Fluency in English

Same thing in Norway ( except for the Spanish ones ). Books in English are a lot cheaper than books in Norwegian.

I´m getting replied to in English sometimes as well when I´m in Denmark. I refuse to speak English or adapt my Norwegian in any manner to make myself understood, however, I´ll just raise my voice and look increasingly annoyed at them until they at least pretend they understand.

 

Well, where my English comes from has pretty much been covered by the above...
I think the reason why I haven't forgotten my French and German yet is because it's not very long since I stopped being in school and having to take tests in them. Wait a few years...

By the way, I agree with Kellhound, I speak English but not British! :lol:

I don't know about other countries in Europe, but the Dutch import foreign series or copy their formats because they have no native humour. They can't come up with anything funny themselves. So we have copies of British programs running (Have I Got News For You, The Weakest Link) along with several American shows. They're popular because... we're not used to much.

 

Would the Dutch think that the American term 'Dutch Oven' is funny?

 

Well no, but that's just because it's gross. I myself don't mind the many "Dutch ..." words at all, since I know they're directed at some very clever 17th century Dutchmen who destroyed the British fleet.

 

GP
That's because we're better at English than Norwegian

SturmTiger
As mentioned, mostly sitcoms. Most kids are pretty indiscriminate about which show is on, however the only shows I really like are Frasier, Spin City and CSI (and then Lost, too). Since the kids are the ones who are learning, their indiscriminate viewing obviously does them some good (though I think many people will argue against this, just like comic books were viewed as dangerous previously, but are in fact helpful to stimulate childrens reading).
I only have public access television, so the selection is pretty limited, but I mainly watch movies anyway (since I've seen just about all the episodes of Frasier and Spin City at least a couple of times )

Skua
I can usually understand Norwegian and Swedish (when pronouced properly, and it isn't some wierd dialect), but I honestly prefer English. I will usually pursuade Norwegians and Swedes to talk English, though, since I can speak pretty fast, and make myself completely incomprehensible

Christian

 

Christian, I can understand some Norwegian and Swedish but the Danes miss the pronunciation of letters. T me Danish is Norwegian with half the letter pronunciation missing and half of what is left pronounced incorrectly.

Example

hvad hedder du? Pronounced vel heer du?
and
hva hetter du? Pronounced va hetter du?

In the first when spoken there is only one d and 3 x e, and there is also an l and as the same in Norwegian no h.

But I still enjoy being English and speaking foriegn languages. I just can't understand the replies. :lol:

 

A large mix. Here are just a few off the top of my head (some are no longer shown, some still are).
ER, Friends, The Simpsons, Ally McBeal, The A Team, Six Feet Under, Desperate Housewives, The Jerry Springer Show, The Dukes of Hazzard, Cagney & Lacey, Starsky & Hutch, Charlie's Angels, Columbo, Joey, and then there are cartoons like The Flintstones, and kids TV like Malcolm in the Middle, or that riduculous purple dinosaur.

 

In England 'Channel 4' is generally the channel which has all of the American TV shows on it. It bought the Simpsons off BBC2 about six months ago and has been running Friends for longer than I can remember.

 

See if you can catch the error in the above.

SOE: yeah, it's a real pity that the Simpsons have disappeared from BBC2 since along with BBC1 those are the only English channels we can get here in the Netherlands. I miss my daily dose.

On Dutch commercial networks the above has, I think, all been shown, along with shows like Friends, Two and a Half Men, Will & Grace, Roseanne, Growing Pains and so on and so forth.

 

Yes, all those too. And more.
And then there are the American films (ie: most of them). You even get the amusing/annoying (depending on mood) details like strong English regional accents being subtitled, or English actors playing English characters set in England speaking American ('in the trunk of my car', etc)

What was my error? Which show is not American?

 

First you listed a number of acted shows including the Simpsons. Then you started about cartoons.

 

True, true.
I did kinda think that when writing it, but decided to carry on regardless. Fool that I am...

 

Plus with all the actors appearing in the Simpsons... :lol:

Funny thing about the voice actors for the Simpsons. I saw one of them on the credits of the movie "Godzilla" (1998), but when his character appeared I thought "who the heck is that?". Then he started talking and I thought, hey, it's Kent Brockman, I mean, Hank Azaria!

 

Please tell me that you guys don't have all these stupid bullshit 'REALITY'shows too!They are insufferable!

 

We have some of our own - Big Brother, for example, has different shows for each country, and Pop Idol (which spawned 'American Idol' - sorry for that.) - We have also imported US shows like 'Temptation Island'.

British TV has also been running home-produced shows like 'Ibiza Uncovered' for years...

All-in-all, a very sorry state of affairs... :cry:

 

Yup, we get the same here. There even seems to be a market for rabid nonsense like Fear Factor.

There was a Dutch Idols, as well as several equivalents and rip-offs, and various adaptations to the Big Brother formula (alongside or following two actual Big Brother series).

 

Well, my mother is American. I don't see myself as exceptionally fluent though, with my unfair advantage. Roel and Christian Ankerstjerne have true style

 

In my opnion, when you can construct phrases like those, you may be. 8)

 

:bang: 'reality' shows

One of my greatest wishes is the possibility to torture every participant of such a show to death!

Christian

 

For the last couple of years these shows are on constantly.Also,they are hardly realistic.I cannot stand them.