Thanks, vielen Dank, David, for your moving words, it is people like you who make this forum a place of meeting not only other simmers for help and support but friends, comrades, just lovely people coming together from all parts of the world.

English is not my first language, but it's almost a requirement if you want to engage with the internet and communicate with others.

I've even installed the English version of Windows even though there's one available in Norwegian. Because every time I need to find a solution to a problem, every answer I find is explained in English for an English Windows. It's much faster and easier than trying to guess what these terms are called in the Norwegian version.

 

I am a native Arabic speaker and I speak besides English, German language. 

So yeah, Schukran (thank you in Arabic) and vielen Dank!  @David Mills

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by omarsmak30

Well, in my case my mother tongue is sarcasm but I'm also fluent in irony closely followed by swedish and english, but with respect to my fellow human beings I selldom speak my mother tounge in public 🤣.

9 hours ago, scotchegg said:

ありがとう！第二言語はここで使う機会がないけど。。。😅

scotcheggさん、宜しければいつでもその言語を私と一緒に使ってみてください。私の出身地はscotch的な場所ですよ！造船の町さ！

(I have just invited Mr. scotchegg (whom I hope is also conversant in Glaswegian!) to blether with me in Japanese now and then 😄 )

What a beautiful topic this is indeed!

Thank you for your kind words David.
We teach our programming students to search the net in English as there are more solutions in that language than in their own (Dutch).
Besides that, many Dutch people grow-up with English. They learn it at a young age at school and most movies on television are English with subtitles.

Thank you for those kind words and appreciated,

Cheers,

 

8 hours ago, harrry said:

My experience in Germany was it was better to stick to English.   If I asked for a coffee in English they just made it and handed it to me, if I asked for Einen Kaffee bitte it started a long conversation as to what type  of coffee, how big how black etc.

When visiting my Daughter in Austria, I simply say "Americano." 🙂

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by Adrian123

One of my coworkers was born in Turkey. He moved with his family to Germany at age 5, and spent 25 years there. He came to the US 20 years ago. He speaks all three languages (Turkish, German and English) fluently.

I have always been astounded by how well most Germans and Swedes speak English, but it is my understanding that it is a required subject in the school systems of both countries starting at a very young age. Children can pick up a new language much easier and faster than when they become adults, though in the case of my Turkish friend, he learned English “from scratch” at age 30 when he came to the US, and has almost no detectable accent.

I am reasonably fluent in Spanish. I learned it as a young child when I lived in a predominantly Spanish-speaking community in California, but I have lost some fluency over the years through lack of opportunity to use the language on a regular basis where I live now. I have tried a couple of times to learn German, but apparently the “new language learning” part of my brain no longer works!

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by JRBarrett

2 hours ago, ezochi said:

(I have just invited Mr. scotchegg (whom I hope is also conversant in Glaswegian!) to blether with me in Japanese now and then 😄 )

日本語は喜んで使いますが、残念ながらクラズ語（😃）は話せません。。。

Gracias David! I've found it's usually easier to find all the FS relevant information and support in English. Previously, my language usage mix for FS stuff was 70% English, 30% Spanish. Now it's something about 98% English, 2% Spanish (+ a bit of Portuguese and Italian). In fact, I think I can blame flight simulation for my improvement in my English proficiency 😎. Furthermore, except for 3 developers (Leonardo SH, SierraSim and Virtualcol), I prefer to deal with them in English when asking for support.

Maybe is English our lingua franca?

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by Luis Hernandez

5 hours ago, Republic3D said:

I've even installed the English version of Windows even though there's one available in Norwegian. Because every time I need to find a solution to a problem, every answer I find is explained in English for an English Windows. It's much faster and easier than trying to guess what these terms are called in the Norwegian version.

 

I went to Norway for 10 days 2 years ago. Almost universally, they spoke better English than I did. Prolly 'cos I mumble a lot.

Thanks David,

It is really nice to have a civil discussion on the forum. I agree that the multi-lingual members are an important part of the community. Languages and their origins have always been of interest to me and I have studied several over the years. However, I am not fluent any of them! I have read French books like "Vol de Nuit" by Antoine de Saint-Exuperý - a French author and pilot.

Dziekuje (Polish thank you)

1 hour ago, JRBarrett said:

I have always been astounded by how well most... Swedes speak English, but it is my understanding that it is a required subject in the school systems of both countries starting at a very young age.

My Swedish friends told me they had to learn English if they wanted to watch TV because much of their television was imported from UK and USA and none of it was subtitled. Then at the other end of the spectrum in Italy i believe almost everything is dubbed.

Edited December 13, 20214 yr by ckyliu

6 hours ago, AnkH said:

Be aware that the people in the German speaking part do not actually talk German, but Swiss German, a dialect most Germans not even understand.

In that regard the Swiss state TV SRF recently had an article, in which they said, that Swiss German and English often have more words with common roots than English an official German.