I think English language really has too many rules to be immaculate.

if you speak Chinese, there is no rule at all--you can speak in whatever way you like without being criticized ungrammatic.

I don't think English has that many rules; it's just that some are difficult to apply/spell out/understand(?). Like those about the perfect or articles. That's why immersion is necessary. Everything else is easy peasy Japanesey, squeeze the lemons... not really, but close; i.e., idiomatic and learned on a case-by-case basis (like prepositions).

Just came to wish you, people, Merry Christmas. Hope you are all ok.

@snailboat reading grammar is fine to me, but I tend to forget after reading. so every time when I need to use it, I have to recheck the grammatical guide to avoid error. It really takes time to do that, and sometimes I just have no time--I have other things to do. In the past I consider English grammar is some holy rule which must be strictly followed, but now I find a lot of texts violate grammatical rules--obviously not many people have time to check grammar for each word they intend use.

several days ago, I saw in the street there is a signpost writing "Let's going ...",... being likely to be "on green" or something similar I forget. (that signpost is mainly to tell people a day during a week is a green day, during when people should take bus, MRT, ride bike or walk.) Anyway, I think "Let's going ..." violates some grammatical rule--it should be "Let's go ..."

Word of the Xmas evening: gelastic seizure (a rare type of seizure that involves a sudden burst of energy, usually in the form of laughing or crying)

Amazing logic of the day: "Islam itself is already pretty close to atheism, rejecting all gods but one (Allah)"

@CowperKettle Any religion worth its salt will reject other religions as false. Nonetheless, the question is on point because Qur'an doesn't say anything earthly awaits those who reject Islam, and instead orders Muslims to never judge by someone's belief.

But I don't know if the same holds if you leave Islam.

Yep, looks like Qur'an says nothing about it.

(About the punishment – not the notion itself.)

The problem is that all the current implementations of Islam as a way to lead a people by means of governing a country have failed. Governments of countries like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, etc., do not follow Islam strictly (and as concerns contentious matters often go against it). They have their own interpretations, they don't always read the Qur'an but refer to other sources like Ahadith and some "scholars", etc.

That's why the asker is insisting on a political explanation, rather than a theological one (they presumably know what I said in my first reply above).

@THEGreatGatsby Hello. We usually discuss English here, so if you have any questions, feel free to ask.

thanks

is this channel only for english?

@CaptainBohemian What is MRT?

what is David Rubenstein said

42 sec

people would not recongnize me if my tie

and I am not sure after that

@CowperKettle Well, I can kind of understand that logic. That sentence just means what it means.

@userr2684291 Well I can say that it wasn't Islam per se that was implemented here

@userr2684291 Well, moving your ass around and yelling anti-Islam stuff will get you into trouble

But declaring "I'm an atheist" among a group of classmates doesn't gain you much hate.

@CowperKettle I KNOW RIGHT!

So, IOW, converting from Islam and publicly announcing it can get you a death sentence

So can a kilo of heroin

What the real truth here is that borders religions built around themselves for centuries are fading

Most Muslims, Christians etc. (basically any major religion I reckon) no longer follow most of the practices of their religion

Only the easier or more justifiable practices remain among few of the people as a result of the preachers too busy collecting funds than educating people properly

Goes without saying how "religious" the governments would really be

Just like the 'Socialist Nationalist' question in HNQ, it's just a barrage of label abuse

Only the hollow peel of religion remains and yet it's a very heated, trending topic

And that moronic assertion that "Islam is atheism with the exception of one God" is some neo-thinker's idea of being logical

Lincoln's murderer is innocent except for one case.

Hello @M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ are you feeling OK these days? Kidney working OK?

Hi @Jasp!

Yup, working like a charm! Thanks for asking. How're you doing?

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Well, my mental health is at its worst now, I am just hanging in there, hoping for some kind of miracle.

@JasperLoy Oh, well, try compounding

Do little things that you enjoy

It's not gonna improve all at once

Compounding? Never heard of that term.

Well I used it in a slightly different way than it's used

Oh OK.

Basically huge profit from small bits of work spread over a long time

You could try something that allows you to keep track of some form of progress

Exercise is a pretty good idea

Are you going to study chemistry in college? I forgot.

Pharmaceutics

But nothing's certain

Oh pharmacy.

Why not medicine?

I had a doctor friend whose wife is a pharmacist, and another doctor friend whose wife is a dentist.

Well my dream future is me making new medicine

???

