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00:00 - 21:0021:00 - 00:00

Anonymous
00:42
"Unstar as interesting" is okay
Anonymous
Think of it like this:
Anonymous
Un-[ star as interesting ]
Anonymous
[ unstar ] as uninteresting
Anonymous
The question is, what is the semantic scope of the negative un-
@snailboat Though it's understandable, reading it as "Un-[ star as interesting ]" is still a little weird to me.
Anonymous
00:46
That's fair
Anonymous
To me personally it lacks weirdness
Anonymous
But I'm a weird one myself :-)
Anonymous
So who knows how reliable my judgments really are?
Apparently, tchrist also thinks it's perfectly okay, so I think it's probably the normal reading.
Anonymous
00:47
Yeah, that's my intuition
Anonymous
I dislike the idea of adding a second un-
Anonymous
It changes the semantics subtly, anyway
Anonymous
See, with un- [ star as interesting ] (and let me be very clear, this bracketing is only semantic, not syntactic; in terms of grammar it's a prefix attached to only one word), you get the idea that you're undoing the operation [ star as interesting ]
Anonymous
You aren't necessarily saying the message is uninteresting.
nods -- And this happens in a language that double negation is common!
(It ain't do you no good!)
Anonymous
00:51
So in terms of user interface, I think the way it is is more appropriate than the grammatical but marked and semantically less appropriate unstar as uninteresting
Anonymous
Your example is negative concord
I think maybe saying "unstar as uninteresting" would sound wrong because we don't really think of the message as "uninteresting" when we unstar it.
Anonymous
Yeah, it's not as appropriate
nods
But I was thinking of something like "unstar the message" or perhaps simply just "unstar".
Anonymous
01:15
That works, though I think it's best the way it is
Anonymous
Since this way we have the idea that we're undoing the operation "star as interesting"
Anonymous
I decided Man from India's question is tougher than I thought
Anonymous
My initial attempts at explaining it don't hold up when I put them to closer scrutiny
@snailboat I think it's also related to another kind of patterns.
> She's playing volleyball.
> She's playing I think volleyball.
Anonymous
I think that we could explain it in terms of a limited range of clauses literally expressing indeterminacy, implying something like 'to such a great extent it is unknowable / difficult to know exactly', and we can say that this class of clauses substitutes for various phrases that they're semantically aligned with
Anonymous
01:17
That's different
Anonymous
That's only possible if I think is a parenthetical
nods -- Just related.
Anonymous
Whereas there is no parenthetical in these
> I've been waiting for so long.
> I've been waiting for I don't know how so long.
Anonymous
> I've been waiting for [ I don't know how long ___ ] .
01:19
> I've been waiting for... I think you know how so long.
Anonymous
Syntactically there's no relationship to the sentence with so, I don't think
Anonymous
It's just a paraphrase
Yes.
I mean they're just something I think can work in the same position of a sentence.
Anonymous
You can write that as "I've been waiting for { I don't know how / so } long."
Anonymous
01:22
Linguists use that notation sometimes
Anonymous
> That's the girl { who / that / *∅ } ate two pounds of spaghetti in one sitting.
Anonymous
(The third option is grammatical in some non-standard varieties of English)
Anonymous
Maybe I could mark what and zero as non-standard with exclamation points :-)
user116848
01:44
It is morning here.
user116848
I don't normally come at this time of the day, looks different. It is quiet.
02:30
Puzzle of the Day 20150509 (from ELL): dropbox.com/s/96s2qmbcn0dmxt2/…
 
5 hours later…
07:05
@Lamart I think it is correct "unstar as interesting" means it it not interesting so unstar it.
 
2 hours later…
08:46
0
A: Why can adjectives like "cool" and "stupid" and the adverb "proudly" modify the verb "play"?

Kyle StrandI disagree with the answers stating that "cool" and "stupid" are used as adjectives here. If someone "plays it cool," that person might be a "cool" person, but that is not what the sentence is saying. And "cool" can't be a predicate adjective because "play" is not a linking verb! Moreover, the f...

