English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

@Cerberus Mkay. I take that back. It must be "quick", which means "alive, living", so "goes quickly" means "becomes part of your living self", or in other words, it sticks.

Cerberus

I didn't even read the other ones, because it seemed close enough.

Vitaly

@RegDwightB8 So is your browser window maximized?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Vitaly yeah, why?

Cerberus

Perhaps it is easier to see all answers at once at a smaller size.

Vitaly

6:10 PM

Yeah, this. ^

Cerberus

Depending on the size of your screen and the distance.

Vitaly

My browser is usually maximized, but I take that test in a smaller window.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

I'm sitting three meters from the monitor as well.

Vitaly

How fast do you move your mouse across the screen?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

No idea. Over 9000?

Vitaly

6:12 PM

Seven would be enough, as long as you click correctly in the first 1—1.5 seconds.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

My pointer is pretty fast actually, my wife had troubles using this mouse.

@Vitaly Most of the time I have 10 seconds left on the clock.

The thing is, my knowledge of English has nothing to do with the speed of my mouse.

Vitaly

There, that's what you are doing wrong. Just answer faster, duh. And correctlier.

You can send me a check for my valuable advice.

Cerberus

@Vitaly I think he is reading the test incorrectly.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

And trying to get better at this game won't make my English better. Reading Shakespeare would. Or even just watching Carrie Bradshaw trying to pronounce Alexander Petrovsky's name, which I happen to have on hold right now.

Cerberus

It jumps to ten when you click.

But you don't actually have only 10 seconds left.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 You're watching SitC?

mind = boggled

Al three.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

6:15 PM

Better than failing at a Flash game.

Well, it's worse, but it's more entertaining.

Cerberus

I mean, I like SitC all right, depending on what the episode is about. But I didn't expect you to like it.

I hate the swooning and the insecurity.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus how the hell do you even recognize those names?

You've just blown your cover, kind sir.

Cerberus

But I like the funny things they encounter.

I have seen several episodes of SitC!

As it so happens.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

"I don't have a TV set, I never go to movies...", well la-dee-da, where's the part about "... except Sex and the City, of course!"

3

rolls eyes

Cerberus

I watched that occasionally when I was in high school and with friends, ten years ago.

Like many other series, like Friends, Fraser, etc.

Buffy, even.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

6:18 PM

Never quite understood what people saw in Buffy. Don't like the actress, either.

Cerberus

Yeah.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

But hey, I'm willing to forgive Mr. Wheadon.

Cerberus

The supernatural plot lines were kind of interesting, in a soapish way.

And Willow was funny. The rest was awful.

Wheadon?

Gigili

Went looking for trouble. No luck so far.

Cerberus

Whither?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

6:20 PM

Willow? Was that Alyson Hannigan's role?

Gigili

High school, ten years ago ... Umm, 30?

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Red-haired "lesbian".

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

So, Alyson Hannigan it is.

Cerberus

I'm 29.

Gigili

Haha, that was close.

Cerberus

6:20 PM

Her girlfriend was utterly stupid, though.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus The director. Joss Wheadon. He went on to make the best show of all times, Firefly.

Cerberus

Ah I see.

Gigili

@Cerberus I thought you were 40, seriously.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

In fact not just the director. He also wrote the script etc.

Cerberus

I have heard of that, but never seen it. I gather it is newer than ten years ago, when I stopped watching tv?

I basically watched tv between 16 and 20.

@Gigili Oh? Why?

What genre is Firefly again?

I might watch that sometime.

Vitaly

6:22 PM

contrary to popular belief, the older an internet user, the more likely they are to ignore punctuation now

70-year-olds are the worst spellers i've seen on the web when it comes to instant chat messaging

Cerberus

Doesn't that only apply to very old people?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Vitaly the only 70-year old I've seen spell on the Internet was @Robusto.

And he's doing fine.

Cerberus

I mean, I would expect people aged 25–40 to use more punctuation than the young.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

You are right !!!!!

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 He is doing his best at any rate.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 headwindow

Vitaly

6:24 PM

Hahahaha.

Cerberus

crushes window pane, self-defenestrates

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Way off.

Vitaly

@Cerberus Be sure to leave the mullion intact.

Cerberus

@Vitaly It's broken.

I grabbed it in my desperation.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto you misspelled piss.

So much for Robusto and proper spelling. I take that back.

Robusto

6:27 PM

@Vitaly If I had to spend a century contemplating the number one I damn well would shoot myself.

Cerberus

FAMILIAR with her subject. A. Unacquainted. B. Ignorant.

How weird is that??

Oh that's from Magnolia!

Robusto

Oui.

Vitaly

6:28 PM

@Cerberus What are the other options?

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

And I have the soundrack. Also, other things by Aimee Mann.

Robusto

Same same.

Cerberus

@Vitaly I don't remember, but they were in a different sphere altogether.

