Coronavirus (COVID-19)

[welshbairn]

10 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

That is a horrible journey.

First time I had to go to Munich I was surprised at how poor the direct flight options were.

You have to change somewhere to get anywhere decent from Inverness, I don't mind Schiphol.

 

 

[Todd_is_God]

12 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

You have to change somewhere to get anywhere decent from Inverness, I don't mind Schiphol.

I don't mind it either, but it's just rather big and therefore a bit of a PITA. Not sure how much more of a pain it will be from 01/01 either (though I'm sure I saw UK flags on the signage near the automatic passport gates).

Even from Edinburgh you can get to Munich direct, but (with a normal timetable anyway) only if you fly at lunchtime. Which, assuming you aren't travelling for leisure, isn't much use.

Similar story on the way home.

Edited August 13, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[Inanimate Carbon Rod]

Just reading the latest from the SFA working group into football restarting, it would seem in response to the rule breaking by celtic and aberdeen players the sfa have decided to punish clubs by stopping them from training, however dont appear to be stopping the clubs who’s players actually broke the rules from training, its a bold strategy from the SFA. 

[Thereisalight..]

4 minutes ago, Inanimate Carbon Rod said:

Just reading the latest from the SFA working group into football restarting, it would seem in response to the rule breaking by celtic and aberdeen players the sfa have decided to punish clubs by stopping them from training, however dont appear to be stopping the clubs who’s players actually broke the rules from training, its a bold strategy from the SFA. 

They’re finally showing their contempt for clubs below the top tier. The response to the rule breaking was astonishingly short sighted 

[oldbitterandgrumpy]

44 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

You have to change somewhere to get anywhere decent from Inverness, I don't mind Schiphol.

 

 

You don't have to change to go anywhere from Dumfries, why would you want to go anywhere else?

Dumfries now? Inverness in the 70's? It's the same place.  Dumfries is just where it's at. As the Talking Heads song goes  .  .  . 'Heaven is a place where nothing ever happens'. 

(Really miss going to see the Clach though).

Edited August 14, 2020 by oldbitterandgrumpy

[hk blues]

10 hours ago, welshbairn said:

I don't think he'd find it difficult to deal with 3 languages at that age, his brain will be going mad firing up new structures and connections. After having to rapidly pick up Swedish to survive in school I found French and later German a doddle. Shame I didn't keep them up, especially Swedish where I came 2nd in class after a couple of years, and embarrassingly 4th in English. 

You're right - like all kids that age his brain is a sponge.  The problem is he's lazy and also simply doesn't like Tagalog - i guess he sees no value as it's not used at all where we live. 

[madwullie]

5 hours ago, hk blues said:

You're right - like all kids that age his brain is a sponge.  The problem is he's lazy and also simply doesn't like Tagalog - i guess he sees no value as it's not used at all where we live. 

Language acquisition is really high from the age of two till about 7, then is a downward trend till adulthood. Its a nonsense that in Scotland we don't take language teaching "seriously" till high school. 

I know it's a pretty common story, but when I was 15, motherwell rotary club paid for someone from the German class at my school to visit a German family, and for them to come back and be hosted here. My class was 5 nutters and me, so I got the nod. 

Went over there and lived with a family for a fortnight, went to school with the boy a couple of days. In English class they were reading Catcher in the Rye (which is a first person narrative written in the slang of its time) Meanwhile, in German class at home, I was learning how to say I had no brothers and sisters and to ask the way to the town hall. Not much has changed in the intervening 25 years, with the exception of a nod to languages in primary school. This boy was also learning Russian and French. Embarrassing stuff really

Edited August 14, 2020 by madwullie

[Todd_is_God]

@madwullie absolutely agree. I think I was in P7 before I started getting a half hour a week of French. Hated it.

Took German in High School, but dumped it after Standard Grade as I didn't see the point. Kinda wish I hadn't.

