In message , at 16:11:57 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, d remarked:
Some people are just no good at learning foreign languages

after 200 hours (and that is a lot) of lessons I was still finding spoken
German incomprehensible

To be fair I found german hard too. French was a lot easier and I managed to
get myself up to a basic conversational level just by teaching myself on the
tube ride in the mornings. Perhaps you should have picked a different country
to live in?

Difficulty in picking up foreign languages (or even English when an
infant) is one of the classic symptoms of even high-functioning autism
sufferers.

I think thats a bit unfair. Some people are just bad at languages in the way
that others just don't get maths no matter how much effort they put in.

It' not "unfair", it's a condition with symptoms, just like colour
blindness, dyslexia or dyspraxia. Not everyone can be good at
everything, nor should we blame them, it's just the way they are.

Understanding disability[1] is a fundamental part of a caring society.

The other side of the coin is that like blind piano tuners having
enhanced audio skills, high-functioning autism sufferers can be amazing
talented at certain tasks.

[1] Again, that's a word with unnecessary baggage.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 16:12:45 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, tim... remarked:
An industry that can "afford" to "throw way" people who are less than
50% through their useful career cannot be short of suitable workers.

I agree that there's ageism, but some of that is justified if you want
fresh minds to address new problems.

That works in a small percentage of cases. However what usually happens is
the "fresh minds" make the same old mistakes of previous generations
and just
end up re-inventing the wheel. Often poorly.

I'm not sure how that would apply to something like Blockchain. No
wheel to re-invent, there.

and how many "engineering" IT project use that

You don't think building an e-commerce platform is IT? Uber would be
disappointed (they call themselves a tech firm).

I have never even heard of it

I bet myself you'd say that.

(and having Googled it, I can see why)

--
Roland Perry

In message , at 16:15:41 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, d remarked:
An industry that can "afford" to "throw way" people who are less than
50% through their useful career cannot be short of suitable workers.

I agree that there's ageism, but some of that is justified if you want
fresh minds to address new problems.

That works in a small percentage of cases. However what usually happens is
the "fresh minds" make the same old mistakes of previous generations and just
end up re-inventing the wheel. Often poorly.

I'm not sure how that would apply to something like Blockchain. No wheel
to re-invent, there.

Since no one has any idea who invented blockchain and bitcoin there's no way
of knowing if they're a young genius or an ageing professor.

Er, it's people deploying solutions based on blockchain I was referring
to.
--
Roland Perry

On 2017-01-11, d wrote:
On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 14:31:59 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 13:31:59 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, tim... remarked:
An industry that can "afford" to "throw way" people who are less than
50% through their useful career cannot be short of suitable workers.

I agree that there's ageism, but some of that is justified if you want
fresh minds to address new problems.

That works in a small percentage of cases. However what usually happens is
the "fresh minds" make the same old mistakes of previous generations and just
end up re-inventing the wheel. Often poorly.

Aaaaaargh! That's the second time today I've agreed with you!

And, to pick on something actually lower down in the thread, just
because it's a new platform or new tools doesn't mean that they don't
make the same category of mistakes, and re-invent wheels at the logical
level before they try to code them.

Eric
--
ms fnd in a lbry

On 11/01/2017 13:22, Roland Perry wrote:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 11/01/2017 15:55, Roland Perry wrote:

Some are much better than that. I knew what we might call a barrister in
Germany who was German but had spent some time in the USA. His accent
was indistinguishable from a mother tongue USA-ian.

But how did he use the word "since"?


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

In message , at
18:42:19 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

Some are much better than that. I knew what we might call a barrister in
Germany who was German but had spent some time in the USA. His accent
was indistinguishable from a mother tongue USA-ian.

But how did he use the word "since"?

No idea.
--
Roland Perry

In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

--
Roland Perry

Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at
18:41:17 on Wed, 11 Jan 2017, Arthur Figgis
remarked:

You would clearly be surprised how many naturalised foreigners there are
in the country.

If they are naturalised, are they foreigners?

No, and that's the point. People assume that everyone with a "foreign
accent" is a "foreigner".

Some people also assume that of anyone with dark skin.

On Wed, 11 Jan 2017 16:27:40 +0000
Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 16:11:57 on Wed, 11 Jan
2017, d remarked:
Some people are just no good at learning foreign languages

after 200 hours (and that is a lot) of lessons I was still finding spoken
German incomprehensible

To be fair I found german hard too. French was a lot easier and I managed to
get myself up to a basic conversational level just by teaching myself on the
tube ride in the mornings. Perhaps you should have picked a different
country
to live in?

Difficulty in picking up foreign languages (or even English when an
infant) is one of the classic symptoms of even high-functioning autism
sufferers.

I think thats a bit unfair. Some people are just bad at languages in the way
that others just don't get maths no matter how much effort they put in.

It' not "unfair", it's a condition with symptoms, just like colour
blindness, dyslexia or dyspraxia. Not everyone can be good at
everything, nor should we blame them, it's just the way they are.

Being bad at languages is not a sign of medical disability. I know its trendy
to make everything a medical condition but this is just an absurd extrapolation.
Because autistics are bad at languages doesn't mean everyone who is bad at
languages is autistic. I'm sure there's a name for that logical fallacy.

--
Spud