Foreigners in England/France

I agree - most modern skinheads are a waste of space. But I don't think the movement is so big in the UK now...

I think it's over today. There has been a movement in France in the end of the 80's and the beginning of the 90's. It's over everywhere i hope.
I have been in Germany there are 5 or six years to see a friend near Kholn (Cologne), i have seen some young skinheads (bet 18 to 20). I admit i was disturbed to see them especilly in that country. I asked to myself what think the old germans who have known this so dark period or the jews. If you wear a nazi cross in France you must not be afraid about how some people will look you, it must be the same everywhere in Europe.
Have you seen an American History X. What you said is true, the guy in the movie is not stupid, it's the opposite. It's because of many frustrations he had he becomes racist and dangerous.

To Adam,
Well I am not sure a lot of people would agree with you. You know I am French and despite of the fact that Spanish and Italian seem to be very closed to French, I think those two languages are really much harder than English.
You know I love English for its great simplicity, and I believe that is one of the main reasons why English is spreading that way all around the world.

Of course:

"Ael"="Axel"! I never check my post!

I've said it before and I'll say it again....Adam is a native speaker of English. Who is he to judge whether English is hard or not? He posts a bunch of difficult spellings and uses that as justification for his claim. He chooses to ignore the rather simple conjugations, lack of gender, etc.

Native speakers can't judge its difficulty. If someone were to tell me that English was easier to learn than Italian, then I'd believe them...how do I (or Adam) know what is difficult or not difficult about learning English. We're native speakers.

thank you all for your responses I feel so much better knowing this informatin since I am moving to France soon. Axel do you live in France?

Hi Anthony,
how do you feel?
Yes I actually live in the south-west of France, in Toulouse.
Hope you will enjoy your trip here!

MJD,

I think if you know well (bilingual) another language you can compare it. Imagine a guy who's having a spanish mother and an english father. Why not? I don't pretend of course it's easy and you must practice the 2 languages very well.

In my opinion, English isn't all that hard. The conjugations are simple. The past tense is simple. There is no gender when it comes to nouns. Adam has a point with the spelling. It can get tricky, but I don't think he has anything to go on by saying it's one of the hardest European languages....I think that is a matter of opinion.

Now, does this mean that English is easy to master? No. One can know how to speak English, but that doesn't mean that (s)he can write beautiful English and really use the language to its fullest potential.

Adam is certainly entitled to his opinion. I just don't understand why he's on such a mission to "prove" how difficult English is. Personally I think Portuguese is much harder.

Hi mjd,
I have a little question for you: where is Tom and his little yellow star? You've got a gray star now, then I guess you're the new webmaster.
I agree with you: English appears to me not that hard, one can understand English and be understood without a lot of work... but if you want to master it is quite difficult.

Axel,

Tom is on vacation so he asked me to moderate the forum in his absence. He should be back this weekend. However, Tom is still the webmaster and this is his forum. I'm just keeping the trolls out.

Mjd,

will you keep acting as a moderator when Tom is back ? I think you are very efficient. I have hardly noticed any troll since you do the job.

Lavoisel,

Thanks for the kind words. I suppose that will be up to Tom.

Racism abounds everywhere, so you'll meet it pretty much anywhere in the world where there are people who don't want to think too hard.

As for England, (and I can only speak for my little corner up in Yorkshire) my partner is Chinese and we bump into very little racism. Funnily enough, Chinese people seem to be widely accepted by both the Indian/Asian communities and the white people because both seem to feel Chinese 'belong' to them, if you understand what I mean. But that only applies for a little part of Yorkshire. The city I live in happens to have the highest mixture of ethnic groups in England.

London, on the other hand, is a massive city with millions of inhabitants of many different races and whilst this might promote racism, it will probably also force people to be more open-minded. I think you should stop by London for a week or two, see what you think, stop by Paris for the same length of time, and then make your decision from there. If you hate either or both, then at least you tried.

Hey Axel one last question
I am 14 How old are you and Okota how old are you?