The Elitist Chat Thread

[General Brewster]

Hi brewster ;3 So what's new on twc?

Declining activity is the biggest thing that happened since we last spoke I suppose Hope you've been well though dude

I am Pope of the Thema Devia. Obey.

NOO!! The Avian returns, the apocalypse is happening!

Danke!

I have to say, I am a little surprise by how few Germans actually know English.
Interesting, this is the first country I have lived in where I did not strike out like a cue ball. I had three people asked me for directions.

I also read Germans casually carry beet around with them. I am from New Orleans with drive through Daquarie shops and I never seen so many people just walking around drinking beer on the subway. They even sell beer in the subway. Toto, we are not in "Indonesia" anymore!


[I actually been to the Netherlands (Amsterdam). Great trip until I had a 24 hour bug. Anyway, managed to catch a Ajax Match.]

Yeah is it that bad? I'm glad I can say I've been able to make myself understandable in German from the age of 8 so
Ah yes one of the finer German advantages, beer at gas stations, Macdonalds and indeed subway stations Are you getting into learning German or?

Ew that's the wrong city that has 'Dam' in it . Rotterdam is the place to be, and if you watched a match it would've been much more glorious to watch Feyenoord!

[PikeStance]

Yeah is it that bad? I'm glad I can say I've been able to make myself understandable in German from the age of 8 so
Ah yes one of the finer German advantages, beer at gas stations, Macdonalds and indeed subway stations Are you getting into learning German or?

Ew that's the wrong city that has 'Dam' in it . Rotterdam is the place to be, and if you watched a match it would've been much more glorious to watch Feyenoord!

I purchased Rosetta Stone. I was doing a unit a day up until about 2 weeks ago. The way the program works is that you do not developed German language quickly. In the first few lessons, I pretty know how to say horse, cat, dog, man, woman, boy, girl,.... and some action, like drink, eat, write, read, run.... There is some pronoun instruction, but it is implied. Basically, unless someone say something like, Man is running, I don't know what they are saying.

It is funny you mentioned Feyenoord. When the Dutch league first came on TV in the US, that was the team I chose. I like their uniform and logo design.

[General Brewster]

I purchased Rosetta Stone. I was doing a unit a day up until about 2 weeks ago. The way the program works is that you do not developed German language quickly. In the first few lessons, I pretty know how to say horse, cat, dog, man, woman, boy, girl,.... and some action, like drink, eat, write, read, run.... There is some pronoun instruction, but it is implied. Basically, unless someone say something like, Man is running, I don't know what they are saying.

It is funny you mentioned Feyenoord. When the Dutch league first came on TV in the US, that was the team I chose. I like their uniform and logo design.

Depending on how easy you learn languages I'm positive you'll get the hang of it. The people aren't as unwilling to try and help you make your point clear as say the French(Slight, nuance, I'm referring to Northern France in particular.)

Ha! I'm starting to like you more now Pike! Last week we won the supercup and today we won our season opener with 2-1 vs FC Twente. After all those years in limbo we are on the rise



Our glorious final match of the 2016 - 2017 season. After 18 years champions again. Joyous moment.

[Shankbot de Bodemloze]

EDIT: Never mind, missed a load of previous posts.

[lolIsuck]

Danke!

I have to say, I am a little surprise by how few Germans actually know English.

It's probably partly because they dub films and series so they have less exposure to the English language than the Scandinavians or Dutch-speaking people in the Netherlands and Belgium. (assuming Scandinavians don't dub films either)
Only children's films and series are dubbed here (with the films often available in English as well), it's not really worth it (and it sounds really dumb) to dub films for the 20+ million people who speak Dutch. No "Stirb langsam" here.

[♔atthias♔]

The Curia is the last holdout of the republic. You will not get us, even if it is Masada all over.

can I also take refuge here?


@pike welcome to germany
@Eol we have not met before but as a youngster it is good to see oldtimers return

[Iskar]

can I also take refuge here?

Sure. Cuppa tea?

[♔atthias♔]

Sure. Cuppa tea?

choke please

[PikeStance]

It's probably partly because they dub films and series so they have less exposure to the English language than the Scandinavians or Dutch-speaking people in the Netherlands and Belgium. (assuming Scandinavians don't dub films either)
Only children's films and series are dubbed here (with the films often available in English as well), it's not really worth it (and it sounds really dumb) to dub films for the 20+ million people who speak Dutch. No "Stirb langsam" here.

Yeah, I thought Germany would be more like the Netherlands. I did find a website where they list where you can view movies in English. It is good to know that is an option. Indonesia shown the movies in English, however, they censored the movies and many movies were never shown (e.g. The Founder).

@pike welcome to germany

Danke!
I made it to my First Bundesliga match.... Hertha Berlin vs. Stuttgart
2-0 win

Deck myself out with a jersey as well! Tried about a half dozen different German beers... drinking one with (what looks like) Frederick The Great on it.
On the train people talk to me in German.... very diferent I never lived in a country wee it wasn't obvious I not from there.

