The French corner : Joan or Napoleon or Louis XIV

[Imperial-Markus]

Wohooo an interesting discussion therefore I could not resist to bring myself into it. So spotlights on a new European participant.
First of all in my book little Boney and Louis are both great leaders but than I realized the most important fact (TATA): Boney was a multitalent: He was a military genius AND ran a country. Louis could ONLY run the country. So after further consideration I voted for Napoleon. Hmmm but Joan is cute and therefore I reversed my decision another time well it's a tough question. Oh how about this: The French should be ruled by a triumvirate: Napo will do the fighting, Louis the bureaucracy and Joan will be their merchandising chic (for "negotiations" with other rulers; well I think you get the point )

Hmmm and regarding your little geography quiz one funny question for our American: Describe the position of Austria (perhaps name a few neighbouring states)

Have a nice day.

[Kramerman]

I think your idea for the triumvirate is excellent and I also believe Im the lone, resident American you are refering to.

Well, Austria, If I remember correctly, has a relative position north of Italy (from where I happen to have 50% descent from), east of Austria (Sabrewolf's nation of origin), south of Germany, and west of....uh, I would guess Hungry (from my knowledge of history, Austria-Hungry)? Oh yeah, and I belive Slovenia to be to the south-east (I remember hearing something about that they broke off from Yugoslavia many years back because they had a majority of ethnic Austrians, or something like that). Id be curious to how I did!

Kman
Well, looking back, we have had quite an off-topic, but still intersting conversation, I must say.

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Kramerman


I think your idea for the triumvirate is excellent and I also believe Im the lone, resident American you are refering to.

Well, Austria, If I remember correctly, has a relative position north of Italy (from where I happen to have 50% descent from), east of Austria (Sabrewolf's nation of origin), south of Germany, and west of....uh, I would guess Hungry (from my knowledge of history, Austria-Hungry)? Oh yeah, and I belive Slovenia to be to the south-east (I remember hearing something about that they broke off from Yugoslavia many years back because they had a majority of ethnic Austrians, or something like that). Id be curious to how I did!

Kman
Well, looking back, we have had quite an off-topic, but still intersting conversation, I must say.

haha another dislexia-case? austria is east of austria ... but most here know, what you meant.

well done for your geographical knowledge! you left out the check republic (now how the hell does one write that ... cheque? )
you "ethnic knowledge" wasn't that good slovenia did split of from yugoslavia, but not because they had a lot of austrians (tourists yes, inhabitants no), but slovene's .

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Fresno
Well, I'll post on-topic too, then... Although I can't say I'm used to do that.... It would be a good idea, but if they add more civs, I guess they will busy enough making heads for each civ already. Let's not make it too hard for those developers...

actually i wouldn't mind, if they'd leave the whole leader animations and concentrate more on game options. imagine having 32 civs and each coming with 3 animated leaderheads... but still none of the VITAL changes in the game (more editing possibilities, no hardcoded maximal amount of techs, no maximal range for bombers, etc, etc, etc).

firaxis could get rid of some artists (or put them in games that need art) and get more and better programmers

[Kramerman]

haha another dislexia-case? austria is east of austria

austria is east of austria!? What the hell! How many freaking Austrias are there!? .
Anyway, I noticed the large number of Europeans not from England, and I know how close all yall's countries are together, but how many languages do you guys usually learn in a life time? Wouldn't it be nice if the EU adopted an official language, or have they already? See, most Americans usually only know English and maybe be "semi-fluent" in a second (dont get me wrong, many Americans do know several languages, but most don't) and thats only because all high school curriculums require at least 2 and sometimes 3 years of study in a forein language. I my self wanted to take German, but it was not offered at my school . Instead, being on the border of Mexico and the rest of Latin America, I took 3 years of Spanish, but I only know enough to get by.
Buenos Noches Los Europeaneros(I dont think that is actually a word).

firaxis could get rid of some artists (or put them in games that need art) and get more and better programmers

Agree completely. Only I think it is too late for civ iii. I think it'll always be remembered as the forgotten civ...

[sabrewolf]

Originally posted by Kramerman
but how many languages do you guys usually learn in a life time?

oh, that depends of the country and the person imho the most talented countries are the dutch, swiss, swedes and norwegian. strangely the danes i know weren't that great. but the swedish and norwegian girls i met in italy (language trip) all spoke PERFECT english, german, their own language and even the other scandinavian language(s).

here in the german part of switzerland we learn french as a first foreign language and then either italian or english. a lot choose more. spanish and russian are quite popular at the moment. but note, that i'm talking about the academic swiss. the 80% others get 1-2 foreign languages.
btw: i just started learning my 7th (after german, english, french, italian, bosnian, spanish) language: turkish unfortunatly none of them perfect and only two really fluent.

Wouldn't it be nice if the EU adopted an official language, or have they already?

my exgirlfriend is from paraguay and there they had 60 (i think) years long a regime which forbid them to speak the native indio language.... and even though the vast majority of the population are spanish decent, the language survived. it's called guarani.

i don't believe you could choose an official language. and if so, you couldn't enforce it. most speak english, so that probably comes closest.

don't you in the states neither have an official language? as far as i know, there's no officially declared one? but of course it's clear, that american-english is "the one"

[Imperial-Markus]

Well congratulation Kramerman to your profound knowledge in geography. Except these little mistakes sabrewolf pointed out already you're description was quite good.

