deleted.282's recent posts

I hear good things about Colorado - so much natural beauty there and inexpensive compared to the coasts, though a lot of places are gentrifying.

A few of my students are learning English primarily to communicate better with their English-speaking boyfriends - another pretty compelling reason!

I feel like one of the problems with translation is that it can't always explain the cultural use of the phrase. For example, I assumed that the translation for "How are you?" and "What's new?" in Indonesian is what I would use to greet people there, since that's what I use to greet people in English. However, it turns out that no one says that as a greeting unless you are fairly close and haven't seen each other for a long time. Instead I should have been learning to ask "Where are you going?"

I love applying the bow wave as a metaphor for getting in your own way - this really resonates with me (and gives me hope that I'll be able to reap the benefit of my studies and emergence in Indonesian culture once my anxiety and self doubt settle down!)

Phillip.Laplana wrote:

I think the increased use of acronyms is how this generation's use of slang has manifested. We use slang words for informal settings and ease of use, and the current generation grew up on and is now defining the communication medium of text messaging. It would make sense to see text shortcuts bleed into everyday speech. For example, my wife and our immediate families grew up on chatrooms and messengers so, every now and then, one of us would say "LOL" out loud. :smile:
But since the acronyms are basically slang, I doubt that they'd be present in any formal communication.

I remember my own transition from using chat abbreviations like LOL ironically to using them in earnest as a useful shorthand. SO many things that I started saying as a joke have bled into my daily speech, too - IMHO, Bee Tee Dubs (for BTW), JK ...

I'm so curious about other abbreviation cultures! While living in Indonesia I was surprised by how much Indonesians love to combine longer words into shorter versions. Like one example is the term baper, short for bawah (bring) perasaan (feelings) and used to describe someone who's being dramatic. There are so many of these condensed phrases but I don't know if the reason is primarily efficiency.

leosmith wrote:

Sheena wrote:

I got hooked up with Breaking Bad and it was the baddest series for me. Walter White was so smart! I finished the series in less than 1 week! lol.

If you liked that, watch the movie Brick. Very cool, and "smart".

Love Brick - but, man, even as a native speaker, it was hard to follow that dialogue!

Sounds good!

FYI a few minutes ago I had no problem navigating to other sites on my cell and laptop, but couldn't get LT to load. 

Nice - I just registered as another name to test it out. Everything looks good to me except the "Type/Choose how you found us" - it's phrased a little unconventionally and suggests to the user that they can type in their own option. I still propose "How did you find us?" as the prompt for that field and for "other" to be added as an option. Also I think we need one more "r" in "referral." I suggest not using all caps because it made me question what "search" meant. I liked the original option of "Search Engine."

Also, this was not in my original suggestion but I tend to prefer "Last Name" to "Surname" on forms like this.

One common mistake that I hear that bothers me is the use of "until now" to mean something that continues in the present. For example, if I used to dance as a kid, and I love to dance now, I shouldn't say, "I love to dance until now." That would suggest I no longer love to dance. Instead I can say, "I love to dance, even now."

I love Mai's response. Without intrinsic motivation it's hard for anyone to commit to a language. In the absence of that, I think it would be really cool if the language were positioned as the key to solving a puzzle that your kids does find naturally interesting. 

For example, a kid who loves cooking might have fun working to translate the ingredients of a recipe in another language in order to make a dish. A kid drawn to a martial art from a non-english speaking tradition could strengthen their knowledge of it by learning the language associated. The most natural puzzle of all is, well, how to communicate with someone who doesn't speak your language. If there are opportunities for your kid to build friendships with new English learners, it can be very motivating. 

TemitopeAkinyede wrote:

Has anyone here tried Adrican dishes?

I've eaten fufu from Nigeria but I'm more familiar with Ethiopian food. I love the taste and spongey texture of injira.

I love pupusas revueltas! Especially when the cheese is a little burnt on the outside. It's so good when it's just a bit crispy on the outside and rich and gooey on the inside.

Have you read much about Esperanto? I think that was the vision for it - a universal language that's super easy to learn. But it's definitely more than ten years old.

Maybe I'm just dense, but often when I see the description "Discuss anything you want in any language you want, other than English," it suggests to me that I can discuss any topic except for the subject of the English language!! Perhaps a less ambiguous replacement could be, "Have discussions here in any language but English."

