Language Overflow

mike

05:33

hello empty room :) o/

Damkerng T.

Hello! the empty room replied. :) o/

mike

haha

Damkerng T.

:D

QuokMoon

Good morning

Damkerng T.

Good morning!

QuokMoon

05:44

How you get winter bash hat 2016 ?

Damkerng T.

@QuokMoon Still haven't got one?

QuokMoon

No

Damkerng T.

Oh! Well, I suppose you can get some by using the main site more often. :D

Some hats have clear instructions how to get them.

Just browse this page: winterbash2016.stackexchange.com :-)

Some hats aren't easy to get, and there are some secret hats, too.

Sounds like a camp manager to me, but I don't know if there's any better term. I think there might be. -- Oh, sorry! I think I misunderstand your responsibilities! (I thought you were ผอก. :-) I'll delete this comment after a few minutes. — Damkerng T. 1 min ago

Being a ผอก is fun (apart from it being a quite responsible job).

Maybe his position is Supply Manager, but there might be a better term anyway.

QuokMoon

@DamkerngT. Yes .. and you earned winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/search-you-must hats.

Anyway congrats!

Damkerng T.

Oh, I did? It would be a nice hat. :-)

The hat I'm wearing is called Where in the World, BTW, and I don't know how in the world I got it!

Ah, I got a new hat, because of the site's effort, probably. :-)

@QuokMoon BTW, speaking of that hat, I hope you'll get one soon. :-)

@QuokMoon And I just got Search You Must indeed! Hah, you knew about this before I do!

1

Q: She visiting (?) my house, I was studying English

I felt this sentence that uses participial construction is unnatural but I don't know why. She visiting my house, I was studying English. Is that because of the verb, visit?I'm non-native speaker.

A really interesting question!

I think it must be about the semantics, but what exactly makes it weird?

My first attempt: because the main clause is the background?

QuokMoon

06:11

yes
it's already December 21st in the eastern-most time zones of the world (UTC+14).

I will get that hat at my timezone :D

53

A: What does the "Where in the World?" signify?

There is a list of secret hats on Meta Stack Exchange. Apparently, this hat is awarded The badge is already awarded now, because

Damkerng T.

@QuokMoon Nice! :D

@QuokMoon A-ha! Thanks for the answer!

Oh, Elementary hat! I want it!

QuokMoon

You already have nice hat winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/i-am-your-father.

Damkerng T.

@QuokMoon It's probably one of the easiest hats. ;-)

QuokMoon

Do you want this hat ? Let's ready to earn at 12:00 am of 1st Jan 2017.:D

winterbash2016.stackexchange.com/first-responder

Damkerng T.

Oh, yes! :-)

Let's do it together! :D

QuokMoon

06:25

Not possible your timezone ahead 1:30 hours .:D

Damkerng T.

They allow +-12 hours, so I think we can handle the timezone problem. :-)

QuokMoon

of course. Not sure at mid night usually I don't sleep late.:D
Anyway I will try .

Damkerng T.

In case we miss that midnight, we can still try it again in the morning! :-)

When the object of attention is out of focus.

Damkerng T.

08:51

0

Q: "I look forward to receiving your updates", is it right?

I look forward to receiving your updates Do a native UK speaker uses this kind of sentence holding for news from someone?

idioms email

Not sure about the BrE usage, but I would say I look forward to your updates already suffices.

(And 'I'm looking or We're looking forward to your updates' is probably more idiomatic.)

mike

Both seem fine to me

'updating' somebody by definition, implies that they are receiving something from you

Damkerng T.

nods

Damkerng T.

09:07

edition.cnn.com/2016/11/18/politics/…

^Something nice. -- It's a proof that kids these days still write!

CowperKettle

Good afternoon!

Damkerng T.

Good afternoon!

CowperKettle

> Determination of protein A content of Aspirin samples \\ Determination of protein A content in Aspirin samples (are they both okay?)

Damkerng T.

I think so.

CowperKettle

Thanks! I thought so too.

Damkerng T.

09:11

You're welcome! :D

CowperKettle

I'm thinking whether to go for a jog in -22°C

Damkerng T.

Go for it! :-)

If you bike in -30C, I think jogging in -22 would be fun. :D

CowperKettle

I bought a new 'thermal'.. I dunno what you call that. "Jumper"?

glissade.ru/catalog/show_909

Like this.

I'll try it out

this model

Damkerng T.

Looks nice! :-)

CowperKettle

10:29

@DamkerngT. It fared well.

I should have wore (worn?) four pairs of trousers instead of three though

My knees got cold a little

They sell special knee-warmers, I should buy a pair

Damkerng T.

11:27

@CowperKettle It must be very different, running in cold weather, but I'm glad you made it. :-)

CowperKettle

@DamkerngT. It did not fell much different from running in minus 15 C. I only had to wipe the layer of icicles from my eyebrows two times. That's not bad for a 40-min jog.

The tiny icicles were half-melted anyway.

on the eyebrows and eyelashes

Damkerng T.

nods -- I wonder in which condition it's more exhausting to jog, between cold and warm weather.

