Got the R1

I know, I know - but this particular waitress was almost a parody of
the Catherine Tate parody of such waiting staff.

I should have known better to go to a "French Style Cafe"[1] which
didn't actually serve food more French than Coq-au-Vin[2].

[1] it was not my choice of venue
[2] basically, it served bog-standard English[3] "up market cafe"
food, but the menus were in French.
[3] "Pouding de pain et de beurre", FFS, I kid you not.

 

well, I sort of took the piss out of what she said, and then had to
explain to some of the others at the table why I was taking the piss,
and then had to explain to a sub-set of these others what a reflexive
pronoun actually was, and why it was wrong to use it in this way. By
then it wasn't funny any more, and hence the mad-freak-case looks I
was getting.

is yourself not OK with this scenario, going forward?

 

How do you feel about overuse of the word "literally"?

<fx:legs it>

 

What world are you living in, I can't recall hearing this grammar
mistake any time recently. Perhaps it isn't a very Yorkshire *thing*.

OTOH my colleagues are American and our Clinical Admin is Turkish....

 

the almost civilised one[1]

[1] the midlands.

 

At this point, I'm with the people giving you mad-freak-case looks.
Incorrect use of reflexive pronouns is something you bitch about behind
the miscreant's back, not to their face.

My boss has a tendency to spout management bollocks like his life
depends on it. One of his favourites is "I envisage our strategy as", or
variants thereof. Because, presumably, "what we'll do" is somehow
lacking clarity.

Anyway, we did this consultancy course recently, and all took away a 900
page book on the subject. He was reading aloud from it, mocking the
language, and I had to confess that I wasn't sure whether he was reading
from the book or just talking his usual bollocks. He laughed, luckily.

 

oh, I didn't make myself clear - I imitated her stupid scotch
sing-song voice after she'd taken the order and gone back to her lair.

 

Oh. Game on then. And you didn't say she was scotch. No surprise she had
trouble with speaking English.

 

Might be an idea, that. I mean, having just received what may well turn
out to be the last death threat of the year, and from the Life Pres of
the BHaLC, to boot. Great work, man, but I can see headstones in your
immediate future unless you do the scarcity thing.

 

Part of my frustration with Dutch is having to force myself to just
accept things that shouldn't be.

"Ik voel me ziek". Literally "I feel myself sick", used to declare that
one is not feeling well.

 

"I feel myself, sick !" surely ?

 

Nah, it's

"I feel myself until I'm sick".

 

That reminds me that you asked about my Dutch lessons a while ago and I
forgot to respond.

Doing 3 hours every Tuesday night at the local college. It's a bit slow
and, like you say, it can be a bit of a struggle with the structure.

I had to do an assessment test to figure out which level to start at and
I got a much higher score at level 3 than I did at level 2 so it was
clear that, while I can understand reasonably complex sentences, I need
to sort out the basics.

 

Welsh? Never heard of 'em.

 

Considering the women, the porn and the drugs you should be ashamed of even
noticing such things

 

well, I was driving, so completly sober; if I'd been drinking things
might have got out of hand.

in case anyone doubts me, it was here:

http://www.cafe-anjou.co.uk/index.asp?textpage=home

 

If the cap fits, you may wear it.

 

I wonder if your levels are the same as what I've been doing. I just
completed level 3, with a referal to take level 4 at semi intensive
pace. Each level has been 50 tuition hours with 50+ home study hours.
Semi intensive is three hours a day, three days per week plus
equivilent in homestudy.

Apparently, I am at, or should be at CEF B2 for reading, listening and
speaking and B1 for writing. Doesn't feel like it. Apparently I should
be able to take the Staatsexam, but I won't, because I don't need to.

I struggle with writing in good form and I don't like the way the
Talencentrum deals with the writing assignments and corrections etc.

Speaking I'm okay, as long as the subject matter is at the right level.

One thing I've found that really hampers my speaking is that
conversations I could have in Dutch, are simply not interesting or are
unecessary to have with most of the people I interact with.

 

Jeezus.

Nice selective use of accents.

Oh, and "Hagort de for's de volatile "

I'm guessing it's supposed to be "Fois de volaille", but "hagort"?

 

My favourite is "Patede fais the volaille". I love it all the more
because Google Translate renders it as "Pate doing the chicken".