Living abroad tips and hints for money savers

droopsnout

OK.

I get these accented characters on my laptop, but it has a separate numeric keypad at the right-hand side.

When using a desktop computer or a laptop like mine, you get the accented letters by pressing and holding down the ALT key, and whilst it is depressed, you type in the digits on the numeric keypad. As far as I know, it doesn't work if you use the number keys at the top of the keyboard.

So, to get ñ, you hold down the ALT key and type 164 into the numeric keypad.

HTH.

seven-day-weekend

ñ Ñ

Hey!!! It works! Thanks droopsnout!!

Now I can write mañana, alpujarreño, madrileño.....the list is endless!!

droopsnout

¡Puès sì, señora!

seven-day-weekend

Muchas gracias señor.

(How many languages can you speak?)

droopsnout

Only French fluently. A smattering of Spanish, though my reading comprehension isn't too bad. I get by with a few things in German. A few sentences of Italian. Oh and I can tell a Russian that I love his guitar.

I have got 'A' Level Latin, and 'O' Level Ancient Greek, but these days I never seem to bump into any centurions or philosophers to practise on.

I'd actually enjoy brushing up my Spanish, which I learnt largely from the BBC, and then get to grips with Italian.

But I find that whereas when I was a young chap I'd only to see or hear a word once and I'd remember it, these days I seem to take ages to absorb stuff. I probably forget faster than I remember. Wish I was asea's age!!!

82much

Asea
You may find www.italymag.co.uk forum useful. It can take a few days to get on the forum though after you have registered.
Ciao
:hello:

droopsnout

For those in Spain on Friday evening: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/foreignlanguages/files/bbhalloween.ppt

It's a Powerpoint presentation.

seven-day-weekend

Droopsnout, you're like my Dutch friends who can all speak several European Languages. My husband's best friend Eddie who is staying with us at the moment has a diploma in New Testament Greek. I also know a Malaysian lady who speaks about eight languages including Arabic and Japanese. Our French friend Pascal speaks French, English, Spanish and German fluently. Even our local bar-owner, Amador, who only had four years of formal education can speak Spanish (Castilian), English, German and Mallorquin.

Me?.....English, schoolgirl French and Pidgin Spanish (Alpujarreño dialect).:o

droopsnout

Yes, I'm afraid we Brits should be ashamed at our linguistic ineptitude.

seven-day-weekend

Definitely droopsnout and I think the problem is that languages are introduced far too late into the British school curriculum. I have seen young children here absorb the language so well that they have been taken for native Alpujarreños - I have even asked a young boy to translate for me! The language centres in the brain are at their most receptive in the young - they can 'absorb' a language - and then after that things change and we have to learn them like any other academic discipline. So unless we have a natural for learning languages, at my age we are not ever going to be anywhere near fluent. My husband learned no languages whatsoever at school, so considering he started learning Spanish as his first foreign language at 55, he's doing quite well!

I think the fact that hardly anyone in this part of Spain speaks English helps!!

Another reason for the lack of foreign languages spoken by Brits is that we on the whole expect everybody to speak English. There are an expat woman here in this village, she's lived her for two years - I happened to be having a drink with her once and she just spoke VERY LOUDLY and s lo w l y to the barman that she wanted an ashtray. Now surely if you've chosen to live in a traditional Spanish village and you smoke, it's not too much to learn the word for ashtray? I know what it is and I don't even smoke! I was SO embarrassed - I'm glad to say she is not a particular friend of mine, we had just ended up in the same bar at the same time.