Aerif

Also, re. SAAS travel expenses - you can do it online and it's the single biggest scam opportunity on that website. I barely have to travel when I'm in Aberdeen, definitely costs me no more than £50 a year - yet I always get upwards of £400 from SAAS. Don't be scared to lie through your teeth to them. You NEED to get the subway from Central Station to Buchanan Street .

I'm HeatherIAm, though I haven't uploaded my word count yet (around 9000, must get skates on!) and my profile is ancient too. You'll be my first friend!

It's not James Watt College is it ? I went there. YEAH, DEBT! JAMES WATTERGATE! WOO! HNC Social Sciences, 2006-07. Good times indeed.

Anyway, the older universities - Aberdeen and upwards - seriously look down on HNC/Ds. They'll not let you in above first year even if you have an HND. They want people to stay in school, do their Highers, straight and narrow - it's retarded, but that's the way it is. Places like UWS and Dundee will let you into second or third year with your college qualification, but the snobby ones won't. Go figure. Bitch with that is if that SAAS are paying attention they'll make you pay your own tuition fees if you have an HND and end up going into university in first year.

I'm glad you'e enjoying it though. All my friends are in their Junior Honours now, and telling me how difficult and awful it will be. I think they're just jealous because my working week is 14 hours long and I get paid through the nose.

Huh. I'm back in Aberdeen, and it turns out that I did miss Scotland. The banter, mostly. After a whole day (like 16 hours) spent travelling I found myself on the Edinburgh-Aberdeen late train and just felt at home. Two teenage girls were laughing, Fife accents, and there was a ridiculously drunk gay man who kept saying funny things of the variety that you just don't get anywhere else in Europe. It was the first part of my journey where I fell asleep without my backpack wrapped around my arm; I felt safe. Maybe that's what home is.

I heard that Griffin's appearance was a hoot. I look forward to watching it, because I can now. No iplayer in France, boo.

Also, how are you, ya big first year?

I have no idea whatsoever.

I think it's just another word for 'jibberish'.

Also, I just like the English language.

I always liked chatting in English on MSN with Zoe (whom your somewhat friends with, I believe), even when I was just 16.

These languages? It's just all Dutch, but since there are two neighbouring countries in which they speak it, there are two official pronunciations of certain things. (Again, like Am. Eng. and Brit. Eng.)

And I don't know.

We get French from the age of 10 until we leave High School. English from the age of 14. German/Spanish too, but that depends on what you're studying in High School.

And I studied English and Dutch Literature & Linguistics for two years. ^^

But due to my lack of discipline and not giving a crap for two years, I was forced to study something else. Now I'm studying Journalism. I did get 34 out of 60 credits of the first year of Lit. and Ling. though. It's not like it was too hard. I mean, organising and making sure I studied was difficult, not the material. Not to me.

The level of English and Dutch in what I'm studying now is ridiculously easy.

And yeah, I'm good at language. If I'm allowed to say that myself. O_o

So in short:
Written, it's the same.

Spoken, it's like American and British English.

The thing is that the way the Belgian newsreaders speak on the tele, is not how people would speak in real life. Personally, I think the ge/gij-je/jij difference is the main thing that makes 'standard' Belgian Dutch sound a little bit formal, but that's just me.

I'm starting to bore myself.

Well it's both Dutch.

The word 'Flemish' actually means 'from the Flanders', not necessarily a language.

Dutch is the official, proper language, but 'Flemish' is used to describe the informal Belgian form of Dutch, though it's still just Dutch, if that makes any sense.

So we speak Dutch and French in Belgium, but 'Flemish' is sometimes used in a context where the spoken, informal language is the issue.

Dutch Dutch and Belgian Dutch are both Dutch. That's the terms linguists use to imply that both 'varieties' are exactly the same language (which they are). The difference between Standard Dutch Dutch and Standard Belgian Dutch is really similar to the difference between British English and American English. But Flemish is just a name we use for the informal, spoken form of Belgian Dutch.

Flemish is not dialect that is jibberish to people form the Netherlands though. Not at all.


So there's the language Dutch.

You have (1) Dutch from the Netherlands and (2) Dutch from Belgium. In written language, there are no differences, except for the very few words and expressions that Dutch people don't know and vice versa. So that's like American and British English.

In spoken (formal/standard) Dutch Dutch and Belgian Dutch, there are also just some pronunciation differences, and probably less differences than there are between British and American.

But (3) the informal spoken form of Dutch they speak in Belgium is sometimes called Flemish, as in 'spoken in the Flanders'. The main difference is the use of 'ge/gij' instead of 'je/jij'.

But it's really too complicated to explain so I'll just shut up. ^^

Yeah I get that sometimes.

Most people don't understand the language issues in Belgium.

Most of the time, they do know that the southern part speaks French, and the upper part Dutch(/Flemish), but they think Flemish is a totally different language. It's exactly the same as Dutch in written language, only some things are said differently. Much like British English and American English, but with some small grammatical differences (like using another word for the Dutch word for 'you', 'ge/gij' instead of 'je/jij'), though they are only in spoken language or on Facebook etc.

I like your location, girl.

Happy B-DAY!

Happy birthday

Happy B-day.

Happy Birthday Aerif! I hope you have a great one!