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Nelek wrote: But this mostly is valid for native speakers (or very talented persons regarding foreign languages)
I lived in Italy for three years, and was communicating adequately within three months.
I've lived in NL for the better part of 20 years, and still can't speak the language adequately.
Not sure where I should position my talent regarding foreign languages.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Have you heard of Interlingua?[^]
I could survive in French and have a smattering of Italian and Spanish. One day I came across something that looked like a combination of all three and had few problems reading it. I figured it had to be Catalan. Yes siree.
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I speak English, French and German and had no difficulty reading Dutch while attending a games convention in Eindhoven as I could work out what most of the words meant (context helped) - speaking it though was another matter! I could also read a games manual for an RPG in Italian without too much difficulty - once more context (and some Latin from schooldays) helped a lot.
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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I can read italian and portuguese to get the big picture and some details without big problems. There are many false friend that can give funny interpretations, of course.
I can read french with some difficulties but still manage to get the big picture.
I can understand italian pretty good, portuguese if they speak slow, french... no way.
Portuguese people understand spanish better than we understand them.
Never learned any of them.
I speak german and english.
On top I can understand some basic dutch, because (being very simplistic) it can be treated like a variation of german with spanish sounds.
Basics for a pitch elevator in chinese and indian (at least back then). Only spoken, nothing written. It helped me to make a bit of good mood in conversations with professional partners before changing to english.
Anecdote: Being Valencian / Catalonian my second mother language, I haven't use it for so long, that when I am home I can't speak it anymore. If I try, german or english come faster to my mouth. I can still read it perfectly and write it with advanced level though.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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I am English and learned French and Latin at school, German when I lived there for seven years, good enough to tell a joke and have the locals laugh at my joke, not at my German (I hope).
Since I have been in the US for twenty-five years I have almost lost all of my French and German language - although I can still read them fairly well - and understand the bits in old war films and such. I even feel I have lost a lot of English since the Americans speak a cut-down version of English with less words in their everyday vocabulary and I have to simplify my speech when speaking with them! The last time I spoke German was with my son's German teacher at a parent's evening (he hated that).
- I would love to change the world, but they won’t give me the source code.
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Dragging @Member-7989122 into this thread.
I've looked at Dutch in airline magazines and some of the words were very similar to Norwegian after some transformations. Others, to English. And ones for which I had no clue, probably German. It makes sense. Draw a triangle--GB, N, D--and NL is in the middle. Just like Catalan and E, F, I.
I'd guess that the equivalent of Interlingua[^] could be created for Norwegian, Swedish, and Danish. Icelandic hasn't changed much (other than in pronunciation) since Viking days, so it probably wouldn't fit. And to be understood, quite a few Danes would require oral surgery to remove the potato from their mouth.
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Norwegians are generally capable of conversing both Swedes and Danes; we are sort of in the middle between. Generally, Swedes and Danes have greater difficulties understanding each other. (With some exceptions: The Skåne dialects, in south-west Sweden, are far closer to Danish than the east coast Stockholm Swedish - but then again, older people in Skåne may speak an old dialect variant which neither Stockholmers, Danes nor Norwegians understand a word of!)
Sometimes I envy those having English as their mother tongue: You cannot possibly be super-sensitive to "correct" pronunciation, or even spelling: There are so many varieties that even "stiff upper lip" Brits just have to accept that people are different.
To Norwegians, language and how it is pronounced is a serious matter. It was much more so 40-50 years ago; at that time we hadn't seen much immigration, so Norway was essentially a homogenous culture. We had lots of dialects, but until 1984(!) we a single national radio channel which set the standard for "correct" pronunciation. If you moved to a different district, and stuck to your old dialect (and did not switch to the "official" pronunciation), you were guaranteed to be ridiculed, especially among school children.
We have two variants of Norwegian: The "bokmål", which was quite strongly influenced by Danish (we had a common king for 300 years, seated in Copenhagen), and "nynorsk", based on traditional dialects from before the Danish rule. The two variants have been moving closes over they years, but the last book burning of school books in the "wrong" variant was only a few years ago.
So, the strong feelings about our language is still alive. When we still burn books that are in Norwegian (but the wrong variant), I think the chances of creating a single Scandinavian is below epsilon.
I don't think the Swedes have any greater interest in it; there are movements to have some Swedish dialects ("älvdalsmål" in particular) internationally recognized as a distinct language, not as a dialect. With the Danes, I do not know - they've got some very curious dialects on the west coast that I think would be difficult to mold into a common Scandinavian.