Vitaly

@Cerberus I remember getting that question, and there was an answer that made sense.

I don't remember the answer though.

Cerberus

It was clear they made a mistake and intended unfamiliar.

@Vitaly That is very odd.

It is possible that I misread.

Robusto

6:32 PM

I'm kind of put out that @Cerberus didn't get a woody over my post, which contained both Latin and Greek together.

Ah, well. Cave canem.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Also, written by the amazingly talented Harry Nilsson.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Bingo!

Cerberus

Hahaha congrats!!

Robusto

"Great effort" — how patronizing.

Cerberus

@Robusto I did, and I even commented on it.

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 This shows how reliable the test is...

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

6:35 PM

I gives up at English. Will talk other langauge.

Cerberus

Bonne idée.

Parlerons des élections françaises.

Qui est-ce que tu supportes?

Robusto

@Cerberus Not enough. And no @-mention to advert to your comment.

Cerberus

Hollande gagnera, je crois.

Mitch

@Robusto No, they're being sarcastic. You should see what you get for A2

Robusto

@Cerberus Les socialistes, naturellement.

Cerberus

6:36 PM

@Robusto Aww. Well, it was appreciated.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Cerberus Sept. Non, huit!

Cerberus

Petronius is nice.

Robusto

Meilleurs de NEUF MILLE!

Cerberus

@Robusto Hmm bon, mais Merkozy me plaisait.

Même si Sarko, il est un chien.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

A propos de 9000, savez-vous que nous avons un nouveau President?

Cerberus

6:37 PM

Pas le bon genre.

Mais moi, je supporte Hollande aussi.

Robusto

@Cerberus You say that now.

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Oui, je l'ai lu.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Deja lu, eh?

Robusto

@Cerberus Toujours Hollandaise.

Cerberus

@Robusto Baby!

@Robusto Naturellement.

Robusto

6:39 PM

@Cerberus Non, l'enfant!

Mahnax

Bonjour.

Cerberus

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Merci. J'ai été en doute(?).

@Robusto Bébé.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto bébé, stp.

Jinx!

Cerberus

Hehe.

Mahnax

C'apparaît que c'est le jour français.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

6:41 PM

C'est a dire, ginx!

Cerberus

C'est correct.

Ginx?

Les dictionnaires ne sont pas admis!

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 La guigne !

@Cerberus ^

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

@Robusto t'as mal écrit "Guinevere" !

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Va t'en.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Tu ma cherche ? Eh ? Eh ?

Robusto

6:45 PM

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Va t'en faire foutre, naturellement.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

This is really fascinating. I'm glad we switched. All this time and I haven't made a single mistake. In English, I'd be at A-5 by now.

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 En Francais, s'il vous plait !

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Jun 27 '11 at 19:49, by RegDwight

Voulez-vous paar Gruweschuh? Non, merci, mir reiche die!

Robusto

Jun 27 '11 at 19:54, by Robusto

@RegDwight — Don't let that stop you. Keep searching till you find the one set that proves your point. This is called "research"...

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Eh bien. J'ai consulté Translate Google, et la voila:

> son est vraiment fascinant. Je suis content que nous avons changé. Pendant tout ce temps et je n'ai pas fait une seule erreur. En anglais, je serais à A-5 maintenant.

C'est ridicule et vrai !

Robusto

6:50 PM

Je ne parle pas Google.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

A la guerre comme a la guerre.

Robusto

Tu me fais très fatigué.

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

C'est qu'elle a dit!

Robusto

@RegDwightΒВBẞ8 Pas de "bons mots" dans la salle de chat

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

Got G-7 now.

Vitaly

6:56 PM

blogs.valpo.edu/systems/2012/03/22/bada55-colors-for-web-design

RegDwight ΒВBẞ8

That took forever. Like forty questions. B-10 was more like seven.

@Vitaly "Badass colors for Web design" or, "100 new names for purple".

Jez

7:14 PM

Je sais que le nom de la salle est "la salle incompréhensible", mais l'anglais est genre de préféré

Cerberus

7:30 PM

Genre?

De préféré?

La langue préférée.

Jez

"kind of"

i don't really know how they say that

Matt Эллен

7:46 PM

Cerberus

@Jez Plus ou moins? Pratiquement? En effet?

But presque probably sounds better.

@MattЭллен Chinese authorities have signs for everything!

Matt Эллен

it's bureaucracy gone mad!

Cerberus

It's just Progress.

Matt Эллен

This on the other hand...

Cerberus

Also progress!

Matt Эллен

8:00 PM

the progress of human evolution, I suppose

Cerberus

Yup!

Into oblivion.

Matt Эллен

what's oblivion like?

Cerberus

Hawt.

Matt Эллен

Excellent. Sounds like my kind of place

Jez

why are all the images not found, or removed?

Cerberus

8:13 PM

Yeah it's strange.

