ELL's Cabin

Jude Niroshan

05:04

@ASR morning!

ASR

@snailboat morning

@JudeNiroshan morning

ASR

07:47

@DamkerngT. hi

Damkerng T.

Hi!

ASR

Thank you for the wonderful offer of the employment in the position of System Engineer at your esteemed organization.

I am delighted to receive your offer and confirming my acceptance for same and I am afraid that I am unable to join the mentioned date by you which is Oct 26 2015 .

However, due to non acceptance of buyout policy in my present company based on importance of Project and also KT deliverable I wont be in a position to join on Oct 26 2015 in Infosys.

Where as my resignation was accepted in my present company and my last working day will be Dec 21st which is serving the full n…

Please correct any mistakes

Damkerng T.

Oh, no. I think I'm not gonna do proofreading today.

ASR

08:47

@DamkerngT. my sentence is ok?

Damkerng T.

I can do a sentence or two, but I don't want to do all of it. Which sentence are you referring to?

ASR

I am delighted to receive your offer and confirming my acceptance for same and I am afraid that I am unable to join the mentioned date by you which is Oct 26 2015 .

However, due to non acceptance of buyout policy in my present company based on importance of Project and also KT deliverable I wont be in a position to join on Oct 26 2015 in Infosys.

Damkerng T.

"your offer and confirming my acceptance" doesn't flow well, though I think it's acceptable in semi-formal writing. (The phrase "your confirming my acceptance" makes it sound awkward to me.)

"for same" is strange.

ASR

@DamkerngT. tell me appropriate sentence please

Damkerng T.

Please try not to make it sound like a job.

for me, I mean.

Lang-8 is a better place for proofreading. It's a site where people volunteer to proofread writing pieces written by non-native speakers.

ASR

08:55

@DamkerngT. I really dnt understand what to write for it, I am not having much knowledge.

today I understand importance of english

Damkerng T.

One problem for me, as a non-native speaker, is that I know what I would write, but I don't know every possibility, which makes it hard for me to fix unfamiliar phrasing written by other non-native speakers.

And I don't want to put my words in your mouth.

I mean, you should be you. And if you start your letter with my choices of words, but end it with yours, wouldn't that look odd?

Native speakers usually are better at proofreading, because they usually can judge reliably what sounds acceptable and what doesn't. They can also choose to keep your unidiomatic or less natural phrase but still acceptable in your original.

I don't have that kind of judgement.

For example, "I am delighted to receive your offer and confirming my acceptance ..."

To me, "I am delighted" doesn't sound quite right there (meaning, it doesn't look like a best phrase for that part, in my opinion), but I guessed that it might be acceptable, and some other parts look more problematic, so I left it there.

Is my leaving it there a good call? I always ask myself that when I edit something.

Or should I rewrite the whole thing entirely? But what's the point in that if the goal is learning? I always ask myself that too.

Will my fixing something and leaving some other things give you the wrong idea (like, you might think that I think the part I choose not to edit is 100% good--and that's usually not what I mean--which would be misleading)?

ASR

09:15

ok

Anonymous

Lang-8 is a good site for proofreading.

Jude Niroshan

09:27

@DamkerngT. You might have a extensive knowledge about the mistakes that most of the non-native speakers do.

Damkerng T.

(Knowing) Grammatical errors is one thing, writing is another, imho.

Sometimes it's clear what should be corrected, sometimes it's not that clear.

0

Q: Tag "Throwback" for an old picture

It is like a trending at my country nowadays people post an old picture and tag "#throwback" as if reminiscing about their past.. for example there was 1 situation where this lady posted an old picture of her wearing fur coat but she's now an activist for PETA. So people criticised her. For my ...

meaning

I'm not sure if it's a language question.

Anonymous

I'm not sure either!

Damkerng T.

She doesn't ask about the meaning of "throwback" (which is easy to look up in dictionaries, I think). I think she's asking about a cultural thing (and an e-cuture at that!), which probably doesn't have everything to do with the meaning of the word.

Anonymous

I think they want to know if the word throwback is being used properly, but it's not entirely clear to me.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I think the same, but the word is used as a Twitter tag (I think).

Anonymous

09:36

You're probably right.

Anonymous

Well, words are pretty flexible in any case :-)

Damkerng T.

