English Language Learners

Anonymous

16:00

I don't know what it is about glottal stops, but something makes people want to call all sorts of things glottal stops :-)

Damkerng T.

Hehe.

Glottal stop is one of the dominant features in Thai.

Anonymous

We have a few of them in English, too.

Anonymous

Like in uh-oh!

Damkerng T.

Ah, yes.

Oh, then how do Japanese people pronounce uh-oh?

Anonymous

And of course, some dialects have partial or complete glottalization of /t/

Anonymous

16:04

You know, I don't know the answer to that question.

Damkerng T.

^^

I guess when they write a-a-a-a-a in Japanese manga, I guess it would mean a continuous sound.

Like English's "Ahh..."

Anonymous

a-a-a-a-a meaning あああああ? あ～～～～? ああぁぁあ！? :-)

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure. It's a sound effect. :-)

Anonymous

Well, I can't interpret "a-a-a-a-a"

Anonymous

You would have to tell me what is actually written for me to understand

Damkerng T.

16:07

But they all look similar, perhaps あああぁぁぁ...

Say, like in a scene where someone is about to be killed.

Anonymous

Well, the problem isn't imagining something written. I can imagine lots of ways to write drawn out あ sounds :-) The problem is I don't know what you mean by writing "a-a-a-a-a"

Damkerng T.

Or maybe shocked by a ghost of some sort.

Anonymous

I gave a few examples above which would all be drawn out /a/ sounds

Damkerng T.

It looks like lots of あ all over. :-)

Sometimes with a long dash in between.

Anonymous

あーあ is not the same thing as あああああ

Damkerng T.

16:10

Hah!

Anonymous

Unfortunately, I can't really answer unless I can see the text you're talking about.

Damkerng T.

Couldn't find a good example on Google. :-)

Found one!

Anonymous

Uwaaaaaaaaaaaa

Anonymous

Oh, I want to find a particular webpage, but I can't seem to

Damkerng T.

crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2012/02/29/…

Oh, I can read it too!

Anonymous

16:16

Yay!

Anonymous

www13.ocn.ne.jp/~pilgrim

Damkerng T.

Oh!

This あ must be very important! :D

^^

Anonymous

That's got your あ with a long dash inbetween.

Anonymous

2

Q: What role does this it take?

He said that after murdering the magistrate, the Mafia looked for more targets. And it plotted to blow up the magnificent, ancient tower in Pisa. The Mafiosi were aiming to strike a major psychological blow at the height of their war with the state. . . . On the other hand, at about...

pronouns

Anonymous

I added an earlier paragraph to the question as additional context

Anonymous

16:20

> He said that after murdering the magistrate, the Mafia looked for more targets. And it plotted to blow up the magnificent, ancient tower in Pisa. The Mafiosi were aiming to strike a major psychological blow at the height of their war with the state.

Anonymous

It should be fairly obvious that it refers to "the Mafia" in that earlier example

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

It's not my sentence. I just did a proper grammatical transformation. I think the problem is that somewhere in the semantics, style, or word-choice by the original author was not the best. — CoolHandLouis 15 hours ago

Anonymous

:-/

Damkerng T.

Oh!

Anonymous

16:23

I have trouble seeing how they made that particular mistake

Damkerng T.

And I might add, I think the original sentence has the exact same problem of sense/semantics. It's only an illusion due to the "anticipatory it" that the original sentence seems to make more sense. In a similar example (not exactly the same), "It is raining." has no more sense then "Is raining." One may ask of the latter, "Huh? What is raining?" One doesn't ask that of the former only because of the "dummy it". — CoolHandLouis 14 hours ago

Anonymous

I think they're thinking about it too hard, perhaps.

Damkerng T.

I think this goes even farther away from the shore.

Anonymous

I'm sure if they simply read the article in its entirety they'd understand it.

Damkerng T.

Have you read that bullet biting question yet?

