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Ex Pats and Brummies abroad

Well done, Pedro. I speak enough Greek to get by in a really rural location, but all Greeks here want to improve their English, which is a lot better than my Greek, so we always resort to English in conversation mode. Even a lot of the tavernas in tourist places have reverted to either a numbered item system (a la Chinese) or a complete multi-language system. I suppose you do what is necessary to sell your product to a foreign customer. When we started to get a number of Russians over here, waiters started to learn some basic Russian. In the 5 star hotels they tend to employ Ukrainian staff anyway. Not so much of a demand for German these days and not many Germans still have holiday homes here - Merkel is still a bit of a dirty word! :)

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Well done, Pedro. I speak enough Greek to get by in a really rural location, but all Greeks here want to improve their English, which is a lot better than my Greek, so we always resort to English in conversation mode. Even a lot of the tavernas in tourist places have reverted to either a numbered item system (a la Chinese) or a complete multi-language system. I suppose you do what is necessary to sell your product to a foreign customer. When we started to get a number of Russians over here, waiters started to learn some basic Russian. In the 5 star hotels they tend to employ Ukrainian staff anyway. Not so much of a demand for German these days and not many Germans still have holiday homes here - Merkel is still a bit of a dirty word! :)

Maurice :cool:
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:grinning:
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
Can someone please help Ikea and the Chinese both of these have serious problems with instructions after the translation into English the worlds most spoken language
Click to expand...
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
Can someone please help Ikea and the Chinese both of these have serious problems with instructions after the translation into English the worlds most spoken language
Click to expand...
Bob, IKEA should care a lot more for some reason they don’t. With the Chinese I think it’s like Japanese instructions from some years back. Not sure they care too much either!
 
That‘s interesting Maurice, I have found that the younger people I have spoken with are keen to learn English, so they speak in English and I speak in Portuguese. We then correct each other, and it can be quite a laugh.

When I started learning I chanced to hear a Professor of languages from, I think, Cambridge. He said the most important things to try when learning a language were, learn lots of vocabulary, learn the pronunciation, and don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself.
 
Pedrocut said:
That‘s interesting Maurice, I have found that the younger people I have spoken with are keen to learn English, so they speak in English and I speak in Portuguese. We then correct each other, and it can be quite a laugh.

When I started learning I chanced to hear a Professor of languages from, I think, Cambridge. He said the most important things to try when learning a language were, learn lots of vocabulary, learn the pronunciation, and don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself.
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Pedro, I think you raise some excellent points! Although I have been told that I make a fool of myself without too much effort
 
Pedro,

The professor was quite right, but learning / memorising vocabularly when you're older is probably the most difficult part of the process. You can be told a word for a particular item, but unless you use it every day for a couple of weeks, it simply doesn't stick. On one of the courses I went on, one of the lessons comprised the names of 50 different body parts. What a waste of time that was. I haven't met a doctor here that doesn't have at least a passable knowledge of English, simply because a lot of the medical papers they encounter during their training are only available in that language. And in my 15 years here I've been in five different hospitals and the two closest to our home many times.

When it comes to nurses, not so good because they don't have the same intensity and depth of training. But you get to know what they want you to do, more by sign language perhaps than anything, such as "take a deep breath" just as the needle is going to go in! :)

Pete,

I can write it, but if it is a word I don't know, I need to see it written down, because several letters and combinations of letters sound the same. Reading is easier for me because of my deafness and that was one of the reasons I gave up formal language lessons. I have great difficulty with sibilants in any language because of my high frequency loss. It helps that 12 of the Greek letters are identical to English - that's half of the Greek alphabet, so you only have to learn another 12. :-) It also helps that all written letters are pronounced - no silent ones - and no double letters. But there are lots of irregular verbs.

Another thing I might mention is that in lower case Greek or its transliteration into English (or Greeklish as we call it) is that the tonos (like an acute accent in French) is used to denote upon which syllable the emphas is to be placed. That considerably helps you to get the pronunciation right, but when a place name, for instance, in written wholly in upper case, the tonos is dispensed with. Then you're on your own. :eek:

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Pedro,

The professor was quite right, but learning / memorising vocabularly when you're older is probably the most difficult part of the process. You can be told a word for a particular item, but unless you use it every day for a couple of weeks, it simply doesn't stick. On one of the courses I went on, one of the lessons comprised the names of 50 different body parts. What a waste of time that was. I haven't met a doctor here that doesn't have at least a passable knowledge of English, simply because a lot of the medical papers they encounter during their training are only available in that language. And in my 15 years here I've been in five different hospitals and the two closest to our home many times.

When it comes to nurses, not so good because they don't have the same intensity and depth of training. But you get to know what they want you to do, more by sign language perhaps than anything, such as "take a deep breath" just as the needle is going to go in! :)

Pete,

I can write it, but if it is a word I don't know, I need to see it written down, because several letters and combinations of letters sound the same. Reading is easier for me because of my deafness and that was one of the reasons I gave up formal language lessons. I have great difficulty with sibilants in any language because of my high frequency loss. It helps that 12 of the Greek letters are identical to English - that's half of the Greek alphabet, so you only have to learn another 12. :) It also helps that all written letters are pronounced - no silent ones - and no double letters. But there are lots of irregular verbs.

Another thing I might mention is that in lower case Greek or its transliteration into English (or Greeklish as we call it) is that the tonos (like an acute accent in French) is used to denote upon which syllable the emphas is to be placed. That considerably helps you to get the pronunciation right, but when a place name, for instance, in written wholly in upper case, the tonos is dispensed with. Then you're on your own. :eek:

Maurice :cool:
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1582304573060.jpeg
 
Robert Ensor (bob) said:
Can someone please help Ikea and the Chinese both of these have serious problems with instructions after the translation into English the worlds most spoken language
Click to expand...
I see the request for help with speaking Ikean and as an expert in the language (it once took me six hours to build an office unit), I thought I could help . Firstly it is easier to look at individual words and once some of those are identified, the language will slowly evolve. Todays word is:
Billy. n. pronounced Billee - A set of bookshelves, it is a word that covers all sizes of bookshelf and very commonly seen in Ikealand.
Tomorrow's word is Hemnes.
Bob
 
Bob Davis said:
I see the request for help with speaking Ikean and as an expert in the language (it once took me six hours to build an office unit), I thought I could help . Firstly it is easier to look at individual words and once some of those are identified, the language will slowly evolve. Todays word is:
Billy. n. pronounced Billee - A set of bookshelves, it is a word that covers all sizes of bookshelf and very commonly seen in Ikealand.
Tomorrow's word is Hemnes.
Bob
Click to expand...

I had to read your post a couple of times Bob... it went straight over my head I didnt have a clue what you were talking about ...the penny has dropped now haha :joy::joy::joy:
 
Bob Davis said:
I see the request for help with speaking Ikean and as an expert in the language (it once took me six hours to build an office unit), I thought I could help . Firstly it is easier to look at individual words and once some of those are identified, the language will slowly evolve. Todays word is:
Billy. n. pronounced Billee - A set of bookshelves, it is a word that covers all sizes of bookshelf and very commonly seen in Ikealand.
Tomorrow's word is Hemnes.
Bob
Click to expand...
I wonder where IKEA make their products - or are made for them? I ask this question given that English is widely spoken and understood language in Sweden. It therefore follows that instruction leaflets should be in plain understandable language.
 
Bob Davis said:
I see the request for help with speaking Ikean and as an expert in the language (it once took me six hours to build an office unit), I thought I could help . Firstly it is easier to look at individual words and once some of those are identified, the language will slowly evolve. Todays word is:
Billy. n. pronounced Billee - A set of bookshelves, it is a word that covers all sizes of bookshelf and very commonly seen in Ikealand.
Tomorrow's word is Hemnes.
Bob
Click to expand...
HEMNES Chest of 6 drawers - white - IKEA :grinning:
 
Radiorails said:
I wonder where IKEA make their products - or are made for them? I ask this question given that English is widely spoken and understood language in Sweden. It therefore follows that instruction leaflets should be in plain understandable language.
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China

Bob
 
Radiorails said:
I wonder where IKEA make their products - or are made for them? I ask this question given that English is widely spoken and understood language in Sweden. It therefore follows that instruction leaflets should be in plain understandable language.
Click to expand...
If you have not struggled with an Ikea instruction manual, you have not lived, the last time I built anything was about five years ago and the instruction leaflet was all diagrams and no explanatory text, added to which the reproduction of the leaflet was poor and partially indistinct.
Bob
 
I am glad I am not a man ....I hate doing puzzles :rolleyes:

I am so sorry I am totally off topic :confounded:
 
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Well we have the first possible case of the coronavirus on Crete this afternoon. A guy come into Chania from Italy by plane and was later reported as a virus suspect. But then he disappeared and no one knows where he was heading. But the risk is sufficient for all large events and carnival stuff to be cancelled. We will know by 3:00pm tomorrow if we are cancelling all local foreign residents events, but I expect that that will be the case. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Well we have the first possible case of the coronavirus on Crete this afternoon. A guy come into Chania from Italy by plane and was later reported as a virus suspect. But then he disappeared and no one knows where he was heading. But the risk is sufficient for all large events and carnival stuff to be cancelled. We will know by 3:00pm tomorrow if we are cancelling all local foreign residents events, but I expect that that will be the case. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Maurice :cool:
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Take care young Maurice self isolate and just talk to us, but seriously keep us posted
Bob
 
Bob,

Well we don't go far these days and haven't left the island since 2014, and we live in a rural village. So most things, bar old age, are in our favour! :)

We will just keep an eye on things and take whatever action we need to. We never let our stocks run low and most things can be obtained locally. But, of course, it could hit the tourist trade very badly if it goes on for more than a few weeks, and they're already reeling from the £66 million they are still owed from when Thos Cook went for the chop. I don't think they are likely to see much of that. Stay safe.

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Well we have the first possible case of the coronavirus on Crete this afternoon. A guy come into Chania from Italy by plane and was later reported as a virus suspect. But then he disappeared and no one knows where he was heading. But the risk is sufficient for all large events and carnival stuff to be cancelled. We will know by 3:00pm tomorrow if we are cancelling all local foreign residents events, but I expect that that will be the case. So we're keeping our fingers crossed and hoping for the best.

Maurice :cool:
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Hi Maurice, sorry to hear that, try to stayaway from crowded places. We have also got I think 15 cases here in Australia. Sounds like authorities are right on top of it over there cancelling social events etc. They have stopped travel from China to Australia for about 3 weeks now and it has been extended another week, trouble is there are more cases in different countries now, Italy is supposed to be bad. People here have started panic buying here !!! Panadol, hand sanitiser, toilet rolls and pantry items to last 2/3 weeks some of the supermarket shelves are empty:rolleyes:
I keep my fingers crossed for Crete too, hope its good news by 3pm , hope they find the guy and isolate him, how on earth did he just suddenly disappear ? Please let us know how things go.

Wendy
 
sospiri said:
Bob,

Well we don't go far these days and haven't left the island since 2014, and we live in a rural village. So most things, bar old age, are in our favour! :)

We will just keep an eye on things and take whatever action we need to. We never let our stocks run low and most things can be obtained locally. But, of course, it could hit the tourist trade very badly if it goes on for more than a few weeks, and they're already reeling from the £66 million they are still owed from when Thos Cook went for the chop. I don't think they are likely to see much of that. Stay safe.

Maurice :cool:
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It won't last long Maurice things never do from that place.
Age is not on our side I'm afraid and the older we get we have a difficult time with things that make us ill
 
Hi Wendy,

Well I've had a cough on and off ever since I had 'flu in November 2018. I was in hospital in January 2019 having caught salmonella from a friend who I was visiting there! During my 9 days in hospital, my cough returned and they became very concerned about it, giving me powerful anibiotics intravenously. But quite honestly they didn't make a blind bit of difference. After the salmonella showed clear and I was sent home, it took about three months for the cough to finally clear. But it periodically returns in a mild form, as it has done during the last 24 hours.

The problem with many viruses is that they can remain in the body, in some cases throughout your life, and most of the time the immune system keeps them in check, the Epstein-Barr (herpes) virus, for example, which thankfully I don't have. Periodically the virus will overwhelm the immune system and the symptoms will flare up until the immune system gets the better of it. I'm not a medical man, least of all a virologist, so I've no idea whether the coronavirus has the ability to stay within the body for a lengthy period of time.

What is interesting is the increasing number of cases showing up on news reports today where there is no obvious source of infection - I think there were four cases in California of that type. Given that a bat seems to be the original source, and bats frequent most countries including this one, but don't normally attack humans, are they in any way responsible for spreading it? But I will stop at this point as it is pure hypothesis and we'll just have to wait and see if more evidence becomes available. So far all is quiet about the local Crete infection, but I'm not going anywhere for the next couple of days anyway.

Bob,

I like your observation - let's hope it's true in this case! :)

John,

I thought lots of Americans were preppers with underground shelters with massive ventilation systems and air filters! :-) :)

Maurice :cool:
 
sospiri said:
Hi Wendy,

Well I've had a cough on and off ever since I had 'flu in November 2018. I was in hospital in January 2019 having caught salmonella from a friend who I was visiting there! During my 9 days in hospital, my cough returned and they became very concerned about it, giving me powerful anibiotics intravenously. But quite honestly they didn't make a blind bit of difference. After the salmonella showed clear and I was sent home, it took about three months for the cough to finally clear. But it periodically returns in a mild form, as it has done during the last 24 hours.

The problem with many viruses is that they can remain in the body, in some cases throughout your life, and most of the time the immune system keeps them in check, the Epstein-Barr (herpes) virus, for example, which thankfully I don't have. Periodically the virus will overwhelm the immune system and the symptoms will flare up until the immune system gets the better of it. I'm not a medical man, least of all a virologist, so I've no idea whether the coronavirus has the ability to stay within the body for a lengthy period of time.

What is interesting is the increasing number of cases showing up on news reports today where there is no obvious source of infection - I think there were four cases in California of that type. Given that a bat seems to be the original source, and bats frequent most countries including this one, but don't normally attack humans, are they in any way responsible for spreading it? But I will stop at this point as it is pure hypothesis and we'll just have to wait and see if more evidence becomes available. So far all is quiet about the local Crete infection, but I'm not going anywhere for the next couple of days anyway.

Bob,

I like your observation - let's hope it's true in this case! :)

John,

I thought lots of Americans were preppers with underground shelters with massive ventilation systems and air filters! :) :)

Maurice :cool:
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Maurice that is really strange you said there are cases that have come up that have no obvious connection there has been one here reported today the person has not travelled and not been around anyone infected as far as they can tell !! Virus are so difficult to treat as they mutate too :confused: Look after yourself Maurice and lets hope this coronavirus wears itself out!!!

Wendy
 
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