Hehe! I suppose so!

Jude Niroshan

it's actually not flexible. It's just misusing

:D

Stack Exchange

0

Q: What's the difference between I have to get to I have to go to?

I know when to use them however I can't really explain why. Will you help me?

discussion

Damkerng T.

@JudeNiroshan Ah, a counter-argument! :D

Anonymous

09:37

Well, that's certainly another perspective.

Damkerng T.

Oops! Can we migrate a question on the meta to the main site?

Anonymous

ell.stackexchange.com/q/69600/230 ← This question can't be answered because the sentence is cut off.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat o_O :-)

Anonymous

You can flag it for migration.

Damkerng T.

A-ha! Flagging is easy. Thanks!

Hmm... there is no stock option for migration (or I just couldn't find it!)

Anonymous

09:42

Yeah, you'll need to use a custom flag.

Damkerng T.

nods -- I thought I could just have clicked on something and it would be done. :D

Anonymous

I'm sure it'll get migrated anyway, though. Meta questions pop up in the top bar for moderators when they're on the regular site, so they're hard to miss.

Anonymous

10:12

I like that the moderators aren't all in the same time zone, so (for example) that post just got migrated at what would be three in the morning in the U.S. :-)

Anonymous

Of course, I live in the U.S. and I'm awake, but I'm one of those people who doesn't seem to sleep enough.

Anonymous

Ah well—makes it easier to talk to people in Japan :-)

Anonymous

10:25

@DamkerngT. I seem to be able to talk to you here regardless of my schedule!

Damkerng T.

10:39

@snailboat I'm an always-on avatar!

Anonymous

I'm an often-on avatar!

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

0

Q: How to use "resulting" in the middle of the sentence?

The tape is leaking. The water is wasted. ____________________ resulting ___________________________. Is this correct? The leaking tape resulting the wastage of water.

sentence-construction

the wastage of water is an interesting phrase choice.

(which I think is not quite felicitous)

Perhaps a waste of water, water waste, or probably a water waste.

(It reminds me of the use of weightage when just weight would be just right.)

Anonymous

I think most people would prefer waste in plain language, but you'll find discussion of "water wastage" in relatively formal contexts.

Anonymous

10:54

Although we talk a lot about wasting water around here, thanks to the continued drought and draconian conservation measures, I haven't really seen or heard wastage much.

Anonymous

Right now we can water our lawn twice a week, but only after eight in the evening, and only if there's been no measurable rainfall in the past five days.

Damkerng T.

nods -- Water is an important resource.

Over here, we have a saying, "water is life".

Anonymous

We got 1mm of rain yesterday! :-)

Damkerng T.

1mm! Is that above or below the threshold?

Anonymous

Our yard is now almost entirely dead. It's enough that we can't water, if that's what you're asking.

Damkerng T.

10:58

(I wonder how "no measurable rainfall" is qualified.)

@snailboat Ahh

Anonymous

We have twenty redwoods which we'd like to conserve, but they're just going to have to try to survive without water.

Anonymous

They're now considered endangered, but we can't water them.

Damkerng T.

Because it's prohibited by laws?

Anonymous

Right, due to the drought…

Anonymous

Hopefully they don't die.

Damkerng T.

11:01

nods -- Dripping irrigation just crossed my mind.

jimsug

@snailboat Ah, it was a shame when we had water restrictions.

I was living in an apartment at the time, but some of the gardens I walked past were neglected.

Anonymous

I couldn't find any snails in the rain yesterday. My pet snails seem happy, at least :-)

Damkerng T.

Yay! (for the snails)

Anonymous

@jimsug Apart from the redwoods, pretty much all our plants are dead.

Damkerng T.

Some places have too little water, some places have too much.

It rains every day over here now.

Anonymous

11:05

Too little

jimsug

I can't remember, do most US toilets have dual-flush now?

Damkerng T.

Ah, thanks! Sometimes I'm really funny. :P

@jimsug I have one!

Anonymous

They do not. A friend imported an Aussie toilet, though, so I'm aware of the concept, but they're not common here yet.

Anonymous

He's from Australia :-)

jimsug

Yeah, they're the default in Australia - have been for quite some time now.

I was rather taken aback when I went to the States.