:D
09:05
Do an image search on the web for "baby hold on arms" and "baby hold in arms" -- so I tried. I also checked out the Google image search results of baby hold on arms to see the text, and found that most of the time it's "in arms" or it's only about "baby" not really about "arms" (I wonder how much Google would care about in or on in such a search), and when I found "on" close to "arms", it usually is about the baby's arms, not the arms of someone who's holding the baby. This Google Ngram search also suggests the opposite of "basically the same", imho. — Damkerng T. 22 secs ago
Prepositions are hard.
@DamkerngT. Hi!
Hi!
Welcome back!
Thanks.
How is going?
How's it going? It's going quite well. Thanks! What about you?
I am doing great.
09:14
Glad to hear that!
I am sorry, yesterday, I needed to leave. So you want me to choose any Hollywood star and try to copy his accent to learn the American accent?
Hollywood actors are fine. It doesn't have to be an actor, anyway. Just someone you can have a lot of his (or her) samples would be fine.
I understood your point.
Anything else you would like to add?
So I guess you already have someone in mind, right?
@user62015 Oh, a lot. But let's take it step by step.
I will choose. At present I don't have anyone in mind. Do you have any suggestion?
09:19
I think today we could review yesterday transcription together for a bit, then you tell me about the accent model you chose and we take a look at his voice together, and then we can discuss how the drills (or the practice) would be like. Does that sound good?
@user62015 In theory, he should be someone who has about the same voice as yours.
Sure. Sounds good. Please go ahead.
It's usually easier to pick someone around the same age, same height, and not talking too fast.
(I picked Tom Cruise when I started.)
Okay.
Have you compared the original transcription with yours?
I am 24. I watch movies but not that much and honestly I do not care about stars' names.
Let me ask you something?
09:22
Yes?
Does your accent sound like an American or it comes from your local language?
I don't really aim to have 100% American accent, but I model my accent after AmE, which is entirely different from my first language.
There are two main goals in doing this.
Okay. Let me know them?
One is to make it a bit easier for other people to understand what I say.
try dubmash might help to learn accent with fun(If I get correctly what you both are talking of)
09:25
The other is to develop my ears.
@user62015 Robots can talk in any accent
Checking the link.
Basically it is app
One request but it is not something I want to test you like that. But I would love to listen to your accent?
Sorry, my browser just crashed.
09:27
That's fine.
2 mins ago, by Freddy
@user62015 Robots can talk in any accent
Sure. I posted my reading aloud here too.
@Freddy I agree.
Apr 28 at 4:19, by Damkerng T.
Today I read... Maleficent's intro!
Checking
09:30
I evaluate myself as 75% AmE, 15% BrE, 10% Thai English.
Which reflects throughout in both my spoken and written English.
Sounds good.
Apr 21 at 0:07, by Damkerng T.
Just for fun reading: https://www.dropbox.com/s/hlkwq5opw1ka7m0/20150421%20Guy%20Noir%20Apri%2018%2C%2‌​02015.mp3?dl=0
my internet takes 4 min to download that!!
@user62015 I suppose that I'm not really good at voicing children's stories. Kindergarten teachers would be better than me. :D
@DamkerngT. Listening to it but you sounded good.
09:33
Thanks!
You accent is so sharp compare to other people from your country who also speak English.
Great Job!
Apr 19 at 14:52, by Damkerng T.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/5ombkq7b7vyn83y/20150419%20-%20Ch.%206.6%20Everyone%20‌​is%20Important%20%28friendly%29.mp3?dl=0
Downloading.
@user62015 Both should come together, accent and listening. Improving one thing will improve the other. Good ears really help.
I agree.
it is awesome.
I would like to call it much better than last one! It was much clear.
09:40
Thanks!
You have worked harder a lit.
lot*
It was not easy to complete.
nods
I think, generally, our ears would be a little ahead of our accent.
Ears let us know how to perform it, but knowing it and performing it aren't exactly the same thing.
I agree.
Oh, I wanted to ask Freddy a bit more about that app.
My browser crashed when I clicked to open that app's homepage.
But its name sounds like something you could use in our drills.
Anyway, let's better have a look at the transcript. :-)
You can check your listening (we will focus more on accuracy of the sound your ears can catch not the comprehension) any time yourself. (In case you transcribe something and want to see how much you've progressed.)
23 hours ago, by user62015
@DamkerngT. Here we go: Good Morning! I am Nama Tame. I am sweeping the shelf epic (not sure about this part) traffic jam yesterday ..... one couple stuck on a free way a different kind of jam. Their unborn baby wouldn't wait to the hospital. So the father and local police officers helped to deliver the baby girl right there in the middle of afternoon rush hours. Mother and baby ultimately made to the hospital and 'yes' their are doing fine. Its morning edition.
22 hours ago, by Damkerng T.
> Good morning. I'm Renee Montagne. Snow and ice sweeping through the South caused an epic traffic jam yesterday around Atlanta. One couple stuck on the freeway found themselves in a different kind of jam. Their unborn baby wouldn't wait to get to the hospital. So the father and a local police officer helped deliver the baby girl right there in the middle of afternoon rush hour. Mother and baby ultimately made it to the hospital, and yes, they are doing fine. It's MORNING EDITION.
To check the accuracy, count only words that you can hear correctly the entire word.
For example, your officers doesn't count even though you was able to hear "officer" correctly, because he original is officer, no s.
@DamkerngT. I have to leave now. I am so sorry. I will ping you soon. May I leave?
09:50
"free way" is considered correct, because you can hear it correctly. (We don't care much out spelling and punctuation in our listening drills. Sounds are more important.)
@user62015 Okay! See you later!
I agree. Thanks. See you soon.
That was how I counted your result as 62 correct words (out of 84 words in the original).
10:27
For the lack of other stuff to read, I read the news!
@DamkerngT. Have you heard of MVA?
microsoft virtual academy
Nope.
It's about Microsoft Technologies, I think.
they are trying something like Khan Academy
10:40
Wait, but Khan did general stuff, like math, science, etc.
this general in science like HTML, python, etc
not as good as KA
@DamkerngT. Where did you learned programming
Mostly by myself.
Our teachers mostly just assigned challenging stuff, and we had to learn it on our own. :-)
It was something like developing an n-way terminal-based talk program in C, and we had 3 weeks from knowing nothing at all about C to finish the project. :-)
After our presentation, our teacher would give us the tip that a good solution to the spec out there was "ntalk" (which is the predecessor of Kntalk, I think), and "ntalk" had been implemented in shell script!
It was good old days. :-)
@Freddy How many courses have you tried on MVA?
10:52
Hi! @barznjy
Welcome to the room!
@DamkerngT. Thank you. I have a question
What's the question?
Could you please tell me if this sentence is grammatically correct?
Which date and time is convenient with you, so that we can discuss my work.
Anonymous
Word of the day: boustrophedon
@barznjy Hmm... I'd recommend the other room for sentence correction. chat.stackexchange.com/rooms/7227/english-language-learners -- But it looks about okay, informally to me. I'd change a few words, if I were to say it, though.
@snailboat Oh! Oxen-ploughing direction!
10:57
@DamkerngT. change what ?
@barznjy First, I would use what instead of which.
And I might change so that.
@DamkerngT. Great
@DamkerngT. only 1 video on python(on MVS), sorry there is problem with my wifi!
@DamkerngT. What date and time is convenient with you, in order to discuss my work.
@Freddy Ahh... How is it? Is it as good as Khan Academy?
@barznjy That should work.
11:01
nope it is boring 2 people like news on news channel explain the stuff. I thing it is good if you know nothing about programing
by nothing I mean don't know how to print "hello world"
@barznjy I might say, When would it be convenient for you to discuss our work/project/matter/etc.?
@Freddy Oh, no!
@DamkerngT. Yes, I think this one is more polite
 