@THEGreatGatsby Hi

can you check me question

video 42 second

Sorry, YouTube is blocked in my region

oo come on man

how comes why ?

are u from china ?

Iran

that guy told me dont post listening questions in stack exchange post in the channel

coming here and noone is answering my quesiton

Yep, blocked. Been loading for 5 minutes

ok so I will open another question in the stack exchange forum

if noone answering here

@THEGreatGatsby No one except me and Jasper has been on since you asked your question, and no one owes you an answer. This is the English Language Learners chatroom, for casual chatters and questions from time to time

sure sure

If your question is unfit for the site, someone in chat might answer your question, naturally because there are no strict rules here like the ones that govern the main site

does not help me much

I am searching a solution not obstacles

What I'm trying to say is your question might be deemed as too trivial for the main site

@THEGreatGatsby I believe he is saying "people wouldn't recognize me if my tie was fixed, but okay".

Or unfit in some other way, dunno. Haven't been active on main for quite a long time

@Alex Tigers are known for only short bursts of fast motion. They don't follow prey for a long time and thus they ensure they capture the prey.

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Oh, am I a tiger?

thanks

alex

@THEGreatGatsby You're welcome.

@Alex That was an elaborate way of saying "ohai lurker"

Or "stalker". Whichever you prefer

So you are the prey?

It's Rubenstein in this case

Man. Ruben + Stein. There's definitely not like 100000000 of those in the world.

how am I supposed to connect to this chat room from the iphone app?

I do not see any option I can see english Language learners

but I can not find this chat room

@THEGreatGatsby SE's iOS app? I think they didn't implement chat there

The apps ran out of fashion I guess

stack exchange yes

iOS is good for some quick and dirty review or voting, from what I gather

so any time I have to find the article where the guy is referring to the chat room

Android isn't good for anything and is kinda discontinued

I am doing around 90% of all questions and review on my iphone

@THEGreatGatsby You can bookmark the chat in a browser

let me do that now

right now I am at home so it is easy I am on my laptop

Feel free to look around, there are lots of chats

This chat has seen way more active days

People usually just add random opinions and questions nowadays

BUT, pretty awesome bunch of folks. Plus, you can get in touch with a mod pretty easily.

bookmarked and works

nice

And honestly chatting is probably THE reason my English hasn't declined in the past 4 or so years

but we are only 4 here

@THEGreatGatsby In the bottom right corner of the screen there's a "more" button.

When you click that, one of the options is "Open Chat".

That will open a list of rooms.

This room is currently at the top of the list because it is the most recently active.

Blurp

Now it's still the most recently active

a sec

doing several things on my 3 laptops so pretty busy now

ok thanks

I found it

seems to be hidden ...

would never tried to look for it over there

@V.V. The commas are spotless

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ I understand that's how some governments operate, but that's not what the religion says.

@userr2684291 Eh, it's so open to interpretation (like any other form of good artistic writing) that there is a wide range of conflicting actions justifiable

It doesn't need to be perfectly logical to fool the masses

The Arabs back then weren't really sharp at documenting things, and after the Prophet Muhammad passed away, they made up ridiculous excuses not to document what he really said and how he really lived

And 50 years later Mo'avieh hired some 'specialists' to make up Hadith, and they did it for 30 years

It's pretty dang hard to validate a claim attributed to him or the Imams, let alone tackle the interpretations that arise with them

Basically, it's a mess. I think the same doesn't hold for Christianity unless the medieval creativity of the church has had a larger impact than I imagined

Someone slap me so I go to sleep

@M.A.R.ಠ_ಠ Yeah but there's a clear path down a hierarchy of what you're supposed to believe your religion preaches when you're not sure.

For example, if what Muhammad did clashes with the Qur'an, the Qur'an wins.

I know things aren't always so clear cut, but from what I've seen, they mostly are, for all the major issues.

If the holy book preaches X, and everything points in the X direction, and then there's a verse which says something that's possibly hinting of something in some particular case that's in the Y direction... are you gonna say "Well, the book says do Y, so I'm gonna do Z as well because God himself obviously wants me to do that by extension..." – that's how you get sharia, by the way.

Unfortunately, as far as apostasy goes, things are as black and white as possible. The same re the treatment of non-believers. But of course, sharia in this case will observe a random tradition not even your prophet followed. Then it'll shore up its claims by Hadith... and that's how you get something completely different.

(From the main thrust of your holy book.)