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    #26
    Originally posted by TonTon View Post
    One of the reasons for my uni choice was to get away from home. Not that it worked out, education-wise. But still.
    Yeah, I almost certainly wouldn't have bothered if it wasn't my golden ticket out of Pumpkinland.

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      #27
      Originally posted by ad hoc View Post
      Also, i'm not sure how unique this is to the UK. It seems very common in Romania for students to study in a different city depending on a number of factors.
      Yeah I never get why this is framed as a uniquely British thing. None of my classmates in France who went to university went to the local one even though it was a decent one. It might have changed because of the pandemic and the cost of renting like everywhere else but traditionally most French students don't live with their parents, and Nordic/German students even less so. If anything Spain/Portugal/Italy always seemed the outliers to me

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        #28
        Oh that's interesting. That wasn't my impression from spending much less time in France than you, and from talking to my godmother who taught English in a lycée. I guess that was a long time ago, and in a particular place (in the Landes).

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          #29
          Yes there are regional differences (though mostly based on cost of living rather than any cultural aspect these days) and I guess I'm talking about the last 30 years really. Not sure when your nan would have been teaching but it might well have been different then

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            #30
            I would agree that "Southern Europe" are the outliers here, though the situation in the US, where it is expected that four year universities* provide "on campus" housing for most of their undergraduates, is even more of an outlier, especially at the "elite" end of the scale.

            During my time, for instance, Harvard, Yale and Princeton only allowed undergraduates to live "off campus" if they were married or from within 15 miles of campus (and Princeton even pressured those students to live on campus).

            The European system can be as alien to US students as the US system is to Europeans.

            * Two-year institutions and "community colleges" generally don't provide housing, with the expectation being that students will live at home. Many large four year institutions will expect/allow students to live "off campus" in their second, third and fourth years, including (but not limited to) in fraternities/sororities, co-op housing, etc.

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              #31
              Living away from home without the additional responsibilities of having to actually do a real job was probably the thing I benefited most from at university. Learning was a distant second (or third or fourth or fifth).

              From what I'm hearing from friends with kids, there's a bit of a shift in the US for more students to live at home rather than go to a distant university, because they're desperate to manage costs. Of course, the housing costs are way less than the insane tuition costs in the US, but people are trying to cut the corners where they can.

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                #32
                I chose Glasgow over Edinburgh precisely to be eligible for student accommodation (you needed to be over 50 miles from the Uni). Also Glasgow felt like a proper city rather than a toytown film set. I wouldn't have grown up at all if I'd stayed at home, and my relationship with my parents would have stayed stunted and confrontational.

                The weirdest thing fro me about student life in Ireland is the whole going home to mammy with the washing at weekends thing, it's like actually living in the city isn't important to them at all. And of course those weird digs in hellholes like Artane where you get kicked out Friday to Sunday.

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                  #33
                  Originally posted by Fussbudget View Post
                  Yes there are regional differences (though mostly based on cost of living rather than any cultural aspect these days) and I guess I'm talking about the last 30 years really. Not sure when your nan would have been teaching but it might well have been different then
                  T'was my godmother (ma marraine) and she was teaching in St Vincent de Tyrosse. In the olden days it was on the N10, which is now the D810 round there.
                  Last edited by DCI Harry Batt; 04-10-2022, 15:30.

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                    #34
                    Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post

                    I'm in a City right now that could urgently do with 10-15k student places there's 30k students between the two colleges, in a city of 90k people. Things are getting extremely grim it also goes without saying that most of those places being empty in the summer would not be a problem in Galway.

                    I suspect though that the flats nef is talking about are the ones that get thrown up to accommodate foreign students with a few Bob. The financial backbone of a severely underfunded third level sector, one of Britain's greatest exports of services, an immense tool of soft power, and something that Suella braverman is going to finish off for once and for all.
                    Most of the student accommodation in Dublin is also for them foreign cash cow students, judging by the prices for the poorly built tax breaks for the developer rabbit hutches getting thrown up in the Liberties/North inner city. So is unlikely to dent the severe student housing shortage.

                    same in Glasgow, where the accommodation shortage is so acute students are now trying to get flats in fucking Stirling to commute in. As late as the early 2000s the Glasgow Unis provided enough Student housing for at least all the 1st and 2nd years who needed it, since then most of this estate has been divested, and leaving things to "the market" has meant the proliferation of rabbit hutches for 10k minimum an academic year.
                    Last edited by Lang Spoon; 04-10-2022, 15:28.

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                      #35
                      Dutch students tend to go to a different town. This is greatly helped by the fact that they can choose for free travel either from Monday to Friday or Friday to Monday. Both my daughters greatly benefitted from this.

                      Belgian students go home en masse at the weekend.

                      As for England, fuck me people dress badly, especially the men. I've got a huge success rate spotting English people in Holland by the way they dress.

                      What strikes me often about England is that virtually nothing is free. Nearly everything is seen as a money making opportunity.

                      Another thing that strikes me is that training for anyone doing what you might call a trade is very ad hoc, and respect for tradespeople is very low. People half expect to be ripped off, but also the quality of work seems to be very hit and miss. Things in the Netherlands and other Western European countries just seem to be better done, better finished and more permanent. Just my opinion, of course.