2 hours later…
12:53
@snailboat Which programming language you like the most?
 
2 hours later…
14:42
No one's here again!
Moin!
14:52
@Choko hola
 
2 hours later…
16:49
0
Q: 'meaning' vs 'semantics' : Closed as a duplicate despite my explanation of the distinction?

Law Area 51 Proposal - CommitI wrote about the distinction between the two posts in the first sentence, yet why was 'meaning' vs 'semantics' closed as a duplicate?

 
2 hours later…
18:19
@Choko Morning!
0
Q: Please help me understand what the man said at 5:13 in this YouTube video

Sono FollowWhat are the transcripts at 5:13 of this YouTube video "What Would You Do With A Lost Wallet" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haJDju3LafU)? What I heard are: 5:13 That never happened. ??? that never ever happened. Many thanks.

Aww... listening questions on ELL are unpopular!
18:36
@DamkerngT. will that be closed, because that is not kind of SE question
I don't know!
It's unclear if they really want to practice listening or it was a one-time thing.
Oh, I see. They've posted a handful of listening questions!
We'd better tell them about this room!
Yes I think I will leave comment there
@Freddy Oh, okay! Thanks in advance!
I was about to write "thank me later"! :D
BTW your welcome
@DamkerngT. From where did you learned programming basics?
@Freddy Oh, from a very thin book!
Wait, do you mean BASIC the language or basic concepts of programming?
18:46
basic concepts of programming
The thin book was about BASIC. I think I learned most of the concepts through trial-and-error.
Also, seeing other people's code helped.
It should be easier today. Someone should've pulled all those basic ideas together and put it succinctly enough.
The OOP is useful, the patterns are also useful, though all of those could come by naturally, without being taught.
I've been asked a lot of times, what's the most important thing in writing code?
I usually replied, make it readable.
Yes that what I try while writing code, make it readable
even largest code I have written is of 60 lines in python
but almost every line have comment
Oh, I have one tip about comments (in code): don't repeat your code in comments
print 'Hello, world!'   # print the greeting "Hello, world!" message
^Not recommended!
18:54
ohh okay...
This could be better (if we choose to comment print 'Hello, world! by any chance):
# Let's greet our user!
print 'Hello, world!'
I normally do something like...
if value > largest_so_far: #condition for printing largest number
That's good.
It could even be better if you write something about "why" you have to do that if.
Basically, good comments usually fall into one of the two categories.
One is "what (it's that) we are doing here". This is a good kind of comment when our block code is a bit too complex to read.
The other is "why we do it". This explains the reason why your block of code is necessary in the first place. It will allow you to glance through your long code much more quickly.
^Hmm... maybe I shouldn't've edited it, but what's done is done.
Also, good names reduce comments.
Okay so it all depends on what we are coding. Means if it is bit messy or sort of we can explain "why" I have done that, and if it is complex then "what" have I done
nods
Often enough, you can avoid writing comments entirely if you have good code design and naming convention.
For example,
if isTokenGoingToBreakOurGrammatron(lastToken):
    ...
:D
See, there are multiple levels of "readability", but I think you're on the right path!
19:05
if is_Token_Going_To_Break_Our_Grammatron(lastToken):
i prefer it like this
Yes, if you like underscores better.
Any convention is fine, as long as it's consistent.
Thanks for advice
My pleasure!
You know I wanted to learn programing from about a year as my brother is programer, but i was not able to figure out from where to start.
@Freddy I think I learned programming like some of us who learned to swim by jumping (sometimes involuntarily :-) into the pool.
19:10
Then I went to conference(my profile pic is of that conference) and found out from where ever I start it is basically same thing
Once you're in the pool, all you need is to stay afloat and stay in the pool as long as possible. And before you know it, you will be able to swim!
@Freddy Nice!
@lepiment hola
Oh, I didn't know @lepiment is here. Hello!
19:15
^^ I like this type of GIF by google(this one is for mother's day)
Me too!
Today I did not found @MARamezani around!!
Hmm... Maybe there's an exam or something.
I think exam is old method to evaluate students capability, It does not work now
Oh! What should we use now?
curious...
19:23
I think we should ask student what he wants to do. say student say he want to draw stuff...
Then he should be given some time
and after that ask him to do the best he can
A-ha! Learner-centered teaching! I see.
Yup
Agreed, though I feel like we need teachers who know how to do it right.
because in current system we students are learning stuff only for exams
including me
@DamkerngT. Yes that is must
and I think we have that
nods -- I always feel a bit sad when someone says they've been learning English because they're going to take a proficiency exam somewhere soon.
@Freddy Yay!
19:28
@DamkerngT. and it is not students fault, it is drawback of system
even if you don't know anything you will enjoy this
Cool!
Hey, what's the 71th element again?
Lutetium
i guess
Hello everybody. I finally have found how to post \o/
19:32
Oh, it's pronounced "lew-TEE-shee-uhm"!
@lepiment Hooray!
yes
@lepiment great :)
It sounds like "lew-TEE-see-uhm" to me in the clip.