[Flinn]

if you are complaining about how many Germans speak english, you should come in Italy and see

[General Brewster]

if you are complaining about how many Germans speak english, you should come in Italy and see

THE HORROR!

[PikeStance]

if you are complaining about how many Germans speak english, you should come in Italy and see

Technically, it was an observation. I purchase the Rosetta Stone for German. With my past customer discount and two summer discounts I was able to get it at about 40% discount.
I was in Italy a few years ago. Rome and Florence is fine, but Napoli....no one. My ex-wife "claimed" she knew some Italian. Coming back from Pompeii we couldn't find one person that spoke Italian and my ex-wife proved to be useless. I was able to make my way back by recognizing signs of places near the city center. What made it worse is my hyper nervous father spewing his pessimism.

[Flinn]

well many people does not know that in Italy we have infact many dialects that are actually languages on their own, to the point that even people who lives not very far can speak sensibly different dialects.. you can guess what happens when you compare hardcoded Milanese with Palermitano, for instance. As someone who leaves in the central part of the country I personally found southern dialects easier to understand that the northern ones (which got many german influeces over the past few centuries).

Did you enjoy visiting Pompei? I always found the place to be so sad and "cold", the more because it is really abandoned in terms of restoration and conservation ..

[PikeStance]

I actually loved Pompeii. It didn't looked poorly maintained when I was there, but this was back around 2009. A very long time ago. The preservation of the site (natural preservation) was impressive. I hope what you said was not true. It is a must see place if you go to Italy at least when I was there. My father paid one of the hanger ons outside to give us a tour. He was a riot.... "original, original, original, here.... we lie!" He was basically pointing out what is in their original place and what was moved or propped up to make it look nicer. I also remember looking through the brothel, and he yelled out, "how is my happy little family?" My father was mortified.

[Flinn]

Well I guess that from outside it might look to be well maintained, but it's not so actually; the place has been recovered from the ground a hundred of years ago or so, and since then damages caused by the weather and the negligence has been many. Sure, it's not that the place is crumbling already, still almost nothing has been done afaik to improve the situation

source here

not that it's so different from what happens in general in Italy; actually the last restoration of the Colosseo was paid by private sources (IIRC, the Della Valle family, owners of the Fiorentina football team and Tod's shoes brand).

[Sir Adrian]

To be fair Naples and Campania are probably the suckiest at maintaining infrastructure and buildings. Traveling to Napoli from Roma or Firenze feels like entering a new country, a very dirty one.

[PikeStance]

Well I guess that from outside it might look to be well maintained, but it's not so actually; the place has been recovered from the ground a hundred of years ago or so, and since then damages caused by the weather and the negligence has been many. Sure, it's not that the place is crumbling already, still almost nothing has been done afaik to improve the situation

source here

not that it's so different from what happens in general in Italy; actually the last restoration of the Colosseo was paid by private sources (IIRC, the Della Valle family, owners of the Fiorentina football team and Tod's shoes brand).

I do not doubt you. I can only see what it is, not what it should or could be. I missed seeing the Coliseum. We made the mistake of thinking we could walk to it thinking it would take an hour. Two hours later it came to view and closed 5 minutes before we got there.

To be fair Naples and Campania are probably the suckiest at maintaining infrastructure and buildings. Traveling to Napoli from Roma or Firenze feels like entering a new country, a very dirty one.

The happiest day of trip for my dad was the day Napoli was in our rear-view mirror.

My wife and I would love to go to Venice next. I am also keen to traveling around Germany.

[Flinn]

Venice can be quite expensive, so avoid going there during the highest turist seasons (May-September and December-January)

@ Settra, it's not a local problem, the little attention we pay to "antiquities" is common everywhere in Italy, see here my article about, for instance. Too much people thinks, wrongly IMO, that the problem of Italy is the southern part, well at the least for what regards many bad habits we have, I can grant you that it's nation-wide

[Sir Adrian]

To be fair we aren't very good at preserving local monuments either. Sarmisegetuza and the old genovese fortresses on the Danube are basically ruins of ruins.

I do not doubt you. I can only see what it is, not what it should or could be. I missed seeing the Coliseum. We made the mistake of thinking we could walk to it thinking it would take an hour. Two hours later it came to view and closed 5 minutes before we got there.


The happiest day of trip for my dad was the day Napoli was in our rear-view mirror.

My wife and I would love to go to Venice next. I am also keen to traveling around Germany.

If you're traveling why not come visit Romania. September is half price month as the summer season closes on October 1st so everything will be in the cheap, but weather will still be as good as july (even hotter if last two years are any indication)

[PikeStance]

It is not out of the question. It is convincing my wife that there is something there she wants to see. She is very frugal, so cheap is a strong selling point.