(That's probably not very idiomatic, but I haven't had my dinner yet anyway. :-)

user2684291

@CowperKettle Looks that way.

@CowperKettle wear/wore/worn In AAVE you can hear "wore" and "did" instead of "worn" and "done".

@DamkerngT. Do you eat English grammar books?

Damkerng T.

11:46

@user2684291 Well, no. :-)

But I can't think very well when my stomach is empty.

user2684291

@DamkerngT. ^^ I see. I'd opt for "...to jog: in warm or cold weather?" I'm not sure, however, whether there ought to be a comma after "warm".

Damkerng T.

@user2684291 I think it's fine without a comma. Thanks!

28

Q: How does immersion passively help with learning a language?

It's a commonly claimed idea that just by being surrounded by people speaking a language you can become familiar with it. Sometimes it's even claimed that this can occur without actively learning the language at the same time. Just by hearing someone talk, the language apparently can seep into yo...

reference-request immersion

I wish an answer to a question like this would be conducted scientifically.

But I suppose that the answer makes sense to most people. (It makes sense to me, too.)

user2684291

12:20

I don't know how it works, but it works. For example my younger brother essentially grew up by just watching TV (pretty much all day) in English. There were no subtitles, and he learned the language from scratch. You could hear him, for example, repeat words and phrases he heard on TV when he was in his room.

Damkerng T.

nods -- For me, imitation is king in language learning, and we can't imitate anything if we don't have any input.

user2684291

That's the only way to learn.

Damkerng T.

I suppose passive immersion works because it means the learner will have a huge load of input.

@user2684291 Yes. Hmm... what's that idiom? There are many ways to skin a cat, right?

user2684291

More than one.

However, I've noticed that his spoken English is somewhat limited.

Damkerng T.

He might be watching only a limited range of programs, perhaps?

user2684291

12:25

No, it's because he didn't have actual conversations, actual people to talk to, although he did talk (as I mentioned, repeating stuff).

Damkerng T.

Interesting

user2684291

Yeah, so he can't talk fast, but his pronunciation is similar to that of a native speaker of English.

Damkerng T.

I don't know how young he is. How good is his English compared to his native language in your opinion?

user2684291

I would say he's almost bilingual. He's 15.

Damkerng T.

nods -- Right at the border, I think!

Between still young and too old to acquire a second language intuitively.

user2684291

12:29

I've been learning English since I was 3, I think, and I'm no match to him haha.

Damkerng T.

:D

Maybe his not speaking fast is just his nature anyway. :-)

user2684291

He's a quiet kid, so something like that.

It's no surprise, since he grew up watching TV, y'know.

Damkerng T.

I wasn't very talkative when I was young either. I wonder if he's a late talker like me.

user2684291

I remember when I was in high school, I'd ask him to help me with grammar, it was kind of surreal.

I'm 21 now.

Damkerng T.

A TV buff who is good at grammar -- interesting. :-)

21... I guess it's your first year at work. :-)

user2684291

12:33

No, I'm a student.

Damkerng T.

Oh! Sorry, I guessed wrong!

user2684291

I have a friend in Canada, she speaks about 4 languages fluently/natively.

Damkerng T.

Nice! :D

user2684291

She lived in Israel until she was about 10, her parents are Ukrainian, so she speaks Ukrainian. She moved to Canada and learned English and French (she's lives in Montreal).

Whoops, she lives*

Damkerng T.

10 is still sufficiently young to learn a new language relatively easily, I think.

user2684291

12:39

Yeah, obviously.

Damkerng T.

Necessity is also an important factor. A friend of mine had taken a German course for a year and a half and he still wasn't quite confident with his German. His senior told him, it's already more than good enough, so he decided to fly there. Funny that after three years in Berlin, he forgot some common expressions in his first language. :-)

Took him about a couple weeks before his first language got back in shape. :-)

user2684291

What do you mean by "his senior"?

Damkerng T.

@user2684291 He was working as a doctor at a hospital at that time. His senior is like his supervisor, I think. I'm not sure about the official title of his senior's position.

user2684291

I see.

Damkerng T.

I think they graduated from the same U.

user2684291

12:46

I've been wondering about this weird sound coming out of my headphones now and again — I thought they're broken or summat — and just now I've realized it's the notification thing.

Damkerng T.

LOL

It's a feature of SE chat. You can turn it off, if you don't like the sound.

user2684291

Yeah... but damn. Haha.

My dad started working in Austria when he was about 28, and his German is pretty much perfect now, although he's been working there for 30 years. I think he had German at school as well. On the other hand, he has friends there that still speak their native languages, and know only a few words of German, despite living there for 30 years.

Damkerng T.

Maybe his friends don't need to communicate in German fluently to live there.

user2684291

They don't, that's the thing. It also tells you that just living in the country doesn't mean you're gonna learn the language.

Damkerng T.

