Special for Expat!

[ozzy72]

Don't know what you're moaning about mate, this German thing looks ruddy easy!

[expat]

Bitte.....!

And not forgetting

German...............................English

Der........................................The

Die.........................................The

Das........................................The

Dem.......................................The

Den.......................................The


25 years I have been struggling with this language................Or as my German wife say, "it never ceases to amaze me how you manage to bastardise my language"..........

Now I think I need a pint of bitter.........

Matt

[Hawkeye07]

I have enough problems with one language!

[Jean Loup]

I was born under a wandering star in Paris when it was under German administration, from a Belgian mother & a German father, in January 1943. In autum 1944 we went to hide in the Vallée de Chevreuse (close to Paris) and a little time later, the Paris administration was handed back to la Françe & Germany lost the war. We were in French soil & having a french speaking Belgian mother, my first language became French oh lalá, but since we were considered criminals/collaborateurs/hostages, I did not communicate much with other people: we were the occasion for others to earn good money!! when there were no jobs & everyone else was starving..

In 1948, Spain & Françe re-opened their border and that was the occasion for us to cross it, and we became refugees of war as a french family. So French was still my first language & instead of learning German, I learned Castillian & went to school for learning how to write, in that language's gramaticals. Years later (1958) I was living in México, but could not stand a nasty (nastier than WW II for me!) separation between my Belgian mother & my German father, so I sawm the Río Bravo (Río Grande for texans) to get to my sister home in Texas, married to a New Yorker (of jew religion). They gave me shelter, and instead of learning German (my passport sended from México said I was German: but being unable to descipher that lingo, for me it was a question of faith), I learned english "american" with a chewing gum accent. After finisghing High School I decided to live in México, not such a calvinist nor macarthurian society. Also, any blondy with blue eyes is KiNG in México!! Not fair but being to my advantage, I do not critizice. It improoved my Castillian but did nothing for my Germanic language ignorance.

Then the Fourth Reich United Europe happened: for a new "REiSEPASS" (maybe that can be swallowed with choucrute) Passport I needed and the Deutsche Botschaft German embassy decided I had to learn German & sing the Deutschland über alles. Now, when I dare to sing in my shower (even in french) the mosaic of the walls loosens & falls, creating quite a mess: my harmonics must be either teutonics or tectonics!! It was much simpler to become MEXiCAN: I speak the lingo, my new family is mexican, my belgian mother & German father are buried in México, and I sing Mexicanos al grito de guerra since I was in Secondary School!! And no need of ANY EMBASSY in mexican soil.

I expose all this with a mexican sense of humor: I do not intend to offend anyone, if so let me know & I will erase the offending sentence. It is my Point of View only, I do not believe in politics nor take any sides & respect all religions. BUT you can imagine my problems with THREE LANGUAGES!! (if "american" can be considered a language, of course!). Jean

[Fozzer]

A wonderful read, Jean!... ...!

(I was curious to know how you got your "Mexican" accent!).

...from a similar refugee evacuee from blitzed city of London, to the peaceful Herefordshire countryside in 1940 WWII!

Its always exciting to know our fellow Flight Simmers history!

Paul....I love history and geography... ...!

What always concerns me is the "Drug Baron" mentality in Mexico, and its effects on the population!...(another story?).... ...!

[Hawkeye07]

Hi Jean!
Great history lesson, I really enjoyed it. Now as Foz said...
"What always concerns me is the "Drug Baron" mentality in Mexico, and its effects on the population!...(another story?)"

I would really like to hear about the drug cartel and "police" situation from someone who lives there rather than from the
slanted news organizations we have here in the States. Please tell us more...

[expat]

Jean, you have a very interesting back ground. You are a man I would like to sit with in the late afternoon sun and have a cerveza (or two) with and learn more.

Matt

[Jean Loup]

Hello all, thanks for your kind comments. About the "drug lord situation".. (and the mex govnmt "war against drugs", when they are being legalized elsewhere: just another pretext to raise their monetical value!! and the weapon$ bu$ine$$ going on galore too) There is not any border defining or separating the mexican government from the drug lords: they are ONE & the same. Here in Morelos State were I live, there are 50 towns against the Governor plans, because it will turn campesino land into factories, for the Puebla Panama plan the USA wants. It is not a revolt yet, just stoping legally what they take from them with laws made from México city, by politicians that do not even know how to read, much less know any mexican history. The man leading the 50 towns (around the Popocatépetl volcano area, plus Tlaxcala & Puebla states towns, and Tepoztlán) is the grandson of Emiliano Zapata, along with the EZLN campesino peaceful army of Chiapas. Some of the most influencial analists, historians & cultural people are against the TV show government of our "glorified" & darf president, Peña Nieto: we reffer to him as Caca Nieto!! His wife "la Gaviota" that all the country has seen naked in many past TV dramas, is the most hated person by now: she represents a "Di$ney Mexico" that does not exists & mexicans don't like nor want.

Where I leave in Santa María Ahuacatitlan, and in most towns (outside the Big Cities & México city) people have family values, are artisans, peasants, etc. & very tradicional. This cultures are centered around crops since 3,000 years ago, a multi crops system (like with rice in Asia, but around Maiz in this continent) and not the mono crop system like in weat cultures. We are resisting presions from Monsanto & other giants of the Fast Food, most mexicans (outside the Big Cities were people become FAT & anemical) want & produce SLOW food, tradicional & with spanish & arab influence. Jean (please remember this is my point of view, some mexicans might not agree & I respect different opinions.)

[logjam]

Good reading Jean. As a snowbird having my 2nd home in Ajijic, I totally concur. Now for something completely different for Fozz, expat et al -

Read slowly
And carefully...

The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

In the first year, "S" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy.
The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.

There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.

In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling.
Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.

By the 4th yer people wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".

During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "O" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer , ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi TU understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.

Und efter ze fifz yer, ve vil al be speking German like zey vunted in ze forst plas.

[Hawkeye07]

Very enlightening Jean. Thank you for taking the time to explain the situation. A lot going on in Mexico many folks outside of the country are not aware of.

[H]

Now for something completely different for Fozz, expat et al -
The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as "Euro-English".

I was years ahead of you. However, replacing the "c" with "s" or "k" did not remove the "c" from the keyboard since I then used the "c" to replace the English-pronounced "ch". Although it actually lengthened a word, "x" was replaced by "ks" and the character "x" and an added "x" was used for the "th" sounds (unlike the example you give, I found the the "th" sounds viable). Similarly, "q" was replaced by "ks" and the character "q" was then used for "sh" (however, Jean might say that sound might be represented by the character "x" elsewhere). The "g" was only used for the hard sound, the letter "J" modified for the soft sound.
Of course, for your course of humor, you tended to kill the vowels whereas my alphabet had additonal renderings: seperate characters for the 3 major "a" sounds, 2 for "e", 2 for "i", 2 for "o" and 3 for "u" (an added character for the short sound and a line over the "u" for the sound as in suit, boot, etc.). Originally I'd used a "uw" for the "ui", "oo" sounds (in ancient times, a "w" actually was originally used for this -- why it has its name double-u) but the revision reverted "w" to a follow-up usage only with an "o"; "y" was also only used as consonant, one of the "i" characters or an "e" used in the vowels sounds.

This all started from making coded messages in our camping club camp wars... early in my life in a world long ago.

[Fozzer]

@H.....

...my head hurts now... ....!

Paul... ... ... ...!