The Bluestocking: To the moon and back gerbil style.

[Boiledbeetle]

Previous thread of chat and general madness below

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/5506124-the-bluestocking-womens-pub-spring-is-sprunging-and-mns-name-generator-can-do-one

Women: from an orderly queue at the bar or take a seat and grab a passing gerbil.

Men: turn left at the end of the road, keep walking until you find the Staunch Ally.

Bar gerbil a full fat coke please and a packet of Scampi Fries please.

allez, les gerbilles de rêve

This is 14 minutes into the wrong day, I forgot to post it earlier this evening.

Bloody hell that is a shocker, I am struggling with my cow bag of a mother at the moment

I had a colleague whose mother did similar. Her dad was a supervisor in a Dundee jute factory who accepted a transfer to Pakistan and a big house with servants, etc.

The mum took the kids back to Scotland.

They lost touch. One day, my colleague found a police officer at her door asking whether she knew a gentleman by the name of...

Her father had been found wandering, going into shops trying to communicate in Urdu. (He was Scottish.) Police had been called and he'd given her name.

So much for bed …..

I'm heading off now, I think. Shall stop posting and distracting folk.

I need to go to the loo before I switch the light off and try to sleep, but have two cats pinning the duvet down on either side of me refusing to move.

I'm off to upset furry things.

Gibt es schottische Untertitel?

Off then too

WAW, I’m sorry, I have no memory at all of any Russian text book. I don’t think it can have been a Penguin one because I don’t remember that wonderful sentence.

My years are very advanced when compared with yours. I started secondary school in 1964. I don’t remember anything about a Latin textbook, either.

Good night and sweet dreams to all, whether asleep or awake now.

Nein. :(

I learnt French and then Russian at school in the 80s. Until last year, I have only used my Russian to demonstrate that I still remember some. However last November I went to Lithuania and one chap in a fast food place said he only spoke Lithuanian and Russian. Oh the joy I felt that I could finally use my Russian! Admittedly it was only to order two burgers, but I was still v pleased (which had nothing to do with the alcohol I had drunk!)

Molodets!

@RumNotRun , I’m not sure burgers were much of a concept in ‘60s Northern English towns, or Russian ones, even, so I couldn’t do that but I can remember the Russian for two.

I do know how to ask for tea without sugar, from a school trip to Russia in 1968. Making up the figures now, but “tea”, which came with a paper-wrapped block sugar as standard, was 10 kopeks, but “tea without sugar” was 3 kopecks.

It surprises me how much written Russian I can make out on TV just by reading it out to myself. For example, most people unfamiliar with Russian writing wouldn’t make much sense of a sign on a building saying ‘ресторан’, but converting that to ‘restoran’ would mean they could probably have a good guess. It’s one of the few Russian words I can still sight-read without sounding it out.

Je voudrais savoir: pourquoi tous le monde en Royaume Uni parlent le Franglais, a non le Allemagnais? C'est un mystère, je pense.

Je parle anglais avec un accent allemand, en tout temps, ca suffera?

I thought I'd come to the wrong thread for a moment there. Was there too much cognac in the chocolat chaud last night?

I did French at A level, though you would never know it these days. A sad case of 'use it or lose it'. I also did German at night school before a holiday but can't remember much of that either.

My preferred holiday destination is Italy and I can get by in Italian after doing a course similar to Duolingo, although I'm not fluent by any means.

It looks like being a good week here weatherwise but I dont want to venture forth while the schools are off. To much traffic and too many people. Back to the garden, I think.

I love a bit of language mixing but I fell asleep before you all last night! So I'll make all my belated contributions in one post now.

My primary school was part of a project to encourage MFL so we all started French in 1st year juniors. I did it for my degree then moved abroad where I became fluent. I also did German and Latin at school, and Spanish as an adult when I lived abroad and had a group of Spanish speaking friends. It was much easier to become conversational in Spanish than I expected.

@MarieDeGournay Fortunately some people say 'On peut se dire tu' early on
Alternatively tu peut me tutoyer which is a great verb, I think.

@MyrtleLion my degree was in French then I moved to a francophone country and realised I was far from fluent, sadly.

@WearyAuldWumman I've seen you mention before your knowledge of different languages and would love to know more. Iirc it included some balkan languages and we love the Balkans in our family.

@Boiledbeetle did you ever go back to HK? I went one summer in my twenties and came back deciding to look for jobs and move there. But I had a boyfriend and stayed for him. Dumb decision!

My preferred holiday destination is Italy and I can get by in Italian after doing a course similar to Duolingo, although I'm not fluent by any means.

Anch’io, @AuntieMsDamsonCrumble.

For anyone going to Puglia this year, look out for delicious deep-fried pasties called panzerotti.

@ChristmasStars No, always wanted to go back for a holiday but it never happened. And now it wouldn't be the same as it's changed so much in 50 years.

Esker+ nous sommes still en France avec Gosie? Bonne - un cafe au lait et une croissant s’il vous plait!

+blame Dickens for that example of a true Franglais word

My favourite franglais term (from an old MN thread) is "tout le body". It's used in my house a lot.

It’s sad, some places you can’t go back to without a Time Machine.

why did my iPad decide to capitalise Time Machine? I mean obviously it’s a book but it’s a pretty general concept. Does it capitalise other well known book titles like brave new world…. No… ok it turns out it’s an Apple trademark, disappointingly for their backup system rather than an actual time traveling device.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_Machine_(macOS)

When I went to Paris last year I dredged up what I remembered from French A-level. “Bonjour, je m’appelle EmpressaurusKitty, j’ai un chambre per deux nuits.”

And she smiled & replied but I only got one word in three. I didn’t want to admit that so I was nodding, smiling & hoping I wasn’t agreeing to anything.

Although I did manage to get directions to the bus station and to enjoy a mutual rant with a French woman after a cyclist nearly knocked us both over.

Je missed le session de franglais hier soir, par-ce-que je suis dans mon lit. J'ai dormi comme d'un bébé.

If I do a crash course of Duolingo in the months leading up to a trip to France, I can do quite well. My French is much better than DH's, even though we both did 'O' level and got iirc the same grade. A couple of times I have been helpless with laughter after he's ignored my advice on vocab and ploughed on regardless.

And Boily, bloody hell re your mother and HK.

I'd like to go back to where I lived as a kid, but I know from wandering the streets on Google Maps that it's really changed.

Anyway, Geranium, un chocolat chaud sans le cognac ce matin... excellent, merci.

@AsWithGlad I can do similar with Greek - I don't know the language but I do know the alphabet (courtesy of studying LOTS of maths and science) so I can transliterate and often then figure out what it is in English.
I did French from the age of about 8, added German at 12-14 and have a French GCSE but I'm not very good these days. I used to have a working knowledge of written chemical French and German, and could figure out Spanish and Italian, thanks to a long-ago job. Portuguese defeated me though, the spelling is too weird.