I reckon I could give it a good go at learning it if I lived there, though. But without being surrounded by it I got bored. There's only so many times I can repeat "The horse runs with it's brothers" and "The ladies are cooking rice" before I get bored. It's just not a useful way to learn, and has little practical value.

[Todd_is_God]

The roadblock for me always boils down to 'what second language should we teach as standard?'

English as a second language is an obvious choice as it's fairly universal. I imagine for the majority of europeans who speak at least 2 languages, 1 of them will be English.

Whether you are german, italian or french, if you need to communicate, learning English is the second language you need. 

French? Not as useful as it would have been 50 years ago. Spanish? Again useful for package holidays in the 70s-90s, but this can be gotten round by repeating yourself slowly and loudly. Big in South America, but we aren't there. Mandarin? Most spoken language in the world, but would it be useful for 99% of Scottish kids? German? Probably historic reasons why this wasn't chosen!

Edited August 14, 2020 by Todd_is_God

[Wee Willie]

You lot talking about languages brings back memories for me.

In 1965 me and my mate had a weeks holiday in Tossa del Mar in the Costa Brava.

We stayed in a wee family run hotel.

The owners young son Jose was the barman/waiter and he said he would teach me Spanish if I would teach him English.

"Hey, Josie, whit's Spanish fur twa Bacardis wi' Coke?"

"Dos Barcardis con Coke"

"Gracias Josie, and whit dae ye say fur hoo much"

"Quanto es?

My Spanish was passable but Josie's English was mair Scots than anything else.

[coprolite]

11 minutes ago, Todd_is_God said:

The roadblock for me always boils down to 'what second language should we teach as standard?'

English as a second language is an obvious choice as it's fairly universal. I imagine for the majority of europeans who speak at least 2 languages, 1 of them will be English.

Whether you are german, italian or french, if you need to communicate, learning English is the second language you need. 

French? Not as useful as it would have been 50 years ago. Spanish? Again useful for package holidays in the 70s-90s, but this can be gotten round by repeating yourself slowly and loudly. Big in South America, but we aren't there. Mandarin? Most spoken language in the world, but would it be useful for 99% of Scottish kids? German? Probably historic reasons why this wasn't chosen!

There's also the cognitive benefit of learning a language, any language. 

My kids are schooled in Wales and from 4 learn Welsh (in English speaking schools - i think they learn English in Welsh speaking schools). Whilst only slightly more practically useful than Pictish, it's good for their brains. 

[madwullie]

6 minutes ago, coprolite said:

There's also the cognitive benefit of learning a language, any language. 

My kids are schooled in Wales and from 4 learn Welsh (in English speaking schools - i think they learn English in Welsh speaking schools). Whilst only slightly more practically useful than Pictish, it's good for their brains. 

Yeah. I remember a tutor of mine saying something like, if you speak one language you look at the world through a pair of blue lenses, if you speak two you look at the world through blue, yellow and green lenses. 

Research shows that bilingual kids perform better at school and are "better" at learning  than those who only speak one language. It's a fact.

[SlipperyP]

22 hours ago, Jambomo said:

More than anyone can afford!

[Todd_is_God]

Looking forward to seeing how the journalists re-word the same recycled questions today

[Hillonearth]

1 hour ago, madwullie said:

Language acquisition is really high from the age of two till about 7, then is a downward trend till adulthood. Its a nonsense that in Scotland we don't take language teaching "seriously" till high school. 

I know it's a pretty common story, but when I was 15, motherwell rotary club paid for someone from the German class at my school to visit a German family, and for them to come back and be hosted here. My class was 5 nutters and me, so I got the nod. 

