Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

Just as I did for Maggie last year, I googled Neill's name - and whereas last year I came up with the result which I shared with everyone, nothing came up for Neill. This may mean, however, that he could be poorly and not able to access the internet. Alternatively he might be on one of his exotic (long?) holidays. Fingers crossed.
I disagree with Mary re. Facebook.. the CH Ladies thread there is still growing and there are many posts each day. Although most of them relate to after my time....some very funny photographs which transcend the generational gap even if one does not recognise the faces!

The CH Ladies facebook page has shifted age groups! started out with all the 80s memories and is slowing shifting into the past... I think the 80s crowd ran out of stuff to share (I am prepared to be corrected) and now we've shifted to 70s... lots of reunions seem to be being arranged, though... so maybe people are meeting for real in the REAL world instead of online.

..and I've been busy learning Finnish full time, so not been here so often, sorry!

mvgrogan wrote:The CH Ladies facebook page has shifted age groups! started out with all the 80s memories and is slowing shifting into the past... I think the 80s crowd ran out of stuff to share (I am prepared to be corrected) and now we've shifted to 70s... lots of reunions seem to be being arranged, though... so maybe people are meeting for real in the REAL world instead of online.

..and I've been busy learning Finnish full time, so not been here so often, sorry !

Best let us know when you've FINNISHED, then !

CH Ladies on FB is great fun, packed with interesting comments & photos. Those Ashbourne hats (called lemon-squeezers in my era) seem never to have been abolished!

JR wrote:

mvgrogan wrote: ..and I've been busy learning Finnish full time, so not been here so often, sorry !

Best let us know when you've FINNISHED, then !

Ouch, JR - we didn't need that just now. As for Maria, Hertford should have taught you not to attempt the impossible. You simply don't have the genes. I thought Sami (Lapp to the uninitiated) was bad enough

sejintenej wrote:

JR wrote:

mvgrogan wrote: ..and I've been busy learning Finnish full time, so not been here so often, sorry !

Best let us know when you've FINNISHED, then !

Ouch, JR - we didn't need that just now. As for Maria, Hertford should have taught you not to attempt the impossible. You simply don't have the genes. I thought Sami (Lapp to the uninitiated) was bad enough

If only I had a choice! After 16 years of trying to avoid it, the job centre sent me on a mandatory course!! If I want to receive my jobseekers money, then I have to do the course... or find a job - which is next to impossible without the language.... Not really complaining, though, it is definitely helping - I finally had a whole conversation with my mother-in-law last weekend (insert mother-in-law jokes here) and the children are getting away with less! Oddly enough I find myself understanding more of the Sami news reports, too!

...and, JR.... I will never be FINNISHED.... shame on you!

Interesting that you were obliged to go on a course. Seems very similar to Sweden, where my son went on the course in Lulea, and is now pretty fluent in Swedish. Not that I can tell but he did translate for us when we visited last year. He works as a consultant in a Swedish company.
Not sure if it is still the case, but the Swedish classes were free, as they encouraged "immigrants" to learn the language. However in Norrbotten, way up in the north where he lives, he was paid to go to the classes as the government wants to populate the area.

My daughter in law sent me the following:

The language my father grew up speaking in his home is called “Tornedalian Finish” in Swedish, or in Finish (more commonly used for some reason) Meän Kieli. It was recognised as a minority language by EU around ten years ago, before then it was only a spoken language. Nowadays one can actually buy literature written in Meän Kieli.

Unfortunately it is dying out, as so many old dialects.

I have no idea what it sounds like and my son hasn't tried to learn it.

I think Maria is having enough difficulty coping with mainstream Finnish without worrying about dying dialects, although I agree that it is a pity when dialects are allowed to die. I remember feeeling somewhat embarrassed when I needed to rely on my then three -year-old granddaughter to interpret for me! With a language as complicated as Finnish the only real way to learn is the natural way, as a child.

jhopgood wrote: My daughter in law sent me the following:
The language my father grew up speaking in his home is called “Tornedalian Finish” in Swedish, or in Finish (more commonly used for some reason) Meän Kieli. It was recognised as a minority language by EU around ten years ago, before then it was only a spoken language. Nowadays one can actually buy literature written in Meän Kieli.
Unfortunately it is dying out, as so many old dialects.
I have no idea what it sounds like and my son hasn't tried to learn it.

English has dialects like Yorkshire, Glaswegian etc. etc. many of which are a problem for those from the smoke. Many other languages are beset by dialects which, unfortunately, I have been really hit by.
As a sprog the local dialect included (if it wasn't pure) Devonian so when I got to CH I found them pretty difficult to understand (Mr Jones of Prep A was most 'unhelpful).
First job was in northern Norway where the language has/had three genders as logical as French and German genders. Coming south to Bergen and they had done away with one of the genders, created a few new letters and changed some critical words (like the number seven - syve = sjue). Later on I discovered it was more critical than that with villages just miles apart having different dialects.
In Brasil, Carioca (Rio de Janeiro dialect) is allegedly incomprehensible to people from São Paulo which is different again from the language in the southern states where one word in three is pure High German. Here in France each village has its patois, there are several varieties of Occitan (which covers the Italian border virtually to the Atlantic) with Catalan being the most famous.
A good French friend has just sent his children to the local school; the teacher, posted from the north, has decided that these children don't speak French and, at 4 and 6, they are being kept in for an hour a day to "learn French". I have always understood them clearly with my "Cullen" variety of CH French which says a lot about the teachers!. As for Canadian French - ouch, whilst the New Orleans version ........
South American Spanish varieties (and even Llanito from Gibraltar) are different in vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation and usage to Castillian Spanish whilst Paraguayan "Spanish" I found totally impossible. I was amazed to find that Llanito was the patois in the Canary Islands

We just have to get along with those we need to know and the best of luck with the Finnish. The man I had respect for was one of the late Pope's advisers who allegedly learned a new language every year.