Latest news with #TheLocal
Local Sweden
20 hours ago
- Politics
- Local Sweden
Fit in or stick out? How Sweden changes you
This week: 25 year of the bridge between Sweden and Denmark, and how moving to Sweden changes you. For Membership+ subscribers: Swiss risk losing right to permanent residency, and study shows which nationalities contribute most to the economy. Advertisement In this week's episode we talk about the bridge between Denmark and Sweden and how it means a lot more to one of our panelists than the sore feet she got after running across it. We also discuss what foreigners do to fit in in Sweden and why some people push back against assimilation. For Membership+ subscribers we examine how Sweden appears to have accidentally proposed blocking Swiss people from permanent residency. Last, but certainly not least, we dig into an eye-opening report breaking down immigrants' contribution to Swedish society by nationality. Host Paul O'Mahony is joined this week by regular panelists Becky Waterton and Richard Orange. Advertisement Here are links to some of the topics discussed in the episode: Sweden and Denmark Reader insights Immigration You can listen to the free episode here: Or follow Sweden in Focus wherever you listen to podcasts. Advertisement Get Membership+ to listen to all The Local's podcasts Sign up now and get early, ad-free access to a full-length episode of the Sweden in Focus podcast every weekend, as well as Sweden in Focus Extra every Wednesday. Please visit the link that applies to you and get a 40% discount on Membership+ Read more about Membership+ in our help centre. Already have Membership+ but not receiving all the episodes? Go to the podcast tab on your account page to activate your subscription. Advertisement
Local France
21 hours ago
- General
- Local France
'The neighbours laugh at me' - should foreigners try swearing in French?
We asked readers of The Local about their experiences of swearing in French - and more than half of respondents said they never or rarely swear in French. But this wasn't about the ethics or aesthetics of swearing itself. We wanted to know if people's language changed depending on whether they were speaking French or were using their mother tongue, which for most survey respondents was English. And it seems that it does. Only a couple of people said that they swear more in French - overall around one third of people said they swore at about the same rate in English and French, and two thirds said that they swear less or never in French. Listen to the team at The Local discuss their own experiences of French swearing, and whether they think it's better to keep it clean, in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast. Listen here or on the link below And the most common reaction from French friends, neighbours or colleagues when they swore? Laughter. Which probably isn't precisely the effect they were going for. Advertisement Patricia, who lives in Quimper, Brittany, and describes herself as 'retired and look more prim than I am' says: "I swear under my breath - putain or merde - but sometimes get a small smile if I am heard." READ ALSO : 'Putain de bordel de merde': How to use the F-word in French✎ Gerry Buckland, 77, who lives in Charente, said the response to him swearing is "usually laughter". Meanwhile Marie in Dordogne said her French friends are "mostly amused" if she swears while Joanna, 50, who lives in the Paris suburbs said that "chuckles" are the most common reaction. Tony, 66, who lives in Charente, said: "They think it funny if I swear, it sounds wrong to them - they think all English people are very polite." It was rare for people to get a truly negative reaction, however, and Chris Downes, who lines in Haute-Savoie, said: "I think they find it quite endearing that a non-native speaker can use such words." Some people, however, said they had been advised against trying to swear in French. Paula Cameron who lived in Bordeaux for several years, said she once said ' con ' in front of her French host family and 'learned her lesson' - so now never swears in French. Davis, who lives in a small village in the Burgundy region, said: 'The first time I tried to use a harsh swear phrase a French neighbour told me that it didn't sound good at all coming from me and I shouldn't swear. I think specifically because I'm foreign.' We asked French language expert Camille Chevalier-Karfis for her advice and she said: "Slang or swearing stands out in the mouth of a foreigner, and it's easy for it to seem forced or contrived. Advertisement "If you have to use it, be sure you really understand it first, as it will stand out twice as strongly as when a French person says it." In general her advice is that it's good to learn these words so you understand what is being said and how strong certain French swear words are, but it might be better to refrain from using them. 'Know it, don't show it,' she said. Thanks to everyone who took part in our survey - feel free to share your experiences and views on French swearing in the comments section below.
Local France
2 days ago
- Politics
- Local France
PODCAST: Explaining naughty French politicians and the pros and cons of new Paris airport link
Host Ben McPartland is joined by The Local's Emma Pearson, Genevieve Mansfield and John Lichfield to discuss all the latest news and talking points from France. We begin with politicians falling foul of the law - this week former prime minister François Fillon was sentenced over a 'fake jobs' case while ex president Nicolas Sarkozy was stripped of his Légion d'honneur due to his own criminal convictions. Meanwhile there was another legal setback for Marine Le Pen after her embezzlement conviction. You can find the Talking France podcast on Spotify or Apple, download it here or listen on the link below We also ask John - are French politicians particularly corrupt, or is France just better at tackling corruption in high places? Advertisement In a very different legal proceeding this week, a judge in the family court allowed parents to name their daughter Elizabeth Taylor, a request that had initially been blocked due to French rules on baby names. As the summer holidays begin many French people will be taking the country's impressive train network - so we're looking at how France got so good at high-speed rail, and how it manages to keep building costs down. Speaking of rail links, there's also going to be a new one between Paris and its major airport - although this one is a bit controversial. And finally, should foreigners attempt French swearing? We hear the views of readers of The Local, and a French language expert, on when it's OK to get explicit when speaking French - with reference to this classic sketch . Talking France is a free podcast made possible by the support of paying members of The Local - find out more about becoming a member here . You can also help to spread the word about Talking France by leaving a review on Spotify or Apple.
