English Language Learners

Jolenealaska

00:06

I owe the board an apology! @StoneyB and others. I am just now getting over being sick. I didn't realize that I had a fever. My MS addled brain doesn't handle fevers well, I get downright goofy. My dad called just to say "hi", and he recognized it right away. He told me that I wasn't talking like myself. I didn't believe him at the time. Now that I feel better, of course I realize that he was right.

So, If I said anything to you this weekend that seemed rude, please accept my apology. :( I didn't mean it.

Damkerng T.

Good evening! (or whatever that fits your time zone) @Jolenealaska

Jolenealaska

Almost evening (4pm) but I just got out of bed. As a matter of fact, I think I'm going back.

Damkerng T.

I'm sure if you did anything you said, I wasn't there. :-)

Okay, take care of yourself. Have a good rest.

Jolenealaska

I've deleted a few things. Later I will look harder. And yes, I need to go back to bed. I'll try again in a few hours to actually stay up for more than 10 minutes :)

CYA later!

StoneyB

00:23

Take care of yourself. Sounds like malaria to me - better have a stiff gin and tonic.

Damkerng T.

07:15

@ParthKohli Hello, nice to see you again. :-)

Parth Kohli

@DamkerngT. G'day, robot!

Damkerng T.

Hehe. I'm a robot with a heart.

How is your day?

Parth Kohli

Just came back from yet another tiring exam.

Thanks. How's yours?

Damkerng T.

It's rather okay. I was busy trying to find something I know I have but couldn't figure out where. :-)

How was your exam? (beside tiring)

Parth Kohli

It went really good, but I hate languages, as I told you.

Damkerng T.

07:19

I guess that it's not an English exam.

Oh, it's an English exam?

Parth Kohli

Oh, nope. It was a Hindi exam.

It's the language spoken here in North India.

Damkerng T.

Oh, I don't know Hindi. :D

I mean I know what it is, but I couldn't speak Hindi.

A grammar exam?

Parth Kohli

There's a kind of pattern followed here for all languages.

You get a whole textbook with many short texts.

They get taught and discussed in the class.

And you have to answer questions related to them.

Damkerng T.

Sounds like reading comprehension, I think.

Parth Kohli

Yes, except you don't get to read during the exam.

Damkerng T.

07:22

Or maybe critical reading.

Parth Kohli

I don't know, really...

But yeah, that's what it is.

There's a grammar and writing section in the paper as well.

Damkerng T.

In my school days, sometimes we were assigned to read some short stories, sometimes poems. And then they'd test us in the exams.

Parth Kohli

Yeah, that's it.

Utkarsh

@DamkerngT. I need your help

Damkerng T.

Sometimes, it took the fun out of the reading.

@Utkarsh Yes?

Parth Kohli

07:25

It's the same here.

Utkarsh

@DamkerngT. I want some words that we should use in our daily life for example: we must use pardon me instead of sorry

Parth Kohli

In English, added to four short stories and four poems, there was a novel.

Damkerng T.

@Utkarsh You mean, instead of "I'm sorry"?

Utkarsh

yes

Damkerng T.

Hmm... "I'm sorry for ..." is another way to phrase it.

Then you have "My apologies."

It also depends on why you think you need to say "I'm sorry".

@ParthKohli Any ideas for Utkarsh?

Utkarsh

07:28

.

Parth Kohli

I think he wants better replacements for phrases in daily use.

Damkerng T.

Oh! I think I don't have such a chart.

Utkarsh

@ParthKohli yes

Damkerng T.

Hello @snailboat!

Parth Kohli

Give me a second.

Utkarsh

07:29

.

Damkerng T.

@Utkarsh Have you tried google already?

Utkarsh

google?

yes i have tried but....

Damkerng T.

I don't know, maybe someone might have already posted such a chart on the web somewhere.

Utkarsh

@DamkerngT. Instead of chart, I just need the Words or the sentences

Anonymous

@Utkarsh You must? Why?

Anonymous

07:32

@DamkerngT. Hello!

Damkerng T.

I'm not sure I understand what you need. It seems like ParthKohli knows about it.

