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A discussion about your country! | ||
Tags: Place of Residence | Cultural Identity | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Cultural Experiences in Foreign Languages |  | |
| Iwwersetzerin Bilingual Heptaglot Senior Member Luxembourg Joined 5669 days ago 259 posts - 513 votes  Speaks: French*, Luxembourgish*, GermanC2, EnglishC2, SpanishC2, DutchC1, ItalianC1 Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 57 of 66 28 May 2009 at 6:57pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hi Cordelia. You're absolutely right, in Luxembourg it is no big deal to speak 5 languages fluently, it is in fact quite natural for most people here. We're used to it since childhood. Everybody has to learn at least four languages at school (Luxembourgish, German, French, English) and it is possible to add one or two more (in most schools either ancient Greek or Latin and Spanish or Italian).
I don't know about any documentary about languages in Luxembourg, but here is a pretty good article: http://www.eu2005.lu/en/savoir_lux/societe_tradition/luxembo urgeois/index.php We do have great biking tracks in Luxembourg. Biking is very popular here. Check out the "Sports" section on the website of the National Tourist Office http://www.ont.lu/spor-en-6-27.html Iwwersetzerin does indeed mean translator in Luxembourgish, it's the female form, the masculine is Iwwersetzer. You guessed it, I'm a translator. :-) 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 58 of 66 06 October 2010 at 9:06pm | IP Logged | ||
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My country - the United Kingdom is made up of four countries (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland)
The U.K is a great place to visit as we have one of the richest histories in the world, hence, castles, palaces, monuments, cathedrals, Her Majesty The Queen, pubs, steam trains....Our small island colonised most of the world and spread our culture and language. My countrys landscape is more varied than most people think as we have big cities such as London, Manchester and Glasgow, rolling farmland, moors, mountains in Scotland and Wales and arguably the most stunning coastline in the world. Shame that the weather is so bad! ^^ Stereotypes of British people are divided into two categories - the fantasist American view of Britain and the more realistic European and Commonwealth view of British people. Americans seem to actually believe that all British people speak with an accent that only 0000.1% of British people actually speak with, apparently we have bad teeth, wear monocles and are so snooty. But remember that too many Americans are crippled by ignorance to the outside world so I can't take them seriously. Other nationalities such as the French, Spanish, Germans etc are probably almost correct with their view of modern Britain - a failing economy, awful government and that many British people are drunk, loud and violent (I'm not one of these). I have been to Spain, France and Greece many times and the locals are actually suprised that I do not fit into their offensive stereotype of British people. But I can easily forgive them. Blighty - the green and pleasant land, home of Shakespeare, Henry VIII, Sir Winston Churchill, Boudicca, Charles Darwin, Admiral Nelson, Football, The Beatles, Queen Victoria, Boxing and James Bond. What ever the stereotypes you hear about my country, don't go by these, make up your own opinion. :) Edited by Jon1991 on 06 October 2010 at 9:37pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 59 of 66 13 October 2010 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
False. You have 2 accents. Upper-class snoots, and working class "govna" types. Boil everything, eat odd food (tripe and mince pie... odd for an American). :-P I'm from Upstate NY. Land of... well... uh.. snow I guess. Shedloads of snow. Known affectionately as the rust belt. Dying economy, people leavin in droves... Why the hell am I here? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sprachprofi Nonaglot Senior Member Germany learnlangs.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6470 days ago 2608 posts - 4866 votes Speaks: German*, English, French, Esperanto, Greek, Mandarin, Latin, Dutch, Italian Studies: Spanish, Arabic (Written), Swahili, Indonesian, Japanese, Modern Hebrew, Portuguese | Message 60 of 66 14 October 2010 at 12:15am | IP Logged | ||
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I am from Germany. The reason nobody has written about Germany yet is that most
educated Germans prefer to think of themselves as Europeans, and ministers have ruined their career by saying they are proud to be German. There are also some regionalists, but there is hardly anyone (apart from 3% Neonazis) who is actually patriotic about Germany. Yet, having traveled around a bit, I don't think it's quite bad. We have hearty food and good beer... ;-) Seriously... Germany has universal healthcare at affordable costs. There's free education up to and including university in most cases. You can actually reach a pretty high level in up to four foreign languages at public schools. People are respectful of each other's time, not arriving too late for appointments, and public transport usually works without a hitch or a strike too. We have flat areas, hilly regions and mountains, great forests and lakes, even the seashore and a few islands (kept carefully hidden so foreigners won't know). Germany calls itself "Land der Dichter und Denker" (country of poets and thinkers). There is certainly a lot of literature, and also some of the greatest philosophers and psychologists were German. Germany doesn't have many non-exploited natural resources. The reason it has been and is still able to compete with the USA and China for the title of world's top exporter is because Germany is keeping ahead in know-how and craftsmanship, importing resources and refining them or building stuff with them that others can't do as well. Despite the stereotype, Germans are not workaholics; in fact Germany is among the countries with the least amount of work hours per year. Starting out at a job you are guaranteed 4 weeks of vacation time not counting public holidays or sick leave. The only reason it still feels like a disadvantage to be born here is because it gives anybody else on the internet the irrevocable right to ignore any serious statement/argument a German might make, simply referencing the Third Reich. Edited by Sprachprofi on 14 October 2010 at 12:16am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ManicGenius Senior Member United States Joined 5481 days ago 288 posts - 420 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, French, Japanese | Message 61 of 66 14 October 2010 at 8:26pm | IP Logged | ||
As the now incarcerated Vince says "You know the Germans, they make good stuff." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5956 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 62 of 66 20 October 2010 at 6:06am | IP Logged | ||
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I live in Canada along with some +32 million other frost-bitten hose-heads and some
polar bears and other critters. Some aspects of Canada are covered in the attached videos below: I am Canadian I am Canadian beaver Canadian Idiot Canadian Code NHL I am Canadian Edited by Spanky on 21 October 2010 at 7:13am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Gorgoll2 Senior Member Brazil veritassword.blogspo Joined 5146 days ago 159 posts - 192 votes Speaks: Portuguese* | Message 63 of 66 16 November 2010 at 1:36am | IP Logged | ||
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I am brzilian. I am living in Aracati. Here is many strangers. I often hear then
speaking languages like Danish, Dutch, among others - I saw a Thai and Korean girls other day. The literary critician Harold Bloom said Brazil is a other world. He´s the greatest linguistic unity in the world: in all it speak Portuguese with perfect inteligibility and few people can speak an other language - I´m not still fluent in English. The foreign love the Brazil, and we love they. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 64 of 66 16 November 2010 at 2:25am | IP Logged | ||
As an American who's traveled a little bit, I've found that both Brits and Americans are often lumped into the same stereotypes, at least when it comes to expats living abroad. Neither group tends to speak more than English while abroad, and tend to gravitate towards English-only speaking businesses. For a bit of evidence of this, check out coastal southern Spain. Too many English-only speaking pubs and bars to mention. But I've also found this in other parts of Europe, as well as in South America. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful |
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