Yes! This was a good reminder regarding active versus passive listening. There have been plenty of times where I'll put on a podcast in Spanish and half listen while I do other things and it doesn't feel like I'm accessing the material in a meaningful way. It's hard to dedicate time to all the different aspects of language learning, but I gotta do it!

Phillip.Laplana wrote:

SarahSchaffer wrote:

I was fortunate enough to learn basic sign language as a kid in summer camp but I feel like it should be taught in schools. Actually I'm surprised that more hearing people, myself included, don't use sign as a way to communicate when it's hard to hear (like at a loud bar) or when you have to be quiet (like backstage at a performance). More importantly, if there was an expectation that everyone learn sign language, hard of hearing people would be less isolated and there would be fewer deadly misunderstandings with emergency personnel and police like this one: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/us/oklahoma-city-police-shooting-deaf.html

Oh man, that's just tragic. :( I don't know that it would ever be taught in schools, at least not public schools. Private schools, maybe.

I know! Yeah, hard to imagine it becoming a national standard but I feel like it might even help students learn the alphabet to have a physical component to each letter. Haha didn't realize how passionately I felt about this until I responded this prompt. Thanks, sujithprathap!

Hi! Realized today that usually when I see "support" in the sender field, it makes me think that I'm getting a response to a help ticket. I suspect there's a way to change the name of this email address to "Language Tools," even if the address remains support@languagetools.io.

I was fortunate enough to learn basic sign language as a kid in summer camp but I feel like it should be taught in schools. Actually I'm surprised that more hearing people, myself included, don't use sign as a way to communicate when it's hard to hear (like at a loud bar) or when you have to be quiet (like backstage at a performance). More importantly, if there was an expectation that everyone learn sign language, hard of hearing people would be less isolated and there would be fewer deadly misunderstandings with emergency personnel and police like this one: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/20/us/oklahoma-city-police-shooting-deaf.html

Yeah keep the Spanish recommendations coming! It would definitely help me to get hooked on a series. I was watching El Tiempo Entre Costuras with a friend of mine who was learning Spanish and she got pretty into it.

Ahora estoy leyendo una compilación se llama Un Día Sin Inmigrantes. Es un poco difícil porque ha pasado mucho tiempo desde que yo estudiaba español. 

Vocabulario y expresiónes:

gozar - to enjoy (Aquí gozamos del apoyo de dos senadores")

llevar a cabo - to carry out (Las marchas se llevaron a cabo pocos días después de que el Senado falló en su primero intento de aprobar un projecto de ley")

intento - attempt (not intention!)

hubiera querido - ("Hubiera querido ver la participación de patrones de las industrias afectadas")

en cambio - instead - actually more like "on the other hand" 

tienen mucho en juego - they have a lot at stake ("Tienen mucho en juego en términos económicos y laborales.")

One of my favorite resources for grammar is English First: https://www.ef.com/english-resources/english-grammar/

Sharp Objects! I got hooked but now I'm too cheap to buy an HBO subscription. 

I think movies are great tools. I taught English at a university in Indonesia, and none of the Indonesians I met who were fluent in English had learned in a classroom - they'd picked up the language from American movies and TV shows. 

¡Lo siento de antemano por mis errores! 

Quizás refiere al movimiento hacer el español más neutral genero. En general, pienso que lenguaje tiene fluidez y tiene que ser flexible. Puede ser incomodo cambiar hábitos pero es importante que lenguaje refleja, donde es posible, nuestros valores. Eso es la belleza de una lenguaje viva, en mi opinión. Se puede utilizarla para servirnos de manera mejor. A la misma vez, yo creo que muchas veces la lenguaje solo muestra las síntomas de desigualdad, patriarcado, etcétera. Por eso razón, no siempre es necesario cambiar cada símbolo de la injusticia - quizás es más importante iradicarlo a la raíz.  

No sé - esto es una sujeta muy interesante para mí. Hay mucho más que discutir al respecto! :)

Yup! It let me type everything in :)

Hi! Some first impressions from registering and setting up my profile. These options have inconsistent capitalization and could use an "other" option if you're going to make it mandatory. "Source" should also be called something like "How did you hear about us?"

It seems strange that the display name wouldn't accept spaces - perhaps it should say that up front. 

I found a strange option in the list of countries while setting up my profile. 

 I noticed that the default sex was "male" - would be better if it were neutral to start. 

Date of birth was weird for me too. It wouldn't let me type it in initially. Then, after I selected date and month from the drop down it let me type in the year.