The Chit Chat Chit Chat Thread

[Songbird76]

When we went we liked that stuff was in both French and English even though we don't speak French. Before we went I taught myself some basics but I was far from fluent, knowing Spanish helped out a lot. But I wouldn't say that it is typical French fashion to pretend not to understand. I didn't encounter that at all, actually we found the French to be very polite to us and seemed to appreciate when I attempted to greet them or ask for something in French. I actually thought that people were more polite to us in France than they were in London.

Then you are very fortunate! Every time we have been to Paris, the people refuse to speak English at all. And we know they are all taught English in school, just like here everyone learns English, French, and German, same in Germany...they learn French and English. That's pretty much standard across most of Europe. So we know they CAN speak English, but they will pretend they don't. You go to a subway station and your subway pass is being denied and you try to explain what's happening, they won't help you. At DLP, we went to one of the quick service places for breakfast, and we tried to order the breakfast sandwich without the butter spread that's on it. My husband tried to do it in French and they pretended not to understand his pronunciation of the word "Butter" even though he said it in French. Then finally a manager came and we tried again, and he insisted there was no butter on the sandwiches. They said they didn't speak English, but they pretended not to understand my husband's French, which I'll admit is basic, but enough to order ham, cheese, and egg on a croissant, no butter please. When my husband explained that we JUST wanted the ham and the cheese and the egg, but not whatever the spread was, the manager rolled his eyes and said "It's not butter. It's cream". Really? You couldn't get that from what we said? It was yellowish, greasy, and spread on the bread like butter would be. He didn't understand "sauce" either. And that's been our experience of pretty much every French person we asked for help.
While driving to Paris, we stopped at a gas station to ask if they had a toilet. I had my husband teach me how to ask in French....the guy pretended not to understand the word "Toilet", which is almost the exact same word in English as it is in French! And I was speaking IN FRENCH....he just pretended my French was so bad he couldn't understand me asking where the bathroom was.
The exception was the people who worked in the resort. Those people were fluent in English and they were awesome. Everywhere else, it was awful.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Yes. We are following the 2019 - 2020 School Year Calendar.
We ( in Brick NJ & Toms River NJ) were never closed. Your "even though schools were closed before then" statement doesn't apply to us
We were learning in our school buildings up until the end of the day on Friday, March 13th.
When that weekend was over....that immediate Monday (March 16th).. remote learning began.
Not one day of learning was ever missed

Good job done by your school district!

 

[John park hopper]

Then you are very fortunate! Every time we have been to Paris, the people refuse to speak English at all. And we know they are all taught English in school, just like here everyone learns English, French, and German, same in Germany...they learn French and English. That's pretty much standard across most of Europe. So we know they CAN speak English, but they will pretend they don't. You go to a subway station and your subway pass is being denied and you try to explain what's happening, they won't help you. At DLP, we went to one of the quick service places for breakfast, and we tried to order the breakfast sandwich without the butter spread that's on it. My husband tried to do it in French and they pretended not to understand his pronunciation of the word "Butter" even though he said it in French. Then finally a manager came and we tried again, and he insisted there was no butter on the sandwiches. They said they didn't speak English, but they pretended not to understand my husband's French, which I'll admit is basic, but enough to order ham, cheese, and egg on a croissant, no butter please. When my husband explained that we JUST wanted the ham and the cheese and the egg, but not whatever the spread was, the manager rolled his eyes and said "It's not butter. It's cream". Really? You couldn't get that from what we said? It was yellowish, greasy, and spread on the bread like butter would be. He didn't understand "sauce" either. And that's been our experience of pretty much every French person we asked for help.
While driving to Paris, we stopped at a gas station to ask if they had a toilet. I had my husband teach me how to ask in French....the guy pretended not to understand the word "Toilet", which is almost the exact same word in English as it is in French! And I was speaking IN FRENCH....he just pretended my French was so bad he couldn't understand me asking where the bathroom was.
The exception was the people who worked in the resort. Those people were fluent in English and they were awesome. Everywhere else, it was awful.

My son in high school took a class trip to France, Spain, German. He said he would never go back to Paris again the people he said were nasty and rude and made derogatory comments knowing they were Americans. Is this typical Paris behavior or is it typical of the French in general?

 

[21stamps]

In Parent Trap II, Susan and Sharon are adults and one of them has a daughter. She meets a girl at summer school and they try to get their parents together and call in the doppelganger to go on a date, etc. I really liked that movie as a kid. And then Parent Trap III had triplets and they go to hawaii. I don't really remember much about that one...I only saw it once and we didn't get it recorded.

Now that you say that, I do vaguely remember Parent Trap 2, I don’t think I knew about the 3rd, doesn’t sound familiar.