Perhaps because the websites don't allow direct linking?

Jez

you can speak German... why not try out some translations for me? :-)

Matt Эллен

well, I can put links up

ok

oh

star f***s

no men I'm a woman

Cerberus

@MattЭллен Orrr you could use Zizorz.

Jez

@Cerberus so how about it

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus but the photos are already uploaded

Cerberus

8:26 PM

Taking a screenshot of the image and posting it here takes about two seconds.

Matt Эллен

yeah, and you could upgrade to win 7!

Cerberus

@MattЭллен I often take blitz screenshots of images that refuse to link.

@MattЭллен But Zizorz has an actual, clear advantage.

And won't take changing your habits and spending hours installing and customizing.

Matt Эллен

Cerberus

@Jez Look, I appreciate your efforts, but it's not really fun enough for me to do.

Matt Эллен

Cerberus

8:29 PM

@Jez: If you ask it like a Question with some effort put in by yourself, and post a sentence/phrase here that you are unsure about, it's fine.

@MattЭллен That took you ages, and it is probably no fun to do, but well done!

Matt Эллен

@Cerberus yayaya, zizzor didn't work last time I tried it

Cerberus

Oh!

Matt Эллен

that's how I remember it

Cerberus

Hmm perhaps you tried an old version.

Matt Эллен

maybe

Vitaly

8:31 PM

Feb 11 at 0:52, by Vitaly

I can post screenshots so fast it violates causality. Case in point: see above.

Cerberus

Yes, I believe my version stopped working at some point.

Jez

OK so in the context of a letter, what does this translate to:

Cerberus

But there are two forks now. One fork works, I am using it; the other one is the main fork, which probably works too.

Jez

> Hi !

> Gestern hatte ich höhere Einschaltquoten als du!

Cerberus

Einschaltquote

Die Einschaltquote einer Radio- oder Fernsehsendung ist der prozentuelle Anteil der Empfangshaushalte, die zu einem gegebenen Zeitpunkt die Sendung verfolgten, an der Gesamtmenge aller Empfangshaushalte: Die Prozentzahl lässt somit Rückschlüsse auf die absolute Zuschauerzahl zu. Umgangssprachlich ist manchmal auch diese absolute Zuschaueranzahl die Einschaltquote. Die Einschaltquote basiert auf Hochrechnung. Das unterscheidet sie von ähnlichen Erhebungen wie der Buyrate bei Pay-per-View-Angeboten, die auf Daten der Grundgesamtheit basiert. Beim amerikanischen Messverfahren von Nielsen Rati...

So the % of people who watch a certain programme.

Matt Эллен

8:33 PM

Cerberus

Ewww.

Whatever that means, it looks obscene.

Jez

ok, what about:

> Ich habe gelesen, daß man als schlechtester im Spiel auch eine Auszeichnung bekommen soll.

Matt Эллен

there doesn't seem to be a good way to look at it

Cerberus

@Jez As the worst player, you should also get a reward.

Jez

@Cerberus doesn't seem like the full translation

Cerberus

8:37 PM

@MattЭллен Nope! Cream is probably the wrong homonynical translation of a Chinese character.

@Jez "I have read that..."

You can do that part yourself!

Jez

yeah, that's the literal translation

reg would be good at these

Cerberus

?

Jez

it doesnt really sound right, "i've read that the worst player should get an award"?

Cerberus

There is no other way to translate it.

That's what it says.

Jez

hmm

Cerberus

8:39 PM

I translated freely.

Literally: "I have read that one, as the worst in the game, should also get a reward".

It clearly means what I said. Couldn't mean anything else.

Jez

yeah but it should be more like, "I'm sure I've read that the loser of the game gets a prize too!"

Cerberus

That is more or less the same.

Jez

sounds more natural to me

Cerberus

But it could be that you don't actually lose—that there's just one winner and "the rest".

And the "I'm sure" is not in the text.

I mean, when you play Civilization, there isn't really a "loser"—just the player with the fewest points.

So it depends on the game.

Jez

yeah, but for once, I am trying to paraphrase a bit

Cerberus

8:44 PM

That's fine, if you can do that safely based on context.

Jez

i take the point about there not being a loser..... i think there are losers in this game. If your rating goes to zero, you lose

Cerberus

And is there only one loser?

And can he be said to be the "worst" at the game?

Mitch

@Jez Dude...you're asking for a translation, then complaining about it when you get it (because it looks like you did it yourself already)? I don't get it.

Jez

lol

Cerberus

It's fine if Jez disagrees with my translation.

That is only healthy.

Jez

8:45 PM

sometimes (often) German phrases seem clunky and then a good German speaker makes it clear that something is an idiom

Cerberus

Yes. It works that way between any pair of languages.

Jez

@Cerberus How about "Hast Du sie schon bekommen? Und wie sieht sie aus? Hehehe..."