All Things Skype

[ET_]

Originally Posted by mfgoode

For the benefit of others I was able to establish contact with moo (Mike) and we had a good half hour chat abs free this morning.
Hope some more would respond as theres nothing like the personal touch.
Mally

Hey... it seems that you never heard italians trying to talk in English... It's a BAD feeling!

Luigi

[smh]

Originally Posted by ET_

Hey... it seems that you never heard italians trying to talk in English... It's a BAD feeling!

To me, nothing beats the french

[xilman]

Originally Posted by smh

To me, nothing beats the french

Ever heard the British trying to speak French?

Paul

[garo]

Cheers for that Paul! Linguistic jingoism always makes me And so does making fun of others who are being courageous and trying something new.

[xilman]

Originally Posted by garo

Cheers for that Paul! Linguistic jingoism always makes me And so does making fun of others who are being courageous and trying something new.

At least the British try to speak French.

Hardly anyone here knows more than a few words of Italian and as for Dutch --- that's more of a laryngeal disease than a language!


Paul

P.S. For the irony-impaired, look up "irony" in a good dictionary.

P.P.S. I'm trying to teach myself Middle Egyptian. Two of the best books I own on the subject are written in Dutch. Compared with learning Egyptian, reading Dutch is almost trivial for an English speaker, especially someone who learned some German at school.

P.P.P.S Sometime I may be brave and try to submit an entire post in Dutch, German or French. No way will I attempt any other non-English language --- American excepted, perhaps.

[Numbers]

At one time I used to play a lot of chess. I went to Germany to play in a tournament, and in the second round my opponent was a Russian who spoke no English. After the game we were trying to do some analysis together but the language problem seemed insurmountable (the only two words of Russian I know are Borscht, and Vodka). There was this Checkoslovakian guy watching and he could speak a bit of Russian, but no English. He did however have a bit of German. So I dragged over one of my German friends and the Russian would be translated into German by the Slovac, and the German was translated into English by my friend, and then back the other way. It was a real hoot, but at least we had a few beers to go round.

My experience of trying to speak German in Germany is that so many of them speak really good English that even if I spoke to them in German they would reply in English. They are, rightly, proud of their English and enjoy practising it.

In Italy, I’ve only ever been to the Dolomites, I found English speakers were few and far between, but a few words of my very limited German went a long way. If they could see you were making at least some effort they would generally reciprocate. I like both countries a lot and only wish I had more time to spend abroad.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Numbers

In Italy, I’ve only ever been to the Dolomites, I found English speakers were few and far between, but a few words of my very limited German went a long way. If they could see you were making at least some effort they would generally reciprocate. I like both countries a lot and only wish I had more time to spend abroad.

On the Dolomites German is more used than Italian, people there will adore you if you accept it!

I've been there, asking questions in Italian, and they answered in German

Italy became a "geographical united nation" only in 1870, since the fall of Roman Empire its history has been made up by small ethnic groups who made one another war and still now have problems to live together, you can figure what can happen about the language. We use Italian language, but we often speak different dialects, and what's more, we usually don't want to understand each other.

Maybe this is one of the causes of our dramatic political situation...

Luigi

[Numbers]

Originally Posted by ET

Maybe this is one of the causes of our dramatic political situation...

Wow, you can say that again. Before I went I got myself a book on Italian history and it just blew my mind. I had always thought of Italy as being the birthplace of the Renaissance, but Italy as a country didn’t even exist then. I find it totally unbelievable how young you are as a country compared with the age of your culture. Speaking of which, there was a piece in this week’s New Scientist about the age-old dispute between the Italians and the Chinese about who invented noodles. Now the Chinese claim to have found some ancient noodles buried 3 metres deep in a flood plain sediment layer, in North-Eastern China. I’m quite happy to let them win the precedence battle but in my book the Italians definitely perfected the recipe.

[ET_]

Originally Posted by Numbers

Wow, you can say that again. Before I went I got myself a book on Italian history and it just blew my mind. I had always thought of Italy as being the birthplace of the Renaissance, but Italy as a country didn’t even exist then. I find it totally unbelievable how young you are as a country compared with the age of your culture. Speaking of which, there was a piece in this week’s New Scientist about the age-old dispute between the Italians and the Chinese about who invented noodles. Now the Chinese claim to have found some ancient noodles buried 3 metres deep in a flood plain sediment layer, in North-Eastern China. I’m quite happy to let them win the precedence battle but in my book the Italians definitely perfected the recipe.

Hey, Chinese noodles just AREN'T pasta!

I'm delighted to hear that you devoted part of your time in studying our history before coming and visit us. Maybe Renaissance had its pros thank to the fragmentation of our state. In our "comuni" and "signorie" each monarch tried to demonstrate his superiority in developing art and science, but few books explain that science (maths) was considered a way to achieve better performances in battle.

Even mathematicians like Luca Pacioli and Leonardo Pisano had their fights to steal others' results. It was a very turbulent period... and maybe accounts for some not perfectly balanced behaviour we still have from time to time.

But apart from this, if you can stand our somewhat "dark side", you'll be able to enjoy the happpiness and joy of life (the smile to life) that we carry with us.

Luigi

[mfgoode]

[QUOTE=xilman]At least the British try to speak French.

Hardly anyone here knows more than a few words of Italian and as for Dutch --- that's more of a laryngeal disease than a language!


Paul

No matter how good your French is you will always hear "Pardon?"
As for Dutch gibberish german goes a long way.
In Russia whatever you say in any other language is always met with "Nyet"
(No) :surprised
Mally

[mfgoode]

Originally Posted by ET_

Hey, Chinese noodles just AREN'T pasta!

Even mathematicians like Luca Pacioli and Leonardo Pisano had their fights to steal others' results. It was a very turbulent period... and maybe accounts for some not perfectly balanced behaviour we still have from time to time.

But apart from this, if you can stand our somewhat "dark side", you'll be able to enjoy the happpiness and joy of life (the smile to life) that we carry with us.

Luigi

Given a choice I would try out japanese noodles Its the next best dish to a Kobe steak. No meat? then try zushi (raw fish).

Regards Italian math'cians I have right now passed Saccheri and onto Beltrami on hyperbolic geom in my book "Road to realty" by Penrose.

Well lets say the Italians are like the moon. They never show the 'dark side' !
Mally
P.S.
Hey Luigi it took me some time to fathom out 'the bad feeling'
P.P.S.
My favourite artists are Luigi ( louis) Prima and Keeley smith .I like the way Keely says 'Oh take it away Luigi'
Mally.