A quick hello from a newbie

Yeah, there’s some genuinely too long stuff in there - my bad, sorry, please don’t worry about the sudden jump in how many mistakes you’re making - my viciousness levels come back down to normal by about 15… :slight_smile:

And a very warm welcome to the forum… :slight_smile:

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Thank you very much for the tip, Mikeellwood! For a reason, it keeps telling me “No compatible source was found for this video”, whenever I try to play one of them. I’ll do some research on the Opera - browser that provides a VPN - service (without intermediary websites etc.) and enables you to watch videos from other countries. :nerd::mag:

Diolch yn fawr iawn @aran! :slight_smile: In some ways I think it’s good to have a ‘vicious’ challenge every now and again, because it makes the lessons afterwards feel relatively friendly :wink:

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I don’t know about VPN but it might be worth experimenting with different browsers, e.g. Chrome, Firefox, and see if that gets over that error.

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i am sorry that history is a hobby not my profession, so I am no expert. I was certainly raised when the first people to repopulate Britain after the ice age were presumed to be Celts, who had travelled from Centtral Europe. This, I think, would fit with Helvetian connections! Now. however, there seem to be some who question this and suggest that we are not Celts at all. Who they think we are, I am not sure! I have never heard of the Helvetian language, which might provide a clue, but I think now you all speak French, German or Italian or all three!
p.s. Julius Caesar tried, unsuccessfully, to invade Britain! Nasty fierce folk we were, who drove his forces back into the sea! Claudius picked Britain to invade because he wanted to prove he could succeed where the Great Julius failed!!

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you all speak French, German or Italian

Another official Swiss language is Romansh. On one working visit to Switzerland many years ago, I had the strange experience of watching a TV programme in Romansh about Wales! Sadly I didn’t understand it (any more than I understand Schwyzerdütsch) but I watched the whole programme.

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I can say very little in Rumantsch…but enough to thank the handsome and helpful man at the ski lift with a happy “grazia fitg”! :innocent: The canton Grisons is very beautiful, I love it!

Here you can find an online dictionary for all the different dialects of Rumantsch:

http://www.pledarigrond.ch/rumantschgrischun/

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grazia fitg

I presume that means “Thank you, fit guy” :wink:

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:joy::joy::joy::muscle::sunglasses: From now on, I’ll always think about a fit guy, whenever I thank someone in Rumantsch!

:mountain_cableway:

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Yes, I skimmed over a couple of articles from these spoilsports (scusi!) that doubt British people (and probably Swiss, too) to be Celts. I just found this article, it’s very interesting; you probably know it already. I will have to read it again and thoroughly…but doesn’t it say that British people do indeed have Celtic genes, but that the Celts were/are not a unique genetic group?

As far as I’ve just learned, the Helvetians spoke “Gallisch”, one of the now extinct Celtic languages spoken on the continent.

The nasty and fierce (love it) British defeated Claudius, just like they did Julius Caesar before him, didn’t they? :dagger:

These were only 7-day summer schools, similar to the summer schools you could go to in the UK for the non-language subjects. When I started studying languages with the OU some time around the mid-90s (I started with their Level 1 French and German courses, which were very roughly post-GCSE or post-O-level), they offered summer schools for the French, German and Spanish courses that they ran, for Level2 and Level 3 (the highest). Because I repeated courses, I contrived to get in 3 summer schools in Jena with the OU. Later on, one of the OU tutors started arranging very similar s. schools open to people who hadn’t done the OU course, and also people who had and wanted to come back for a “refresher” or just to enjoy 7 days in and around Jena (it’s a lovely area, and we used to get a fabulous deal on good quality hotels). Later on, the OU dropped the summer school for one of the levels, so the privately arranged one could replace that for those who wanted it.

(I think nowadays, because of cuts, the number of OU summer schools in the UK has been reduced, or indeed they may have disappeated altogether, and I’m not sure if any of the language ones have survived).

Ah yes, Leipzig. Also Dresden, Weimar and Erfurt are “must-see’s”" if one is in that general area. Of course, there are so many great places to visit in Germany! One is spoilt for choice.

Vielen Dank! Und viel Erfolg und viel Spaß bei den Studien! :slight_smile:

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Claudius was clever, not a soldier. He realised that ‘divide and conquer’ works! It has ever since! Getting any group of us to agree on anything isn’t easy! He easily found a disgruntled Brit who wanted to defeat the next door neighbours and offered to help! The British were used to short term alliances and not used to a standing army of highly trained, disciplined Legionaries. The Romans had to move slowly at first grabbing a bit of territory at a time, but Claudius’ method worked! At least, so I believe!

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Oh, yes. Claudius seems to have known human nature and stupidity well and used short sighted, disgruntled Brits that weren’t able to foresee the dire consequences of their actions. Sadly, this kind of warfare would still work today…

It certainly worked for the Normans who conquered England and then conned the Lord of Gower into swearing fealty without knowing what it meant, in order to get help against a neighbour! Oh, when will we ever learn - if it looks too good to be true…! :confounded:

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Also, weren’t the Angles invited in by the (post-Roman) East coast Brits for protection against others, and then took over big time. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not anti-Angle, just in case I happen to be one.

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@JohnYoung - " Angles invited "

As far as I remember, the Romans had bribed some Angles/Saons or both with Monopoly on trade to keep the others away. When the Legions pulled out, the Romano-British saw this arrangement breaking down and tried to keep it going, but they no longer had the might of Rome at their back! As over a lot of the Empire, the incursions ended up bringing about its end! Britannia was, in effect, collateral damage! Stop locals from ever bearing arms in their own land and it is hard for them with only old, retired Legionaries, to defend their land.

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If it turns out you are correct about this, you’ll be a right angle. :slight_smile:

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As far as I remember, the Romans had bribed …

Wow! You keep hinting about your advanced years, but I never realised you were THAT old. :smile:

Seriously, though, I’m impressed at the level of learned discussion in this thread about the Romans in Britain. What sources are people using? I suspect that my old “Bellum Gallicum” by Julius Caesar may be out of date and less than objective. :smile:

I meant ‘as I remember from having heard, read… etc’! But you knew that! :grinning:
I read a lot, studied Gower History extramural with Swansea Uni and then Gower College. I ignore Caesar on Britain, because he never conquered us!

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Yes, you’re certainly right, Hewrop, and as I already said, I cannot discuss any history on a learned level, since all my “knowledge” comes from movies and Wikipedia. I am ignorant and uneducated, but at least eager to learn from studied people like you, sir! :books::bulb::slight_smile: