The Euro 2024 Thread

[GLASGOWOLF]

Wonder why they’ll bother to let the Spanish bars stay open so late if they only drink a bottle of water between five?

Unless it’s complete and utter bllcks of course.

Because they will be everywhere with music and noise.

They will still have a party everywhere music noise, blocked one of the main roads last Tuesday.

By the way the Spanish Kids are as bad as our kids, how much of that is the influence of TV and Internet I don't know.

They tend to go to the strip, clubs, then fight with the police, pick on Tourists, target Guiris

 

[catfishwolf]

That's quite the round trip and an expensive place for a weekly shop tbf. Perhaps there's somewhere closer?

Strangely Iceland is the upmarket store that has all of the UK brands imported that you can’t get locally. If you want Yorkshire tea, marmite, you have to go to Iceland. It is really expensive, though.

On the language, my folks moved to Spain a few years ago, my dad is always wanting to practice his Spanish but as soon as anyone local realises he’s British they want to practice their English.

 

[Alan]

Strangely Iceland is the upmarket store that has all of the UK brands imported that you can’t get locally. If you want Yorkshire tea, marmite, you have to go to Iceland. It is really expensive, though.

On the language, my folks moved to Spain a few years ago, my dad is always wanting to practice his Spanish but as soon as anyone local realises he’s British they want to practice their English.

I’ve heard Germany is similar in that they’ll stop you speaking broken Deutsch if they know English.

 

[Lycan]

I’ve heard Germany is similar in that they’ll stop you speaking broken Deutsch if they know English.

'I apologize. My English is not the yellow from the egg' - Every German ever.

 

[Alan]

'I apologize. My English is not the yellow from the egg' - Every German ever.

Adding "my _____ is not the yellow from the egg" to my repertoire immediately.

 

[Lycan]

Adding "my _____ is not the yellow from the egg" to my repertoire immediately.

Better to have a sparrow in the hand than a pigeon on the roof.

 

[Alan]

Better to have a sparrow in the hand than a pigeon on the roof.

A bird in the hand is worth two in the belfry?

(Nonsense sayings are my bread and butter, we can keep this going until it needs its own thread )

 

[Lycan]

A bird in the hand is worth two in the belfry?

(Nonsense sayings are my bread and butter, we can keep this going until it needs its own thread )

Do you have tomatoes on your eyes, or?

 

[AndyWolves]

I’ve heard Germany is similar in that they’ll stop you speaking broken Deutsch if they know English.

Same in France, for me anyway, I still tried to speak what little french I knew anyway to show willing if nothing else.

In my book if you're going to another country you should at least try a few words.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

I’ve heard Germany is similar in that they’ll stop you speaking broken Deutsch if they know English.

They do appreciate it if you try (obviously I don't personally have this issue but I always tell those travelling just to know a little bit - not everyone speaks English, even in a major city).

If you wanted to move to Hamburg and never ever speak a word of German, assuming whatever you did for work didn't require it, you probably could just about do it. Would be very shit, pointless and extremely limiting though. Go anywhere much smaller and you'd be in a lot of trouble day-to-day just trying to exist.

 

[Elephant Pyjamas]

I don't think blame the Scots for wanting us to lose, if the position was reversed I'd want Spain to win. That's pompous and hypocritical shite though

Absolutely, Glaswegians absolutely love a bit of Benidorm.

 

[catfishwolf]

Same in France, for me anyway, I still tried to speak what little french I knew anyway to show willing if nothing else.

In my book if you're going to another country you should at least try a few words.

Showing willingness seems key in France. If you try French they’ll help you out in English, if you go straight to English…. blank faces, even if they speak it.

 

[Alan]

Do you have tomatoes on your eyes, or?

It's all water under the sea!

 

[Mel Evo]

Outside the tiny portion of Spain that is expat heavy it’s still surprising how little English is spoken. That includes the (domestic) business sector in Madrid, and certainly larger cities including Valencia. That said, they take learning English a lot more seriously than we take learning Spanish in the school system. Making MFL optional for GCSE remains one of the big, and surprising, mistakes by New Labour IMO.

 

[Deutsch Wolf]

The standard of MFL teaching in the state system varies so wildly from school to school, it's a genuine lottery.

My brother never had any natural aptitude for it but when he showed me what he'd been "taught" as he prepared for his French GCSE I (at 18, taking my A-Levels, we didn't go to the same school) was shocked. More or less a series of stock phrases to be reeled off, no technique, no vocabulary, no grammar underpinning it, nothing beyond parroting Ladybird book crap. So I chipped in and helped him out with a piece of coursework and he was subsequently described as "our star pupil" when my parents went to the next parents' evening He still owes me for that 25 years on I reckon.

We don't pay it anything like the heed that we should, even allowing for my obvious bias.

 

[Keef]

When I biked round Eastern Europe, my basic Russian helped a lot, just because everyone everywhere aged 50+ was forced to learn it, lots of shops in tiny towns run by older people weren’t overjoyed when I spoke it but it helped, under 40s were mainly English speaking.
I did two days in a Ukrainian school speaking English* to the kids in their English lessons just because a native speaker does it better, always wonder if there’s Ukrainians going “ ar that’s bostin aye it?” When something is good, we just sat around chatting and doing q&a about football, films, music London

* I cycled past a family in a now infamous small town that was having a bbq in the garden, I waved and said hello, the kids chased after me telling me to stop and come and eat, so I did, they asked if I could go to their school to talk about what I was doing, dad ok’d it with the school so I did.

 

[sycophantia]

They do appreciate it if you try (obviously I don't personally have this issue but I always tell those travelling just to know a little bit - not everyone speaks English, even in a major city).

If you wanted to move to Hamburg and never ever speak a word of German, assuming whatever you did for work didn't require it, you probably could just about do it. Would be very shit, pointless and extremely limiting though. Go anywhere much smaller and you'd be in a lot of trouble day-to-day just trying to exist.

I always try and learn a bit even if it's just please, thank you and ask for a beer.
In my limited experience of Europe, in the big centres and tourist hotspots, lots of English speaking, rural France, Italy, Spain hardly any.

 

[Tredman]

Getting a water tank put up at our house in Zambia. Received the message below, my reply of ‘Home’ was met with bafflement.

 

[Kenny]

Looks like Shaw for Trippier the only change tonight

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

Outside the tiny portion of Spain that is expat heavy it’s still surprising how little English is spoken. That includes the (domestic) business sector in Madrid, and certainly larger cities including Valencia. That said, they take learning English a lot more seriously than we take learning Spanish in the school system. Making MFL optional for GCSE remains one of the big, and surprising, mistakes by New Labour IMO.

Madrids not too bad, my pal works for EA Sports, Married to a Spanish girl from where I live, he speaks little Spanish.

Once you get to the likes of Coin, Mijas Pueblo English is spoken less.

When you get to Alhaurin, it's virtually none existent.

Most the English that speak superb Spanish, learnt In Jail.....

Even my Bulgarian mate one of my best friends here learnt his Spanish inside.