France & getting by with limited french

[iandriver]

Seriously don't think your ever going to win in the Spanish Netherlands, sorry Belgium or what other part constitutes political borders in 2018.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44624066

I kind of like the district cultures being kept alive anyway. Beers good all over.......

[Cyril Haearn]

Wir sind richtige Bildungsbuerger *!

I have likely done it without realising, but could two multilingual people have a conversation where one speaks say all English and the other all German? Does that use a lot of brainpower, is that bad or good for mental capacity?..

* German compound word, Bildung = learning/ Bundesbuerger = citizen of BRD

[meic]

but could two multilingual people have a conversation where one speaks say all English and the other all German?

I used to do that with the German mother-in-law, we could both understand the other language much better than we could speak it.

[Cyril Haearn]

Some people speak a language perfectly but something is missing

I knew a German lad who learnt perfect English from his British mother. Too perfect unfortunately, she used no swear words, apparently his language was quite alien in the football-obsessed British city where he went to university, he had to learn half-a-dozen new words to be used as much as possible

[Marcus Aurelius]

Unless you’re right out in the sticks, you’ve got nothing to worry about. The majority of the continental types have English as a compulsory learned language from an early age. If anything, if you try speaking ‘school French’ in France, you’ll get a reply in English, more often than not.

[thirdcrank]

Septante: 70
Huitant: 80
Nanante: 90

???

Belgian names for the numbers; French French would be:

70: Soixante-Dix (lit. 'Sixty-ten')
80: Quatre-Vingt (lit. 'Four-twenties')
90: Quatre-Vingt-Dix (lit. 'Four-twenties-ten')

Supposedly French is a rational language...

To be thread-to-needle, French is sufficiently rational for four twenties to be quatre-vingts. While I'm on, AFAIK it's nonante rather than nanante, and I've a feeling - nothing more - that scientific usage in France tends towards things like Strontium nonante, rather than Strontium quatre-vingt dix. (And before anybody asks, that "s" is dropped in compound numbers.)

My main reason for posting is to remember that the thread is about getting by with limited French. I see the OP isn't camping so no need to worry about all the lingo covering different fuels for stoves.

[Cyril Haearn]

Seriously don't think your ever going to win in the Spanish Netherlands, sorry Belgium or what other part constitutes political borders in 2018.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-44624066

I kind of like the district cultures being kept alive anyway. Beers good all over.......

Remember when we adopted English-*speaking* riders who did well in the TdF, Lemond, Kelly?
Now we can adopt an English-speaking football team!

I do admire Belgium, the greatest cycling country, seems a bit silly not to cooperate more, but at least they have no "troubles" and the borders are open so they can go south or north to speak their own lingos

Plenty of people live in B and work in F, NL, Lux, D, or vice-versa, +5 for the EU!

[Psamathe]

On one occasion I found it very helpful to NOT have any language skills and totally fail to understand anything spoken in the local language - when the armed police arrived to arrest me. One campsite, despite checking my British passport the owner decided I'm obviously not British. Then, despite my not speaking or understanding Dutch she managed to decide I must be dutch! So obviously I was wanted by the authorities and must be on the run from the Police. So it seemed she called to Police to come and arrest me. And they arrived, checked my passport, but did try throwing in a few lines of Dutch to double check I was not "pretending" and hence I only did the "uuugh?" ("sorry, don't speak dutch"). I wonder if I'd admitted to understanding or responded it may have raised their suspicions.

Ian

[mjr]

On one occasion I found it very helpful to NOT have any language skills and totally fail to understand anything spoken in the local language - when the armed police arrived to arrest me. One campsite, despite checking my British passport the owner decided I'm obviously not British. Then, despite my not speaking or understanding Dutch she managed to decide I must be dutch! So obviously I was wanted by the authorities and must be on the run from the Police. So it seemed she called to Police to come and arrest me. And they arrived, checked my passport, but did try throwing in a few lines of Dutch to double check I was not "pretending" and hence I only did the "uuugh?" ("sorry, don't speak dutch"). I wonder if I'd admitted to understanding or responded it may have raised their suspicions.

Ian

So which campsite should we be avoiding?

[Psamathe]

On one occasion I found it very helpful to NOT have any language skills and totally fail to understand anything spoken in the local language - when the armed police arrived to arrest me. One campsite, despite checking my British passport the owner decided I'm obviously not British. Then, despite my not speaking or understanding Dutch she managed to decide I must be dutch! So obviously I was wanted by the authorities and must be on the run from the Police. So it seemed she called to Police to come and arrest me. And they arrived, checked my passport, but did try throwing in a few lines of Dutch to double check I was not "pretending" and hence I only did the "uuugh?" ("sorry, don't speak dutch"). I wonder if I'd admitted to understanding or responded it may have raised their suspicions.

Ian

So which campsite should we be avoiding? ;-)

An intersting point (and I didn't intend post it online but will if it is relevant or helpful - I doubt the campsite will be doing it again, but it was a bit of a dump) but interesting as I did keep a personal note of what I thought of campsites I visited (some were real terrible dumps, others really excellent) but can't think of anywhere useful to post is as I can't see where it would be helpful. I got the campsites from Archies which does not include reviews and I generally didn't bother to seek out reviews (sites were chosen for being in a suitable pace/distance/etc.).

And for some how good a site is depends on what you are looking for e.g. one site I thought a complete rip-off €30 for one night, one person, no electricity and just a small spot squeezed in on an open grass area (and I was too tired to move on and try elsewhere). But it was a beach resort so whilst I'd comment "rip-off", for a family with kids it is probably a good solution.

So I can't think of how my experiences can be useful to others or sensibly added to somewhere to be accessible to others (I've never found things like Trip Advisor very useful).

Ian

[Cyril Haearn]

Thread resurrection alert

Now is a great time to try to learn a second or third language

Or even try to brush up the French one learned at school 40+ years ago
Whatabout those books, 'French/German/Norwegian in two weeks'?

[millimole]

I CBA to go through all the previous suggestions, but I'm sure Duolingo will have been suggested.
I took French to degree level in my early 50s having failed O level French three times as a teenager, but successfully cycle toured in France. I was hoping to go to Germany this summer on an Interrail trip, including areas where I was assured that English was not widely spoken - so I've been doing Duolingo German.
I'd say that Duolingo will give you plenty of vocabulary, and you might get some grammar by rote learning, but you won't understand why some verbs (in Particular) work the way they do.

There's also a lot of Open University language modules available free in the OpenLearn website, but no tutor involvement.

[simonineaston]

Duolingo is quick and easy & it's free and also I liked Michel Thomas CD-based courses, Duolingo if you're just dabbling and Michel Thomas if you're a bit more serious. His idea of building enough confidence to "get the ball over the net" as he puts it, worked for me. There is nothing the French like more than an Englishman/woman struggling valiently to speak their language - apart from cheese, obs.
Not fool-proof - I was in a bar in St Brieux, proud of my new-found confidence to converse with all and sundry, when I ordered a large white coffee - or so I thought. The girl behind the bar looked daggers at me and stomped off to get le patron. I tried again, a little nervous, but all I got was a nice cup of frothy French coffee and a wry smile from the guvner - Lord knows wot it was the girl thought I said....

[nirakaro]

After an excellent meal (and perhaps a tad too much wine), I had great fun using my limited language skill trying to explain to the server why we call something really good the 'dog's [rude word removed]'.

[Cyril Haearn]

After an excellent meal (and perhaps a tad too much wine), I had great fun using my limited language skill trying to explain to the server why we call something really good the 'dog's <i>[rude word removed]</i>'.

Yes, I have heard that saying, seems a bit queer
Care to explain in English?