One often sees that two towns in different countries are 'twinned', in fact in my local newspaper today is the announcement that the town might be twinned with Funchal in Madeira. What is the point of twinning? What is achieved other than a number of officials having a 'jolly' at taxpayers' expense? Do the inhabitants of the towns concerned benefit at all? If your town is twinned has it affected you?

What is the point, is there one?

I'm not sure in your case, but with Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, those two town's "corporate" or "city" limits touch one another. They are referred to as the "twin cities."

One other possibility is that both towns are incorporated on the same day. Again, I am not sure in the case of your local newspaper.

I think you are misunderstanding what I am talking about. It is common for towns to be twinned, about 2,000 in the UK, with towns overseas. This explains a bit about it but having said that, I haven't really seen any results other than local dignitories having a jolly at our expense, I wanted to know if others know of any REAL benefits.

Perhaps this is less common outside Europe although I thought I read of some possible twinning with somewhere in New Jersey.

Yes, Sue, I agree. I can't see much point in the highly artificial twinning that's been taking place over the last 30-40 years, and I suspect it's done to give local councillors trips abroad at public expense. To cap it all, there are even agencies and bureaux that will find suitable places with which to 'twin' (for a fee, of course).

About ten years ago, I spent some time in Hanover and noticed with interest that it claims tentatively to be one of the very first cities to have 'twinned'. Early in 1947, when conditions in the then British Zone of Germany were poor - and getting worse, the head of Modern Languages at Bristol Grammar School had friends from before WWII in Hanover. Together with colleagues, organized a kind of relief effort. In view of the scale of the shortages, they appealed to the whole city of Bristol for help. This was a meaningful undertaking. Not surpringly, new links established during the relief effort, continued long after West Germany became prosperous.

By contrast with the Hanover-Bristol link, most new links are completely artificial and, I think, meaningless.

Am I right in my observation, when I last went to UK that some towns are 'twinned'with more than one town in Europe? This seems to be doubly pointless. Unless, of course, someone knowledgeable can explain the point.

Hastings, where I now live, is twinned with Béthune in France, Dordrecht in the Netherlands and Oudenaarde in Belgium. As well as the jollies for civic dignitaries, I believe there are occasional sports meetings and things like that, but I can’t believe that many local people give a damn.

Aha!! TT, the plot thickens!

The college town where I live, Waverly, home of Wartburg College, is "twinned" with Eisenach, Germany. I think it mostly has to do with the fact that the Wartburg Castle is in Eisenach and there is a strong German/Lutheran heritage here. Our choir and various language groups have visited Eisenach many times, but I don't think many Germans are hurrying to get to our small town in Iowa.

This sounds like the Sister Cities sort of arrangement, although that is not a government organization. In my understanding, it is sort of a cultural diversity thing, trying to promote understanding and tolerance. Some cities do things like foreign student exchanges, music/art exchanges, things like that. Some large cities have quite a few Sister Cities.
Ah, here is a website: Sister Cities International

Is this the same sort of thing as your "twinning"?

Hmmm, I am sure the idea behind them is sound but I will take some convincing that it isn't just a way for a some people to get a few days away from the wife at taxpayers' expense!

I also question the number of factfinding missions some civil servants and politicians have to go on, but that is another matter.

Shrivats, if your broadband TV has BBC Prime, you can watch this series again. Brilliant, I agree.

I've seen the series so many times, it's sort of a mouthing excercise for me. On the whole, however, I prefer the book. It gets a bit stale sometimes on T.V.

The town I live in has two "Sister Cities." Trips are planned in both directions and they include ordinary citizens like you and me. The towns are of a similar size and industry.

I believe it to be a good cultural learning experience. There are many people who would have no contact with someone from Austria were it not for the fact that they came here to visit our town.

On the other hand, I have visited several times our Sister City in Mexico. Our town has donated an ambulance, bus, school supplies, and donated supplies to an orphanage there. It helps their economic situation, and personally, it makes me feel good that we can help others. Were it not for this program I would never have visited this area of Mexico, made new friends and enjoyed myself quite so much!

Town-twinning in my country originally had a lot to do with restoring contact between the participants in the two World Wars and with reconciling the "real people" rather than merely the politicians. It at first often implied taking part in each other's folkloristic events, later began to imply school-exchanges and in some cases even led to looking for similar solutions to similar problems. ( An example of how this can be done, can be found at http:// www.epa.gov/globalwarming/greenhouse/greenhouse18/twinning.html )
Also in other ways it was the war-experience that led to twinning. An example might be Ypres and Sittingbourne, a case in which the sufferings of both British soldiers and the Ypres population during World War I played a major role
in establishing the twinning. Special educational school exchanges are part of the programme.
In the twinning of Kentish Hythe and the Flemish city of Poperinge Tubby Clayton's Toc H was a key factor.
To avoid taking a too purely cynical view of city twinning the site http://www.answers.com/topic/town-twinning might be helpful.
Everything depends on how methodically such twinning is planned and to what extent large sections of the population can be involved, motivated, etc.
I must admit that in some cases the original purpose of the
twinning is missed. Some of the exchanges organised between Flemish cities and their former Polish liberators look more like "shopping-parties" than anything else, and occasionally there are even rumours of worse.

Thank goodness some of you have good reports of twinning, that some people are benefitting, other than the factfinders.

My town has a couple of twin cities, but I've never noticed anything happening as a result of that.

However, sometimes things like this seem to work. My German "hometown", a small village in Bavaria, is twinned with an equally small town in France. Every year delegations of sport clubs, scouts and school classes visit the other town. So does a random selection of inhabitants (everyone can sign up) and local entrepreneurs take the opportunity to discuss business stuff with their colleagues in the twin town. It's definitely not just politicians benefiting from this partnership.

Yea my town is twinned with two towns and me and my boyfriend were having this exact same convo not long ago. I've noticed no difference really apart from a lil note on the welcome to [area] sign! Oh and the fact a few people go over there to have sporting competions. How do they decide which towns in all the world to twon with.. I wouldn't like that job!!