Text 25013, 99 rader
Skriven 2006-02-08 17:37:03 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
  Kommentar till text 24916 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
Ärende: Texas Grapefruit GREAT!
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 > I gave my laptop to my son when we moved from San Diego. I didn't think
 > I'd need one here. So I don't have any experience in what's available
 > here, but there is a Jack-in-the-Box (similar to McDonald'sand I think
 > another one at the Starbucks, as they also provide cell phone service
 > there.

Cell phone service? You mean the cell phones would not work without them
providing service?

A new concept for me. Here cell phone services are provided by the cell phone
companies and only them. They all provide national coverage. It is a condition
of their consession.

 >>> If you need a computer, even small town libraries have the
 >>> internet hooked up now. The use of them is free, if you have a
 >>> library card.

 MvdV>> Same here, except that you do not need the library card, you just
 MvdV>> pay for the time.

 > I would imagine that's possible here too, but the card gives
 > you free access to the internet. And the card is free.

Not here. Few things are free here...

Now what was this about a socialst poaradise? <beg>

 MvdV>>>>>> Point was that I was once again in the dark because
 MvdV>>>>>> apparently 26 letters is not enough for everyone...
 >>>>> They are if you're using English.
 MvdV>>>> Yeah, but the world is bigger than that...
 >>> Not really. English spans the globe.

 MvdV>> While it is true that you can get a long way with English, it
 MvdV>> certainly is not the only language in the world.

 > Of course.

English isn't even the langauage with the most native speakers...

 MvdV>> Try to get a job here if you /only/ speak English. Next to
 MvdV>> impossible.

 > That's nearly impossible here too. It's a 55% hispanic
 > community and for a service or supervision job, you would
 > need to be bi-lingual in Spanish as well.

Apples and oranages. English is NOT the official language here. If you only
speak Dutch here, you can get a fairly decent job. Though not a top job.

 MvdV>> You don't get the *local* news in English. Not here, not in
 MvdV>> Thailand.

 > You can get the local news here in English and Spanish, if you
 > watch a Hispanic channel.

Apples and oranges again: English and Spanish are local language there. Over
here where there are two official langages (Frieslan) you can get the local
news in two languages. But not in English.

 MvdV>> Actually one can do reasonably well without umlauts and accents in
 MvdV>> Dutch. They aren't used very much anyway and one can usually just
 MvdV>> omit them without harming comprehension. There are a few exeptions
 MvdV>> such as één and een. ("one" resp, "a") In the time when moderators
 MvdV>> went into a flat spinover "high ascii" we simply wrote e1n instead
 MvdV>> of één when it mattered. The SMS gang has now adopted that custom.

 > Fortunately, that high ascii stuff isn't as scary as it once was.

Sure. All the softare (and hardware) that can not hanlde it has been depricated
by now. Still it is messy with all those different character sets.

 MvdV>>>> http://www.vlist.org/downloads/zsgeitje.wav

 >>> Way out of my league.

 MvdV>> As I said, almost impossible to pronounce for a non native speaker.

 > Yes, and to get the pronounciation, the recording would have
 > to be much slower for a non native speaker to even comprehend it,

Hmmm... I was speaking slower than I normally do...

 >>> I can make out the ch sound in the last word, but it's hard to
 >>> switch fast enough to read along with the speaker. I cut in around
 >>> met.

 MvdV>> Switch? Switch from what to what?

 > I had to switch from the Quickplayer window to the quote in
 > the message.

You can't get them both on the screen simultaneously? Odd, I have no problems
with that.

Cheers, Michiel

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