this post was submitted on 13 Jul 2025
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Showerthoughts
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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.
Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:
- Both “200” and “160” are 2 minutes in microwave math
- When you’re a kid, you don’t realize you’re also watching your mom and dad grow up.
- More dreams have been destroyed by alarm clocks than anything else
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Dear Europe. Please take me in. Do you have any English speaking countries? Your laws seem to be geared towards benefiting people. Not tyrants and corporations.
They did have one heavily English speaking country, but those guys peaced out a few years back. Now it’s just Ireland and Malta (where English is an official language).
And Cyprus.
I think the Netherlands has the highest amount of L2 English speakers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_in_the_Netherlands
It's not the official language though so all documents and legal stuff would be in Dutch.
100% of Irish people can speak English and do so without sounding as ridiculous as the Dutch do.
Well kinda
:(
Chin up, Nederlander. I don't think you're ridiculous.
:)
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:(
Zeg makker
Well, sorta.
If you're an immigrant there, the Vreemdelingen Politie and other authorities specifically dealing with immigrants will send you the documention in English if you prefer.
Also banks will communicate with you in English if you want.
However, you can forget all about getting anything in English from, for example, the local authorities.
Mind you, it's actually fun to learn Dutch IMHO, though I wouldn't recommend reading official documentation as the best way to do it ...
Europeans from which country get upset when they hear their fellow countrypeople speak English poorly?
Was it Germans, because there’s compulsory English education in schools?
Ime, Germans love shitting on other Germans’ English skills. I’m an English (and German) speaking immigrant in Germany, and I honestly think most people do pretty well, but nobody here finds it as impressive as I do.
Ireland speaks mostly English as far as I know.
I'm moving to Sweden soon, just about everyone there speaks English! And also Swedish is such a a pretty language I'm really excited to be immersed in it
Can confirm, took me way too long to become fluent in Swedish because I just talked English with everyone 😅
I definitely recommend practicing the language though, it's very important for social interactions, official stuff, and many careers.
Välkommen!
Tack ❤️ About how long did it take you to become fluent?
There's good and bad. Every few months the EU tries to ban encryption without backdoors again for instance, because "oh dear, think of the children!".
Any Scandinavian country should have a population ranging from proficient to fluent in English.
Ireland, but housing is shite right now.
Is housing shit because the homes need repair? Or are they shit because a single room shack is owned by corporate interests and costs 8 billion dollars a month?
housing is shit because there is no houses
Oh, thats ok. I can just live with you. I'll sleep in the master bedroom. And you can sleep....somewhere, I imagine.
Lucky for you, you can get around with English in most places.
Ireland didn't leave the EU, so that's an option.
In most big cities you can get around just fine. In some you can actually live very comfortably.
As far as laws go, as an EU citizen one is entitled to communication with any public institutions one may come across in their preferred "official language". Stuff like paying your utility bills, registering health insurance, similar bureaucratic stuff, as well as getting stopped by the police. You can insist on doing it in any one of 28 languages, including English.
Usually that's a bit overkill, and whoever you're dealing with will be happy to speak to you in English or find someone else who does if they don't. I assume the same goes for non-citizens. German and French are also quite popular, but English is by far the most ubiquitous.
The best way to learn a language is through immersion. Honestly I feel like it would be a lot of fun to learn a language in Europe since the majority of people also speak English well if you really need to fall back to that.