Anonymous

16:25

No

Anonymous

I haven't been reading most of the questions on ELL lately.

Damkerng T.

1

Q: What does "bullet biting" mean?

What does "bullet biting" mean here? Is it related to "Bite the bullet"? Union theorists have responded to this objection in several ways. Nozick (1989) seems to think of a loss of autonomy in love as a desirable feature of the sort of union lovers can achieve. Fisher (1990), somewhat more re...

meaning-in-context

This is the first time that I'm surprised by what J.R. commented.

Anonymous

Hehe.

Anonymous

I don't know that J.R's comment is necessary

Anonymous

It's a continuum of sorts. Meanings have fuzzy boundaries.

Anonymous

16:28

It's neither one nor three, strictly speaking. You can divide an overarching meaning into subcategories, if you like

Anonymous

But words, in real life, do not obediently sit in their assigned categories

Damkerng T.

Maybe I'm wrong, but I think this "bullet biting" refers to the way the claims were made, not what the claims implied.

Anonymous

Words straddle the lines between multiple "meanings" all the time. So I don't think it's especially useful to argue whether it's one general meaning or three specific meanings...

Damkerng T.

nods

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Can you explain that further?

Anonymous

16:31

I upvoted Maulik's answer

Damkerng T.

To interpret it very roughly and rather rudely, I think they (the writer) thought that both claims were lousily made.

Anonymous

Yeah.

Anonymous

Lousily, I guess, though that's not as common as lousy

Damkerng T.

Thank you. :)

Anonymous

It's a hard question.

Damkerng T.

16:35

I think it needs more context.

And I think Maulik's interpretation is off.

Anonymous

My attempt at rephrasing bullet biting: "Both of these claims seem like they're giving up, unnecessarily (espousing?) resigning themselves to a situation beyond their control"

Anonymous

plato.stanford.edu/entries/love

Damkerng T.

This is something not easy to read.

Unless one already knows much about philosophy, I think.

Anonymous

I'm not sure it's possible to know much about philosophy.

Anonymous

I think that, for the most part, there's no there there.

Anonymous

16:38

There's some really useful philosophy, though.

Damkerng T.

Sounds like Soble was ridiculing the work of Nozick, Fisher, and Solomon.

Anonymous

This bit of philosophy, for example, I think is hollow.

Damkerng T.

^^

Anonymous

I'm reading it.

Anonymous

Yeah, I'm starting to feel like there is no precise meaning attached to the phrase, now.

Damkerng T.

16:47

I think the writer used that bullet biting to mean "oh, I just wanna get it done; I don't care how good it (the result) will be".

Anonymous

I don't feel like that's the case.

Damkerng T.

No?

Anonymous

I feel like it indicates unreasoned acceptance. It's not that they don't care, it's that they're failing to explain why it must be accepted in their defenses

Damkerng T.

That's true. I might speculate the sarcasm tone too much.

Anonymous

They're giving up too quickly and trying to say "well, it's okay that X", without successfully explaining why X

Anonymous

16:51

That's the most precise meaning I can manage to squeeze out of it.

Damkerng T.

Claiming X is true without explaining why X is true usually implies weakness.

I think. Maybe because they couldn't explain why X is true.

Anonymous

The essay is written in what is supposed to seem like a neutral academic tone, I believe

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Anonymous

Of course, it is criticism.

Damkerng T.

But I talked about the opinion from the "Union theorists" side.

(Perhaps philosophy is nothing but opinion. :-)

Anonymous

16:54

Well, ideally philosophy is connected to reality.

Anonymous

It's easy to stray further and further from reality when you're playing with words like that, though.

Anonymous

There are a few tethers to reality in the essay, but they all seem remarkably off to me.

Anonymous

> A person in a we might find himself coming across something interesting to read yet leaving it for the other person, not because he himself would not be interested in it but because the other would be more interested, and one of them reading it is sufficient for it to be registered by the wider identity now shared, the we.