Went over there and lived with a family for a fortnight, went to school with the boy a couple of days. In English class they were reading Catcher in the Rye (which is a first person narrative written in the slang of its time) Meanwhile, in German class at home, I was learning how to say I had no brothers and sisters and to ask the way to the town hall. Not much has changed in the intervening 25 years, with the exception of a nod to languages in primary school. This boy was also learning Russian and French. Embarrassing stuff really

I'm always amazed at the facility of some Europeans with language - whenever I go to a new country I always try to learn the local language to basic phrasebook level before I go, but in some Scandinavian countries I've never got any further than "Ikke norsk/dansk" before the person I'm speaking to breaks into perfect idiomatic English. Holland's incredible for it too, although I suppose they've got the excuse of their own language being so close to English in the first place.

[Todd_is_God]

Stupid 1st question already. Why can't we have more lead time? Because Borders are not devolved. Scotland can add quarantine restrictions to the UK's decision, but can't remove them. Why ask the FM that? Not new info there.

[Newbornbairn]

Spain just banned all smoking in public places and outdoors where social distancing can't be maintained. 

https://www.diariodemallorca.es/nacional/2020/08/14/sanidad-propone-cerrar-discotecas-ampliar/1530813.html?fbclid=IwAR1EGDs7vAA6S6PBlB8aIWbE88m32GoYW9M54Sx05plBu5dMGbup6n5RJsI

 

Oh please let that happen here 

[Tight minge]

There's also the cognitive benefit of learning a language, any language. 
My kids are schooled in Wales and from 4 learn Welsh (in English speaking schools - i think they learn English in Welsh speaking schools). Whilst only slightly more practically useful than Pictish, it's good for their brains. 

Daughters first langauge is English and has been learning Mandarin since 2 1/2 at Kindergarten and Bahasa at home.

Luckily the wife speaks Bahasa, local Indo dialect, English, Mandarin, Cantonese and some Arabic.

I’ve got really bad Spanish, a little Hungarian and snippets of Mandarin, Vietnamese and courtesy Tagalog.

For the wife it appears easy, for me a real struggle so hopefully the daughter takes after her mother.

[madwullie]

1 hour ago, Hillonearth said:

I'm always amazed at the facility of some Europeans with language - whenever I go to a new country I always try to learn the local language to basic phrasebook level before I go, but in some Scandinavian countries I've never got any further than "Ikke norsk/dansk" before the person I'm speaking to breaks into perfect idiomatic English. Holland's incredible for it too, although I suppose they've got the excuse of their own language being so close to English in the first place.

They start learning properly at 5. It really is as simple as that. Absolutely no reason at all why we couldn't do the same. It's just not valued here in the same way. When I was at school a language was compulsory in s4 but that's not even the case anymore. Language departments in school have been decimated and morale is at an all time low

(I mean there's obviously exposure to US and UK film and TV, but even still) 

Edited August 14, 2020 by madwullie

[welshbairn]

These North East fishermen are fair conforming to their stereotype. Anti independence, pro Brexit, voting for every Tory they can find and now doing a plague carrying Cummings. I remember the days when they were just known for their fondness for heroin.

Quote

A fishing boat from Peterhead on the north-east coast of mainland Scotland has been identified as the cause of an outbreak of Covid-19 in Orkney, as the local health chief said he was profoundly concerned that the virus was spreading rapidly across the island community.

The head of NHS Orkney, Michael Dickson, said: “We have five positive cases from a fishing vessel and more than nine contacts. Our understanding is they travelled from mainland Scotland, from Peterhead, before arriving in Orkney.”

Contact tracers are working to isolate those who may be affected following an incident management team meeting on Thursday afternoon.
Dickson assured the local population that health authorities were taking the outbreak “extremely seriously. “We believe there is a real risk to the people of Orkney, including those on the remote isles, and urge them to take care,” he said.

“Several individuals have developed Covid symptoms and then travelled to their homes across the isles and to mainland Scotland. I am asking that anyone in Orkney who shows symptoms of Covid to immediately self-isolate for at least 10 days and seek a test.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/aug/14/orkney-coronavirus-cluster-linked-to-fishing-boat-from-peterhead

Edited August 14, 2020 by welshbairn