Concerning our language knowledge: English is the first foreign language you learn from primary school till university shortly followed by Italian (Italy is our second important trading partner after Germany) French and Spanish being equal on the third place.
I speak German (certainly), English (think it's quite good; what’s your opinion?),Italian and French.

The official diplomatic language in the EU is French (it's quite clear with Bruxelles as it's capital and all laws and protocols will be first typed in French and afterwards translated in all other EU languages. Correctly German should be the 1st language regarding the population (80 mil. Germans plus 8 () mil. Austrians compared to 65 mil. Frenchies (France, Belgium and Luxembourg combined). But anyway it doesn't matter just wanted to show you my demographic skills

Oh and I didn’t know that Switzerland is a protectorate of Austria thanks for updating my knowledge on this matter Kram.

One final note for sabrewolf:
Schöne Grüße an die Schweiz.

[Ribannah]

The EU has no less than 11 official languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

[Fresno]

Ribannah! You're Dutch! How could you ever forget the Frisians?

[Kramerman]

i don't believe you could choose an official language. and if so, you couldn't enforce it. most speak english, so that probably comes closest.

I meant an official language as a second language that would be satandard for most to learn. In other words, everybody would of course learn their native language, and then there would be like an "official" language that would be encouraged to learn, so anybody in Europe (which i pretty much consider a giant country as far as you guys are so close knit now - though I know each country does definately have a unique culture) could communicate easily with most anybody else in Europe; therefore eliminating the need to learn multiple languages. But as you said, if most speak English then that is pretty much what I was talking about.

but the swedish and norwegian girls

Scandinavian chicks eh . A friend of mine is of germanic/ scandinavian descent (most Americans keep somewhat in touch with their heritage- which is usually quite mixed- especially in my case) and has somewhat of a fetish with particularly Norwegian girls. He's kinda wierd though. Im pretty sure he does drugs.

Kman

[GhengisFarb™]

In America we don't even learn a whole language, just parts.

They start teaching you Anglish (different from English, English is too hard to spell, all kinds of extra letters) as soon as you show a desire to talk (average starting age at 2-18 years old depending on the political and pc views of the child's parents, "If Boompkins doesn't want to speak, Boompkins doesn't have to....").

Anglo-Spanish starts soon after and includes vocabulary necessary for the survival of the American species, words such as: taco, enchilada, tamale, uno, dos, tres(for really fat kids), and tequila(advanced Anglo-Spanish usually learned by age of 6).

Once the individual reaches driving age(16 except for OK and TX where its 12) there are various new language fragments such as croissant(necessary for Burger King breakfasts).

ON TOPIC
I have to side with Napoleon, excellent military general, as far as being a 'loser' as mentioned in previous posts, if you don't change your strategy the enemy will eventually learn. Might take them a decade or so, but they will learn. There were also a lot of other factors that contributed to Waterloo: the Prussians didn't like him, the weather, the Prussians REALLY didn't like him, Arthur Wellesley was a very good general, and the Prussians REALLY, REALLY didn't like Napoleon.

He was also a sucessful statesman and was able to introduce many reforms in France.


Or Charlemagne, who did an excellent job of organizing his fathers resources, establishing a stable civilization after an era of chaos left by the fall of the Roman Empire.

By the way, all those people who whine about Charlemagne and Clovis being German: Where do you think the French came from? Were they some spontaneous creature evolving from herrings and bird droppings? The Franks were a germanic tribe. Frenchmen are all german. (Not in the sense, they hail form Germany, but are descended from germanic stock).

Anyway, I'll shut up now.......

[Kramerman]

Where do you think the French came from? Were they some spontaneous creature evolving from herrings and bird droppings?

Yes! Of course! That explains everything! Now I can just brgin to understand them... .

Kman

P.S. French Toast Sticks and McBiscuit is also crucial by age 6 for various breakfasts (French Toast Sticks is a phrase hailing from the fine lands of France, McBiscuit I believe originates deep within the Scottish moores)

[Verto]

Originally posted by Ribannah
The EU has no less than 11 official languages: Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish and Swedish.

Ever heard of "compromise"?

That is a joke.

For the sake of keeping this post on topic, I will not go into the posts against America made by ingrates.

Napoleon or Charlemagne should lead France, the rest can be GLs.

[Fresno]

Ever heard of "compromise"?

That is a joke.

For some Esperanto-speakers it isn't.

Anyone ever heard of the country of Neutral Moresnet?
(Probably only some Belgians or Germans...)

[Ribannah]

Yep - was there on vacation many years ago

And my vote goes to Charlemagne.
He did many great things for France, among them setting up an educational system. Bonaparte was just a warmongerer, excellent for a GL. Same goes for Jeanne d'Arc.

Originally posted by Verto
Ever heard of "compromise"?

I have, but the EU has not

Originally posted by Fresno
Ribannah! You're Dutch! How could you ever forget the Frisians?

That's where many of my ancestors came from!
But to the EU theirs is not an official language, ie reports will not be printed in Frysian. It is, however, a 'protected language' (not sure about the exact title) ie worthy, in the eyes of the EU, of efforts to preserve it.