Renza

And the "no go zones" of course exist. Outside every town or city there are those horrible neighbourhoods. It's devastating, especially when you see how it was before...

I didn't feel safe when I was living in the south of France in the early 90s. It's not a recent problem. The police is useless. I phoned once to complain about a gipsy camp next to our place; they laughed at me. Friends who were living in a house (not an apartment) had been robbed 7 times over the years. A friend had her car burnt and had been robbed while she was in the house. Another one was having a picnic with wife and children; they were attacked by men throwing stones at them... The list is too long. There are more and more gated neighbourhoods, but not everyone can afford to live there. This woman is speaking from Calais:

If they understand, there's no problem. We have some friends who can understand our three languages. But of course it's rare over here (UK). I happens often in Italy though. People generally understand English, and in my region many people also understand French. They're generally amused. As an example with family.... When we go to my in-laws.. They're English. We obviously all speak English with them. But if I need to tell something to my sons, I'll use Italian. I'm not going to have a long conversation with them in Italian though, in front of my English in-laws. When I was a child, my best friends, the ones who spent more time in my house, learned French just by hearing me talk to my mother. Not too much. But it can sound crazy. Once we were in a café in Italy, speaking our three languages in a same conversation, and some people from another table said to us: "Sorry, but what are you??". Another funny thing is that we can understand Salvatore from "The Name of the Rose", the character who speaks mixing various languages. http://youtu.be/ido2OcD8kvg

Learning another language as an adult is almost impossible for me as well! I tried with Japanese! Armitage, I had a similar experience living between two countries. I grew up in Turin, Italy, and we have a family home in a mountain village which is in France now, but it was in Italy before 1947. We had: local dialect from the village + regional dialect + official languages (French / Italian). On top of that I studied Spanish and English at school. My father grew up in that border village. When it was taken by France, from one day to the next, the school teacher was suddenly French (and scary). Everything was suddenly French (names of the roads...). So they decided to leave, rejecting the French nationality, and moved to Turin. Then my father married a French girl. Kaki, my older boy is homeschooled now, but he's 17. They both went to UK schools. If I could go back, with the things I learned with FDR, I would have homeschooled/unschooled. They learned to write Italian just by watching cartoons on TV or reading books. It has an easy spelling system; once you know the rules, it's always the same. French is a lot more complicated, but they do French at school, and they learned how to write. In that school they can take their Italian exams privately, without following lessons. They also do Spanish at school, which is easy for them thanks to their Italian. It seems that you have a similar situation: the language of the parents, and each parent a different language with the (future) children. Is your language Swedish? And your boyfriend's? My children and I favour Italian, because this is what we're used to speak between us. They use English between them. And English is stronger (because of the school). French is a bit weaker for them because they only hear it when I speak to my husband. Although we have French friends here, and we regularly go to France. For me, my two languages are about the same level, although Italian is slightly favoured, as I grew up in Italy, with Italian schooling. But I went to study and work in France when I was 19. French people can't tell that I'm also Italian, and Italian people can't tell that I'm also French. My inner dialogues can be in both languages, but more often in Italian. It depends what I think. If it's something that my mother used to say to me, I will say that thing to myself in French. I had never thought about it before. It may be more clear for me where my "inner voices" are coming from! Yes, I always think about my mother "in French". When I say that it can be isolating, it's because we can't be "natural" when people around don't understand our three languages. As we don't like to switch, we avoid speaking (between us) in front of people who don't understand.

It can happen, but it didn't happen to me. I never lost any French or Italian, as I keep on having Italian and French family and friends. I noticed that children who lose one language are those from multilingual families where parents are not "precise". Stef was speaking of the idea of having a "common language". We don't. We can all understand our three languages, and we can't change and talk to each other in a different language than the one we are used to. If for example I started to speak English with my children they would feel almost embarrassed. It would be disturbing for all of us. Language has also an emotional value. I've also never had a "common language" with my family of origin: it was French with my mother and Italian with my father, French between them. It has never changed.

I was listening to this podcast, FDR2531, with the first call from Manny, about raising a multilanguage child. I grew up in Italy, raised bilingual (French/Italian). I met my English husband in France. We've been living in the UK since our first child was born, 17 years ago. I speak Italian with my two boys, French with my husband; my husband speaks English with our children. My boys are nicely trilingual (also for the written part); we stay in touch and go and visit my family regularly both in France and Italy. They also know the culture and appreciate the sense of humour behind each language, which is fun for us as a family. Although it's a bit isolating. We didn't plan it; it's just the way our family is. Manny, if you're there and you'd like to know more, feel free to ask. Best wishes!

U.K. A-level student reported to police and his future university by headmaster after he criticised school in online blog Kinnan Zaloom, 19, labelled teachers as Orwellian totalitarian characters in The Hampstead Trash blog Blog blocked in April by headmaster Jacques Szemalikowski Headmaster of Hampstead School said he was 'duty bound' to prevent 'violent extremism' of student 'developing into an anarchist' Blog now being run by anonymous current student http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2414197/A-level-student-reported-police-criticising-school-online-blog.html

Indeed! I was surprised by the idea of getting rid of abusive parents. [:O]

From The Twilight Zone series [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCyOEA5CMUw]

.... and toilets are futuristic!! [] Thank you!! Unfortunately I almost stopped my Japanese learning when I discovered FDR!!! [:O] (The most useful tool I found for me was Rosetta Stone)

Worth watching video, although heartbreaking. It must be such a difficult situation to be in; what a brave young man! I was amazed by the positive attitude of the policemen. [Y]

Hello AlinTokyo! [] I've been to Japan a year ago; a wonderful week! I'm trying to study Japanese (trying!!); I met some nice Japanese friends through the Japan Guide site. I'm following some Youtube channels like BusanKevin... Maybe you know "lindmejo"? I think I discovered him in this forum! [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-BocRmMpPw]

The world would be dangerous and grey without the care of the State police! [clown] [View:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3thEZ9HdPk4&feature=youtu.be]

Wow! I've watched 30 minutes so far; even the part about religion is surprisingly accurate. Thank you for sharing!

I love my Mac too! (And Time Machine!!)