Peter, at 22:48 on May 14 1995, you wrote to Bill Grimsley...

PE> Well whenever I speak to someone from Europe, I ask them if they
PE> all learnt English at school, and they say they do. 
PS>     ^^^^^^
PS> Go and get him Bill.

Oi, are you having a sneaky go at Paul's spelling of the past tense of
learn?  FWIW, both the -t and -ed suffixes are acceptable and correct. 
Same with spelled and spelt (according to the Macquarie).

BG> What part of Europe though?  I'd expect the EEC countries to be 
BG> teaching English, but not the (ex) Soviet Union, nor much of 
BG> Scandinavia either.

PS> I don't know about the (ex) Soviet Union, but I can tell you 
PS> about Hungary. 

So can I, as I haven't had breakfast yet.

PS> When I went to school in Hungary, Russian was compulsory, English, German 
PS> and French were optional. I didn't learn Russian because it was compulsory 

Bit of a rebel, were you?  Was this before or after 1956, BTW?

PS> and I didn't learn any of the optional ones either because I didn't have 
PS> to. Besides I had no idea at that stage that one day I will have to speak 
PS> English whether I like it or not.

You can speak Hungarian if you like Pete.  I won't mind at all.

PS> Had I known that I have to watch out for blokes like Bill Grimsley checking 
PS> my spelling I would have learned Russian. :-)

Da, tovarish!

PS> Bye the way, in Hungary the date format is YYYY-MM-DD.

By the way, I wish you hadn't mentioned that.  |-)

Regards, Bill
@EOT:

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