I don't read Italian

[ALdad]

The rossopuro link-site has some cool stuff I would be interested in, But I can''t figure out how to navigate in english. I can get the firt page in english then all is lost. Is there a complete english version somewhere?

[rocker59]

http://www.freetranslation.com/

[antonio carroccio]

Such complex country America. They speaks there only Americans, not even English.

When is time to speak some other language, where in another part of the world as one of the oldest will be,(Italian=surrogate of Latin) they get in totally panic.

Don’t they sell in America some CD for autodidactic people who wants to learn another language?

You can spread you own horizon, like that!

 

But watch it! It is phonetic!!!

[Richard Z]

Such complex country America. They speaks there only Americans, not even English.

When is time to speak some other language, where in another part of the world as one of the oldest will be,(Italian=surrogate of Latin) they get in totally panic.

Don’t they sell in America some CD for autodidactic people who wants to learn another language?

You can spread you own horizon, like that!

 

But watch it! It is phonetic!!!

 

 

American/English is the second language of the United States. Spanish/Mexican is the first language of the USA

 

Richard Z.

aka vesparider

[Dan M]

The rossopuro link-site has some cool stuff I would be interested in, But I can''t figure out how to navigate in english. I can get the firt page in english then all is lost. Is there a complete english version somewhere?

 

When you link to it there is a Union Jack on the right of the screen. Click on it for the site in English.

[raz]

When you link to it there is a Union Jack on the right of the screen. Click on it for the site in English.

 

I first got to www.rossopuro.com but that wasn't the one

http://www.rossopuroitalia.it is better

 

The flag Dan describes is a bit hard to see, it's cut in half diagonally... and it doesn't even matter what you chose, it's still mostly Italian. After getting to the actual site, you have to chose again, right below the menu to the left. "Choice Language", chose "Inglese Internet Default" and then it seems OK.

 

Bad web design, good product design

[ALdad]

Thanx Raz, I'm in. I had found the union jack but had not found the laguage choice . now if I can find some prices.

[Skeeve]

Such complex country America. They speaks there only Americans, not even English.

When is time to speak some other language, where in another part of the world as one of the oldest will be,(Italian=surrogate of Latin) they get in totally panic.

Don’t they sell in America some CD for autodidactic people who wants to learn another language?

You can spread you own horizon, like that!

 

But watch it! It is phonetic!!!

 

Our public school systems ["Public" as in "free, paid for by taxes (which isn't free, actually)," not "Public" as in U.K. private schools] are ever devolving, since the teachers can no longer impose order by smacking the kids whose parents don't love them enough to beat them when they do wrong. The poor social behaviour of the wild kids then spreads to the rest, and nothing gets taught. Combine that with fundie parents who get in the way of quality education by insisting on textbooks that don't teach the theory of evolution, other parents who insist on dumbing down the whole system so that their precious angel [who they won't beat for bringing home failing grades] will pass, etc. and the quality of the teaching materials & curriculum devolves almost as rapidly as the classroom discipline.

 

Combine this with a school system that refuses to recognize that a substantial percentage of the kids within their walls will never go on to so much as a junior college/technical school, let alone academia, yet refuses to offer useful trade indoctrination [vs. the German "gymnasium/technetium" scholastic split], and you end up with a public education that considers the ability to read at a 5th grade level for high school seniors a "success."

 

Oh yeah, and lest we stray too far off the "foreign language" options: most school systems don't even allow for learning a F.L. until the Junior High level, which is at least 5 years too late to offer true, native-speaker comfortable life-long fluency by the time the kid graduates from high school.

 

And before anyone asks: no, I'm not a teacher, I'm just someone who has spent virtually their entire life being told "you should be a teacher!" and the grandson of a very successful teacher who had the good fortune to retire prior to the sweeping changes to our laws here in California that gutted what was once one of the nation's best public school systems.

[/rant mode]

 

Ride on!

[Guzzirider]

I would imagine a fair few Americans would get by ok in Spain or South America when it comes to speaking the lingo!

 

Many Brits are just lazy when it comes to trying to speak another language- unwilling to learn even a few words of another tongue because they just expect everyone abroad to speak English.

 

I cringe when I hear a British tourist abroad barking orders at some poor French hotel receptionist in English, just assuming she understands.

 

Saying that, many Europeans do speak English so we can get away with it!

 

Guy

[Guest Mattress]

Unless you live in a large to major city in the US, it becomes quite a challenge to become proficient in anything but Spanish. I think europeans forget that we are not living within a cannon shot of some clan of people that speaks a foreign tongue (excluding Texas, Kentucky & Indiana).

 

My impression is the older generations had better foreign language education in high school, but they learned geography too.

 

The real challenge if finding people to practice with and you have to be dedicated and interested. There is little non-spanish foreign language on tv, etc. My grandmother meets with a group of friends to practice french.

 

I think most average people here would find it to much of an esoteric undertaking.

[jbuzbee]

Hey. I'm a product of the US public educational system. And I have a master's degree, own my own business, and am financially independent. It's not what is taught, but who you are. In the imortal words of Captain Jack Sparrow: "All that matter is what a man CAN do and what a man CAN'T do."

[antonio carroccio]

It looks not good, what concern the education in common of you guys in the States.

I only can deduce, for what I am reading in some few posts, you people gives us an idea you are ignorant and thus not evolving yourself.

I have to admit, in Europe it is easy to hear some other language if you are at the market or in the tram or wherever. And people are moving very pleased to get some vacation outside their own country.

Like Germans or British people does, they love see and warm beaches and they likes to go to the Mediterranean area.

Anyway, it’s very handy to know some few words in a foreign language.

[Dan M]

It looks not good, what concern the education in common of you guys in the States.

I only can deduce, for what I am reading in some few posts, you people gives us an idea you are ignorant and thus not evolving yourself.

I have to admit, in Europe it is easy to hear some other language if you are at the market or in the tram or wherever. And people are moving very pleased to get some vacation outside their own country.

Like Germans or British people does, they love see and warm beaches and they likes to go to the Mediterranean area.

Anyway, it’s very handy to know some few words in a foreign language.

 

 

It is true, a second language is not taught here at an early age. The average student has a year or two of foreign language in high school which is forgotten quickly. As Mattress said, it is not like Europe here with many small countries and languages close together. Up until fairly recently, the opportunity to use another language didn't present itself often. Spanish is quickly becoming our "second" language though, and many people (like myself) have found the need to learn at least some of it to conduct day to day business.

When traveling in Europe, I can usually get by OK as least with Spanish & Italian but feel like a "stupid American" for not being multi-lingual.

[Skeeve]

Anyway, it’s very handy to know some few words in a foreign language.

 

Yes, but the phrasebooks always seem to ignore the most interesting & useful ones!

[Guest Mattress]

Yes, but the phrasebooks always seem to ignore the most interesting & useful ones!

 

Like:

 

Ich mochte ein glass Schinkensaft! Or, Ich liebe kartofflehosen, sie sind sehr bequem.

 

I loved pulling some lines like that with a straight face on a young barmaid. Maybe thats why I never got laid, by a german girl. Australian backpackers, er, thats a different story.