(And I thought it was pronounced "lew-TEE-tium"!)
Yes, I think "loo-TEE-shee-uhm" is correct.
Sorry to interrupt. I didn't know it was pronounced like that ^^ Happy to see I can learn things on a chat
19:36
Hehe! Brought to you by our Freddy!
@lepiment Do you like chemistry? :)
I'm off to eat something. BBL
@DamkerngT. Bye
@Freddy in a certain measure, yes :) but when it comes to enthalpy calculations, I lose interest
see you later
19:39
Bye
I HATE it. @lepiment
What classes are you in ? (is this english?)
*What studies do you follow
*What do you do in life?
Can't phrase it properly, sry
I am in 12th class studying science(physics, maths and chemistry)
never mind
What about you? @lepiment
@Fantasier hola
Hola todos!
@Fantasier from context I think "todos" mean everyone ,Am i right?
19:45
Yes. I thought you knew Spanish?
I'm in my first year of superior studies (in France, I don't know how i can't describe it). It's right after baccalaureate. The people of my promotion are 19, if it can give you an idea. I don't know what twelfth year is in france. Does that mean you're 16? @freddy
No, hola is only word I know
Me I know conchita
Although it is for sure spelled otherwise
@lepiment Yes I am 16 years old.
19:47
@DamkerngT. This is so funny. Found in a linguistics "dissertation" on Thai noun phrases (at HARVARD). I think thùuk ("ถูก") is simply unacceptable that way. This sort of proves a point you made long ago about foreigners, even linguistics professors, knowing very little about Thai. In case you're interested: linguistics.berkeley.edu/~jenks/Research_files/Jenks_2011.pdf
Aah, in the UK? @freddy
Nope, India
@lepiment after baccalaureate means Masters?
No, « Baccalauréat » is the high school end diploma in france. How do you call it in india ?
Oh i thought Baccalauréat means Bachelors
We call it HIgh school
Well I thought it could be translated into baccalaureate x) (for obvious reasons I think)
So, @Freddy, is english your native language?
19:57
Not really. But I normally use english(as in studies)
my native language is "gujarati"
Interesting!
@Fantasier you mean "Gujarati"?
Yes indeed
@Freddy Yeap. Wikipedia says only 4.5% of Indian population speaks Gujarati.
I really have no idea about multilingualism in India. Do you have to study Hindi as your second/third language? @Freddy
yes 2nd language till 10th class(if you choose science stream)
and don't forget population of India is 1.252 billion (2013)
20:02
So is Hindi a lingua franca for indian people?
Oh right lol. I guess your country is coming for China's position on the population ranking.
ahhh yes if you go to northern part and no if you go to southern pat @lepiment
Anyway, it's pretty late here. See you all again later. Adiós~
@Fantasier I think in reality we are ahead from china.
@lepiment Surprisingly south Indian people don't know how to speak Hindi
@freddy well wikipedia says China first, dated yersterday
although it is from a world population clock estimate
20:07
That's on paper. It is not easy to count population.
So how do you communicate with south indian people? Exclusively in english?
In english
my maths teacher is south Indian
aha I guess it might not be easy to follow math classes in englsih
I study all subjects in English
Ah ok
your country really has funny language learning policies
20:11
yes. We have 3 different schools.
1. English medium
2. regional language(gujarati in my case)
3. Hindi medium(very rare)
we need to choose any one
Ah ok
So how many language can you speak? @lepiment
@StoneyB hola
hej @stoneyB
I can speak french (native) and english (proficient), and I'm learning german, italian and swedish.
Good whatever-it-is-where-you-are, folks.
It's late evening for me ^^
@stoney
20:16
@StoneyB what does that exactly mean??
mid-afternoon, here
1:46 am over here
The magic of the internet
@Freddy We're all in different time zones, so I can't just say "Good afternoon", which is what it is here; so I substitute "whatever-it-is-where-you-are" for "afternoon"
We are on 3 different continents and still here we are
@stoney you must be living in america
20:18
@StoneyB Oh great, good evening
Practically dead center of the US.
@stoney Kansas?
Almost -- Missouri. You would be in India? Mumbai, perhaps?
And lepiment in France? (Just a guess, from your handle.)
Yep ^^
A hot fellow, then!
20:26
How could you guess x)
@DamkerngT. Hail, DT, King of the Learning Cabin
@StoneyB I am from Jamnagar,Gujarat
@lepiment Google makes it easy to appear to be polyglot!
@StoneyB Hello @Stoney! I'm no king though. I'm just a learner!
@stoney Hehehe aren't you learning french?
@damker Hello!
20:29
Hello! I'm back!
@DamkerngT. Aren't we all?!
@StoneyB Perhaps!
@DamkerngT. how many TB of English you have stored till now?
(Well, a few of us aren't. Naming no names.)
@Freddy Hehe! Let me check my memory bank... :-)
20:30
Oops! My oven alarm just went off--I have to go finish making dinner. 'Night, all!
Good night! @StoneyB
@Freddy It's hard to count... Let's say I think approximately it's equivalent to a couple thousand movies.
@stoneyb Good night! I too have to go. I'm hungry. Good night everyone !
Good night!
Everyone have gone to sleep too early. So I think I will also go(it's 2:10 am over here). BYE EVERYONE
Good night!
20:52
@Fantasier Thanks for the paper. -- It's unacceptable indeed (or at least very, very artificial, like something we might find in some literal translation works). So, graduate, quick!, so you can write papers that will right it. ;-)
00:00 - 21:0021:00 - 00:00

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