 |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On 29-11-2009 17:05, Darren New wrote:
> andrel wrote:
>> Same for France (though they have the added problem of no speaking
>> English)
>
> I spent three or four weeks in France, at least two of which were in
> Paris itself. There was only one person I met who refused to speak
> english, and since he was behind a post office desk with my unstamped
> post cards on the table in front of him, I have to assume he was failing
> to understand me intentionally.
The French that I know have an English accent that is very hard to
understand. That may be because they tend to be older and the accent of
the generation of my mother here in the Netherlands was also on the edge
on comprehensibility (or slightly over).
How is the accent among young French persons nowadays? Anyone knows?
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Stephen wrote:
> I note with some amusement that in my country, "50 miles" *is* from one
> coast to the other. :P
In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance. In the USA, 100 years is a long
time. :-)
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
much longer being almost empty than almost full.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
andrel wrote:
> The French that I know have an English accent that is very hard to
> understand.
There is that, yes. French accents seem to hang around almost as much as
chinese accents.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
much longer being almost empty than almost full.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On Sun, 29 Nov 2009 22:47:45 +0100, andrel <a_l### [at] hotmail com>
wrote:
>
> How is the accent among young French persons nowadays? Anyone knows?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taJw8mM3Og0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE9xrel-voI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7IvWopo0Mw
--
FE
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> I would suggest that you'd be insane to try to travel around central
>> London by car. It's not that public transport is superb - it isn't -
>
> The subway takes you where you need to go. I've been all over london.
Tried leaving the West End on a Saturday night just after all the shows
finish? Let's just say the trainsport system could do with about 10x the
capacity. ;-) [Although, obviously, this is infeasible.]
>> it's more that the roads are an insane nightmare.
>
> This is true in most cities that were laid out before the invention of
> automobiles.
Which isn't terribly surprising, really.
One of the things I like about MK is that it has a road network that was
*designed*, rather than having to try to fit a road network into a city
which already exists and wasn't laid out with mass transport in mind.
(Having said that, the people in charge of the city now are apparently
extremely anti-car, and are doing their absolute best to ruin the city's
great transport network to force everybody onto the busses that don't
exist...)
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Invisible wrote:
>>> I would suggest that you'd be insane to try to travel around central
>>> London by car. It's not that public transport is superb - it isn't -
>>
>> The subway takes you where you need to go. I've been all over london.
>
> Tried leaving the West End on a Saturday night just after all the shows
> finish?
Well, sure. But that's going to be congested regardless of your mode of
transport. Heck, I've been to places that when the show let out, it was too
crowded to *walk* for 15 minutes or more.
> One of the things I like about MK is that it has a road network that was
> *designed*, rather than having to try to fit a road network into a city
> which already exists and wasn't laid out with mass transport in mind.
Yep. Most of the west coast of the USA is like that. Especially where you
have mountains, so it's infeasible to have lots of little back roads running
over canyons.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
much longer being almost empty than almost full.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>>>> I would suggest that you'd be insane to try to travel around central
>>>> London by car. It's not that public transport is superb - it isn't -
>>>
>>> The subway takes you where you need to go. I've been all over london.
>>
>> Tried leaving the West End on a Saturday night just after all the
>> shows finish?
>
> Well, sure. But that's going to be congested regardless of your mode of
> transport. Heck, I've been to places that when the show let out, it was
> too crowded to *walk* for 15 minutes or more.
Every year, MK holds a public demonstration of how awesome our road
network is. On the Saturday after the 5th of November, there's a huge
public firework display (with free entraince - not that you can really
stop people watching something that takes up the entire sky...) A
singificant fraction of the entire populus of the city is concentrated
at a single point in space. When the last firework explodes, the entire
assemblage all try to leave simultanously.
Once you get more than a quarter of a mile from the car park, you'd
never know anything had happened. The traffic disperces *that* efficiently.
(Of course, it'll take you 20 minutes to get your car out of the car
park. And it'll take 30 minutes for you plus a few thousand other people
to shuffle across the three *tiny* bridges connecting Campbell Park to
the rest of the city...)
In London, when it's busy, it's busy *everywhere*, and no matter where
you go, no matter which route you take, it's *all* gridlocked.
Admittedly London is much bigger and far more populated than MK, not
even so...
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Invisible wrote:
> In London, when it's busy, it's busy *everywhere*, and no matter where
> you go, no matter which route you take, it's *all* gridlocked.
While I've occasionally seen congested subways, I must admit I've never seen
a gridlocked subway.
--
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
Human nature dictates that toothpaste tubes spend
much longer being almost empty than almost full.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> I note with some amusement that in my country, "50 miles" *is* from
>> one coast to the other. :P
>
> In Europe, 100 miles is a long distance. In the USA, 100 years is a long
> time. :-)
In geological time, 1,000,000 years is nothing. In technological time,
1,000 days is a long time. In processor time, 1,000 ms is several Ice Ages.
(Excuse me - interglacial periods...)
--
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
On Sun, 29 Nov 2009 08:09:07 -0800, Darren New wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 wrote:
>> People with an accent that's difficult to understand, basically.
>
> Move to a country that's teeming with people with bad accents, and
> everyone will accommodate you. Move to someplace where everyone speaks
> the same foreign language and I'm not so sure.
That's very true in most cases - especially if one makes an effort to try
to speak in the native language (even a poor attempt is generally well-
received, certainly better than none at all).
And there's nothing that will improve your ability to hear through an
accent than living someplace where people talk with an accent you find
hard to understand - or even just working with people with a heavy
accent. I find, for example, that after a few months of weekly
conference calls with developers in India, I can usually understand even
through the thickest Indian accent now.
Jim
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