I think the seat itself is also a little lower than I'm used to.

Anonymous

11:08

It's actually really interesting how much variation in toilets—or the lack thereof—there is around the world.

jimsug

Oh, I bring up the flush because it would probably make a big difference in water usage.

Anonymous

One of the surprises you get when traveling, I suppose :-)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat My old house has a squat one!

Anonymous

Yeah, well, we didn't manage to save any water this year in California.

Anonymous

We used more water.

jimsug

11:10

How strict are the restrictions?

Anonymous

Turns out, pretty much everyone used a lot less water, but Los Angeles used more. Enough that it more than made up for the conservation efforts across the rest of the state.

Anonymous

They're mostly strict on residential properties. They want to keep water costs low for businesses and especially agriculture.

Damkerng T.

Aww... LA is a big city.

tchrist

Agriculture is the main problem.

npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/04/16/399958203/…

Damkerng T.

Ah, I misunderstood the promo! They're rerunning Heroes from season 1, episode 1!

@tchrist Almonds?!

tchrist

11:16

They’re just one issue.

jimsug

We had some restrictions not that long ago:

Water restrictions in Australia

Water restrictions have been enacted in many cities and regions in Australia, which is the Earth's driest inhabited continent, in response to chronic water shortages resulting from the widespread drought. Depending upon the location, these can include restrictions on watering lawns, using sprinkler systems, washing vehicles, hosing pavement, refilling swimming pools, etc. Increasing population, evidence of drying climates, coupled with corresponding reductions in the supply of drinking water have led various state governments to consider alternative water sources to supplement existing sources...

tchrist

> people became increasingly critical when Gov. Jerry Brown instituted mandatory water restrictions on all municipalities, but spared agriculture this time around.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I just learned where 80% of all the almonds come from!

tchrist

Ah, you didn’t know. Yes. Although this has been growing in years to reach that figure.

Anonymous

I know a native speaker of Japanese who made a major breakthrough in English by obsessively rewatching the Heroes season one DVDs until he could follow everything. I don't think I'd be able to watch that show over and over without going insane, but… :-)

tchrist

11:20

Perhaps a younger person?

Damkerng T.

@snailboat This could a good opportunity for me, because iirc, I still had to read the subtitles when I watched Heroes Season 1.

jimsug

I bought a French Heroes comic book a while back.

Read it over and over.

Damkerng T.

So I decide to watch it without looking at the TV. :D

jimsug

A lot easier than trying to read Harry Potter (in French), which I still have not managed to do.

Damkerng T.

It's 7 volumes!

@jimsug What would happen to swimming pools when it's at level 2 or 3?!

jimsug

11:23

@DamkerngT. They'd have to have a licence.

Damkerng T.

Hey, I can make out some short phrases in Japanese in Heroes too! :D

@jimsug A-ha!

Oi, Sapoku <something>!

ASR

11:40

@DamkerngT. thank you for your support

Damkerng T.

Um... okay! (I think)

Damkerng T.

13:00

Hmm... it looks like our mods are now very keen on deleting comments. Many of the deleted comments are useful, more or less, imho.

We're going to lose a lot of gems.

Damkerng T.

13:31

0

Q: What's the difference between I have to get to I have to go to?

I know when to use them however I can't really explain why. Will you help me?

untagged

I wish our OPs would be more specific about their questions.

"get to" or "go to" what? or who?

A generic question will get generic answers at best.

ASR

@iKlsR hi

ASR

14:03

@DamkerngT. thank you for your help.

Anonymous

I don't think I've had any comments of mine deleted recently.

Anonymous

I'll know if any disappear because I've got exactly 3000 of them :-) But if they do disappear, that's okay—they're just comments

Anonymous

I'm not overly attached to them. Honestly, I leave too many comments as it is, so sometimes I go back and try to clean some of them up…

user116848

14:38

I learned a new slang word today: Yowza.

user116848

An interjection it seems.

Damkerng T.

16:32

0

Q: The movie "can't/couldn't"/shouldn't" be good.It is directed by novice

The movie can't/couldn't/shouldn't be good.It is directed by novice. My approach: I am confused between shouldn't and can't. Shouldn't because i am sure the movie isn't good because it is directed by novice. Can't because there is a possibility that movie can't be good.