Think twice cut once was the first thing I learnt as an apprentice carpenter and the second was mashing tea.
When setting out for new construction it has to he correct but unfortunately you are then dependent on bricklayers working to the line.
This. ^
A couple of years ago I photographed the installation of a new electrical generator at St. Peterâs Hospital in Chertsey. The electrical firm had to hire a mobile crane with 1000 ton lift capability because the generator had to be craned over a couple of buildings to get where it needed to go.
As well as the crane itself being chuffing huge, its various add-on bits arrived on four articulated lorries, and it took six hours to assemble the thing (using a second smaller mobile crane!) before it could do any lifting!
And after that lift the crew were going to have to disassemble and repack it all and drive it to Manchester (at a max speed of 40 mph) for another job the next morning!
The cost of a dayâs hire was ÂŁ50,000.
(The bit they are lifting in the last couple of pictures is just the oil tank for the generator, not the generator itself - the firm hired me for 8 hours photography starting at 6am and by 4pm they had only got this farâŚ)
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I can relate to those photos Chris
And in the event that it did not fit where it was supposed to fit the first person in the blame game would be the surveyor who effected the measurements.
I have witnessed some spectacular failures and been put in the firing line several times. Fortunately, we always had bullet proof evidence that our measurements were correct and responsibility lay elsewhere.
I had one occasion in an oil refinery where I actually told the powers that be that it was not going to fit but, because I was a mere novice at the time, my protests were ignored. Fortunately, I documented my protest in writing otherwise my career would have come to a premature end.
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An old mate of mine said tge first thing he had to learn when he was a chippie apprentice was how to sweep the floor correctly. 2nd thing was making the tea.
For goodness sakes, just get over yourself and talkđ¤
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IMHO thatâs not what heâs saying. From my experience it can quickly become easy to talk, but not to have a nuanced conversation.
Yes, getting to the point where you can speak using the range nuance and emphasis you aspire to, to achieve precision and rhetorical effects as you might in your native language, takes a lot of just talking and accepting that for the moment itâs rather more pedestrian than you might like.
Onward and upward!
I believe many non native speakers, probably the majority, will never fully achieve that. How many non native English speakers do you know, of any nationality, that really get our nuances. And IMO French is a for more nuanced language than English.
My late wife, a French language graduate, was passionate and meticulous in her French, she carried a little notebook to record new words and phrases etc. Bit even she, after decades of study, wouldnât have claimed to be ânuancedâ, to coin a phrase. Though she was a very modest person. 
And BTW by writing âbeing stuck with crude words and phrases like a child.â I do think is a get over yourself matter. What complex issues does one have to express in the local bar or resto 
The real issue for beginners is to not fear making a fool of themselves, which is a false fear. Get stuck in 2
Anybody ever wondered what English sounds like to a non English speaker?
Aparently to the French, an English accent can sound quite attractive. I was going to use another word but this is a family website.
Well, at least Iâve been told so 
I have two friends who are full of confidence and would take the @John_Scully approach (though I suspect your French, John, is far better than theirs). They donât understand why anyone wouldnât. Neither of them spends much time thinking before speaking.
They are completely different in personality to me and, perhaps, to @Ancient_Mariner. I have got used to the fact that (at this stage, and only recently off the boat) I communicate like a slow 5-year-old, and I have to make the effort not to find it frustrating.
Itâs all right for you, John - âOi, garçcon, deux bières toot sweetâ 
- but some of us are more like your late wife (I too keep a notebook!). Yesterday, at the portes ouvertes at our nearby vigneronne, I told the tale of how I discovered the joy of huitres late in adulthood, only to find myself become allergic to them - and apparently to most seafood - 5 years later, and my feeling of disappointment, the loss of a great source of Omega-3, the wonderful accompaniment they make to white wine ⌠It wasnât at all easy!
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A long time ago I asked a similar question to a French girlfriend (who lectured in English).
She replied, âItâs a like people are talking with their mouths full of that horrible mashed potato.â
Ironically, she was from Marseille and used to moan about Parisiansâ snooty attitude to her accent.
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Congratulations and keep going. Iâm not here to preach but I will have been alcohol free for twenty nine years in January. When I quit a year seemed impossible and ten years would require a miracle but hey-ho and here we are. It does get better though people who do drink to excess become increasingly annoying.
I dont miss it but having also quit smoking almost nine years ago I would kill for a cigarette. I do think that if I make it to about eighty I might start again.
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Well done - I gave up smoking on March 25th 1997 so thatâs 27 years - it does get easier!! I donât like the smell of cigarettes or cigars any more so am not tempted.
Iâm not giving up wine though (but I am a very moderate drinker).
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A long long time ago I was warned that the French might mistake a harsh English accent for a German accent and at that point switch off and no longer listen to what was said. I donât know if decades later the French attitude to Germans has changed for the better so that situation may no longer exist. When travelling in Germany I was twice asked if I was from Belgium. That surprised me as I have always assumed that the moment I open my mouth there will be no mistaking me for what I am, a Briton massacring the local language.
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I think that could be pretty accurate! OH participates in an english conversation group, the others who are all French sometimes struggle to understand him when speaking english (standard London accent) - but can understand each other!
Iâm not sure you meant to, but I immediately associated this with capital punishment 
Yup me too and probably David as well - hence the reference to M. Guillotin above, who invented the guillotine. 
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What a coincidence 
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