For those who remember Mexican House Thief...

[VinterKvinna]

I give this from DouLingo

@AlfonsoTheSensible

I inherited a Berlitz phrase book from my grandfather. One of the phrases was "May I have permission to marry your sister?"

Well,it beats "my postilion has been struck by lightning".

That's the one I had been trying to remember, @sueelleker! Thank you!

@IcedLimes

mon voisin a volé ma maison mexicaine

I am doing Italian on Duolingo, with my most memorable phrase being "my snake has eaten your cakes". I have assiduously committed this to memory in case a suitable situation arises.

However, I can also report that nearly 200 days in and I only encountered my first same sex couple yesterday. There is a great fascination with cooks (and later the architects of the cook's restaurants) and also a great deal of apples.

My dh is learning Gaelic - Morag keeps stealing underpants!

I lasted a week learning French. My last communication said that I had made Duolingo unhappy.

I'm also doing the DL Spanish course and a recent phrase to translate was 'Why did you throw my cat through the window?".

I remember when I started to do French at school in year 7 and having to learn phrases like “Where is the nightclub?” and “My car has broken down”, which seemed unlikely pieces of lingo for an eleven year old

Today on my German Duolingo course I got "Owls who can talk, never bite".

I did French at school. One of the few things I learned was Where is the station?

When I used my best French in Paris no one understood me 🙄

I have searched through the classics and still cant find the Mexican house thief comments or thread. I'm sure it's a conspiracy thread to tease us all!

^ @DuchessofHastings1 www.mumsnet.com/Talk/mumsnet_classics/1735637-Have-you-ever-encountered-anyone-this-cheeky?pg=2 It's the post quite a way down this page by WeAreEternal.

@Papergirl1968

I’m learning Welsh with Duolingo and they have done very strange sentences eg Does the cat have a harp? And Eleri has a new dragon.

@JayAlfredPrufrock

I did French at school. One of the few things I learned was Where is the station?

When I used my best French in Paris no one understood me 🙄

They did, they just pretended not to. I have always found French people outside Paris (or in other francophone countries) willing to understand my school girl French but Parisians never do.

@JayAlfredPrufrock

I did French at school. One of the few things I learned was Where is the station?

When I used my best French in Paris no one understood me 🙄

I've been to Paris a lot and while my French is okay, people working in shops etc tend to reply in English, probably because it's quicker.

I've asked people on the street for directions (to an ATM or similar) and they've always replied in French.

Out of these interactions, only once has someone pretended not to understand me. I ordered a croissant and she tried to hand me a baguette, then made a big show out of the fact that I'd been unclear