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                        #36
                        Originally posted by Lang Spoon View Post
                        I chose Glasgow over Edinburgh precisely to be eligible for student accommodation (you needed to be over 50 miles from the Uni). Also Glasgow felt like a proper city rather than a toytown film set. I wouldn't have grown up at all if I'd stayed at home, and my relationship with my parents would have stayed stunted and confrontational.

                        The weirdest thing fro me about student life in Ireland is the whole going home to mammy with the washing at weekends thing, it's like actually living in the city isn't important to them at all. And of course those weird digs in hellholes like Artane where you get kicked out Friday to Sunday.
                        People go home at the weekend because a) dublin is expensive b) you've already been out on weds and thurs, and dublin is a chaotic shithole at the weekend, c) you actually want to see your family and d) go our for pints with the lads e) there's gaa for some people f) a lot of people are needed at home g) student accommodation is usually only good for sleeping in

                        But my comments are limited to the very brief period of time when you could fairly easily find somewhere relatively affordable. By about 2000, first years were commuting from dundalk, gorey and portlaoise. It was bad enough for Dublin people having to live at home through college, (before all going on J1s with their schoolfriends) but having to do the same thing from a town in the midlands would be heartbreaking.

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                          #37
                          Originally posted by TonTon View Post
                          T'was my godmother (ma marriage) and she was teaching in St Vincent de Tyrosse. In the olden days it was on the N10, which is now the D810 round there.
                          Ah sorry, reading failure on my part there. That'll be the St V. de Tyrosse I recognise from the signs on the A63 travelling between Bordeaux and the Basque coast. Not been any closer than Dax and Hossegor but it's a very nice area (though a bit of a worrying place to live with the increasingly hot and dry summers ahead)

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                            #38
                            Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                            Another thing that strikes me is that training for anyone doing what you might call a trade is very ad hoc, and respect for tradespeople is very low. People half expect to be ripped off, but also the quality of work seems to be very hit and miss. Things in the Netherlands and other Western European countries just seem to be better done, better finished and more permanent. Just my opinion, of course.
                            If you find a tradesperson in the UK that you trust, you hang on to them. It's the only way. I have a spark a builder and a decorator who I trust. I don't intend to use anyone else ever again (at least until the builder retires, anyway!)

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                              #39
                              Originally posted by hobbes View Post

                              If you find a tradesperson in the UK that you trust, you hang on to them. It's the only way. I have a spark a builder and a decorator who I trust. I don't intend to use anyone else ever again (at least until the builder retires, anyway!)
                              Unfortunately that system doesn't work here as the good ones tend to emigrate.

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                                #40
                                Originally posted by The Awesome Berbaslug!!! View Post
                                People go home at the weekend because a) dublin is expensive b) you've already been out on weds and thurs, and dublin is a chaotic shithole at the weekend, c) you actually want to see your family and d) go our for pints with the lads e) there's gaa for some people f) a lot of people are needed at home g) student accommodation is usually only good for sleeping in
                                Don't take this the wrong way but your vignettes of Ireland always make it sound incredibly parochial

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                                  #41
                                  That would be because it is

                                  As are most places

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                                    #42
                                    Originally posted by Logan Mountstuart View Post
                                    As for England, fuck me people dress badly, especially the men. I've got a huge success rate spotting English people in Holland by the way they dress.
                                    On the other hand we have loads of Norwegian students locally and they're all mega stylish. Not 'timeless French/Italian chic' stylish, more like very cool hackers and architects. Unnervingly confident and well-adjusted as well

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                                      #43
                                      Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                                      That would be because it is

                                      As are most places
                                      It's more so than most other countries though isn't it? In many aspects it sounds like a glorified village

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                                        #44
                                        That's a step change from my Norwegian student halls neighbour of 1994, who looked like Stephen Merchant with a ponytail and dressed exactly how you'd expect someone who played Dark Side of the Moon every fucking night.
                                        Last edited by Lang Spoon; 04-10-2022, 15:40.

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                                          #45
                                          Originally posted by Fussbudget View Post

                                          It's more so than most other countries though isn't it? In many aspects it sounds like a glorified village
                                          country folk are really attached to their county/village/townland , probably cos of the GAA. I've never ever met anyone my age who was proud of being a Fifer say.

                                          I do know folk who left North Tipp at the first opportunity and have only bad things to say about it though, so I guess if you ain't into the whole hurling/pints with the lads/random acts of arson in the woods thing you can still be as disaffected and alienated as miserable Scots.

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                                            #46
                                            Very much amused by the notion that people in the Netherlands dress better than, well, anyone.

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                                              #47
                                              I was going to say that a village mentality is not surprising in a country where important cultural institutions are still organised by Catholic Church Parish and politics are so virulently clientilstic.

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                                                #48
                                                Originally posted by Toby Gymshorts View Post
                                                Very much amused by the notion that people in the Netherlands dress better than, well, anyone.
                                                They probably dress "better" than me.

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                                                  #49
                                                  That's because you don't like things.

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                                                    #50
                                                    I simply don't go along with this concept of "dressing better". Who decides?

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