Good job done by your school district!

Ours is the same. The transition was immediate, so we are still having our scheduled Spring Break.

We did have teacher in service days Monday and Tuesday, but the kids had plenty of already assigned work to do. Yesterday was a little more streamlined, and they’re picking up more on the Zoom and GoogleClassroom teacher led instruction videos, which should help parents a lot.

 

[21stamps]

What is a toilet paper cake?? Can you not make a cake yourself?

This, and then I was going to decorate a cake board with “Happy Birthday...”
I thought it would be a unique and fitting cake, something to some day look back and laugh about,

 

[Lilofan]

My son in high school took a class trip to France, Spain, German. He said he would never go back to Paris again the people he said were nasty and rude and made derogatory comments knowing they were Americans. Is this typical Paris behavior or is it typical of the French in general?

I've known some. In general, all true. If we think we have racism in our country, it's nothing like in France where they openly look down on immigrant groups living in their country. When France won the World Cup of Soccer years ago, the locals did not like it when some media proclaimed it, North Africa wins the World Cup!

 

[21stamps]

My son in high school took a class trip to France, Spain, German. He said he would never go back to Paris again the people he said were nasty and rude and made derogatory comments knowing they were Americans. Is this typical Paris behavior or is it typical of the French in general?

I went to France on a high school trip my senior year , then went back once as an adult. I absolutely loved it. But, I realized that my French was much better in a classroom setting. . I had a French penpal from 4th or 5th grade thru high school. She’s now my FB friend, found me a couple of years ago,. I thought that was pretty neat.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Good morning friends!
Today is my last day of remote teaching until it resumes on April 20th.
Beginning tomorrow it will be Spring Break in NJ.
Is it (likely) the same in many other states?

No. Our Spring Break was back in late March. Enjoy your time off, and recharge. I know how frustrating e learning is on the student side. I have to imagine the teacher side is no cake walk, either.

 

[MouseDreaming]

Yep, gettin’ bombarded with ‘em.
I don’t EVER even remember typin’ the word h**d sa*****er here or anywhere else over the years.
Maybe it’s an age demographic thing, in my case, since that info is in my profile...?

I don't know why I keep seeing those ads, too.

 

[Songbird76]

My son in high school took a class trip to France, Spain, German. He said he would never go back to Paris again the people he said were nasty and rude and made derogatory comments knowing they were Americans. Is this typical Paris behavior or is it typical of the French in general?

Well, I've met some very nice French people....but those have never been IN France. And I have very limited experience in France outside of Paris and DLP....just pretty much just McDonalds people and gas station workers on the way to Paris, but most of them were not very nice. But like I said, the people at the check-in at the Sequoia resort at DLP were awesome. That's been the exception, though.

 

[Songbird76]

Good job done by your school district!

Ours was like that too, at least for E. A took a little bit more time...a day or two I think, because at his school, all the books are left there. They don't get homework, so the books stay in a cabinet in the classroom. They had to scan the pages in to send them to the kids digitally, so that took some time. But then they ran out of the pre-scanned pages, so they delivered a crate of books last week. But E's last class was on the Friday....she was supposed to go to London on the Monday, and instead, they came up with regular class material on the fly for that whole week that her class and the other Dual immersion class was supposed to be out. So instead of getting on a bus on the Monday, they were downloading Microsoft teams and they got a schedule to come clean out their lockers and they just started remote learning.

 

[Songbird76]

This, and then I was going to decorate a cake board with “Happy Birthday...”
I thought it would be a unique and fitting cake, something to some day look back and laugh about,View attachment 462046

Looks really simple to make if you have that size cake pan and some roll fondant. Have you ever made a cake before?

 

[StarWarsGirl]

Well, I've met some very nice French people....but those have never been IN France. And I have very limited experience in France outside of Paris and DLP....just pretty much just McDonalds people and gas station workers on the way to Paris, but most of them were not very nice. But like I said, the people at the check-in at the Sequoia resort at DLP were awesome. That's been the exception, though.

I've never been to France...I've met French tourists in WDW. They've always been rude, though nowhere near the level of the Brazilians. The male French CMs are flirty. The female CMs are always polite, though. I guess because they're basically living here?

My mom went to France as a teenager and said as long as they made attempts to speak French the French were overall polite. They had a Canadian with then who spoke French, and they encountered one rude French person. The Canadian put that person in their place. She and I want to go to France someday.

