YCCMB

You lot obviously shop in different places from me. I can buy endive easily and inexpensively locally, and our daily salad is usually a mix of whatever lettuce I've bought which can be rocket, frisée, romaine, little gem, lollo rosso.... And I don't throw much away, which is seldom my experience in France, where I can buy a head of lettuce one day and find it rotting in the fridge by day 3.

@ mint.. Thanks for sharing God's Tinder profile ?

Naturally, as Assange has helped elect Trump, which sort of undermines exposing other very important issues over the years he should of course be believed no matter what he says, and anyone who comes forward to accuse him of being a sexual predator should be disbelieved because, well, he's Julian Assange and he's above the law. If he wants to have unprotected sex with a woman well, that's what he should have. Because he's Julian Assange He's a thoroughly nasty narcissist who believes he's untouchable and if he is innocent he should be able to prove it..not go into hiding for years. The charges against him were never dropped due to his innocence, or the lack of a case against him, but because of the time that had elapsed and the lack of any chance of a trial as long as he stayed in the Ecuadorian embassy. Unfortunately for him, the world has moved on since his evasion of due process, and there is a greater tendency now to give women a fair hearing. Let's see if people like Michael Moore et al are now quite so willing to dismiss these charges as "hooey" or as a set-up. Due process has a chance to determine the outcome in a judicial climate where "he said, she said" no longer confers automatic victory to the "he".

He's an alleged rapist. That's pretty nasty. He went and hid in the Ecuadorian embassy (effectively jumping bail) to avoid extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault, then rape was also alleged. How, exactly, is his situation any different than that of the little toad who jumped bail and took himself off to Georgia rather than go to prison for the manslaughter of his date? If you want to claim the moral high ground when exposing high level wrongdoing, you must be prepared to face your own accusers and prove your innocence. He's not above the law.

I had my freeserve address through many changes of ownership and iterations until long after it was taken over by Orange. It was finally rendered defunct by Orange a couple of years ago. It's the one I used to join this forum and is still the default because I can't change it.....even though it no longer works. Still, cuts down the spam.?

Why the future of French is African https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-47790128 The immortels will be having hissy fits...???

Just FYI. Since 2009 there's been an amendment to the Code Civil (article 815-5-1) which allows for a sale even if all the parties aren't in agreement. This, assuming the indivision aspect. It's still complex, you still need a notaire, but it's do-able by the looks of things. That said, it might be a costly process.

No idea where you are in France, but it looks as though SFR have been having network problems. https://downdetector.fr/statut/sfr/actualites/242690-pannes-chez-sfr Today and last week, BTW.

CT SAID: You should be a politician. You really don't like being corrected, do you? But in fairness, a monkey in a frock could be a politician at the moment and would undoubtedly be doing a better job than any of the ones in power or, indeed, those hoping to be so.

CT SAID: YCCMB - Visa free entry and the right of residence are two totally different things Something of which I am fully aware. Really. You (not i) made a totally erroneous comment about how you speculated things would be with regard to visas. I corrected you. I may have miscounted the number of countries listed to the official schengen visa website but as you were unaware of this fact until I told you, I'm just glad I prompted you to fact-check what you were suggesting.

CT WROTE: But then on the other hand once the UK becomes a third country like all the other none EU countries they might get into trouble if they don't treat UK citizens the same s those because it could be deemed as being unfair and possibly racist in some cases (African countries). I could see the possibility of a case in the ECHR on that one. I'm just going to pick you up on this. You are obviously unaware that, even now, all third country (non EU) arrangements for visas are not the same. There is no prejudice, discrimination or risk of legal action likely, because many precedents exist. None are specific to France, because France is in Schengen, but I think you'll find some 43 countries have currently visa-free entry into France. Of course, this includes the other EU member states, but also countries as diverse as Israel, Japan, Paraguay and South Korea. I'd like to see you make a case for racism out of that little lot. Sometimes, it is very worthwhile remembering that the world and international relations don't begin and end with the U.K. and the EU.

I think there's a subtle distinction between dropping the actual negative form when expressing the negative, and not being allowed to say "le weekend" or " le sandwich". I'm the first to embrace the concept of language as evolving and to call people out for wishing we'd all carried on speaking like Chaucer, but I'm not as keen on saying that, grammatically ( and I DID specifically say "grammatically") dropping the negative is OK. Like most people, I do it all the time when speaking. I would never write it that way, though.

