living in europe

Magda writes:

On which planet??

This one. Learning is fun until one is soured on the experience by
school.

--
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DDT Filled Mormons writes:

The motivation is by far the greatest factor in it, and thus if it
tends to decrease with age, so does the learning ability.

But motivation does not necessarily decrease with age.

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Gregory Morrow writes:

Well these days I figure with everyone in the world clambering to learn
English why on *earth* would I ever even bother with wanting to learn some
difficult and eventually fairly useless foreign tongue?

You make an important point. However, much of this depends on which
language people speak in your immediate environment. People in China
may be rushing to learn English, but that doesn't help you if you live
in a South American city where just about everyone speaks Spanish. It
will be a very, very long time before everyone speaks English as his
native language (if it ever happens at all), and it will be quite a
long time before everyone speaks English as a second language (and
that's not guaranteed to happen, either).

--
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Luigi Donatello Asero writes:

What about older people?

Older people were teens in the 1960s at the earliest, and they are
increasingly casual in their dress, too.

Could you distinguish one from Stockholm from one from Cleveland?

Not on sight.

--
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On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 23:48:22 +0100, "Chris Jones"
wrote:

Interesting read, to see how European things are viewed from "the other
side". However, I'm wondering how long ago this was written? Some things,
such as "Because credit cards are expensive, few Europeans use them" are
simply no longer true.

It's also an indication of how difficult it is to generalise. I don't
know how old the author is, but he refers to having been in France as
a student; certainly if he'd spent time in France within the last 25
years he'd have found credit cards widely used. He's spent time more
recently in Germany, which is a little less geared up to credit cards,
though that's more a cultural thing than a case of retailers not being
able to afford the charges.

I'm puzzled by the reference to an hour of soak time in a washing
machine: the programme that we most frequently use on our Bosch
washing machine runs for just 62 minutes - though there are many
longer progammes with soaks and pre-washes that you can select if you
need them. As far as I know most washing machines these days do
accept both hot and cold fills, though they tend only to use hot fills
for the hotttest programmes.

The reference to renting unfurnished apartments which don't even have
a kitchen sink is true of Germany; it's not true of everywhere in
Europe. It's as alien to me (from Britain) as it is to the author
(from America). Similarly, don't expect to find the elaborate triage
arrangements for domestic rubbish (separating paper, different
coloured glass, etc) described here to be replicated in every country,
though in my bit of London we are now being asked to separate food and
garden waste as well as paper, plastic and glass.

And, like somebdoy else in a thread, I don't recognise the bit about
always keeping internal doors closed: of course if you have a room
that you really don't occupy, such as a spare bedroom used as a box
room, you wouldn't heat it and it would be prudent to keep the door
closed in winter, but that's the only instance that I can think of.

Actually the bit about electrical sockets in British Isles not being
standardised (in the electrical chapter on another page) rather dates
it - apart from shaver sockets, and assuming you aren't going to be
connecting up theatre lighting or heavy-duty power tools, a visitor to
Britain would only come across the standard 13-amp sockets these days.

Finally, in pedantic mode note that the phone code for London hasn't
been +44 1 for many years - it is now +44 20 .

Hope this is taken in a constructive vein...

Martin

Following up to Mxsmanic

Also, I''m nowhere near fluent in any language but English, and
it's much harder to become so when one is elderly.

Age is not an impediment to the acquisition of additional languages.

its much harder to learn languages as you get older, or any other
memory dependant thing.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Following up to DDT Filled Mormons

The motivation is by far the greatest factor in it, and thus if it
tends to decrease with age, so does the learning ability.

does motivation decrease with age? I'm much more motivated to
learn Spanish than when I was at school. But memorising stuff
seems much harder.
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Following up to DDT Filled Mormons and Magma

If you really buy this urban legend, I pity you - in a few years you'll think you are "too
old" for many things.

there's a vast difference between acknowledging memory tasks
become harder and thinking you are too old to do things. Your
pity is misplaced.

(Don't stock up the Viagra - if you need it, you are too old for sex... p)

I wont be needing it for a while yet.

Me neither, even though I struggle with Spanish!
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Following up to chancellor of the duchy of besses o' th' barn and
prestwich tesco 24h offy

But if someone is going to hate you for making language mistakes, they
won't hate you any less because you're an American. IOW, it will be
probably be obvious you're not a native speaker. If you can speak the
language "pretty good" why would you worry about someone hating you for
a few mistakes? I really wouldn't waste your time worrying about making
an impression on that kind of person anyway- there are few on the
ground.

Plus I think I am very different from what people expect from an American.

What do people in Europe expect from an American?

I think we expect Americans to be poorly informed on non US
issues, in a rush to see major sites rather than holiday, be rich
and be conservative on food, wanting steaks all the time. We
expect them to have had a lot of dental work and have big toothy
smiles. Oh, and right wing in politics of course. We are
surprised by those who speak Spanish.
The last half dozen Americans I got to know didn't conform to
hardly any of that. Except the smiles and the food maybe. That
smile disappears when the offal arrives :-)
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"

Following up to The Rev Gaston

In our local bar on Saturday, a drunk was gesticulating at us and
making remarks about George Bush. He was quite amiable, but quite
deluded, snce our table consisted of two Italians, a Greek, and a Brit.

I assume he was deluded about you, not Bush?
--
Mike Reid
Walk-eat-UK "http://www.fellwalk.co.uk" -- you can email us@ this site
Walk-eat-Spain "http://www.fell-walker.co.uk" -- dontuse@ all, it's a spamtrap
Photos of both "http://www.lawn-mower-man.co.uk"