Martin B Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Spelling! Hallo, vi hist du, is hibe martin, crust isscht martin, dat ist gut. That's all I know! My brother taught me to say it, not spell it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Here you go Sheila! Die Donaudampffahrtsschiffskapitaensmutze! (Not 100% sure of the spelling, have never written it before) The captains hat of the Danue steam boat! fab isn't it!! hehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Spelling! Hallo, vi hist du, is hibe martin, crust isscht martin, dat ist gut. That's all I know! My brother taught me to say it, not spell it. Hallo wie heisst du, ich heisse martin, something ????, dass ist Gut! C x Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sheilaz Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Most excellent, thank you! I'm not quite sure when I'll be dropping that into a conversation though. Now, I've had to guess the pronunciation, but I don't think it'll be too far out, whereas I really struggle with the accent (or lack of in my case) with French. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Spelling! Hallo, vi hist du, is hibe martin, crust isscht martin, dat ist gut. That's all I know! My brother taught me to say it, not spell it. Hallo wie heisst du, ich heisse martin, something ????, dass ist Gut! C x Thanks Christian! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Cor...the things we learn on this forum! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 This is a great thread One thing I learnt last year from a newspaper article,is that the way German words are pronounced make the mouth turn down,giving the impression that Germans are grumpy & stern & that the German language is miserable sounding. My eldest daughter is really great at German & I love to hear her speak it as it makes me pround that she is doing so well in the language. She went to Germany last year & cam home raving about the people (in particular the boys ),the lifestlye & the gorgeous scenery. I think that the more landuages anyone can master the better. It can only help you in life to be able to communicate well with lots of people Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellekatz Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I hated german at school ( due to the teacher and not the language) But my daughter loves it and is top of her GCSE choices. She doesn't like French and wants to swap it for RE - don't know how to persuade her otherwise - have to wait until March for Options evening so maybe will find out more info then. I think 2 MFL would be great for her - she is just so anti - french! - would happily do Italian, mandarin or something else. She likes her teacher but seems to want to do an "easy" option? Should i try to convince her to change her mind or let her do what she wants?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 What I found is that just before the options are due in,at each morning assembly the teacher of the subject in question does a hard sell on how great it is to do a GCSE in that subject. I had my girl coming home with a different idea every day - it all got very confusing. Then we had an options evening which we both went to, & things became a little clearer. They had added more choices,some as after school lessons, which was great for us. My girl is in year 9, & has just completed her first choices form. I think our school is early in doing options, & the whole process is set to take several months. Ask her what it is about RE that she thinks she will gain by doing an extra GCSE - is she aware that it is a compulsory GCSE anyway? Also,I bet your school adds a few extras on - we got Psycology (which my gorl wants to do),Manderin,Spanish,Child Development & Statistics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lesley-Jean Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 French and Italian... ...sound beautiful, If you like beautiful sounding languages Martin listen to Russian Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hillfamily Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 OPTIONS........................HA When my Son had to chose his option last year it was a joke............the school had divided the 240 year 9 pupils into four groups (without consultation). The top set (which my son was put into) were allowed to chose 2 GCSEs of their own choice (the rest had been decided for them appart from choosing between French or German and chosing between Humanities or Philosophy&Ethics). The next group down were only allowed 1 choice and the bottom 2 groups weren't allowed any choice.....don't know why they called it options To make his choice of 2 GCSES he had to list 5 subjects that he would like to take in order of preference and then the school would see what they could do. A few anxious weeks went past as he waited to hear if he got his first 2 choices but no......2nd subject on his list had been s"Ooops, word censored!"ped so instead of taking Statistics (bearing in mind his passion is Maths and Physics) he was told he could take History (Choice No4 on his list.....Choice No 3 was already full ) My son was very upset as he felt these weren't really options and there was no real choice and he also wanted to do more GCSEs than the top set were allowed to take. Apparently the school was trying to simplyfy the option process Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellekatz Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Ask her what it is about RE that she thinks she will gain by doing an extra GCSE - is she aware that it is a compulsory GCSE anyway? Daughter is at an Independent school ( thats a whole other story!!!! ) so I'm not sure if they have to do it or not? (they dont have Y9 SATs) Last time I heard, English Maths, dual Science and one MFL were compulsory, she wants to do Music and Drama and has to choose 1 or 2 from everything else thats left.............. - hopefully we will get some guidance from school soon before she has completely made it all up herself! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chocchick Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Tonight I was just thinking about my options, well sort of anyway, more about the huge heap of R.S. Homework I'm currently doing. I was thinking what a complete waste of time it all was as by the time you get to doing your GCSE in it, which is compulsory. you just end up repeating stuff you've already done. In my opinion I think it would be a lot better if the government dropped R.S. after year 9 and then made everybody do at least one foreign language. I say this as languages are a lot more useful than something where you're just getting bored and is a complete waste of time. What do you think? I had to do at least French at my school, and RS was an option I didn't take.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I think learning any foreign language is a good idea - or even the basics of several languages. I worked for a little while in both France and Spain and found that with 3 languages I could communicate with people from lots of different countries. (with lots of miming and impressions as well ) I was able to just about understand what Germans, Italians and Portuguese were trying to say to me - and they were just about able to understand me too! I spent three months in the Basque country in Spain and loved it - now, there's a language to get your head around! Unfortunately I didn't learn much. Kaixo, ni Lorna naiz = Hello I'm Lorna. Eskerrik asko! = Thanks very much! Agur! = Bye! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Lorna did you not learn "mines a white wine & soda"? That would have been top of my list Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Lorna did you not learn "mines a white wine & soda"?That would have been top of my list Only in Spanish! One of my jobs was working for a bar and the owner knew I couldn't speak Basque so spoke Spanish to me! I came back knowing plenty of bar-speak! Going off on a tangent slightly, when looking for work I called in at the bar and the barman told me to come back later and ask for the owner. I thought he was winding me up when he told me the owners name - I thought he was trying to get me to make a fool of myself. Anyway, it turned out he really was called Juan-Car (short for Juan Carlos) - not often you can get away with calling your boss that Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cinnamon Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Priceless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Thats fab Lorna What about this? A thought for the day ……………………………….. Being British! Being British is about driving in a German car to an Irish pub for a Belgian beer, then travelling home, grabbing and Indian curry or Turkish kebab on the way to sit on Swedish furniture and watch American shows on a Japanese TV. And the most British thing of all? Suspicion of anything foreign. Oh and ……….. only in Britain……. Can a pizza get to your house faster than an ambulance! Only in Britain …… do supermarkets make sick people walk all the way to the back of the shop to get their prescriptions, while healthy people can buy cigarettes at the front! Only in Britain ………. Do people order double cheeseburgers, large fries and a DIET coke! Only in Britain ……….. do banks leave both doors open and chain the pens to the counter! Only in Britain ….. do we leave cars worth thousands of pounds on the drive and lock our junk and cheap lawnmowers in the garage! Only in Britain …….. do we use answering machines to screen calls and then have call waiting so we won’t miss a call from someone we didn’t want to talk to in the first place! Only in Britain ….. are there disabled parking places in front of a skating rink! NOT TO MENTION 3 Brits die each year testing if a 9v battery works on their tongue. 142 Brits were injured in 1999 by not removing all pins from new shirts. 58 Brits are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers. 31 Brits have died since 1996 by watering Christmas trees while the fairy lights were plugged in. 19 Brits have died in the last 3 years believing that Christmas decorations were chocolate. British hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker pulling incidents. 101 people since 1999 have had broken parts of plastic toys pulled out of the soles of their feet. 18 Brits had serious burns in 2000 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth. A massive 543 Brits were admitted to A & E in the last two years after opening bottles with their teeth. 5 Brits were injured last year in accidents involving out of control Scalextric cars. And finally …………. In 2000 eight Brits cracked their skull whilst throwing up into the toilet. We might be British but hell we’re funny!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theherd123 Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Bl**dy brilliant Christian!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christian Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I'm 3/4 german Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin B Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Looney Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 I like it Christian, very funny Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cate in NZ Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Interesting thread all, I've really enjoyed reading the conversation. I'm a real language dunce , and really regret it, I had to study French, Welsh and Latin......... and didn't do very well at them. Maybe I would have done better with German My son made his GCSE choices last year, and I had to fight to get the school to allow him to take Spanish as an option. Too few children were interested in studying it, so they wanted to drop it as uneconomical . Anyway, he's taking it now and in a class of 4 (can you believe it, there's over 200 in his year group ) he's getting extremely close tuition and is on track to achieve an excellent grade ......... where's a fingers crossed emoticon when you need it?!! He has to take RE as well, no choice in the matter, but when I commented on this to hubby, doing my usual on a soapbox act, he said that a lot of employers actually like RE these days, it shows that youngsters are aware of multi-cultural issues, religious and racial tolerance and so on, and can be an asset for those looking to work in public/ customer service fields. I don't know how true that is, but his HR dept look for it as well as the obvious English and Maths options. Daughter is due to start embarking on GCSE options after half term, but I was surprised about how few options they actually get after the school has dictated the mandatory choices. She wants to choose French, Geography and Dance, I'm hoping that those will be available for her. What a headache. At the end of the day Liz my tiny piece of advice, for whatever it's worth is to go for subjects that you enjoy. You're stuck with studying them for the next 2 years, so you might as well enjoy it and choose subjects where your interest in them will keep up the enthusiasm. If you can keep the choices broad too, so that you don't pigeon hole yourself into all Arts or all Sciences too early, keeps more options open for A-level, university or career choices . Good luck with the decision making Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowy Posted February 13, 2007 Share Posted February 13, 2007 Oh Christian - that was soooooooo funny! I've completely got the giggles now - every time I think of someone trying to put a jumper on with a cigarette in their mouth And this thread is great, languages are so interesting, and definitely useful! I learnt the standard french and german up to 'O'level. The only time I've ever used the german was when on holiday in Yugoslavia in the 80's, we got friendly with a Yugoslav family. My Mum wanted to speak to the lady who could only speak yugoslavian and german. Mum could speak neither so I acted as translator! Communication at a very basic level - but very useful! And the first time I've ever used French was when visiting france last year for the first time - I have to say I was surprised what I could remember, not having spoken it for over 20 years!! But how to persuade a recalcitrant teenager to learn something that they are not interested in - any teacher who can do that is worth their weight in gold! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Egluntyne Posted February 14, 2007 Share Posted February 14, 2007 Wonderful!! Him Indoors does a lot of after dinner speaking and is always looking for new material. Can he pinch this?? It will bring the house down!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