Anonymous

Of course, it's possible that I've just never experienced that, or that I'm not capable of experiencing it

Anonymous

But this sort of borg-like identity . . . "Oh yeah, we read that book." "Oh, what did you think of it?" "Well, I didn't read it . . ."

Damkerng T.

16:58

^^

Anonymous

That's a bridge too far for me.

Anonymous

> On the federation model, a third unified entity is constituted by the interaction of the lovers, one which involves the lovers acting in concert across a range of conditions and for a range of purposes. This concerted action, however, does not erase the existence of the two lovers as separable and separate agents with continuing possibilities for the exercise of their own respective agencies.

Anonymous

This seems more reasonable, but it doesn't sound like it has much predictive value

Damkerng T.

Oh this reminds me of one sci-fi story.

Anonymous

Uh-huh?

Damkerng T.

17:01

Couldn't remember which one.

But it's about a place that all beings have three sexes.

To give birth to a new child, they need three, not two of them.

The roles are like, a mother, a father, and a parent.

Anonymous

The Gods Themselves?

Damkerng T.

Ah, yes. I think it is.

Anonymous

<3 Asimov.

Damkerng T.

Asimov? Or Clarke?

I already forgot much about its detail.

Anonymous

I do that, too. I'm good at forgetting fiction.

Damkerng T.

17:05

But I remember that it was a good read.

Anonymous

It's probably because I tend to sit down and read a book all the way through

Anonymous

I think when you spread out a book across a longer period of time, you tend to remember it better.

Damkerng T.

In my case, it's probably because I read it bit by bit, before the bed time.

Anonymous

Oh, I have found that I'm less successful in forming memories while I'm winding down to go to sleep.

Damkerng T.

^^

Anonymous

17:08

When I read books over a longer period of time, that's when I usually do it, actually.

Anonymous

I always read before I fall asleep.

Damkerng T.

Sometimes I woke up with a book still on my chest.

Anonymous

Well, almost always.

Damkerng T.

Sometimes, I found that I literally slept on it. :-)

Anonymous

Oh! When I was five I did that, but I tumbled about a lot in my sleep back then, and I ended up somehow ruining my favorite book.

Anonymous

17:10

I was very upset.

Damkerng T.

Oh, poor book!

Anonymous

It had mazes, you see. And I knew that I'd never get another copy of that book.

Damkerng T.

A popped-up book?

Anonymous

When I was five, I hadn't yet read much actual literature, apart from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and a few other similar children's books.

Anonymous

I don't think it was a pop-up book.

Damkerng T.

17:11

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland can be difficult for ELL. :D

Anonymous

Well, presumably I didn't understand everything in it when I first read it, either :-)

Anonymous

I read The Hobbit when I was six.

Damkerng T.

Wow!

Anonymous

And it got me so excited about books,

Anonymous

I worked through The Lord of the Rings over the next year or so with a dictionary.

Anonymous

17:13

It took me a long time. :-)

Damkerng T.

I think The Hobbit is too difficult for any six-year-old.

Awesome!

Anonymous

I don't think that's true. I think children can read a lot of things if they're motivated to

Anonymous

And those books turned me into a Reader.

Anonymous

I'm still quite fond of both :-)

Damkerng T.

Oh, with a big R. :-)

Anonymous

17:14

Yes, the avid sort.

Damkerng T.

A big and shiny R. :D

Anonymous

At that point, I still wasn't very good at communicating with other people, but I loved books.

Anonymous

I read through my mom's entire vintage SF collection.

Damkerng T.

Most books I read when I was young were picture books, sometimes cartoons.

Anonymous

I started with that sort of thing, but they were mostly boring.

Anonymous

17:16

The Hobbit has illustrations.

Damkerng T.

I think most of them are gone now.

Anonymous

At least, some editions do.

Damkerng T.

Oh, do you know that we have an interesting stat in Thailand?

