Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Commentary’ Category

You’d think that France and Spanish culture in the areas along the common border would be very similar after so many years of that border being open but there are still considerable differences.

For example, as soon as you cross the border, you see girls sitting or standing by the roadside. They’re prostitutes yet you don’t see any by the roadside just over the border in France. OK, that’s probably down to some legal difference, but even so.

What’s not down to a legal difference is that in France the restaurants serve food from noon to 2pm. After that, you’re basically talking the likes of McDonalds if you want to eat. Yet drive a couple of miles south and you’ll find the Spanish will serve food most of the day with no really sharp cut-off times at all. Moreover the portions are considerably larger and the prices considerably lower.

It looks like it’ll be generations before that difference starts to fade rather than the few years that many expected it would be.

I’m reliably informed that the place to go locally to launder some money is a small bank branch in a town just over the border.

Or at least that’s where my informant banks his cash.

The only problem with his choice is that he’s in France and the bank is in Spain. No problem with the currency but what he’s not taken into account is that all European countries have a co-operation agreement in place which means that this bank account will be reported automatically to the French authorities.

I suspect that it will take quite a long time before that attitude of money becoming invisible when you use a bank just over the border changes. It’s been pointless for the Germans to drive over to Luxembourg with a suitcase of cash for quite some time (a very popular pastime apparently).

Anyway, if you’re considering a spot of money laundering, you’ll usually go rather further than just over the border these days.

We thought that we’d have a go at stocking up in one of the border towns near here that used to be a dutyfree town ie one that sold all the dutyfree stuff that you get in the airports and whatnot.

Although “dutyfree” has gone, at least between European countries, none of the supermarkets in that town seems to have moved on at all. They still concentrate almost entirely on what were the former dutyfree items so you get a massive selection of drink, perfumes and tobacco and very little else.

I suspect that they survive on that mixture simply because ot the habit of the locals to shop in the “dutyfree” has carried on long after the dutyfree aspects have gone. If that’s the case, it would seem that the town only has a long slow decline in its future.

Whilst it’s peculiar to think of the difficulties faced when immigrating to the UK, that’s a situation that we will be finding ourselves in within the not too distant future so we’re considering some of the logistics.

Even for “native” English speaking children it’s not as easy to do as you might expect.

Why? Well, in our experience most people returning to the UK are doing so after they’ve been abroad at least two years and normally it’s more than five years. For simplicity, let’s take the case of a five year stay abroad of a British child who then returns to the UK schooling system.

If they were just born when the family emmigrated, then the child would be about five and therefore be starting primary school. You might think that would be fine but if they’ve been playing with non-English speaking children for those five years it’s not quite so simple. For one thing they won’t know the english words for all the toys nor the name of the TV shows. That’s even if they speak english at all of course because some emmigrants try to immerse their family in the local culture and language. However, this is by far the simplest point.

What about, say a six year old, moving back at age 11. They will find it fairly difficult as they’ll have picked up a lot of the foreign language in school and will need to learn the english words for all those terms. In fact, it’s generally the case that kids of that background can only speak english to their parents and other english speakers find them virtually impossible to communicate with in english so you can imagine the problems they’ll have in their initial period in an english speaking school.

The worst ages come later though. Someone trying to start A-levels who’d been abroad since they were 11 would have severe problems. They’d not know any of the specialised vocabulary in english for the various subjects that they’d studied. In fact, they’d almost certainly have to go to english classes before trying to get into a school. These problems are magnified a little more if they’re trying to get into a British university but haven’t gone through British A-levels.

So if you are planning on returning to the UK after a stay abroad of more than a few years, don’t just assume that your kids are english speaking because, in most cases, they are far from fluent in english and certainly very far from fluent in academic english.

I’ve been plugging away at a modern languages degree part-time for what seems like a lifetime sometimes but now that I’m getting to the end of it, I’m looking beyond it to what I might do next.

Since the final course of the degree is an English language one, I’ll be left with effectively half of a Diploma in English so I’ve been toying with the idea of doing the other half to tidy up that loose end but I’m going to wait ’til I see what next years course is like before I commit myself to that.

I’d also quite like to do a creative writing course at some point. However, to do that there’s a sort-of prerequisite consisting of a humanities course therefore I’ve bought the recommended texts for that one and have been working through them over the last few weeks. English literature isn’t really my thing if those particular books are anything to go by! That of itself has put me off considering seriously the full blown degree in English that I’d be almost half-way to achieving if I do the creative writing course.

On a separate tack I quite fancy doing the chemistry degree that I was toying with many years ago and bought one of the recommended books for that. Although it’s been getting on for 30 years since I did that subject, I’m finding the book a relatively easy read, especially considering that it’s a second year university text.

Anyway, if you’re thinking of doing a particular course, why not buy one or two of the recommended texts before you get to the point of commiting yourself to the course. You might find, as I did, that the “harder” course is more appealing and that of itself will almost certainly make it feel easier to you.