Foreign Perspectives

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Brazil is a massive country and one of the largest sugar producers in the world: so large that it’s production directly affects the world price for the product.

All that production is concentrated in just two areas of the country: around Sao Paulo and in the north. So large is the production that they even go so far as to produce ethanol to power cars from it (about half of their production goes this way). Naturally, this reduces their dependence on improrted oil, no bad thing given the way that oil prices are going these days.

You might think that “sugar is sugar” but in fact it isn’t. The refined sugar known as ICUMSA 45 which is aimed at the foodstuff market makes up quite a small percentage of the sugar exported and the majority of exported sugar is in its raw form which gets refined in the country importing it.  Obviously exporting is done in bulk and most ICUMSA 45 is sold well in advance in common with most commodity products which is why you won’t often see “Sugar from Brazil” on your bags of sugar in the shops.

Popularity: 28% [?]

In theory the answer is Scots or perhaps Ulster Scots although there’s a lot of debate as to whether either count as a language. However, that’s not the problem with them: in that one key point about learning another language is that you want to communicate with people who you couldn’t communicate with before these don’t count as they’re spoken by people who are 100% English speakers.

So, in reality, the question should be “what’s the easiest useful language for an English speaker to learn?”.

From first principles that would have to be one of the Germanic family of languages of which the closest is probably Dutch. However, unfortunately that too fails the “useful” criteria as both Dutch and Flemish speakers always reply in English unless your Dutch is perfect which, of course, it won’t be for quite a while.

That leaves the second choice of German which has the problem that it’s quite a precise language and takes quite a while to learn. However, at least the Germans will let you perservere with your early attempts at it. Although not in the Germanic family, Spanish is also fairly easy to pick up and if you’re choosing your first second language it’s probably a toss up between Spanish and German if you just want to learn a language although, usually, other factors come into play.

Popularity: 28% [?]

Cyprus is a slightly peculiar place to go on holiday.

One peculiar effect of the British history is that they drive on the left in contrast to pretty much all of Europe. It sounds a trivial thing but it made the place seems that little bit more like “home” to me.

However, it isn’t home and it has a very long Summer season thanks to its position in the eastern Mediterranean. In addition to the obvious attractions as a beach location and, of course, quite a substantial nightlife, you’ll also find that there are lots of Greek era remains just about everywhere you go.

A flight to Cyprus is fairly cheap these days and you’ll find oodles of reasonably priced accommodation there. Very much worth a trip if you’re looking for a combination of somewhere that’s abroad but not too foreign, has beaches but isn’t only beachy.

Popularity: 30% [?]