STRANGE THINGS

There are a lot of strange things in Dublin which are probably only strange to my Hungarian eyes. Up to now I have found surprises in accomodation, traffic, language, people and geography but I expect more to come as I get in touch with more sides of Dubliner life.

Do the following exercises as you read:

a)      There’s an odd one out in each group.

b)      There’s a vocabulary mistake in each group as well.

Find them!

ACCOMODATION

1)      It’s very common to rent a room

2)      There are rowhouses in the city centre as well

3)      Most foreigners live in the outskirts

4)      There a lot of foreigners in Dublin

5)      There are a lot of cul de sac-s (a certain area with similar houses that is closed with a fence)

TRAFFIC

1)      You have double-deckers in Dublin

2)      There’s no information at the bus stops except for the city centre

3)      You can hail the buses in between stops outside the city centre

4)      You should hail them even if you’re at the bus stop

5)      The lines are very narrow

6)      Left-side traffic is really weird! J

7)      If there are a lot of buses stopping at the same place, their stops are after each other

8)      Drivers are more impolite than at home: you can rarely see that they let each other go

9)      Buses go wild – I’ve seen them several times crossing the red signal as well

10)   Everyone sits on the inner seats even if they are together, they still rather sit after each other

11)   Houses only have short fences in the front

12)   There are not many cyclists

13)   You have to pay the fare to the driver and it depends on the distance you take

14)   People don’t prefer sitting in the first rows of the double deckers

LANGUAGE

1)      They use Irish only stately

2)      The names of city parts are also in Irish

3)      There is not much rain

4)      They pronounce the u-s for example in Dublin, culture rather similar to Hungarian u

PEOPLE

1)      Receptionists are kind

2)      Cyclists and buses have the same line many times

3)      Schools have uniforms

4)      There are a lot of youth centres

5)      There are a lot of black people

6)      Men have typical Irish properties – and they’re not like Collin Farrel J

GEOGRAPHY

1)      The river goes from east to west

2)      There are hardly any trams

3)      It’s hard to find a map with public transportation on it

4)      There are hardly any baths

5)      The rain’s got unbelievably small drops so it goes everywhere within your coat, bag, shoes…

If you feel like, answer these questions and e-mail them to me in Word – I’ll send them back corrected. Please, answer them in at least one whole sentence!

1.       What’s cul de sac in Hungarian?

2.       Why are drivers more impolite in Dublin? What proves this statement?

3.       Do cyclists have their own lane?

4.       What is the rain like in Dublin?

5.       What were the 3 most surprising “strange things” in this list for you?