How to speak to foreigners

After almost three years in Scotland I still find some difficulties in understanding Scots when they decide to speak too... Scottish! Surely if I was living somewhere where that accent* was more common than in Edinburgh, I would probably have gotten used to it. Besides, being surrounded by other foreigners also doesn't make it easy...

However, Scots, before being angry at us, non-natives who live here, try to imagine what it would be like studying French and then moving to the countryside in Burgundy or learning Italian and moving to Palermo or something like that. Please indulge us and the next time you're speaking to a non-native, please imitate her:

There is nobody in the world who, after studying English for 2 or 3 years, would not understand this wonderful woman! Your Majesty, if you ever come across this humble blog, thank you for speaking like you do! And please, pleaaaaaase, make an effort to inspire your subjects from Scotland (most people in Edinburgh are quite "inspired, though, can't really complain). Oh, and also Manchester. And Liverpool. And some areas of London. And Northern Ireland... Well, Your Majesty, all of your subjects who don't speak like you, if you please.

*A "wee" warning for those reading this and not being British. There is no such thing as a Scottish accent. There is a Glaswegian accent / dialect, a Dundee accent, a Highlands accent, an Aberdeen accent... This country is a wee Tower of Babel!!! Edinburgh, however, has a very plain accent. One which is easy to understand.

We are living in the best of times

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
It's hard to believe we're living in the best of times... ISIS spreads its influence in the Middle East and Africa together with what already characterizes it: beheading, mass murders and genocides. Russia pretends there is no such thing as territorial integrity of states and invades, directly or through aliases, a huge part of Ukraine. Greece surely and steadily resumed its march towards bankruptcy dragging the Eurozone with it.
By reading these depressing news every day, we may be lead to forget that this is the best of times since the beginning of times. No generation ever lived better than our generation. To remind us of this, however, a nice and charitable soul made a page with 26 graphics that show everyone that we're so lucky to be living nowadays! And we are! And I'm happy to be living in the most literate of all ages. And I wanted to share this with you in the last day of winter of the year 2015. Enjoy this time! (and follow the link in Dickens' quote)