Language Overflow

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Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

5:47 AM

Welcome to LO @guest!

1 hour later…

CopperKettle

6:48 AM

This shows that some individuals may have a particular neuronal activity pattern that may lend itself to better learning of a second language

Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ.

@CopperKettle Yes, my neutrons clearly make me superior.

CopperKettle

@Ϻ.Λ.Ʀ. Yes, you have the right chemistry for language, and the right language for chemistry.

4 hours later…

Damkerng T.

10:50 AM

Q: "Neither of the twin brothers paid attention to their (his?) studies"

Neither of the twin brothers paid attention to their studies. Neither of the twin brothers paid attention to his studies. I'm confused with the use of their or his in the above sentences. Are both correct? Please explain it to me. Thanks a lot.

pronouns

A good question!

(None of the ten sisters paid attention to her/their studies?)

Hi, @ShraddhaPatel!

And bye! I have to go out for a while. BBL -- See you when I come back if you're still here.

CopperKettle

11:12 AM

This is interesting:

Wasei-eigo

The term Wasei-eigo (和製英語, "Japanese-made English", "English words coined in Japan") refers to Japanese language expressions which superficially appear to come from English, but in fact do not. These words were originally borrowed loanwords deriving from English but have become so embedded into the Japanese lexicon that they are re-fashioned to create a novel meaning – diverging from its original intended meaning. An example of wasei-eigo is reberu appu (レベルアップ, 'level up'), which means "raise a level", the preposition being interpreted in line with Japanese word order as a verb qualifying its...

Damkerng T.

@CopperKettle Interesting! (I learned some Japanese words from the page, too!)

2 hours later…

Shraddha Patel

1:30 PM

@DamkerngT. Hello...How ru"?

Damkerng T.

@ShraddhaPatel I'm good, thanks! How are you?

2 hours later…

Damkerng T.

3:45 PM

Q: Differences "that" and "this" used to refer to something/somebody that has already been mentioned

Since both "that" and "this" can be used to refer to something/somebody that has already been mentioned, I am wondering whether there are any differences. In this situation, can "that" and "this" be interchangeable? For example: 1A. The weather in Seattle is different from that in new York. 1B...

word-choice pronouns

1A/1B are tricky!

That doesn't refer back to any specific weather, I believe.

3 hours later…

Damkerng T.

7:08 PM

Thanks for the edit! @snailboat

Anonymous

7:21 PM

Hello! :-)

Damkerng T.

Hello!

It's a rather slow day on ELL today, I think, but it's nice to see you there. :-)

Anonymous

I never realized level up was used in Japanese before it was used in English.

Damkerng T.

I can't remember where I heard it the first time. Maybe in some game!

Anonymous

Oh, that sounds very likely! :-)

Anonymous

There's actually a blog called Japanese Level Up, though I don't follow it.

Damkerng T.

7:28 PM

Hehe! The blog title makes me think of gaming now. :D

Anonymous

It's probably a useful thing if it helps people motivate themselves to study Japanese, though I remember finding some of the claims on the blog hard to believe.

Anonymous

The author said that they'd read hundreds of novels in Japanese and yet they'd never once come across certain kanji that I've seen probably tens of thousands of times, so my skeptical-dar went off.

Anonymous

I think it's a popular blog, though. I like the name!

Damkerng T.

Hah! That's a bit hard to believe.

Hmm... maybe they read the novels in English. :-)

or hiragana. (hehe!)

Anonymous

Gaming can sometimes work as a metaphor for non-gaming activities like studying, I think. You put time in, and instead of getting "experience points", you get actual experience and get closer to your goal :-)

Damkerng T.

7:32 PM

Hmm... I think you're right!

Anonymous

I guess it's a reverse metaphor, in that games were supposed to model real life activities in the first place, but for people who are more used to gaming than studying it could be a useful mental model.

Damkerng T.

I think most everyone under 20 may know games better than movies, even.

Anonymous

"I gained a level in reading kanji! I'm now up to 3000 characters in my Anki deck!" ← I think gamification works for some people.

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Anonymous

I like computer games.

Damkerng T.

7:36 PM

I haven't played those games for a long time. (Except things like Three last year.)

Anonymous

What is Three?

Damkerng T.

The JavaScript game recommended in EL&U chat room a year or two years ago.h

Anonymous

When I bought a new computer a few years ago I got some games. I like Civilization V! :-)

Anonymous

Is that the one with numbers on a grid?

Damkerng T.

I've heard the name!

Yes

Anonymous

7:37 PM

I played that!

Damkerng T.

Hehe!

Oh, it's called Threes, not just Three.

Anonymous

I like that you can play chess or Scrabble with people online.

Damkerng T.

Perhaps every board game is online now.

Anonymous

I never really learned to play Go.

Damkerng T.

I was told that they have Monopoly online, Risk online, even Backgammon online.

@snailboat Me either, but the manga was fun!

Anonymous

7:40 PM

I signed up for a Go site, but I haven't played there yet.

Damkerng T.

(Hikaru no Go)

@snailboat Ahh

Anonymous

I guessed that was the one you meant :-)

Damkerng T.

I can't remember now, how many dangs will you get when you start?

@snailboat Yes! It was a nice manga/anime.

Hmm... I should've spelled it "dan".

Anonymous

Hmm, I'm not sure, I don't know the rules, but in general you can think of kyū as negative numbers and dan as positive, with 0 being shodan

Anonymous

Some games don't use both kyū and dan I think

Damkerng T.

7:43 PM

Backgammon, perhaps? :-)

Anonymous

So on online sites I think you can see numbers followed by k or d

Anonymous

But I don't know where people start

Damkerng T.

nods

Have you tried arranging flowers (or whatever they call it)?

Anonymous

My friends sent me some tennis manga from Japan called Baby Steps

Damkerng T.

Oh, I think I've seen that one. Didn't read it though.

Anonymous

7:47 PM

And they sent me a book on hiragana and a book on kanji :-)

Anonymous

The hiragana book is ひらがな物語, which means 'The Tale of Hiragana'

Damkerng T.

Oh! Hmm... I was about to ask. Is it about the development of the characters?

Anonymous

Yes, it's a history of hiragana :-)

Damkerng T.

Nice! Must be quite interesting!

Anonymous

The kanji book is on unusual characters that are visually interesting

Damkerng T.

7:51 PM

I guess it's a thick book.

Anonymous

I'm excited! :-)

Damkerng T.

Yay!

Nihilist_Frost

8:06 PM

My mother always has problems with pronouncing the plural -s

she told me that when she was in school her teacher told her the rules but she didn't listen.

Damkerng T.

It turns out that it's better not to remember the rules in this case, for me.

Anonymous

Sometimes, though, if you've internalized the wrong rules and have trouble unlearning those and picking up the right ones intuitively, explicit instruction can be useful.

Damkerng T.

nods

2 hours later…