Anonymous

What is that?

Damkerng T.

On the average, Thai people read 8 lines per person per year.

Anonymous

17:17

That's very few lines . . .

Damkerng T.

8 lines, not 8 books.

nods furiously

Anonymous

That would seem to imply that most people in Thailand are illiterate.

Damkerng T.

I don't know how they came up with that stat. I don't believe it.

Anonymous

It does sound far-fetched.

Anonymous

indexmundi.com/thailand/literacy.html

Damkerng T.

17:18

I think even farmers still read a newspaper sometimes.

Anonymous

unicef.org/infobycountry/Thailand_statistics.html

Anonymous

This says 94% literacy

Damkerng T.

> Learning materials at home 2005-2011*, Children's books , total: 43.

Anonymous

People with computers and internet connections read an awful lot of lines of text just by being online, I think

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Reading just one page online is already more than 8 lines.

Anonymous

17:21

Yeah. And I know people in Thailand have computers :-)

Anonymous

Probably not everyone. There are people in the US who don't have computers.

Anonymous

This has always been hard for me to understand since I've had one all my life.

Damkerng T.

nods

But there are public computers there too, I think.

Anonymous

I think so

Anonymous

In retrospect, I suppose you might say working through a book in my own native language with a dictionary is silly. Though I was little.

Anonymous

17:23

And I did the same thing in Japanese when I was older.

Anonymous

(Apparently against the advice of people who Know Better!)

Damkerng T.

@snailplane What is their advice?

Anonymous

You can eventually learn lots of words just by banging your head against the wall enough, though.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane That's true too.

Anonymous

Well, most everyone agrees that oral language has primacy.

Anonymous

17:25

Not everyone. But most everyone.

Damkerng T.

Yes. Me too.

Anonymous

And that we as human beings are suited to learn language primarily by hearing it.

Damkerng T.

Perhaps not.

Anonymous

When I was younger, though, I had a lot of trouble interacting with people by speaking.

Damkerng T.

Especially if we can't talk.

I see.

I think if I wanted to learn Latin, I might not need to learn its sounds.

Anonymous

17:27

And I can't remember those years before I could read, so it's always seemed natural to me to develop my linguistic ability (such as it is) by reading

Anonymous

I don't know.

Damkerng T.

If I don't have to care about speaking, I think we can learn that language by just reading/writing.

Anonymous

There are theories that state that when we read, we unavoidably subvocalize. It's critical (so I read) to comprehension

Damkerng T.

@snailplane I guess so.

Anonymous

The actual production of sound is inhibited, but there are measurable currents and such that tell us that the same vocal apparatus is being used when we read as when we speak.

Anonymous

17:29

And when they disrupt the process of subvocalization in studies, it interferes quite a bit with reading comprehension

Anonymous

But these studies have mostly been done in English.

Damkerng T.

How did they disrupt the process of subvocalization?

Anonymous

I have some references, but I don't remember off the top of my head, so I'll have to go dig them up

Damkerng T.

Anyway, I think that's an unfair test.

Anonymous

eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ481168

Anonymous

17:31

I'm not sure all of the research on subvocalization is conclusive.

Damkerng T.

I think it's can be understood simply intuitively.

Anonymous

It's controversial, you know. But the mainstream view in linguistics is that reading uses some of the same processes we use for speech.

Anonymous

Unfortunately, I don't have a link to the text in this book online: flpubs.osu.edu/catalog_details.cfm?PubKey=159

Anonymous

See chapter 2

Damkerng T.

Because we usually subvocalize doesn't mean that we have to.

Anonymous

17:34

In Japanese and Chinese, it's a more controversial point because many cling to the traditional view that we can go straight from what we see (kanji / hanzi) to meaning

Damkerng T.

But to most of us who usually subvocalize, disrupting we usually subvocalization process should have some kinds of effects.

