Location: San Francisco, Noord-Kalifornië, Noord-Amerika
Posted: Tue Dec 05, 2006 2:03 am Post subject:
San Francisco's sister cities:
Abijan, The Ivory Coast (Côte d'Ivoire)
Assisi, Italy
Cork, Ireland
Haifa, Israel
Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam
Manila, Philippines
Osaka, Japan*
Paris, France
Seoul, Korea
Shanghai, China
Sydney, Australia
Taipei, China
Thessaloniki, Greece
Zürich, Switzerland
* oldest sister city of SF - 50th anniversary in 2007
As Singapore is also a country, I suppose we do not have this concept of a twin city. I just realised that to my consternation. _________________ Hillary Clinton is an acquired taste which I have clearly yet to acquire.
I had never heard of the concept of "twinning" cities until I was driving through England and saw it on various signs. It was a bizarre concept to me. But apparently it does happen in the US -- my mom's city of Athens, Georgia, is of course twinned with its Greek namesake, and Albuquerque, which is named for the Spanish Duke of Alburquerque, occasionally trades jibes with its Spanish counterpart over their divergence in spelling. But as far as I know, Las Cruces has no twin, and when I think of the concept, I mostly think of the border cities that have mirror images on both the American and Mexican sides:
Somehow Atlanta and Louisville seem much less interesting to me than the cities they are among. Does anyone else feel that way about the cities from your own region?
Bergen's friendship cities:
Åbo/Turku, Finnland
Århus, Denmark
Göteborg (Gothenburg), Sweden
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK
Lübeck, Germany
Rostock, Germany
Seattle, USA
The three Nordic ones were probably chosen because they, like Bergen, are the traditional second cities of their countries. Newcastle shares a ferry link with Bergen, while Bergen's Hanseatic past made the Hanseatic towns of Rostock and Lübeck obvious choices. And Seattle shares a very rainy climate with Bergen.
Uriel wrote:
Quote:
and when I think of the concept, I mostly think of the border cities that have mirror images on both the American and Mexican sides:
I agree with you. I think the Norwegian term "vennskapsby" = friendship town, or the German "Partnerstadt" = partner town, are better terms.
Uriel also wrote:
Quote:
I was driving through England and saw it on various signs. It was a bizarre concept to me.
I don't know what you saw, but I found the way German and French villages and towns list their twin towns/villages in larger letters than their own names on the signs at the village/town entrance truly bizzare and misleading.
BTW French and German villages also have inter-French and inter-German twin villages! E.g. a village in the former West Germany has a twin village in the former East Germany, so that the two Germanies can get to know each other on a local level too. I don't know what makes it necessary in France, but it seems to support the Langcafé thesis about France being in two different culture zones! _________________ Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. = Those who don't know foreign languages, know nothing of their own. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
- Cuneo, Italy
- Edimbourg, Scotland
- Gdansk, Poland
- Hangzou, China
- Laval, Canada
- Cezed, Hungary
- St Pertersbourg, Russia
- Thessalonique, Greece
- Nouvelle-Orleans, USA
Quote:
I don't know what makes it necessary in France, but it seems to support the Langcafé thesis about France being in two different culture zones!
there are different climatical and regions of different "ambiance". It is hard to speak about "two culture zones". Not more than between northern and southern Norway.
Well; I was merely stating the arguments of others.
But you are spot on about there being another ambience in Northern Norway! _________________ Wer fremde Sprachen nicht kennt, weiß nichts von seiner eigenen. = Those who don't know foreign languages, know nothing of their own. (Johann Wolfgang von Goethe)
Location: El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Angeles del Río de Porciúncula
Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:00 pm Post subject:
Didier69 wrote:
Digne twin towns are:
Bad Mergentheim Germany
Douma Lebanon
Kamaishi Japan
Borgomanero Italy
Interesting. I can't say that I've ever heard of them. Btw, is there a difference between Digne and Digne-les-bains? There seems to be a lot of French towns with 'les-bains' tacked on to its name, which I find peculiar. I thought that maybe this naming convention was to differentiate between other towns with the same name (e.g. Aix-les-bains vs. Aix-en-Provence)
Since my initial post in this thread, LA has added two more Sister Cities: Ischia, Italy and Yerevan, Armenia.
Interesting. I can't say that I've ever heard of them. Btw, is there a difference between Digne and Digne-les-bains? There seems to be a lot of French towns with 'les-bains' tacked on to its name, which I find peculiar. I thought that maybe this naming convention was to differentiate between other towns with the same name (e.g. Aix-les-bains vs. Aix-en-Provence)
"Of the baths", right? Are there a lot of hot springs involved? I assume it's a lot like our habit of naming nearby offshoot towns something similar to the original city -- West This and East That. I was always thrown off by the existence of both Taos and nearby Ranchos de Taos here, for instance. (I always thought California's two little stubborn towns of Eureka and Yreka were a hoot, but that's a different story, I guess.)
How does southern Norway differ from northern Norway, Fredrik?
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