 

[MySmallWorldof4]

Then you are very fortunate! Every time we have been to Paris, the people refuse to speak English at all. And we know they are all taught English in school, just like here everyone learns English, French, and German, same in Germany...they learn French and English. That's pretty much standard across most of Europe. So we know they CAN speak English, but they will pretend they don't. You go to a subway station and your subway pass is being denied and you try to explain what's happening, they won't help you. At DLP, we went to one of the quick service places for breakfast, and we tried to order the breakfast sandwich without the butter spread that's on it. My husband tried to do it in French and they pretended not to understand his pronunciation of the word "Butter" even though he said it in French. Then finally a manager came and we tried again, and he insisted there was no butter on the sandwiches. They said they didn't speak English, but they pretended not to understand my husband's French, which I'll admit is basic, but enough to order ham, cheese, and egg on a croissant, no butter please. When my husband explained that we JUST wanted the ham and the cheese and the egg, but not whatever the spread was, the manager rolled his eyes and said "It's not butter. It's cream". Really? You couldn't get that from what we said? It was yellowish, greasy, and spread on the bread like butter would be. He didn't understand "sauce" either. And that's been our experience of pretty much every French person we asked for help.
While driving to Paris, we stopped at a gas station to ask if they had a toilet. I had my husband teach me how to ask in French....the guy pretended not to understand the word "Toilet", which is almost the exact same word in English as it is in French! And I was speaking IN FRENCH....he just pretended my French was so bad he couldn't understand me asking where the bathroom was.
The exception was the people who worked in the resort. Those people were fluent in English and they were awesome. Everywhere else, it was awful.

I went on a trip to France with my parents when I was still in college. My mom was fluent in French, so we had no issues getting around. Funny part is I remember going to a restaurant and the waitress spoke to her in French, and my mom spoke back to her in English. I think my mom was actually doing that on purpose to prove that the waitress could speak English.

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Then you are very fortunate! Every time we have been to Paris, the people refuse to speak English at all. And we know they are all taught English in school, just like here everyone learns English, French, and German, same in Germany...they learn French and English. That's pretty much standard across most of Europe. So we know they CAN speak English, but they will pretend they don't. You go to a subway station and your subway pass is being denied and you try to explain what's happening, they won't help you. At DLP, we went to one of the quick service places for breakfast, and we tried to order the breakfast sandwich without the butter spread that's on it. My husband tried to do it in French and they pretended not to understand his pronunciation of the word "Butter" even though he said it in French. Then finally a manager came and we tried again, and he insisted there was no butter on the sandwiches. They said they didn't speak English, but they pretended not to understand my husband's French, which I'll admit is basic, but enough to order ham, cheese, and egg on a croissant, no butter please. When my husband explained that we JUST wanted the ham and the cheese and the egg, but not whatever the spread was, the manager rolled his eyes and said "It's not butter. It's cream". Really? You couldn't get that from what we said? It was yellowish, greasy, and spread on the bread like butter would be. He didn't understand "sauce" either. And that's been our experience of pretty much every French person we asked for help.
While driving to Paris, we stopped at a gas station to ask if they had a toilet. I had my husband teach me how to ask in French....the guy pretended not to understand the word "Toilet", which is almost the exact same word in English as it is in French! And I was speaking IN FRENCH....he just pretended my French was so bad he couldn't understand me asking where the bathroom was.
The exception was the people who worked in the resort. Those people were fluent in English and they were awesome. Everywhere else, it was awful.

That't too bad. I would always start in French, although one time I started in Spanish, and they would respond with a hello in French but then switch to English. Although when we ordered we did a lot of pointing at the menu.

 

[high plains drifter]

I find myself actually ordering more from Target and Wally World (WalMart) then Amazon lately. Amazon does not have great food prices sometimes (though I did get 10 jars of Peanut Butter in February, I'm down to 7). I ordered a bag a fertilizer at WalMart, $30 dollars less than Amazon for the same.

I agree about Amazon's food prices. I've been finding I can only get the best deal there when I buy in bulk quantities (like your 10 jars of peanut butter). Good savings on the fertilizer!

 

[21stamps]

Now I’m looking for a quarantine bday shirt on Etsy. I decided we’re not going to pretend like this isn’t happening. The cake, the shirt, let’s just have fun with it.

My only concern is if the shirt will arrive on time.. not sure if anyone remembers one of my trip reports, ordered a shirt specifically for disney, paid for overnight shipping, seller promised it would arrive..but the shirt didn’t arrive until after we had left.

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

Good job done by your school district!

Thanks. I taught two lessons this morning and I have another 2 this afternoon. The kids and I are grateful to be able to see each other and learn on Zoom.

 

[StarWarsGirl]

 

[SteveBrickNJ]

No. Our Spring Break was back in late March. Enjoy your time off, and recharge. I know how frustrating e learning is on the student side. I have to imagine the teacher side is no cake walk, either.

It's become my "new normal" since this is the 4th day of week 4. Ok....gonna make some PB&J sandwiches for DD and I...then teaching resumes at 1pm.