Anonymous

DeFrancis goes so far as to call this the ideographic myth, the idea that characters are not primarily phonetic in nature

Anonymous

Another important data source is from deaf students.

Damkerng T.

I think this is like swimming.

Most of us need two arms and two legs to swim, right?

Anonymous

It's harder for deaf students to learn to read: muse.jhu.edu/journals/american_annals_of_the_deaf/summary/v147/…

Anonymous

17:36

@DamkerngT. You have a point. It doesn't mean that we have to.

Anonymous

It doesn't mean that we don't have to, though.

Anonymous

Or that we're capable of reading to the same level of ability without doing so

Anonymous

Research is necessary to show whether that's the case or not...

Damkerng T.

@snailplane That's probably true.

Anonymous

But we certainly don't have to assume that it is the case.

Damkerng T.

17:38

I think we can do best with what we've trained ourselves.

So, suppose that we have no legs, we must of course learn to swim without using our legs.

But for those who learned to swim with both arms and legs..

Anonymous

That does make sense. But someone who has legs may always be a better swimmer.

Anonymous

Whether the analogy holds at that level, I do not know.

Damkerng T.

they might be in trouble if someone immediately order them to swim without using their legs.

Anonymous

(I believe, though, that it may.)

Damkerng T.

Swimming is strange.

Do you know that those who have no legs can swim faster?

Anonymous

17:39

They made me swim in high school, though I couldn't swim.

Anonymous

They dumped me in the deep end of the pool, and then they had to pull me out.

Damkerng T.

Oh, what a bad experience!

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. No, I don't know anything about legless swimming

Damkerng T.

Really. I mean, legs are the big drag.

Anonymous

I had lots of bad experiences in high school. I wouldn't recommend high school to anyone.

Anonymous

17:41

Any motivated student could learn far more on their own in most subjects

Anonymous

And without all the psychological harm that comes from American public schooling.

Damkerng T.

Oh, that makes US schools sound really bad. :-)

Anonymous

They're terrible. I went to a "good" one.

Anonymous

I'm sure there are better ones out there, though.

Anonymous

On both the axes of education and trauma.

Damkerng T.

17:50

^^

I've heard some problems about education in the US sometimes.

Anonymous

We have a lot of bad schools.

Damkerng T.

Tuition fee is so high too, I believe.

Anonymous

Even when they're working properly, they're part of a system which (in my opinion) is not especially great for children.

Anonymous

Ah, for college?

Damkerng T.

I've heard about both pre-college and college level.

Anonymous

17:52

We started trying to send everyone to college, so we started subsidizing it, but of course the market reacted by raising tuitions in proportion to the subsidies

Anonymous

Then student loans were deregulated, so now prices can keep going up, but the loans are mostly usurious

Anonymous

It's a racket.

Damkerng T.

Most of them are privately held?

Anonymous

Yeah, it used to be different.

Anonymous

But because of the market distortions, a college education can now be a very expensive thing, and most students are stuck with the loan sharks

Anonymous

17:53

What's worse is how many students go to college without really learning anything

Damkerng T.

What about student loans by the government?

Anonymous

Sure, there are other reasons people go to college--for a piece of paper, to make connections

Damkerng T.

Learning and graduating are not the same thing.

Anonymous

Unfortunately it's true. I've interviewed a lot of candidates who had no clue about what they had their degree in.

Damkerng T.

LOL

(and feeling sad at the same time)

Anonymous

17:56

Well, on the one hand, you can make the argument that an education is not simply there for the purpose of creating well-trained workers.

Anonymous

Someone with a PhD in computer science may know a lot of theory but have no clue how to actually program anything.

Damkerng T.

That's quite true.

Anonymous

And you might hold that up as an ideal--they went to learn about theory, not become a code monkey

Damkerng T.

I know many PhD in com-sci here that don't care even a bit about programming. gasp

Anonymous

But on the other hand, these people aren't always really great with the theory, either...

Damkerng T.