Utkarsh

Mom says me to Read new words from dictionary but, Dictionary has a LOT of words out of which, many are of no use. I just want those, which we use in our daily life

Parth Kohli

vocabulary.com/lists/253035#view=notes

Anonymous

@Utkarsh That's not really what dictionaries are for . . .

Utkarsh

@ParthKohli Yes! I want these kind of words only! but, they are very less. I need at least 100

Parth Kohli

07:35

garbl.home.comcast.net/~garbl/stylemanual/phrases.htm

this one?

Damkerng T.

Ahh... I think this one looks quite useful.

Utkarsh

Yeah! You made it thanks!

@DamkerngT. Thanks to you too :-)

Damkerng T.

I think I didn't help you much this time.

But I got a nice list from ParthKohli.

Utkarsh

I'm happy that you are always here for help when I need!

Priority Matters

Damkerng T.

You're lucky today. I came back here just less than half an hour. :-)

Anonymous

07:41

Although you can read a dictionary if you really want to. I tried to when I was little, but I didn't make it very far.

Damkerng T.

OMG. Sometimes I don't understand why someone would want to use VARCHAR for product price!

FLOAT I understand, but VARCHAR...

Anonymous

Float is worse.

Damkerng T.

No wonder why their program computes discounts incorrectly.

@snailboat nods

Anonymous

It's true that a lot of people use floating point for money, but they really shouldn't.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Some might have used it on purpose, so the third decimal points can go into their pocket.

Anonymous

07:45

By the way, just for the record, "sorry" is much more common than "pardon me"

Anonymous

So I disagree with a rule saying you must use the latter instead of the former

Utkarsh

08:01

okay

@DamkerngT. I want to fit those all words in 1 page. Can I?

Damkerng T.

As in printing that web page?

Utkarsh

08:17

Okay, managed to take that all in a PDF file but i am not sure if it would be readable after printout. Can you review that PDF?

GATA

HI all :) I always assumed "pardon me for" is a polite phrase to begin your sentence with. But I've just checked it and found out that its a sarcastic phrase. Is it always true? Can I say it without being rude? like "Please Pardon me for interrupting you again can I ask..." or something like that.

Damkerng T.

@Utkarsh You can actually save it as an HTML file too. PDF is not needed.

Hi @GATA.

GATA

HI @DamkerngT. :)

Damkerng T.

For me, "Pardon" is reserved for the time when I couldn't catch what the speaker said the first time she said something.

:14344878 I would rather not download any PDF file at the moment. Sorry.

Utkarsh

@DamkerngT. why? then in which format, must i send it to you?

Damkerng T.

08:21

Isn't it the same thing from that page?

GATA

@DamkerngT. Couldn't we use it it as a general way for apologizing?

Utkarsh

No, I have resized it on 1 page. Please check, if it would be readable after printing.

.

Okay, Thanks for Helping. Good Bye!

Anonymous

@GATA It's certainly possible to say "pardon me" politely. But it's not very common, really.

Anonymous

I think it could be called too polite for most situations

Utkarsh

<--------loves the words which are not commonly said

Anonymous

08:24

And that may be why it gets used sarcastically sometimes

Anonymous

That doesn't mean that you can't say it sincerely, and in some situations it might actually be appropriate, but most of the time it would be a little strange

Anonymous

@Utkarsh I don't always talk the way other people do. I think that's okay. :-)

GATA

@snailboat Thank you :) I can only hope they had understood me correctly :)

Anonymous

Tone of voice is important. You won't be understood as sarcastic if you say it sincerely.

Damkerng T.

@GATA I couldn't reply for a big while. Got a little program with my connection. I'm sorry.

But I think @snailboat explained it better than I could. :D

As a side note, translate "pardon" back and forth between Thai and English and we might end up with "amnesty" instead. :-)

Anonymous

08:39

@DamkerngT. Ah, well, we do use the noun pardon like that

Anonymous

Each year on Thanksgiving the President of the United States pardons a turkey

Damkerng T.

A turkey!

Anonymous

Of course, that was the verb pardon... Hmm, but it's the same meaning there :-)

Anonymous

The turkey receives a presidential pardon.

Damkerng T.

Here, it's something only our King can do.

Perhaps that could explain why I'm quite reluctant to say "pardon me" and just say "pardon" instead.

