Just for those of you go track such things, LITRPG is distributed quite well in South America, even though we haven't had much traffic *from* there...

+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Importing 62587bee.pkt (4:920/1 to 4:80/1)
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Import #1057 to LITRPG
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/197@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/10@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/202@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/188@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/189@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/161@fidonet

JD
--- AfterShock/Android 1.6.8
* Origin: Firecat Mobile (4:920/69.1)

Re: Zone 4
By: John Dovey to All on Thu Apr 14 2022 02:59 pm

Just for those of you go track such things, LITRPG is distributed quite

well

South America, even though we haven't had much traffic *from* there...

+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Importing 62587bee.pkt (4:920/1 to 4:80/1)
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Import #1057 to LITRPG
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/197@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/10@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/202@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/188@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/189@fidonet
+ Apr 14 16:54:31 Export LITRPG #1057 to 4:801/161@fidonet

JD

Intersting.

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that the English of most of
us is just inadecuate to carry on a regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking places is that I don't have to deal with my people in them.


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My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that the English of most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

Interesting. I must admit that a lot of the native Spanish speakers I've met or spoken to have almost zero fluency in English, but a surprising number are fully fluent.

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking places is that I don't have to deal with my people in them.

LOL. I tend to actively avoid expatriate South Africans.

JD


--- AfterShock/Android 1.6.8
* Origin: Firecat Mobile (4:920/69.1)

Re: Zone 4
By: John Dovey to Richard Falken on Thu Apr 14 2022 06:40 pm

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that the English

of

most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a regular conversation, even writen form. I am really not surprised to see no Spanish speakers

here.

Interesting. I must admit that a lot of the native Spanish speakers I've

met

spoken to have almost zero fluency in English, but a surprising number are fully fluent.

I think there is no middle ground anymore. You either have a job which puts you
in contact with foreigners, therefore making you develop good English, or you die speaking Cervantes' language only.

There is a running joke according to which Spaniard and Unemployed are synonymous words, so the implications are clear.


--
gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (1:123/115)

Hello Richard!

** On Thursday 14.04.22 - 15:51, you wrote to John:

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that
the English of most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a
regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not
surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

I would have thought that English would be a sought-after
language to learn in ANY country! It seems that Spain lives
in a bubble then?

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking
places is that I don't have to deal with my people in
them.

I assume you mean "online" English speaking places? Unless
someone uses their real name maybe you ARE conversing with a
fellow Spaniard! ;)

--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.51
* Origin: What're you doing in the wardrobe? - Narnia business. (2:221/1.58)

Hello Richard!

** On Thursday 14.04.22 - 15:51, you wrote to John:

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that
the English of most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a
regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not
surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

I would have thought that English would be a sought-after
language to learn in ANY country! It seems that Spain lives
in a bubble then?

I think you forget, the vast majority of the Americas is Spanish speaking. In North America" Spanish is the unofficial second language.
So it's a rather large "bubble".

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking
places is that I don't have to deal with my people in
them.

I assume you mean "online" English speaking places? Unless
someone uses their real name maybe you ARE conversing with a
fellow Spaniard! ;)

LOL. Spaniard or Spanish Speaker?

JD


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Re: Zone 4
By: August Abolins to Richard Falken on Fri Apr 15 2022 12:51 pm

Hello Richard!

** On Thursday 14.04.22 - 15:51, you wrote to John:

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that
the English of most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a
regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not
surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

I would have thought that English would be a sought-after
language to learn in ANY country! It seems that Spain lives
in a bubble then?

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking
places is that I don't have to deal with my people in
them.

I assume you mean "online" English speaking places? Unless
someone uses their real name maybe you ARE conversing with a
fellow Spaniard! ;)

--
../|ug

Learning a language to an usable degree takes time and we Spaniards are lazy as
heck.

Our School training in foreigner languages is very lacking, so the only kids who learn a foreign language well enough are the ones that have a good incentive (for example, being able to read books published in other languages onlñy). The Spanish translation industry is VERY powerful so we don't have the
issues many other countries do... many European countries don't have movies or games translated to their language so kids need to learn English if they want to consume American material, whereas Spanish kids get their stuff translated to Spanish right away. Even out separatist regions have a powerful translation industry so kids can get their cartoons in Catalonian, for example.