17:59

I think it's similar to those architects who don't know what a real building should be like. :-)

Anonymous

Well, pragmatically speaking, what's a PhD to do?

Anonymous

Jobs in research and teaching are relatively limited compared to the number of PhDs that schools churn out.

Damkerng T.

To teach, perhaps. :-)

And try to request for funding to their made-up research.

Anonymous

Many, I think, get jobs doing things unrelated to their shiny pieces of paper.

Damkerng T.

PhDs here can make a good fortune by being a consultant.

Not that they really know how to do things themselves.

Anonymous

18:01

I have friends who are consultants. I've never been able to figure out what they actually do.

Damkerng T.

Consulting is a very vague word.

2

Anonymous

It's true.

Damkerng T.

18:23

wiki.d-addicts.com/Gegege_no_Nyobo

I watched it last year. A really nice story about a mangaka, his wife, and their struggling through their lives.

Anonymous

19:18

Oh, I should watch more dorama!

Damkerng T.

Have you wanted that one?

Anonymous

(I say dorama rather than use the English drama because the Japanese borrowing of the word is used slightly differently than the English original)

Anonymous

I have not

Damkerng T.

I can touch your heart.

Anonymous

Well, it's probably unfair to refer to English drama as "original". But it's at least originaller. :-)

Damkerng T.

19:20

He's a one-armed man.

Damkerng T.

20:07

Hmm... The name of the wife in the drama is Fumie.

I suppose that Japanese might never pronounce that e with glottal stop.

But how should we transcribe it, as [...]?

Anonymous

[ɸɯmie]

Damkerng T.

No glottal stop between [i] and [e], always?

Anonymous

Never.

Damkerng T.

Ah, thanks.

By the way, the actress is also a good pianist too.

Here is the theme song of the drama, and she played it herself.

►

I think you might like it. :-)

Damkerng T.

21:02

Let's continue with A Farewell to Arms.

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway.

Chapter 3

Damkerng T.

> When I came back to the front we still lived in that town.

> There were many more guns in the country around and the spring had come.

> The fields were green and there were small green shoots on the vines, the trees along the road had small leaves and a breeze came from the sea.

> I saw the town with the hill and the old castle above it in a cup in the hills with the mountains beyond, brown mountains with a little green on their slopes.

> In the town there were more guns, there were some new hospitals, you met British men and sometimes women, on the street, and a few more houses had been hit by shell fire.

> It was warm and like the spring and I walked down the alleyway of trees, warmed from the sun on the wall, and found we still lived in the same house and that it all looked the same as when I had left it.

> The door was open, there was a soldier sitting on a bench outside in the sun, an ambulance was waiting by the side door and inside the door, as I went in, there was the smell of the marble floors and hospital.

> It was all as I had left it except that now it was spring.

> I looked in the door of the big room and saw the major sitting at his desk, the window open and the sunlight coming into the room.

> He did not see me and I did not know whether to go in and report or go upstairs first and clean up.

> I decided to go on upstairs.

Damkerng T.

> The room I shared with the lieutenant Rinaldi looked out on the courtyard.

> The window was open, my bed was made up with blankets and my things hung on the wall, the gas mask in an oblong tin can, the steel helmet on the same peg.

Theta30

who is from Japan?Damkerng?

Damkerng T.

Not me. snailboat is a Japanese language learner.

I'm also a fan of Japanese TV dramas.

> At the foot of the bed was my flat trunk, and my winter boots, the leather shiny with oil, were on the trunk.

> My Austrian sniper's rifle with its blued octagon barrel and the lovely dark walnut, cheek-fitted, schutzen stock, hung over the two beds.

Theta30

21:20

what kind of Tv dramas? are them modern?

Damkerng T.

@Theta30 I like one from two decades ago, and another from a few years back.

Theta30

I watched a 1937 Japanee movie last weekend

Damkerng T.

Oh, what's its title?