Local France
2 days ago
- Business
- Local France
How France became a world champion of high-speed rail
In 2024, the French rail network carried nearly 130 million passengers - another record-breaking year for SNCF as more and more people take the train in what the network describes as a 'golden age for rail'. French trains are popular - an Ifop study found that almost half of all French people travelled by TGV in the last 12 months, and while cars are still king in France, the study also found that the French prefer to travel by train rather than plane for distances below 500 km. Meanwhile, a separate study found that 78 percent of French people travel by train 'from time to time' - and there's no evidence that the somewhat robust attitude of French rail unions to negotiation is putting passengers off . Listen to the team at The Local discuss France's rail success in the latest episode of the Talking France podcast - download here or listen on the link below The French rail network is not only popular, it's fast - France also holds several international train speed records, the most recent being set in 1990 (515.3 km/h) and 2007 (574.8 km/h). A standard Paris to Marseille TGV trip will commonly reach speeds of 320km/h. (A side note for train fans - Japan's maglev train L0 Series, which achieved 604km/h in 2015, is technically a magnetic levitation track, which means that France holds onto its record.) Advertisement One factor that helped France to build and expand its high-speed rail network is that its construction costs are, relatively speaking, quite low. The Transit Costs project database of projects in 59 countries and over 20,000km of urban rail found that France spends on average €29.71 million per km of high-speed rail line built. While that is slightly above Spain (€21.75 million/km), it's one-tenth of the spend in the UK (€207.9 million/km average). So what's behind the success story of French rail, especially the high-speed TGV ( Train à Grande Vitesse ) services that were launched in the 1980s? Presentation of the TGV on June 15th, 1980 in Chantilly. (Photo by AFP) We spoke to rail experts about some of the factors that have enabled this success. State involvement "France's high-speed rail network has been incredibly successful," Rick Harnish, the executive director of the non-profit High-Speed Rail Alliance , told The Local. Harnish, who lives in Chicago, fondly remembers his first trip on a French TGV. "Our first trip was from Gare de Lyon to Marseille... I thought I understood what high-speed rail was about, and now I really do." "[To build a high-speed network], the most important thing you need is an entity of some nature whose clear job it is to make it happen. "The second step is that the entity needs to have the resources - both financial and personnel - to be successful. And third, you need a strong commitment from the government to get through challenges. In the case of France, that entity is the French national railroad, SNCF," Harnish said. Having a centralised, state-controlled rail operator is also important when it comes to building costs. France has been able to build high-speed lines relatively cheaply and quickly, particularly in comparison to countries like the US and UK, which has meant the rapid expansion of the network. Alon Levy, a Fellow in the Transportation and Land Use program of the NYU Marron Institute and author of the blog Pedestrian Observations, noted France has opted for a more traditional model, rather than a 'globalised' one, which is popular in the Anglophone world. Advertisement "The globalised system means you try to involve international consultancies more in planning, so you use bigger, more expensive contracts," Levy explained. "France does not work that way (...) and as a result, French management costs for subway projects are between five to 10 percent of their hard costs, whereas in the US this starts at 20 percent and just goes up. Keeping experienced managers in the public sector to supervise private sector designers saves money." France also harnesses its in-house expertise for public transport projects. Levy gave the example of the Grand Paris Express, the capital region's ambitious Metro expansion, to build four new fully automated Metro lines at the edges of the 'greater Paris region' READ MORE: Grand Paris Express: The French capital's ambitious expansion plan "The idea is that after they're done planning and building, the bureaucracy will be used to build similar things in the main provincial cities. They realise they have this very competent project delivery vehicle, so might as well use it for things beyond Paris," the researcher added. Advertisement Legal structures A slight authoritarian streak may also help things along, according to Yves Crozet, who now serves as the mayor of the Saint-Germain-la-Montagne commune in the Loire département in central France, who spent most of his career teaching and researching transport economics. Crozet noted that in France, a public body is created by the government to run the transport project. With the Grand Paris Express, the public enterprise Société de Grand Paris was created with the right to collect taxes and raise funds, and then decide between construction bids for the lines. After the public consultation process, French transport projects receive a déclaration d'utilité publique (DUP, or declaration of public utility). Once this has been activated, purchase of land can begin - with compulsory purchases permitted if people don't want to sell up to the railways. "Building high-speed rail in Germany, for example, is harder because it is more difficult to oppose people who do not want to sell their land. Here in France, we are in a centralised system, it's a little authoritarian." Advertisement Geography Then some factors might be considered more luck than judgement, such as France's geography. Crozet said: "The first reason TGV has done well in France is geography. We have a central capital city, and