Why we speak english at all nation naval conferences

Mark Conley said:
An officer in the U.S. Naval reserve was attending a conference that
included admirals from both the U.S. Navy and the French Navy. At
a cocktail reception, he found himself in a small group that included personnel from both navies.

The French admiral started complaining that whereas Europeans learned many languages, Americans learned only English. He then asked: "Why is it that we have to speak English in these conferences rather than you speak French?

Without hesitating, the American Admiral replied: "Maybe it's because
the Brits, Canadians, Aussies and Americans arranged it so you would
not have to speak German."

The group became silent. :shock:
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hehehe grand stuff
 
ObjSRgtLw said:
Nevertheless you should start learn more than one language :cowb:
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Only one?:D

In the merchant marine, I learnt a smattering of many languages, but never had the chance to get serious about any of them, which was a great pity. I grew up in an area of Australia where many of the families spoke Plattdeutsche, and had a moderate understanding of the spoken language, but only ever spoke a little.

Besides that, I really liked Italian, Spanish and Japanese, and would have liked to live in those countries long enough to become reasonably proficient. Unfortunately I had to earn my living and never got the chance. It's a bit too late now.
 
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ObjSRgtLw said:
learn french and german and the rest is easy to get ;)
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About 20 years ago, I joined a 4WD club and one night we were all around the camp fire talking and having a few wines. Obviously this loosened up my inhibitions a bit, because next morning several of the other members were laughing about the previous night's conversation said that I was holding quite a good conversation in German with several of our German expatriate members for several hours. It must have been quite a night, as I didn't remember much about it.

Similarly I only have to be with my cousin's Japanese wife for a few hours before I find that I can speak a little Japanese again. It's all obviously still in the brain box, but just needs a bit of coaxing to come out.
 
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I can relate to that as well.
If someone says "hey, say this in such and such" it doesn't come out very well but if someone starts speaking it and I start hearing it, they start to come back.
 
I know a smidget of Spanish. Enough to talk to the contractors that are out here at the chemical plants to make them understand me.
 
the_13th_redneck said:
I can relate to that as well.
If someone says "hey, say this in such and such" it doesn't come out very well but if someone starts speaking it and I start hearing it, they start to come back.
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That reminds me of when I was a kid, migration was a big thing in the early 1950s in Australia, and we had every imaginable variety of European migrant at school.

Somehow someone found out that if you asked a Dutch kid to say "888 ovens" in Dutch it used to sound like they were vomiting. We would all fall about laughing while the poor Dutch kid stood there with a confused look on his/her face.

Find a Dutchman with a good strong Dutch accent and try it.

Sorry, Nick, Piet, Thea, Anna and all the others :-D.
 
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