London Banter - View Single Post

Clank · August 29th 17, 06:00 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On 29.08.2017 2:50 AM, wrote:
In article ,
(Richard) wrote:

On Mon, 28 Aug 2017 10:07:01 -0500,
wrote:

In article ,
(tim...) wrote:

(fortunately, the machines offer instructions in 4 languages -though
you can just about bluff your way through without translation -
unlike the bloody Scandinavian offerings)

I'm very disappointed that you can't understand enough French to deal
with such everyday things. Another shameful British habit.

That's a bit harsh - unless you're suggesting that French has a
special status, which I think it has, but you can't know the language
everywhere you go. The other option is not going anywhere not on your
language list, far too limiting (even if I'm guilty of it sometimes).

I take French as a bit exceptional because at least in theory almost all of
us are supposed to have learnt it at school.

It's a bit of a mystery why it's taught in school, given it's about the
least useful language to learn. Not so much because of the level of use,
but rather because the native speakers would rather sniff haughtily than
descend to the level of communicating with anyone less than perfectly
fluent in it...

I haven't quite forgotten all my French, but I don't recall a time I needed
to use it in anger since I worked there 20 odd years ago (I rarely visit
France, and while I do visit Brussels a fair bit English is a much safer
language to use - speaking French to the wrong person will cause more
offence than speaking English.)

Learning Romanian has pushed most of the French vocabulary out of my head
anyway...

French as the default language in UK schools really is daft - Spanish would
make more sense, or German.