Reply to: EU Turning The Screws

[SueEllen]

only once have I had to attend a meeting in French, they were annoyed I was there because I had pointed out an error they had made that ruined their otherwise excellent software, they spent the entire time talking french and a french colleague made sure I understood the main points (My French is bad but I get by). It was clearly organised to disadvantage me, luckily a few colleagues were embarrassed by the setup and I just gave them a list of points to cover at break/lunchtime. In the end we had the most successful release ever and won awards for the software.

Every other meeting throughout the Globe we speak in English, if the locals want to discuss something and they don't have the words then they apologise (we normally point out their English is much better than our german) , we stop and they talk for 60 seconds in local language then someone summarises it for us. I'm constantly embarrassed by being English and my language skills being bad.

It does however seem like a petty move to disadvantage us.

The Germans are working on a plan to slow down Brexit plus I doubt they and several other countries will be happy to negotiations in French.

[vetran]

only once have I had to attend a meeting in French, they were annoyed I was there because I had pointed out an error they had made that ruined their otherwise excellent software, they spent the entire time talking french and a french colleague made sure I understood the main points (My French is bad but I get by). It was clearly organised to disadvantage me, luckily a few colleagues were embarrassed by the setup and I just gave them a list of points to cover at break/lunchtime. In the end we had the most successful release ever and won awards for the software.

Every other meeting throughout the Globe we speak in English, if the locals want to discuss something and they don't have the words then they apologise (we normally point out their English is much better than our german) , we stop and they talk for 60 seconds in local language then someone summarises it for us. I'm constantly embarrassed by being English and my language skills being bad.

It does however seem like a petty move to disadvantage us.

[SueEllen]

Try using cockney slang with the other brits, it puzzles Jonnie foreigner

Nah it's fun to teach foreigners regional slang English words with the appropriate accent.

[Paddy]

Funny here in DK, meetings, conf calls etc all in English, but everyone chats in the office in Danish. There's me English and another chap, Flemish neither speak Danish so we are mostly frozen out. It's not rude; just chit-chat and useful for me because it helps me 'tune in' to Danish which you just cannot do from a book.

But when the SE and NO chaps arrive they all chit-chat in a mixture and you can see it wears them out, the levels of mutual intelligability are mixed and it must be really hard!

We get FI guys too, totally different language, similar to Hungarian, and occasionally Icelanders, a Nordic tongue but inflected like Russian and German is (a bit) otherwise similar but noun-inflections are a nightmare to native non-inflected language speakers, when I speak Russian with my partners family after a few hours my head hurts with having to mentally lookup case endings for nouns, pronouns and adjectives which differ according to gender and number.

Kniga, knigy, knigu, knigye, knigoy....

All words for 'book' and that's just singular....

Try using cockney slang with the other brits, it puzzles Jonnie foreigner

[cojak]

French or Deutsch only once the UK leaves, no need for English anymore. As the UK is leaving the EU should negotiate with the leaving nation in the block's chosen language.

So yeah, better get some French speaking consultants in. Tony Blair! Where are you?

Yeah, right.

Having worked in Nestles in Switzerland and been embarrassed at the beginning by my non-existent French, my co-workers assured me they they would have been speaking English without me. The Germans refused to speak French, as would the Flemish, and the Dutch speak English better than the English, and no-one in Europe wants to speak German on principle.

[stek]

Funny here in DK, meetings, conf calls etc all in English, but everyone chats in the office in Danish. There's me English and another chap, Flemish neither speak Danish so we are mostly frozen out. It's not rude; just chit-chat and useful for me because it helps me 'tune in' to Danish which you just cannot do from a book.

But when the SE and NO chaps arrive they all chit-chat in a mixture and you can see it wears them out, the levels of mutual intelligability are mixed and it must be really hard!

We get FI guys too, totally different language, similar to Hungarian, and occasionally Icelanders, a Nordic tongue but inflected like Russian and German is (a bit) otherwise similar but noun-inflections are a nightmare to native non-inflected language speakers, when I speak Russian with my partners family after a few hours my head hurts with having to mentally lookup case endings for nouns, pronouns and adjectives which differ according to gender and number.

Kniga, knigy, knigu, knigye, knigoy....

All words for 'book' and that's just singular....

[SueEllen]

German is one of three offical languages in Belguim

Yeah and more people speak English than German in Belgium, but if a country doesn't give minority groups language rights they end up with a civil war.

[Paddy]

Yeah I know but it's not an official language.

They also speak English in lots of other EU nations especially those with small populations so they can communicate with foreigners particularly wealthy tourists and do business.

Anyway we are lucky the language they choose wasn't German. Everyone I know who speaks fluent German as another language has no problem getting a job even if their other skills for that role aren't that great.

German is one of three offical languages in Belguim

[SueEllen]

I thought some clever-clogs would point that out however having worked in Belgium for three years I discovered the French won’t talk Flemish and the Flemish won’t talk in French therefore they speak English as a compromise.

Yeah I know but it's not an official language.

They also speak English in lots of other EU nations especially those with small populations so they can communicate with foreigners particularly wealthy tourists and do business.

Anyway we are lucky the language they choose wasn't German. Everyone I know who speaks fluent German as another language has no problem getting a job even if their other skills for that role aren't that great.

[Antman]

I thought some clever-clogs would point that out however having worked in Belgium for three years I discovered the French won’t talk Flemish and the Flemish won’t talk in French therefore they speak English as a compromise.

Yep, when I was at Belgacom, the official there was English.

[Paddy]

Belgium is Flemish and French.

I thought some clever-clogs would point that out however having worked in Belgium for three years I discovered the French won’t talk Flemish and the Flemish won’t talk in French therefore they speak English as a compromise.

[SueEllen]

French or Deutsch only once the UK leaves, no need for English anymore. As the UK is leaving the EU should negotiate with the leaving nation in the block's chosen language.

So yeah, better get some French speaking consultants in. Tony Blair! Where are you?

You mean Nick Clegg...

[SueEllen]

Ireland
Belgium
Cyprus
Malta

All English

Belgium is Flemish and French.

[Paddy]

French or Deutsch only once the UK leaves, no need for English anymore. As the UK is leaving the EU should negotiate with the leaving nation in the block's chosen language.

So yeah, better get some French speaking consultants in. Tony Blair! Where are you?

Ireland
Belgium
Cyprus
Malta

All English

[scooterscot]

French or Deutsch only once the UK leaves, no need for English anymore. As the UK is leaving the EU should negotiate with the leaving nation in the block's chosen language.

So yeah, better get some French speaking consultants in. Tony Blair! Where are you?