Theta30

What did the lady forget? It's a comedy by director Ozu

you can find on Youtube

I wonder why snailplane chose Japanese

it's a difficult language I gather

Damkerng T.

Oh, it's a classic silent film.

I misunderstood it. It's not silent.

@Theta30 Every language has its own quirks, I believe.

Theta30

21:27

yeah close, but I guess among his first not silent

Damkerng T.

Haha! They translated Baka! as "Cheeky!".

Theta30

:)

and is not correct?

Anonymous

@Theta30 It seemed interesting. I don't know, it was a long time ago and I was young. I don't really remember.

Damkerng T.

@Theta30 I'm not sure. But in most dramas I watched, it's usually translated as "You fool!" or "You silly!" or just "Silly!". I think it's not an easy word to translate, though.

The way Japanese women laugh is very distinctive. :-)

Theta30

@DamkerngT. and I notice in the movie the way they walked

Damkerng T.

21:31

True. So true!

> The telescope that fitted it was, I remembered, locked in the trunk.

> The lieutenant, Rinaldi, lay asleep on the other bed.

> He woke when he heard me in the room and sat up.

Theta30

hehe Hemingwat again

Damkerng T.

Yup. :-)

Theta30

why Hemingway and not other author?

Damkerng T.

No particular reason.

I was provoked by a trailer of Silver Linings Playbook.

Theta30

ok continue

Damkerng T.

21:38

Feel free to interrupt. I'm not that serious. :-)

I tried to read it dramatically too.

> "Ciaou!" he said. "What kind of time did you have?"

> "Magnificent."

> We shook hands and he put his arm around my neck and kissed me.

> "Oughf," I said.

(That's a strange sound effect.)

Theta30

hmm I think Ciao is Italian

Damkerng T.

I think the setting is in Italian.

During WW II, perhaps.

Theta30

in Romania, in Transylvania people say Ciao but not in other parts of the country

Damkerng T.

The captain in the story did pidgin Italian. So he can't be Italian.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. What word?

Damkerng T.

21:42

Baka!

Anonymous

Oh, baka

Anonymous

Like most translation, the best answer probably depends on context...

Damkerng T.

It's a girl's talk.

►

~ 04:28

Their laughter: ho ho ho ho, ha ha ha ha, Ho Ho Ho Ho. :-)

Anonymous

Laughing like ho ho ho is traditionally thought to be more feminine than laughing like ha ha ha in Japanese, I think because it doesn't show the inside of your mouth as much

Anonymous

So people would cover their mouths when laughing, too

Anonymous

21:48

These days, that sort of laughter is sort of a stereotype

Damkerng T.

Hah! I didn't know that (about trying to hide their mouths' inside). :-)

In many dramas, I've seen Japanese women did this ho ho ho before some nasty acts. :D

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Q: How to identify the sound of an "A" without altering the spelling of the word?

I have the word "Carr" (short for the name Carrie). Is there a way to write the 'a' so that a person reading the word 'Carr' would pronounce it like care ('kær), opposed to pronouncing it like car (kɑr)? Something like Càrr, Cárr, Cãrr, etc...? This is for an English-Speaking company name. Th...

pronunciation letters vowels

I'm still unsure how to pronounce IKEA properly. :D

Anonymous

IKEA? Everyone I know pronounces it roughly like idea

skullpatrol

Ask a swede.

Damkerng T.

Here, on their ads, they pronounced it, E-KEA.

I was almost choked when I heard it the first time. :-)

Anonymous

Well, how it's pronounced in Swedish is likely different from how it's pronounced in English :-)

Anonymous

21:57

I don't know what pronunciation "E-KEA" is supposed to indicate.

Damkerng T.

@snailplane E as when we pronounce the letter E, and KEA rhymes with idea.

Anonymous

Wikipedia says IKEA (/aɪˈkiːə/; Swedish: [ɪˈkeːˈa])

Anonymous

So there you go, English and Swedish pronunciations.

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