England; puplic elite schools

[TerokNor]

2000 words, that does not sound a lot. I think I may even have those as passive vocabulary in my head, but the active use of them is a totally different kettle of fish Look an ideom. Hehe.
I am not really embarressed when I make mistakes in English, but it annoys me to no end...especially when I know perfectly well what I want to say, but cannot find a way to express it in English... or at least not one that is as fluent as I like.

But only watching DVDs and reading books in English (just started on "The red badge of courage"...though thats american english) is seemingly not enough for me...guess I probably belong to the not so talented language learners... I need situations for memorizing, that emotionally effect me in a way...the stronger the better.
And I cannot keep grammatical rules in my head...I only write/ speak out of feeling...the same way I do it with my native language, but that proposes a problem, when you try to get a foreign language correctly spoken.
As soon as I am back in Germany I will get my application done for New Zealand. I need to be where the language is, otherwise it will never stuck in my head. Is the New Zealand accent a nice one? I don't want to adopt a strange accent, mixed with the one I already good.
The British accent I like well, but I have been here several times, so Id like tio see something else. Though I could imagine living for some time at an english coast...beautiful! I could have stayed on top of the cliffs for hours just starring at the sea and listening to the sea-gulls.

TerokNor

 

[Deckerd]

I'd just like to say that Catherine Tate clip is a tour de force. I'm not really a fan but that's just amazing.

 

[Count Zero]

I haven't heard all of the accents in New Zealand (far from it, actually), but the ones I've heard sounded pretty weird. Two of my friends stayed there for a year each and it seems to be a beautiful country with relaxed and nice people so you should definetely go there if your application works out.

 

[trampledamage]

2000 words, that does not sound a lot. I think I may even have those as passive vocabulary in my head, but the active use of them is a totally different kettle of fish Look an ideom. Hehe.

Not just an idiom - an idiom used correctly, nice one

I love the New Zealand accent, but they do pronounce their vowels oddly - the most famous example is "fish and chips" which gets pronounced "fush and chups"

If you can get hold of the Lord of the Rings movies, watch the "making of" documentaries - they're pretty much all New Zealand people.

 

[scotpens]

^ To this Yank, New Zealanders sound like Australians with their jaws wired shut.

 

[trampledamage]

The two accents are very similar - it's kind of a sliding scale of strangled vowels from Australia through New Zealand to South Africa.

 

[TerokNor]

Oh I have the LOTR Movies and watched the documentary, but it sounded just like... English to my ears.... not much difference to America or so. The only accent I can clearly hear is the scottish one, I like that one.

Am surprized about the nursery I just visited. Posivly surprized. It was modern and had a good understanding of what education really is and it wasn't so "schoolish" as i thought an english nursery would be.
Though I could not understand the children... a word here and there, but that was it. The adults I could understand when they spoke to me directly, but when they spoke to each other...nope, no idea what they were saying. That is somewhat frustraiting.
And you know what I find difficult...the politness. English people are much more polite than German people.... however German people are ( I know I generalize now, its just my impression) much more straighforward.
So when I left and the lady said to me: Thanks a lot for your help. I pointed out that I actually did not help her (more the opposite cause I asked many questions and kept her of her work), but that I have to thank her for answering all my questions.
She seemed a bit puzzled, that I said that. So I guess what she said was a polite floscel and I just should have said "No problem" or so, instead of the facts that are the truth. Oh well....

I like idioms we learned a lot of them, but I doubt I can use them all correctly, However should you now find my postings full of idioms (rightly or wrongly used) you know I am training them.

TerokNor

 

[trampledamage]

Am surprized about the nursery I just visited. Posivly surprized. It was modern and had a good understanding of what education really is and it wasn't so "schoolish" as i thought an english nursery would be.

Most modern nursery schools are very good these days - much more play-time, the education system is finally trusting the idea that young children learn a lot through play

Though I could not understand the children... a word here and there, but that was it.

Don't worry about that - I can't understand a lot of what other kids my son's age (and older) say. It's one of those things I'm amazed nursery school teachers can do!

So when I left and the lady said to me: Thanks a lot for your help. I pointed out that I actually did not help her (more the opposite cause I asked many questions and kept her of her work), but that I have to thank her for answering all my questions.
She seemed a bit puzzled, that I said that. So I guess what she said was a polite floscel and I just should have said "No problem" or so, instead of the facts that are the truth. Oh well....

Possibly the "no problem" response was what she was expecting, but there's nothing wrong with what you said - that was a good response to make, and I expect she was pleased by it

 

[captcalhoun]

you want incomprehensible Scots? try Rab:

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8k7VoFiagfs[/yt]

 

[Count Zero]

Amazingly, I understood large parts of what the guy was saying in the video. I guess that means I'm finally ready to watch "Takin' Over The Asylum" without subtitles.