A Spaniard who has any sort of usable English in his pocket before he hits the job market is certainly above average, and my hipothesis is that he developed such skill by virtue of pursuing more intellectual hobbies than his peers. Certainly, when I run into a Spanish speaker in an English speaking channel,
he belongs to the top 1% in the cultural ladder more often than not.

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Re: Zone 4
By: John Dovey to August Abolins on Fri Apr 15 2022 12:44 pm

Hello Richard!

** On Thursday 14.04.22 - 15:51, you wrote to John:

My experience with Spaniards and South Americans is that
the English of most of us is just inadecuate to carry on a
regular conversation, even in writen form. I am really not
surprised to see no Spanish speakers here.

I would have thought that English would be a sought-after
language to learn in ANY country! It seems that Spain lives
in a bubble then?

I think you forget, the vast majority of the Americas is Spanish speaking. North America" Spanish is the unofficial second language.
So it's a rather large "bubble".

Actually one of the reasons why I love English speaking
places is that I don't have to deal with my people in
them.

I assume you mean "online" English speaking places? Unless
someone uses their real name maybe you ARE conversing with a
fellow Spaniard! ;)

LOL. Spaniard or Spanish Speaker?

JD

I would argue that South American is not Spanish :-) Certainly I think there is
more difference between the Spanish spoken in Madrid and Buenos Aires than there is between the ENnglish spoken in London and Nashvile.

To the point that many Spaniards will refuse to watch a movie dubbed by South Americans at all, and the other way around.


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gopher://gopher.richardfalken.com/1/richardfalken
--- SBBSecho 3.15-Linux
* Origin: Palantir * palantirbbs.ddns.net * Pensacola, FL * (1:123/115)

I would argue that South American is not Spanish :-) Certainly I think there is more difference between the Spanish spoken in Madrid and Buenos Aires than there is between the ENnglish spoken in London and Nashvile.

To the point that many Spaniards will refuse to watch a movie dubbed by South Americans at all, and the other way around.

LOL. Yes, I've been told as much.

JD
--- AfterShock/Android 1.6.8
* Origin: Firecat Mobile (4:920/69.1)

Hello Richard!

** On Saturday 16.04.22 - 07:45, you wrote to me:

..Certainly, when I run into a Spanish speaker in an
English speaking channel, he belongs to the top 1% in the
cultural ladder more often than not.

I have seen Latvians struggle with devising Latvian versions of
technical terms. It's brutal, and modestly amusing. After
awhile, it's just brutal to keep hearing the Latvian version.

For example, computer is "dators". It literally means "the
data thing."


--
../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.51
* Origin: What're you doing in the wardrobe? - Narnia business. (2:221/1.58)

I have seen Latvians struggle with devising Latvian versions of technical terms. It's brutal, and modestly amusing. After
awhile, it's just brutal to keep hearing the Latvian version.

For example, computer is "dators". It literally means "the
data thing."

I worked at Stellenbosch University for 10 years. It's a primarily Afrikaans institution and they take pride in their usage of Afrikaans, with the organization responsible for the dictionary of the language hosted there. I am primarily English speaking, but fluent in Afrikaans. I did a consulting job for a large insurance firm, and had the heads of all the various IT departments in a meeting. I had noticed, by accent, that most of them were Afrikaans so switched to making my presentation in that language. After about five minutes, I was stopped and asked to rather present in English because these native Afrikaans speakers were steuggling to understand me.
Colloquial Afrikaans has grabbed the English IT terminology directly from English and using "correct" Afrikaans was just confusing
Things like "rugsteun" for backup (literally: back support), "vonkpos" for email instead of epos etc

I'm a great ran of using transliteration for humourous purposes. One example is a "double barrel Shotgun" which can be transliterated from Afrikaans (dubbelloop haelgeweer) as "double walk hail gun"...

JD

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