Things that piss you off that shouldn't

[lapal_fan]

11 hours ago, tonyh29 said:

acrylamide has yet to be shown to cause cancer in humans so maybe the headline should have been that we need to stop feeding burnt toast to animals ? 

Can we enjoy nothing anymore?  

[Xela]

Birmingham Mail website

Stop trying to auto load a **** video on EVERY page

[kurtsimonw]

English/American people being called "lazy" for not knowing a second language. I have 3 friends who were born speaking a different language, they speak English for convenience and can get by almost anywhere with it, so what second language do we learn? It's a very time consuming thing to do and more difficult once you leave school since you're most likely to be doing it solo. I do agree that learning greetings/phrases/responses when you go on holiday is important and respectful, but to learn how to converse is very difficult. Most European languages, Spanish aside, aren't really spoken in many places, so unless you plan on going there regularly it's a bit time consuming for something you'll rarely use, isn't it?

[AVFCDAN]

The only reason I can see for kids still learning a second language through school is that it helps to develop an understanding of our own language. Other than that it seemed like a waste of 5 years of school to me, could have been doing more PE to get those obesity levels down.

[HanoiVillan]

Learning a second language develops interest in other cultures, creates awareness of the link between language and perception of the world, and creates employment and travel opportunities as well. 

My regret is not taking it seriously enough. 

[sharkyvilla]

35 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Learning a second language develops interest in other cultures, creates awareness of the link between language and perception of the world, and creates employment and travel opportunities as well. 

My regret is not taking it seriously enough. 

Me too, that and not taking music lessons seriously are a couple of my biggest regrets from school days.  I envy my best mate who is Slovakian and can reel off 5 different languages at will and plays piano to a decent level.  I just feel a bit daft in comparison.

[Rugeley Villa]

My wife wants to learn another language. In my ignorant ways I think why bother when we talk English and it's the main language in the world. I was never any good at French,German or Spanish at school, but then again I never showed it any interest.

[snowychap]

4 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

My wife wants to learn another language.

How did she word it? Did she say that she was interested in other tongues?

[Rugeley Villa]

1 minute ago, snowychap said:

How did she word it? Did she say that she was interested in other tongues?

You know her too well 

[tonyh29]

1 hour ago, HanoiVillan said:

Learning a second language develops interest in other cultures, creates awareness of the link between language and perception of the world, and creates employment and travel opportunities as well. 

My regret is not taking it seriously enough. 

A big "This"

my kids are already fluent in 2 languages and if they weren't as lazy as me could probably be on their way to a third now instead of just being able to say Bonjour you cheese eating surrender monkeys... kids brains are like sponges for learning languages 

if I did my school time again I'd learn as many languages as I could instead of pointless shit like sitting in a lab turning Bunsen burners on when the teacher wasn't looking 

that said I've had some great conversations with people when the common language is waving your arms a bit and nodding a lot , it would probably be quite boring if we actually understood each other 

[brommy]

Shouting in English works as well as learning any language.

[villa4europe]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Learning a second language develops interest in other cultures, creates awareness of the link between language and perception of the world, and creates employment and travel opportunities as well. 

My regret is not taking it seriously enough. 

My experience of languages at school was feeling forced in to it, rubbish learning techniques and pretty poor teachers meaning I resented having to it and found it boring as ****

you had to do French and then got an option for German, lots of videos, even more repeat after me and standing up in front of everyone

after 5 years of French I still couldn't get my head round le or la, can't remember a single kid in my class being able to hold a conversation, 3 years of German was the same (although a lad I went to school with could read German books by year 11 and went on to study German and law at Cambridge and got himself a military job that I imagine pays the rent) 

[HanoiVillan]

1 minute ago, villa4europe said:

My experience of languages at school was feeling forced in to it, rubbish learning techniques and pretty poor teachers meaning I resented having to it and found it boring as ****

you had to do French and then got an option for German, lots of videos, even more repeat after me and standing up in front of everyone

after 5 years of French I still couldn't get my head round le or la, can't remember a single kid in my class being able to hold a conversation, 3 years of German was the same (although a lad I went to school with could read German books by year 11 and went on to study German and law at Cambridge and got himself a military job that I imagine pays the rent) 

To be fair, techniques for teaching languages have improved massively since you and I were in school. 

[V01]

It's true, they've even got electric lights now...

[Mandy Lifeboats]

Last year Mrs Lifeboats and I were in a Chinese Restaurant  (in China). After ordering a meal by using the universal language of pointing at things our meal arrived. But with no utensils to eat with. Mrs Lifeboats did what I thought was a rather good mime of using chopsticks. The waiter seemed to understand and went away.  He came back and presented her with a picture of what we guess was an owl made from seashells. 

1. How the hell did he reach that conclusion?

2. If anyone ever wants to order a picture of an owl made from seashells from China, Mrs Lifeboats is available. 

3. No......it wasn't a hoot. 

 

 

 

[villa4europe]

20 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

To be fair, techniques for teaching languages have improved massively since you and I were in school. 

Yeah I bet they have, I reckon that with an actual desire to do it and then the aid of the internet etc I could learn more in 6 months than I ever did at school

my issue now is that after 10 years of working in bandit country I've got a Black Country accent to go with my deep monotone voice, I did try and learn a bit of mandarin about 5 years a go and it was a complete non starter

[kurtsimonw]

2 hours ago, HanoiVillan said:

Learning a second language develops interest in other cultures

I feel it's the opposite to be honest, I think most English people learn a second language because they're already interested in said culture or have a reason to do so. I've attempted to learn Italian for a few years and it's bloody difficult. I know English is a pretty shit language in terms of inconsistencies, but even when I go to non-English speaking countries, they have a lot of exposure to our language which certainly helps.

I do wish that there were more options in school though for kids to learn. We were taught French for 5 years and while I actually enjoyed the subject, why French? And it all seemed to be about memorising rather than actually learning.

 

[villa4europe]

That was my experience too, repeat 30 times what fish is in French, go home and repeat it another 300 times, sit here 18 years later proud that I know that is poisson but have no understanding of the language to actually use that in any way

[kurtsimonw]

7 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

That was my experience too, repeat 30 times what fish is in French, go home and repeat it another 300 times, sit here 18 years later proud that I know that is poisson but have no understanding of the language to actually use that in any way

Yep. I remember 'laver la vaselle' (spelling might be off) means to wash dishes. And I only remember that because the hand gestures my teacher did looked like she was wanking off the invisible man.

[HanoiVillan]

9 minutes ago, kurtsimonw said:

I feel it's the opposite to be honest, I think most English people learn a second language because they're already interested in said culture or have a reason to do so.

That's definitely part of it. It's a feedback loop isn't it, if you're interested in a place, you want to learn the language, the more you learn the language the more you learn about the place. The point I was trying to get at, poorly worded, was that learning the language of another culture opens your eyes to it and allows you to think in alternative ways that your native tongue doesn't allow, or restricts. Learning languages builds tolerance and cultural openness (not amongst everyone, but the vast majority of those who really enjoy learning them). 

9 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

That was my experience too, repeat 30 times what fish is in French, go home and repeat it another 300 times, sit here 18 years later proud that I know that is poisson but have no understanding of the language to actually use that in any way

Mine too. Thank God things have changed. This is a (mildly amusing) video of how English used to be taught as a foreign language 30 years or so ago: