A language learners’ forum

... I lied, it's a banlieue. And more than just a winter.

As I should be studying for two upcoming exams, I decided to create a log on here. (It all makes sense in my head.) This time without imagining how I will keep it methodically and post regularly and all those things that never last more than two weeks for me anyways.

So, I'm in my third year at university, engineering, two and a half years to go, and I'm doing a double degree program, with this and the following two semesters in France.

Did I mention my French sucks?
ETA: Oh, and my English is going funky, too, and so are the other languages.

As I'd been absent from the original forum for some time - I didn't actually want to be that argumentative and prissy with certain members on there, but it just happened, so I decided to stay away - I just found out about this forum today. And in replying to a post there I realized something:

I'm currently at university in France, and while people aren't as extremely forthcoming as in Spain with simplifying their own language and guessing what I am trying to say they stay in French when I make an effort to speak French. It's usually me who switches to English (... or Spanish or German) when I can't express myself in French, and I try to switch back afterwards.

Interestingly many of the people I interact with at university seem to try connect with us by throwing some German into the conversation. I think it's a mixture of them trying to show us that they know how it is to struggle in a second language, and that they are proud they do know (some of) our language. I would imagine that the same happens when you're a native English speaker, but in our case it is easy to make a distinction between the situations in which we have to resort to using a shared language (English) to communicate and those situations in which the native speaker is trying to bond and encourage us (German).

ETA: Expressions I want to learn to use

Welcome back, Bao!

Thanks! I hope I'll be able to contribute regularly and not fall victim to the old argument traps ...

Bao wrote:... I lied, it's a banlieue. And more than just a winter.

As I should be studying for two upcoming exams, I decided to create a log on here. (It all makes sense in my head.) This time without imagining how I will keep it methodically and post regularly and all those things that never last more than two weeks for me anyways.

So, I'm in my third year at university, engineering, two and a half years to go, and I'm doing a double degree program, with this and the following two semesters in France.

Did I mention my French sucks?
ETA: Oh, and my English is going funky, too, and so are the other languages.

As I'd been absent from the original forum for some time - I didn't actually want to be that argumentative and prissy with certain members on there, but it just happened, so I decided to stay away - I just found out about this forum today. And in replying to a post there I realized something:

I'm currently at university in France, and while people aren't as extremely forthcoming as in Spain with simplifying their own language and guessing what I am trying to say they stay in French when I make an effort to speak French. It's usually me who switches to English (... or Spanish or German) when I can't express myself in French, and I try to switch back afterwards.

Interestingly many of the people I interact with at university seem to try connect with us by throwing some German into the conversation. I think it's a mixture of them trying to show us that they know how it is to struggle in a second language, and that they are proud they do know (some of) our language. I would imagine that the same happens when you're a native English speaker, but in our case it is easy to make a distinction between the situations in which we have to resort to using a shared language (English) to communicate and those situations in which the native speaker is trying to bond and encourage us (German).

This pleases me!

Heyyyy, long time no see! I vaguely remember something about family going on there in Aussieland.

L'employeur ne respecte donc pas la procédure standard du licenciement.

Word order: mind blown.

What are the old argument traps into which we must not fall?

sjintje wrote:What are the old argument traps into which we must not fall?

The current thread on activating passive language is a classic of this kind.

I was talking about myself only. I tend to get into arguments with people who are clearly wrong. Erm. I mean. People who have a very different way of looking at a topic and by that, are absolutely wrong.

ETA: And I usually do so when I absolutely have no time to waste online, like right now, when I should be studying for the exam tomorrow in Législation sociale.

Bao wrote:I was talking about myself only. I tend to get into arguments with people who are clearly wrong. Erm. I mean. People who have a very different way of looking at a topic and by that, are absolutely wrong.

A classic Problem Of The Internet.



And in French too, because this is a language forum, after all...