Grammatically, if it's a negative, then the "ne" isn't redundant. However, the evolution of the spoken language is such that M. Le Français Moyen will probably drop the "ne" when speaking. "Je sais pas" and "j'ai jamais vu" will frequently be heard in everyday speech. The reality is that they're accepted and acceptable but still wrong. Just like "innit" and "I ain't never"

^^^ this. Exactly. It's a sad fact, but knowing a language is often berated by those who don't, as if those who do have somehow done it to spite them. It requires hard work and dedication, and it isn't always given the credit it deserves. We are willing to pay a plumber, an electrician, a builder for their hard-earned and hard-learned skills, but often with language we expect someone who speaks another language to perform miracles. And if we are lucky, it will sometimes come along with "I'll buy you a drink" or "I'll treat you to lunch". No thanks, I'll set my rates for my work, and if you want me to work for you I'll tell you what those rates are. Try "I'll buy you a drink" next time you get a plumber in and see how far it gets you. Judith's point is also valid. Maybe you'll understand all the words, but will that help you understand the real sense? I can read stuff almost every day in English that might as well be in Serbo-Croat for all the sense it makes. Legal texts in paricular are not written so that Joe Public will be able to just read them and crack on. Would that they were. Meanwhile in Brexit mode, the proliferation of rumours masquerading as information, and proposals masquerading as hard fact aren't really helping anyone. If at the end of next month it all falls of the much-vaunted cliff, there will NOT be a pogrom. It's the 21st century. Although sometimes I wonder.

Again, totally understand that people are stressed. Again, I'm just making the point that it's not necessarily the job of people on a forum to devote their time to alleviating that stress for others. There is no substitute for one's own, proper research. Personally, I've found that not spending much time worrying about Brexit (including switching off the news and not reading too much online etc) has considerably reduced my stress levels. Foremost, because there is still little hard, definitive information about anything, and secondly because most of what there is, is speculation being peddled as hard fact. And, before it's mentioned, I've steered clear of most discussion, even on here, because yes, I'm not resident in France. However, I do own a property there, and there will be many, many aspects of that which will be affected (probably quite adversely) by the results of Brexit. I'll deal with them once I have a clear understanding of what they are, backed up by legislation and fact. Until then, my blood pressure is mine to manage as I see fit, and I'm managing it by not getting overly exercised about things I can't change or influence. My son once complained at school that he was being made by us, his parents, to do too much work at home. His teacher queried this, and asked for examples. My son announced that we "made" him go round the house in winter when he came in from school and close the curtains to keep the heat in. The teachers fell about laughing. I'm afraid to say that your arguments are beginning to sound a bit similar. Norman isn't responsible for people losing formatting. He's directing people to a relevant part of the proposed legislation which some may miss as it's buried in the text. If he'd posted a link, I doubt many would have found it. It's churlish to expect him to do everything for you, and being critical of that is a sure fire way of dissuading people from trying to help in the first place.

CT: I think it is up to individual posters to decide if they are prepared to spend what is, after all, their own leisure time, developing a "brief overview of the salient points". I do understand that there are many people who aren't able to translate or understand other languages. Dealing with them was my job for the latter stages of my working life. My (perhaps badly made) point is that unless you're able to do a translation (or a synopsis) you tend not to realise quite how much work is involved. It's quite often the case on here, for example, that people ask for help because they've been unable to google something in French. I'm happy to help by doing the googling, but I'm not then going to spend my time interpreting the results thrown up by that Google search. Just an example, if you'll bear with me. Somewhere on this forum going back some years, there was a request from someone who wanted to know if, in France, there were companies such as exist in the UK who will come round and resurface your cast-iron bath in situ. It just so happened that I'd been looking into something similar so it wasn't much of a stretch for me to google and provide him with a couple of links. This person responded by asking me if I could check whether they operated in his exact area (and here I quote the poster) "because I'm too busy at the moment to do it myself". Some people come here for entertainment, some for information, some to be helpful, but none of us, I suspect, come here to be taken for granted. FWIW, I can understand Norman's frustration. I also can understand that he perhaps hasn't entirely thought through the fact that referring to the original source text is one thing, but understanding it is quite another. As you correctly point out, we are all adults. So there's really nothing preventing us from doing the adult thing and conducting our own research.

A small but important thing about offering up a translation, or even an interpretation of something: it leaves the person who did it wide open to being held responsible if their interpretation is taken as gospel by a third party and it turns out to be inaccurate. I see both points of view. Not everyone does have the language skills to read the original text, however to berate someone for not providing a service that they are under no obligation to provide isn't really appropriate. If you can't translate something, it seems clear that you also probably don't realise how much effort and time is involved in doing a translation. It's a bit like asking a plumber to come round and install a new bathroom for you because you can't and they can. Or the requests I frequently see on Facebook pages from people saying they need some painting doing and that its "half a day's work" . If they can't do it themselves, then how do they know how long it's going to take someone who can?