The senses of the word in the two languages perhaps compete with one another in my head. :D

But let's get back to the turkey. That turkey must be really lucky.

Anonymous

08:44

Oh, yes.

Anonymous

The other hundred million turkeys have all read Taleb's The Black Swan and wake each morning in terror, wondering if this day will be their last

Anonymous

Sorry, turkeys! We Americans have got a ritual sacrifice to do!

Damkerng T.

Considering that most people would have a turkey on Thanksgiving, I think most of them are not very lucky there. :-)

Anonymous

Most people. But not me! :-)

Anonymous

I abstain. I'm a T. totaller, where T stands for Turkey!

Damkerng T.

08:47

A-ha!

What would happen to our lucky turkey after Thanksgiving?

Living happily ever after? :-)

Anonymous

National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation

National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation is a ceremony that takes place at the White House every year shortly before Thanksgiving. The President of the United States is presented with a live domestic turkey, usually of the Broad Breasted White variety. Generally the National Turkey Federation and the Poultry and Egg National Board are involved. Since 1989 during the first Thanksgiving of President George H. W. Bush, the president has granted the turkey a "presidential pardon" and thus spared the bird from being slaughtered. History and details of ceremony The presentation of a turkey to...

Anonymous

> Because most Thanksgiving turkeys are bred and raised for size at the expense of longer life, they are prone to health problems associated with obesity such as heart disease, respiratory failure and joint damage. As a result of these factors, most of the pardoned turkeys have very short lives after their pardoning, frequently dying within a year of being pardoned.

Damkerng T.

Oh, that sounds rather unfortunate.

Anonymous

web.archive.org/web/20140316231227/http://www.usnews.com/news/…

Damkerng T.

The article doesn't come up yet, but I can see the title already.

Anonymous

08:51

Ah, I had trouble getting it to load, so I went to archive.org

Anonymous

But I suppose that didn't help a lot

Damkerng T.

I think the fate of most chickens here in Thailand is quite similar to that of those turkeys.

We've also got a ritual sacrifice here, on our Chinese New Year's!

Anonymous

I couldn't eat a chicken. Or a turkey.

Anonymous

Oh! I see

Damkerng T.

Wouldn't perhaps?

Anonymous

08:52

Well, I meant what I said.

Anonymous

But wouldn't is more literally true

Anonymous

When I say I couldn't, I mean I couldn't bear to. They look too much like animals in their food form.

Anonymous

I'm not really a vegetarian. I eat meat sometimes.

Damkerng T.

There are some restaurants here that let you choose which one of the animals they have (usually, fish, squid, shrimps, etc.) you want to eat. I couldn't choose them.

Anonymous

But I don't eat meat when it still looks like an animal.

Anonymous

08:55

I feel empathy for them. I love animals!

Anonymous

I can turn that empathy off if it's, say, a cow in ground beef form.

Damkerng T.

Though I know I enjoy eating fishes, I'd rather have them picked randomly.

Anonymous

Did I tell you about my dissection lab in high school?

Damkerng T.

Frogs, right?

Anonymous

Yes :-(

Damkerng T.

08:56

You told me about those frogs once.

Anonymous

I thought I did.

Anonymous

I used to have a pet frog. :-)

Damkerng T.

I have frogs and toads in my shoes sometimes. :-)

Anonymous

Yay!

Anonymous

I mean, assuming they don't get stepped on :-)

Anonymous

08:57

Also, I suppose technically that might be a bit gross. But cute!

Damkerng T.

Oh, they seem to be strong enough that I can't shove my foot into my shoe when they are in.

I think I've never stepped on any frog or toad before.

Anonymous

I would feel happy if a frog or a toad visited me. Although it might not be ideal in certain ways.

Damkerng T.

But many snails. Sorry snails. :-(

Anonymous

I suppose they could get the shoes kind of messy.

Anonymous

Poor snails!

Damkerng T.

08:59

I would like to have a turtle visit me sometimes.

Anonymous

It can be hard to see them sometimes.

Damkerng T.

It happened a few times.

Anonymous

Even if you're looking down, sometimes it can be difficult to notice them.

Damkerng T.

A turtle visit is considered lucky here.

Anonymous

I do always look down when I walk.

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