the other cities are smaller. "If you want to go from Lyon or Bordeaux to Paris, then you need to travel a long distance, so it makes sense to build a high-speed network. For example, in Switzerland, you don't need high-speed rail, as it is a small country." This was echoed by Alon Levy, who noted that French high-speed lines tend to be built on agricultural land and involve few tunnels, making them cheaper to construct. It also helped that France had a vast rail network already, which meant that as the TGV was being developed it was often a case of adapting existing lines, rather than building tracks from scratch. Advertisement The best versus the rest But is it fair to say French rail is great - or more accurate to say that French high-speed rail is great? One key fact about the French rail network is that the country is home to over 27,000 km of train tracks - and of that, 2,800km is high-speed rail, or lignes à grande vitesse. That means that nine-tenths of the country's rail does not offer the impressive TGV services, but is a mixture of TER local trains and commuter networks, like the Paris region's Transilien line. "France is really good at transport in cities and for travelling between cities, but it is awful if you need to go from one town to another town," Jon Worth, railway commentator and blogger , who is based in rural Burgundy, told The Local. READ MORE: ANALYSIS: Will France's rural rail networks be revived? "France de facto decided to prioritise Paris, and it is difficult to tell what has been an explicit decision and what has been unintended consequences of perhaps well-intended decisions," Worth said. When building the high-speed network, SNCF opted for a 'hub and spoke' model, connecting major cities to the capital, as well as an airline model, where passengers must reserve seats. "This has turned into profit-maximising, and there is no flexibility in the system. Imagine: you're based in Paris and your grandma is in Toulon. Your grandma falls ill, and you need to travel tomorrow…chances are you won't be able to do it because every train will be full. "SNCF is proud of the fact that most of its TGV seats are full and almost half of its trains sell out, but from a railway perspective, that means that the public cannot get to where they need to be at the last second. There is no spare capacity in the system. "Then on the other hand, SNCF says they don't have the money to maintain the tracks for the old lignes classiques, the historic network of non-high-speed tracks which serve the local TER services. "While the rest of Europe discusses reopening old regional lines, France is talking about how they are in danger of closing. "So France might be better than other countries, like the UK, at high-speed rail, but I would argue that the UK is better at commuter and regional rail than France. Instead of investing in high-speed, the UK has tried to ring every last bit of capacity out of its classic network. "This means that between two medium-sized towns in UK, you might have a train once an hour, while in France, if you want to do the same thing, there might be three trains a day. "Ultimately, it depends on how countries set their priorities, and my preference would be the German strategy over the French one. Even though trains might be behind schedule, they do run regional trains around the clock. "In France, a two-class system has been created on French railways. Anyone will take the TGV, including rich people, but that cannot be said for the TER, which is mainly people who are too young or too old to drive, or too poor to have a car." "I would take the view that it should be normal for any person to take any type of train," Worth said. What do you think of France's railway system? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Local Italy
4 days ago
- Local Italy
Americans in Italy: Retirement planning and is it getting harder to move from the US to Italy?
Welcome to our regular look at everything you need to know about life in Italy for The Local's readers from the US. This newsletter is published monthly and you can receive it directly to your inbox before we publish by going to newsletter preferences in 'My Account' or following the instructions in the newsletter box below. Many people retire to Italy from the US every year in order to enjoy a new, more relaxed lifestyle. If you're planning to do the same in future, you're probably already looking at what you can do ahead of time to make the move as smooth as possible. In that case, you're off to a good start. Readers of The Local who have retired here in Italy consistently tell us that planning well ahead is key, whatever your situation. For example, not everyone wants to go directly from full-time work to total retirement, so you might be planning a change in professional direction such as opening a B&B or running tours or workshops. First, you'll need to know whether you'll be legally able to earn an income in Italy. The elective residency visa – the most popular choice for retirees – does not allow you to work, so what other options are there? We look at this and many of the other practical considerations you may have questions about in the below article. Interest in moving to Italy from the US is on the rise, and the number of American citizens taking up residency here has increased in recent years. Some recent news reports from Italy might suggest so. You may be aware that there were sudden changes to the rules on claiming citizenship via ancestry made in March. The Italian government imposed a two-generational limit for eligibility, which left many would-be applicants around the world dismayed. Having Italian citizenship, or citizenship of any EU member state, would make a move to Italy considerably easier as it removes the requirement for a visa. But it's not the same thing as having residency. Italian relocation experts say that all is not lost: people affected by the change to citizenship rules may have other options to explore.