There was a spoken element to the test, Pat, just as most robust tests would require (there's one VERY famous one, used, I regret to say, extensively in both France and Japan, which is based on the premise that if you can read and listen you must be able to speak and write, but don't get me started) In this case, the teacher who had taught two of the twins went to Sweden with all four, and each team had a list of specific tasks to undertake involving daily situations (buying things in a shop, asking directions, asking for information etc) using only Swedish. To ensure maximum co-operation from their random Swedish interlocutors, all the participants wore t-shirts emblazoned with an explanation that they were there to test their Swedish and asking people not to respond in English, which, as we know, most Swedish people are more than capable of doing. The tutor followed, noted how well the students managed, and marked them on their performance. If you're not familiar with the Common European Framework for language learning and testing (which the programme used to assess and interpret the outcomes) it does require measurement of all four skills.

Oh no..... Oddly I've just read an item on the BBC news website about Cambodian "cash for surrogacy" agencies being clamped down upon and the surrogate mothers being forced by law to keep the babies until they're 18. These babies have no biology in common with the surrogate mothers. So they're being forced to nurture without the nature bit. The world is a mad place.

I don't think the experiment set out to look at ability, Pat. The objective was to compare methodology. I'd say some people have more of a facility for language than others, but who knows why that is? In certain circumstances, it's certainly to do with input. A good teacher can help, but even a good teacher can't force a student to learn, if they aren't prepared or committed to putting in a lot of effort themselves.

The twin aspect is interesting, I think, if for no ther reason than that it lends an extra "control" dimension to many of the tests. As the twins presenting the series are both medical doctors, and as they've debunked a few myths and some pseudo-science during the series, I've found it worthwhile, if a bit lightweight at times. After all, many similar programmes on the TV rely on getting the same person to try two different things and compare results, so at least this cuts the time taken by half! I've once taught identical twins. Their personalities were clearly quite different and one of the two was certainly a leader, so unless she was prepared to try something, neither of them would do it. If you asked her sibling she would almost "check" with her sister before responding. It was a very interesting experience.

In a spooky coincidence, Norman, the first reaction of one of my former students the morning after the Brexit vote was "Who will wipe their bottoms now?". (She's Hungarian, a fully qualified specialist nurse, been resident here now for around 15 years, works as a care worker visiting elderly patients daily in their own homes, and is on a permanent full-time contract. Very few of her peers are on zero hours contracts either, but never let the facts stand in the way of a mediocre pome) ET: you get asset stripped by the government in the UK too, to pay for your care. I think the Govt did introduce a sort of cap, though, so your estate wouldn't be completely cleaned out. Otherwise it's an interesting scenario whereby someone whose home and other assets are worth a lot less than they rack up in care costs has their care (after their estate runs out) paid for by the state, but if your assets are greater, your estate will be stripped to reimburse the amount up to the ceiling. So I'm guessing the "tax the rich" side wins out in that scenario.

Well, superficial though it was, the results were quite interesting overall. The "half" of the two sets of twins who had a tutor scored an average of 161/200 and the other half who learned online an average of 131, in an exam to test their language learning after 30 hours. This was a test based on the Common European Framework, so both sets achieved level A1. It was made clear that both sets of twins had studied quite assiduously to achieve these results, though. I've always made the point that language learning does rely very heavily on the commitment and effort of the person learning. They learned Swedish, by the way, obviously to remove any bias from previous learning at school. The most interesting part of the experiment was that before and after the language learning the twins took tests to determine their levels of cognitive function. After the language learning, they all more or less doubled their score in the cognitive function test, which would confirm that learning another language is remarkably good for one's brain health.

Shame the usual backbiting now appearing too.

I certainly agree with that aspect of the argument, ET, and equally I'd say that there are some who are born in a city and would prefer to stay where they were born but are either priced out or forced out because they need to relocate in order to find work. I'm putting the counter-argument to the statement that "it's a choice" to live in a city. Basically, it's a choice to live anywhere. Of course, there are specific mitigating factors, but those same factors exist for those who live in the country, or in a regional town as opposed to a large city. Sure, you might wish to have nicer accommodation, but you weigh up all the options, costs, commuting issues etc., and then you choose. According to your means and according to the things upon which you place the most vale, such as commuting time, family time, cost, disposable income.......