Speak Good English Campaign

[sundaymorningstaple]

It must have felt novel speaking a second language, to people in their second language.

I hear it done every day here in Singapore. You often see older Singaporean Chinese talking to Indians using Malay. Not too odd at all.

[Vaucluse]

- German is a bitch to learn
- It's use is limited to Germany
- Er, its not what they speak in most of the rest of the world.
- Any German who is anything is fluent in English (I imagine for a reason)
[/color]

German is difficult to learn, easy to master . . . because it is a logically structured language. English is easy to learn but difficult to master because it is an illogical language.

German is not limited to use in Germany . . . You can use it pretty much anywhere in central Europe, Holland, Belgium, eastern Europe and large parts of Scandinavia

Any German should be speaking English, irrespective of if he is 'someone'

p.s. Circular trivia time. To do a PhD in Germany, you need to be able to speak latin.

I really do not believe this to be true. Actually, It isn't. Sorry. (Though it depends on the University as some still require Latin if you study medicine)

Furthermore, Ph.D.s in Germany are almost always by reserach, with no coursework at all required. Basically, you get your title when your supervisor (professor) is satisfied with your results.

True, research . . . pretty much like anywhere. You don't get brownie points by teaching when you are doing your PhD (My wife is doing her PhD while lecturing as a Law Professor)

I believe you need more than just the satisfaction of one supervisor, added to which the subject has to be approved prior to anything happening . . . and that can take ages)

[x9200]

p.s. Circular trivia time. To do a PhD in Germany, you need to be able to speak latin.

WTF?!? I gotta ask people who got their PhD about this...

Well if you think an American guy is going to sit in a back-of-beach dive shack in Tioman studying and sweating every day over his Latin for months, and explains to me that he has to pass an exam in it to enroll in his PhD in Germany. And he's somehow making that up ... do let me know!

I can tell you that he wasn't doing it for fun!

Well then there must be a very specific reason for it or he got something wrong
Such reason could be for example doing something in the area of software engineering with majority of the input data being medical Latin records.

[JR8]

Any German should be speaking English, irrespective of if he is 'someone'

Except those who were brought up in the East prior to the wall coming down, and hence likely received no education in English at all. Certainly I'd estimate that the majority of people I deal with day-to-day speak no English at all.

And I'm not sure that Westerners should all be speaking English. Plenty of people learn a language in school and then rapidly forget it. I was taken aback on a recent trip to Sulawesi where there were many French tourists, perhaps half of whom could not speak or understand a word of English (you'd have thought these people would be educated, wealthier, cosmopolitan, to afford such holidays). Maybe the same pertains in 'West Germany'?

p.s. X9, despite the guy in question at the time only having a 'Master', I reckon he was smart enough to have good reason to be skipping free diving to study Latin instead

[beppi]

WTF?!? I gotta ask people who got their PhD about this...

Well if you think an American guy is going to sit in a back-of-beach dive shack in Tioman studying and sweating every day over his Latin for months, and explains to me that he has to pass an exam in it to enroll in his PhD in Germany. And he's somehow making that up ... do let me know!

I can tell you that he wasn't doing it for fun!

Well then there must be a very specific reason for it or he got something wrong
Such reason could be for example doing something in the area of software engineering with majority of the input data being medical Latin records.

I bet the reason was simply that he has Masters.

[beppi]

JR8: Please don't compare French and Germans - this is a sensitive issue (for BOTH sides) despite all the European unity!
Fact is that, while most French find speaking a foreign language cumbersome and unnecessary (plus all foreigners who don"t speak French are bastards by definition), we Germans so predictably switch to English as soon as a non-native enters the room, that some of my foreign colleagues complained they have no chance to practise their German.

[JR8]

JR8: Please don't compare French and Germans - this is a sensitive issue (for BOTH sides) despite all the European unity!
Fact is that, while most French find speaking a foreign language cumbersome and unnecessary (plus all foreigners who don"t speak French are bastards by definition), we Germans so predictably switch to English as soon as a non-native enters the room, that some of my foreign colleagues complained they have no chance to practise their German.

You're not from the East then.

[beppi]

It's true that English was uncommon in Eastern Germany before unification - but that was over 20 years ago thus everybody up to 30 years of age there grew up under the new system and studied English, thus no more difference among younger people.

But I'm afraid we are drifting topic. This is a SINGAPORE forum!

[the lynx]

p.s. X9, despite the guy in question at the time only having a 'Master', I reckon he was smart enough to have good reason to be skipping free diving to study Latin instead

I have a question though. Why suddenly choose to cram on Latin in Tioman? Did he suddenly realised that that time?

[x9200]

p.s. X9, despite the guy in question at the time only having a 'Master', I reckon he was smart enough to have good reason to be skipping free diving to study Latin instead

I don't see this post! Any interesting and unexpected development?
Latin is worth studying. Any BS said in Latin sounds good I might contemplate doing it while in Tioman. Perversions are often linked to pleasure

[JR8]

p.s. X9, despite the guy in question at the time only having a 'Master', I reckon he was smart enough to have good reason to be skipping free diving to study Latin instead

I have a question though. Why suddenly choose to cram on Latin in Tioman? Did he suddenly realised that that time?

That's where he lived last year, taking a year-out working in a dive centre.

[the lynx]

p.s. X9, despite the guy in question at the time only having a 'Master', I reckon he was smart enough to have good reason to be skipping free diving to study Latin instead

I have a question though. Why suddenly choose to cram on Latin in Tioman? Did he suddenly realised that that time?

That's where he lived last year, taking a year-out working in a dive centre.

That's awesome! For one moment, I thought it would be a huge waste to be on vacation in Tioman just to study Latin. But then again, he's really something to study Latin *impressed*

[nakatago]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

[the lynx]

Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur.

The only Latin I can appreciate is the binomial nomenclature of my insects...

[Vaucluse]

Except those who were brought up in the East prior to the wall coming down, and hence likely received no education in English at all. Certainly I'd estimate that the majority of people I deal with day-to-day speak no English at all.

Serious? The wall came down quite a while ago now and anyone under 40 should be able to speak it to a certain deegree

And I'm not sure that Westerners should all be speaking English.

Makes it easy for the Anglo mono-lingual species

I was taken aback on a recent trip to Sulawesi where there were many French tourists, perhaps half of whom could not speak or understand a word of English

That's typical French, though - the same applies to Spaniards and Italians. They don't need English and don't want English as a language.

(you'd have thought these people would be educated, wealthier, cosmopolitan, to afford such holidays). Maybe the same pertains in 'West Germany'?

Has nothing to do with it. It's an ethnic thing - they are proud of their language and are keeping it . . . unlike the Dutch, as an example

English is my third language and it is by far the most useful . . . in most parts of the world, by no means everywhere