If you talk with young people today, you might rather hear: What's the use? Why can't we all switch to English instead?
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OK, answer me this:
Trying to renew my vehicle plates on line. Enter all the gorp, my credit card data and hit submit. See title for results.
This is followed by an email thanking me for renewing and saying that my CC info is being forwarded to their CC vendor.
The question: What will happen next?
a. My credit card will be charged and I will be mailed my plates.
b. My credit card will be charged but no plates will be mailed.
c. I will never hear from them again.
d. Something else.
BTW: do you suppose they have forseen errors?
Sigh. Mother told me there would be days like this, she didn't tell me there would be so many.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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My guess is a lovely combination of b and c, because..well..nothing can be easy.
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment
"Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst
"I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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why not just attach your credit card to your car where the plates go?
pestilence [ pes-tl-uh ns ] noun
1. a deadly or virulent epidemic disease. especially bubonic plague.
2. something that is considered harmful, destructive, or evil.
Synonyms: pest, plague, people
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The last time I did that I got a ticket.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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theoldfool wrote: The last time I did that I got a ticket.
Think yourself lucky you're not in Canada.
The police there issue Celine Dion tickets.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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That's for first offence, second time it's Nickelback.
For repeat offenders there is Justin Bieber.
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d. -- Someone is planning a trip to Ibeza with your CC info.
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theoldfool wrote: Enter all the gorp,
I found the problem. The last time I put gorp on the computer it shorted out.
Social Media - A platform that makes it easier for the crazies to find each other.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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Ah, the joys of DMVs. The epitome of customer service.
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theoldfool wrote: BTW: do you suppose they have forseen errors?
The real question is: If they were able to show an error message, doesn't that mean they have actually foreseen that error? Which of course would make the error message inaccurate, which in turn means they had not foreseen that they would foresee the error, which means it was an unforeseen error to foresee an error and then label it unforeseen ... 
GOTOs are a bit like wire coat hangers: they tend to breed in the darkness, such that where there once were few, eventually there are many, and the program's architecture collapses beneath them. (Fran Poretto)
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Say, is that common all over the USA that you have to "renew" your license plates? Or is it only in some states?
Here in Norway, the plates assigned to the car when it is bought for the first time (or possibly imported to Norway as a used car) stays with that car until it is scrapped, even when sold to another part of the country. I believe that even if it sold to Sweden, say, and carries Swedish plates for a few years, and then sold back to Norway, it would regain the same old plates.
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The plates stay the same but you get a sticker to glue on to indicate when they'll expire. It's a yearly fee, though some places let you pay for two years at a time. I've lived in TX, CA, NH, and ON, and it's been the same in all of them.
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We had those stickers in Norway as well, but from 2012, the automatic number recognition functions in the video cameras of the traffic police had matured enough to be a reliable way to flag cars who hadn't paid the yearly fee. It can even be fully automated - the camera mounted in a box along the roadside, reporting to the police office only those cars that haven't renewed.
From 2018, we still have to pay a yearly fee, but it is added to the (mandatory) liability insurance bill; you do not pay it separately.
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varies by state but here it is a yearly fee. They change plates every 5 years or somesuch, stickers in between. The license plate stays with the owner, not the car. I usually renew for 2 years but my second car is now 22 years old, so I do one year.
When I fill the gas tank, the value doubles. 
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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We have a few exceptions in Norway, where the number plate stays with the person:
The car of the Norwegian king has had a "A-1" number plate since the 1930s. (All new cars since 1970 have a two-letter, five-digit number plate, except for the king.)
For a few years, we have had the option to buy "personalized" number plates with up to seven characters, provided the letter combination is not yet taken (and the word is not offensive). You pay a fee (almost 900 USD) for it, and it can be transferred to another car for a period of ten years, when it must be renewed. But these personalized plates are sort of a "secondary" registration number: The original XX-12345 number is still assigned to the car, and will be the one used if the personalized plate is not renewed after ten years. A standard format number is always assigned when the car is first sold, even if the buyer immediately switches to the personalized plates.
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Previous Post[^] Dejavu all over again?
| Ravings en masse^ |
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| "The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits." - Albert Einstein | | "If you are searching for perfection in others, then you seek disappointment. If you seek perfection in yourself, then you will find failure." - Balboos HaGadol Mar 2010 |
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Experience: Recognizing a mistake the second time you make it.
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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Not even the donkeys struggle two times with the same stone   
(I have been told this a lot of times   )
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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