years old, and when I left, I took an evening class during two winters. I really wanted to learn English so I could read the pop magazines I bought (Fabulous and Rave I think they were called). I also wanted to understand the text in the songs I liked - so that was an incentive too.

I met John in 79, but he already spoke Danish fluently, so we kept speaking Danish. He told me he started to go a Bar where lots of foreigners came (Pilegården), just to keep his English fluent - of course, there were other reasons for going there too. LOL! It was a fun place, run by a Canadian ice hockey player, a Japanese guy and a crazy Czecholovakian (yes, I had to look that up!) Even some funny Americans were part of the crowd!