@ thymez yor graspe ov thee inglish langwidge/grammer/spelin iz atroshush
itt duz reely worrie mee letz hoap bean a stewdent @ kollidge helpz ewe two improove

When has my English been bad ?

And Mutley I'm going to Uni(versity), not college !

Let's be honest here, it's a polytechnic by any other name

What, the University of Kent, yeah, sounds like a polytechnic doesn't it!

I'll bet you a £1 it used to be a Poly, I mean even the fcuking 'Boro has a Uni

You can't polish a turd

I went up to a stall for the University of Sunderland and I asked the girl whether they did French. She said they didn't.

What proper Uni doesn't do French at Uni?

Mebbe the lass thought you meant a different kind of French?

I thought loads of universities (I really hate the term "uni", sounds so poncey) had dropped French - it's hardly much use other than if you want to teach it, is it? Wading through loads of tedious French literature for 4 years - bet you can't wait!

A few years back, I was in a band that gigged a couple of times at the University of Kent at Canterbury - a highly prestigious place both for students to gain admission to & also for bands to play at. Congratulations on getting a place there, Poolie of Kent. I hope you work hard at your studies & do yourself justice by getting a good degree.

If I had the aptitude for it then I wouldn't mind reading the works of Sartre, Baudelaire, Camus and Hugo in their native language. Maybe just me like.

Don't forget that some of Samuel Becket's works were originally written in French (e.g. 'En attendant Godot')

French is the offical language of the European Broadcasting union and the IOC.
It is an offical language of the European Union and parliament in Brussels.
There are many big French national companies like Societe Generale, BNP Paribas.
The only thing is of course is the globalised dominance of French in the business world - President Sarkozy refuses to speak English when speking to English-speaking diplomats because he is trying to promote his own language in the business world, which I totally agree with him. We're lucky centuries of colonialisation have meant English is the most widely spoken language but becase of that we think we've got it made and often we can be lazy and rude.
Anyway, it's nice to remember that you are in a foreign country and you should attempt I believe to speak their language.
You also learn culture through learning the language, a culture ranging from Charpentier to Edith Piaf.

Remember these famous philosophical quotaions..yep, it was Frenchmen whomade them famous.

Le plus grand faible des hommes, c'est l'amour qu'ils ont de la vie.
Man's greatest weakness is his love of life.
Molière.

Le travail éloigne de nous trois grands maux: l'ennui, le vice et le besoin.
Work delivers us from three great evils: boredom, vice and want.
Voltaire.

Du sublime au ridicule il n'y a qu'un pas.
It's just one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Napoléon.

Généralement, les gens qui savant peu parlent becoup, et les gens qui savant beaucoup parlent peu.
Generally speaking, the people who know little speak a lot and the people who know a lot speak little.
Rousseau.

Le vrai philosphe n'attend rien des homes, et il leur fait tout le bien don't il est capable.
The true philosopher expects nothing from others and offers them the best he can give them.
Voltaire.

An excellent university Mr Poolie of Kent

I was player manager of Eliot College's second XI no less during my time there

Thank you Ed I appreciate that. Very kind of you.

Your signature looks French Sarnia what does the first part say

The second says "...and they call themselves Hartlepool"

"Généralement, les gens qui savant peu parlent becoup, et les gens qui savant beaucoup parlent peu.
Generally speaking, the people who know little speak a lot and the people who know a lot speak little.
Rousseau."

Until this thread I would have applied this quote to you Mr Kent, I think I will have to revise my opinion of you a little.

Je pense donc je suis

I think therefore I am

Rene Descartes.



I think, I think I am, therefore I am, I think.

Graeme Edge (Moody Blues - In The Beginning)

Thank you Mr Billingham. Very kind of you.

Cognito ergo sum !

There's only one United, and they call us Hartlepool

It's not French, it's Dgernesiais

I think that's a nice touch. Is that a local dialect in Guernsey ?

By the way, did you get my PM ?

Cogito ergo sum.

whats the band ed?!

Rousseau is not the first recorded to have expressed this sentiment. In the rather (2,500 years?) older Tao Te Ching, Lao Tse says "Those who understand/know do not speak. Those who speak do not understand/know". (Chapter 56 I think). Sorry that I don't have the software to post it in Chinese script too!

Bugger, you're right and all Billingham.

We did have a Latin Club once at school but that broke down after two or three lessons - only 3 people turned up for it !

If you want to spend four years learning French, go to France for four years and study some other subject. That way you get two for the price of one.

From my own experience, those most proficient at French are not those who have degrees in it.

(For your info Mr PoK and yours alone, I have serious credentials when it comes to making such statements).

I don't think you can never be totally efficient in French and the French that I will speak - professional, educated, clear - will be different to the kind of French that an urban black French immigrant speaks in the ghettos of Paris.

Anyway, going out there will help me make new friends, practise the language, have a lovely year abroad over there - I just hope I don't spend a year over there when Pools win the League !!!!

Seems French is important after all:

http://www.pooliebunker.co.uk/newbunker/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=17954

I thought certain styles of Mandarin was the most widely spoken.

World's languages - Source: The Independent Map of the World
Other languages 61.19%
Mandarin 13.69%
English 4.84 %

Yes, Miss Tigga, it is tenchnically but in terms of the number of ciountries with high GDP that compete in the global economy, that makes English the most dominant of languages in the world certainly, if not the most wideliest spoken.

You can become totally efficient, Mr K, though it may take more than four years.
My remark applies to people speaking both "professional, educated" and colloquial French. A University degree in French won't give you either, I'm afraid. But a French degree in engineering might.

Ah well, it's too late now, somebody in London might have us to speak French in the business world anyway. A degree's still a degree.

Well I don't usually brag about it, but since you ask, I shall. I was part of the line-up of 80s rhythm'n'bangbangwallopwallop uneasy listening international cult band Bad Tune Men, who having achieved acclaim in the main national music papers went on to top the charts on 3 sides of the Atlantic (we never could quite conquer Greenland) with a 6 figure fanclub and groupies coming out of our ears.

Competition: the above may feature 1 or possibly more than 1 falsehood. See if you can spot it/them.
1st prize: a poke in the eye
2nd prize: presenting the 1st prize