I am a ‘Papirlischwiizer’…a Swiss on paper. 
I’m of Roma heritage, with some Italian, German and South French influence, and was raised speaking Romanian, French, Italian, German and English…so, I don’t speak any of these languages perfectly or mother tongue-worthy. So many times I asked for help in order to learn a real profession, to do an apprenticeship. But people in charge of scholarships always assessed me as not having the resources necessary to learn successfully. So, I think I’m just too stupid to learn properly and fast enough.
i would like to do something very painful to those assessors! I just posted in the thread Best S4C programmes for learners - about a lady who managed to get a medical degree in the days when every woman was assessed as unsuitable to study medicine in the UK! I do not know how these people could converse with you in multi-linguistic modes and judge you as unteachable! It is particularly ironic as Frances Hoggan qualified in the Unuversity of Zurich, which, last time I looked, was in Switzerland!
When I allow myself to be bitter and angry, I’d say they didn’t want to waste any money on a stupid gypsy that can as well go an clean away dirt. But they were probably scared that my poor schooling isn’t enough in order to follow through an apprenticeship. They decided to invest the money in a younger person instead that has a real chance to succeed and achieve something in life. Having children myself, I sure understand that thought. Sometimes, I enjoy myself imagining the assessors faces when they learn that both boys of the gypsy woman are studying (and my people are not considered intelligent, studious, diligent and serious)…
How could I know anything about Romanian? Well, many, many years ago, probably before you were born, I was in the Patent Office Library with a colleague, looking up info in Journals (nothing computerised in those days). I finished my search and, while waiting for my friend, I started looking in a Journal picked out at random. We were in the Chemistry section, that being our area of research back then. i found an interesting paper and was reading it when I realised, “Hang on, what language is this, it isn’t Italian and modern Journals aren’t in Latin!” So I looked at the Binder - Journal of the Romanian Chemical Society! So I know Romanians are as clever as anyone else!
Umm, well … only Welsh and Slovene alowed. No English rule applies. 
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not fair! Just ‘no English’ any other language is OK! I kept popping bits of Cymraeg into my French back when. My mind had “no English” so tried anything but if the French didn’t come to it!
Might be too … It’ll come out like Babilonia with mixture of languages.
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