For everyone who feels like speaking English....

Oh, I wish, SanderB!!
You're going?

Think we might be leaving town over easter, so won't be here for the match. Enjoy!

Inacar
 
heck yeah I'm there!
The in-laws have season tickets along with a friend of theirs,
well he's not going...so yeeehaw i'm in  :evil:

I wonder if Cousins will be back by then...or if he'll ever be back
 
This thread has gone very quiet.... Maybe the right moment to relate a recent experience. (your elbow still sore Irene...?)

There is some discussion going on locally about having a sex shop close to the shopping centre - which happens to be reasonably close to a local high school. Some very pious people are organising a protest ralley and one of them (probably the most pious one) held a talk for our local Rotary Club. Most members of our club don't care one way or the other so he had a pretty hard time convincing us that we should ralley against that sort of shop. One of the points he tried to make was that the more exposure to porn kids get the more rapes and sexual assaults there will be. One of the examples he mentioned was the Netherlands where porn and sex were very openly flaunted. Of course I could not resist the temptation and replied him with the fact that there are not really many sex crimes in the Netherlands - not significantly more than in Australia. And that a number of these were committed by second generation immigrant youth, just like in Australia. He countered with the ridiculous statement that in Holland they did not take this sort of crime seriously and often did not prosecute. From my previous life in the legal "scene" I happen to know that such a statement is pure BS. I told him so - with the approval of many fellow members - and also told him that the only difference between Australia and the Netherlands in this respect is, that putting your finger in a dyke may be a sex offence in Australie but in the Netherlands it helps saving the country ... That sort of ended the discussion.  :evil:
 
Good one Henk!! Well as someone who has been living near the
Belgian border for all of her life....I can truly and solomnly declare
that I'm not:
- a sex offender;
- a pervert;
- a delinquent (clean pcr  :wink:).

And that after being exposed to loads of sex stuff all those years.
One of the (dis)advantages  :wink: of living near the Belgian border
is...yes.....loads of sex shops......peepshows.....etc.

To make it even worse...not so long ago.....10 years or so....there was a
shop here in town where they sold.....toys (yes like a kids toy shop), magazines,
and sex magazines and articles. The stupid thing was that all the kids toys were in
the back of the shop and the adults stuff was in front.

But......kids never saw the lifelike man plums (and weenie) standing next to the
cash register when paying for their toys....kids will be kids.....they only see what
they want to see.

BTW the shop isn't there anymore, which surely is for the best, I totally agree, but
it was a left over shop from the seventies/eighties  :roll:

But I love your remark about the dyke Rene!!!!! Good one!!!

Miranda
 
Just giving this topic a rebirth....some funny lines and anecdotes:

Read to the end . . . a new twist to an oldie

Can you read these right the first time?

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish  furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present .
8) Cool A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
19) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
20) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it - English is a crazy language. There is no egg in
eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are
meat.  We take English for granted.  But if we explore its paradoxes,
we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a
guinea pig is neither fro m Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't
groce and hammers don't ham?  If the plural of tooth is teeth, why
isn't the plural of booth, beeth?  One goose, 2 geese.  So one moose,
2 meese?  One index, 2 indices?  Doesn't it seem crazy that you can
make amends but not one amend?  If you have a bunch of odds and ends
and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?

If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?  If a vegetarian
eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?  Sometimes I think all
the English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally
insane.  In what language do people recite at a play and play at a
recital?  Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?  Have noses that run
and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man
and a wise guy are opposites?  You have to marvel at the unique lunacy
of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down, in
which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which, an alarm goes
off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the
creativity of the human race, which, of course, is not a race at all.
That is why, when the stars are out, they are visible, but when the
lights are out, they are invisible.

PS. - Why doesn't "Buick" rhyme with "quick"

You lovers of the English language might enjoy this:

There is a two-letter word that perhaps has more meanings than any
other two-letter word, and that is "UP."

It's easy to understand UP meaning toward the sky or at the top of the
list, but when we awaken in the morning, why do we wake UP?  At a
meeting, why does a topic come UP?  Why do we speak UP and why are the
officers UP for election, and why is it UP to the secretary to write
UP a report?

We call UP our friends.  And we use it to brighten UP a room, polish
UP the silver, we warm UP the leftovers and clean UP the kitchen.  We
lock UP the house and some guys fix UP the old car.  At other times
the little word has real special meaning.  People stir UP trouble,
line UP for tickets, work UP an appetite, and think UP excuses.  To be
dressed is one thing, but to be dressed UP is special.

And this UP is confusing:  A drain must be opened UP because it is
stopped UP.  We open UP a store in the morning, but we close it UP at
night.

We seem to be pretty mixed UP about UP! To be knowledgeable about the
proper uses of UP, look the word UP in the dictionary.  In a
desk-sized dictionary, it takes UP almost 1/4th of the page and can
add UP to about thirty definitions. If you are UP to it, you might try
building UP a list of the many ways UP is used.  It will take UP a lot
of your time, but if you don't give UP, you may wind UP with a hundred
or more.  When it threatens to rain, we say it is clouding UP.  When
the sun comes out we say it is clearing UP.

When it rains, it wets the earth and often messes things UP.

When it doesn't rain for awhile, things dry UP.

One could go on and on, but I'll wrap it UP, for now my time is UP,
so........... it is time to shut UP.....!

It's UP to you to pass this on...
 
Nou da's een mooie oefening voor mij, ben blij dat niemand me kan horen  :grin:

At this moment, i'm doing my english homework and i don't know how to translate some sentence, maybe some one will help me. Thank you, Carmen. (is about past perfect en simple past..)

1) Voordat hij ging werken, was hij zeven jaar in opleiding geweest.
    Before he had gone working (?),........
2) Voordat kapitein Cook er aankwam, woonden er al tijden inheemse stammen.
    Before captain Cook had arrived (?), there had been living...?...
3) Tegen de tijd dat ze er weggingen, hadden de Engelsen de hele inheemste bevolking van Tasmanië
    uitgeroeid.
    ................. when they did leave (?), the English people had exterminate de native people of
    Tasmania.


   
 
Nice piece to read Maluka :) Seems that if you don't know how to say it, you just throw in a few UP's... LOL...

Tijlcarm, is it okay if I help you out a bit? (BTW, 'ik' is capital 'I').

1) Before he started work, he received 7 years of education/was in training for 7 years.

2) Before Captain Cook arrived (or more appropriate: landed),  native tribes had been living there for years.

3) By the time they left, the English people had wiped out the whole native population of Tasmania.

I think I'd translate it like that. Hope it helps. One remark: don't fiddle with the time form of verbs, don't complicate things.

If you want me to explain why I translated it the way I did, I'll be happy to elaborate! :)

Cheers,

Irene
 
Good translations, Irene!
(At least, that's what I think)

One thing though: I would say 'the entire native population of Tasmania', instead of 'the whole native'.

And just so you know, the Indigenous peoples of Australia do not like to be called 'natives', it has a lot of hurt from the past linked to it. They prefer Aboriginal or Indigenous. Is more politically correct.

If anyone is interested in some info about the health of the Indigenous people in Oz, check out this: www.healthinfonet.ecu.edu.au

Cheers,
Ineke
 
:grin: That's because 'independant' sounds posh! Possibly
some French influences are also manifested in this word  :lol:

Yours truly,

Miran  :p
 
[quote author=Wilbert67 link=topic=2886.msg92671#msg92671 date=1181800745]
@ Irene, Captain Cook landed? did he went by plane? :grin:
[/quote]

Chambers English Dictionary:
land .....to set on land or on shore....
landing ... disembarkation: alighting : putting ashore....

No he did not go by plane, that Cook fellow. But he still landed in Australia.  :lol:
 
Hoi Irene, heel erg bedankt,misschien denk ik te moeilijk, maar boven de oefening (uit een oud lesboek ...) staat geschreven oefen de zinnen in past perfect en simple past, het zijn samengestelde zinnen waarin 2 gebeurtenissen zitten die kort na elkaar plaatsvonden; een "oude"en een "jongere" gebeurtenis...aaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,

Ik ben begonnen met al die "tijden" te oefenen;  van -present simple, present continuous,present perfect,present perfect continuous,past simple,past continuous,past perfect,past perfect continuous,future simple,future continous,future perfect,future perfect continuous,conditional t/m conditional perfect   :|

Ik wil het graag op de juiste manier leren (heb nog 2 jaar de tijd), anders ben ik bang dat ik straks in Australië "verzuip" en dat het er nooit meer van komt, en dat ik dan meer op gevoel praat dan redekundig en grammaticaal juist...maar als ik die hele lijst van al die "tijden" zo zie...weet iemand of ik dit allemaal nodig heb voor een (Academische)  IELTS?

thank you Carmen.
 
[quote author=Tijlcarm link=topic=2886.msg92746#msg92746 date=1181860463]

Ik wil het graag op de juiste manier leren (heb nog 2 jaar de tijd), anders ben ik bang dat ik straks in Australië "verzuip" en dat het er nooit meer van komt, en dat ik dan meer op gevoel praat dan redekundig en grammaticaal juist...maar als ik die hele lijst van al die "tijden" zo zie...weet iemand of ik dit allemaal nodig heb voor een (Academische)  IELTS?

thank you Carmen.
[/quote]

Hi Carmen,

I think that's exactly what we all do: just say it the way it feels right, just like you do in Dutch. I have also learned all these different "times" but I wouldn't have a clue anymore and I doubt if Australians have!!
Once you're here, it will all flow naturally........I really don't think you need this for your IELTS. Just listen to a lot of English radio, TV and people, whether it is American, English, South-African or Australian English(or any other variation?). You'll be just fine.

Henriette
 
Heya,

quickly checked with the Aussie hubbie: "the whole native population" is fine, "the entire..." is fine too.

Wilbert!!!! : DID HE WENT by plane???? Tssssssskkk!!!! (Did he GO by plane?).

I have to honestly say, if 'inheems' is translated with 'native' then you don't say anything wrong. If somebody has a problem with it, well, that's not part of the assignment. It's a perfectly good word :)

Tijlcarm: 'when they DID leave' is a kind of affirmative, like 'en toen ze dan eindelijk écht weggingen'.

Cheers, (lunch in Byron Bay vandaag :) )

Ireen
 
'native' is indeed a perfect translation of 'inheems'.
I just didn't know exactly what the translation was for, and if it was a letter or article or whatever about the Australian 'native' population, I just thought to give a tip about political correctedness, in case anyone was after a job in that field.

And 'the entire' was just a preference. It's what I would say.

I'm sorry I can't help you with all the past/present and future tenses, I learnt through practice. Wouldn't know what to call them, but use them anyway. Keep practising, you'll get there!

Inacar
 
A couple of days ago I went to the pub with Owen and Bregje. Owen is an Ozzie aswell.. so I had to speak Ozzie all night. Went pretty well actually. After a couple of beers I spoke fluent English. At least, I think I did.

Listening, speaking and reading English shouldn't be a problem.. but writing might be. I think I write "Jip & Janneke"-english. Might be a problem on my IELTS.
 
I think I write "Jip & Janneke"-english.
  :up:

Hiya Luuk

Here they use "Mickey Mouse" rather than "Jip & Janneke", but I quite like the J & J version!! :grin: :smile:

Bye
Syl
 
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