Text 25047, 128 rader
Skriven 2006-02-08 14:25:27 av Roy Witt (1:1/22)
  Kommentar till text 25013 av Michiel van der Vlist (2:280/5555)
Ärende: Texas Grapefruit GREAT!
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08 Feb 06 17:37, Michiel van der Vlist wrote to Roy Witt:


 >> 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.

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

They sell, cell phones.

 MvdV> A new concept for me. Here cell phone services are provided by the
 MvdV> cell phone companies and only them. They all provide national
 MvdV> 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.
 MvdV> Not here. Few things are free here...

Well, the card is free, but the service is paid for by the taxpayers.

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

The library and it's services are all paid for by real property taxes, so
it's not a socialistic structure that pays the way.

 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.

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

True, but it is the language with the most users/speakers. Someday, it
will be the only language used.

 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.

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

No, it's apples and apples. If you only speak Spanish, then you will only
get a low paying job. If you speak both languages, you can get a better
paying job in any service or industry. If you only speak English, you will
not get a top paying job in the industries I mentioned.

 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.

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

You missed the point. If you watch a Dutch language channel, you will get
your news in that language. If you want it in English, you will have to
find an English language channel. If there aren't any available in
Holland, then the country isn't as diverse as you've claimed in the past.

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

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

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

True.

 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
 MvdV>>> speaker.

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

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

Consider that a person who is just learning morse code starts out slow and
works up to faster speeds. My experience in Dutch is less than 5 minutes,
in one lifetime.

 >>>> 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.

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

I can, but I didn't think about it at the time.


Roy
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