Indeed

(Or you might be perfecting your gesticulation, if you're trying not to learn the language when living outside your country. :P)

user2684291

13:03

The aforementioned friend is a taxi driver.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... Taxi drivers need to talk with the passenger, too, don't they?

I can't remember how many times I used cabs in Germany. Maybe twice.

Hey, I might've used those friends' service!

user2684291

Yeah, I'm not sure. The service is kind of expensive here, so I don't use it.

Damkerng T.

Wondering how much time we do have before robots take over the taxi driving occupation...

@user2684291 Yeah, very!

You're living there, I suppose. :-)

user2684291

No, but taxis are pretty much the same everywhere. I don't use them in Austria either.

Damkerng T.

nods

Phrase of the Day: irreconcilable differences

Word of the Day: extenuating

Hanaa

15:37

Hi all!

I am a late talker too @DamkerngT. :D

@user2684291 Wow! I wish I had a friend like him or her to communicate with. ^_^

People who live in a foreign country without acquiring a second language are likely those who do not interact with the native citizens there. They prefer to stay with imigrants who came from the same country or have same origins.

So that they would use their first language .

user62015

16:17

Does it (work hard so that you may get good marks) sound fine?

@DamkerngT.

V.V.

17:37

"Could " is better imho.

!!wiki/chocolate

Ellbot

Chocolate

Chocolate /ˈtʃɒkᵊlᵻt/ is a typically sweet, usually brown food preparation of Theobroma cacao seeds, roasted and ground, and often flavored with vanilla. It is made in the form of a liquid, paste, or in a block, or used as a flavoring ingredient in other foods. Cacao has been cultivated by many cultures for at least three millennia in Mesoamerica. The earliest evidence of use traces to the Mokaya (Mexico and Guatemala), with evidence of chocolate beverages dating back to 1900 BCE. In fact, the majority of Mesoamerican people made chocolate beverages, including the Maya and Aztecs, who made it into...

V.V.

!!Translate/Дед Мороз

Ellbot

ru: Дед Мороз
en: Santa Claus

V.V.

!!translate/Ёлка

Ellbot

ru: Ёлка
en: Christmas tree

V.V.

17:50

!!translate/ель

Ellbot

uk: ель
en: ale

V.V.

No, dear.

CowperKettle

LOL

!!translate/Горі́лка

Ellbot

uk: Горі́лка
en: Vodka

V.V.

Funny

CowperKettle

17:53

(0:

!!wiki/Кіт

Ellbot

Кіт

Кіт (Felis) — рід ссавців родини котових (Felidae). У деяких старіших системах класифікації до нього зараховували всіх представників малих кішок (Felinae), проте зараз безпосередньо до роду відносяться лише кілька видів невеликих тварин, що мешкають у Євразії та Африці. Етимологія: праслов. *kotъ, можливо, запозичене з лат. cattus — прямо або через германське посередництво; подібна назва для кота існує й у неіндоєвропейських мовах (араб. qitt‎ — «кіт»), що дає підставу розглядати цю назву як давнє мандрівне слово суспільно-етнічних культур Європи й Азії. Найвідомішим представником цього роду є...

Damkerng T.

18:14

@user62015 It sounds like it's in another dialect I'm more familiar with. (It uses so that and may when it could've sounded less formal. It uses marks where I'd use grades.)

@Hanaa (^_^)

@V.V. Delicious!

independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/…

Hah!

V.V.

18:29

Evening, Dam.

Damkerng T.

Good evening!

V.V.

Entertaining

Damkerng T.

Oh, you're having a good time!

V.V.

Should it be myself?

Damkerng T.

I'm sorry. Where?

V.V.

18:37

After the verb. Entertaining myself?

Damkerng T.

Oh, I see! Yes, entertaining yourself is quite possible. :-)

V.V.

If I say it without the pronoun, is it different?

Damkerng T.

It will sound like something is missing, I think.

CowperKettle

@V.V. Yes, you cannot translate Russian развлекаюсь as entertaining

English verbs have no recursive suffixes akin to Russian ся\сь

V.V.

Thanks

CowperKettle

18:42

Russian word razvlekayus actually contains two words razvlekayu + sь (=**sebya**, "myself")

You're welcome!

Anonymous

That sort of paradigm leveling (should have wore) is common among AmE speakers and isn't limited to AAVE, although it's usually considered nonstandard.

user2684291

19:22

@snailplane Right, it's just that I heard it often in AAVE, although I don't have a very large sample. I've heard white Californians say, for instance, "should've went", "had my hair did", and other ungrammatical stuff.

Anonymous

19:40

@user2684291 Well, it's grammatical for those speakers.

Anonymous

So we might choose to say something like "non-standard" or perhaps "dialectal".

Stack Exchange

20:54

0

Q: Are questions about culture (as it relates to language) on-topic?

Specifically, I'm thinking about "politically correct" language, which is certainly a topical issue (what with the US election and Brexit vote) and one likely to land at least a few English Learners in hot water if they are unfamiliar with the cultural standards. For example, calling women "girl...

discussion

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