English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

02:39

►

My cable translates that line, "We call that an A with an attitude.", as "We call that an A with a posture."!

Damkerng T.

02:52

Another line, "Let's take it home, ladies" as "Let's end it quickly". Oh, my!

(To me, "Let's take it home" borrows the phrase from baseball talk.)

Awal Garg

03:53

@GATA No, it doesn't change margins. It adds horizontal scrollbars to a liquid layour room. SE programmers and Browsers hate it. :)

@DamkerngT. I would have done that, but you see, I am not a bad guy :P

@DamkerngT. What is your screen resolution?

@DamkerngT. no, its not. Leave it like that, anybody comes, and he automatically shifts right. On hitting enter, reading messages, specially people with low res screens, they will keep shifting. Irritating behaviour.

@DamkerngT. yeah, thats right :P

Damkerng T.

I was at somewhere 600-800 pixels wide, I think, for this window.

Does the screen resolution really matter, for desktops?

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. oh, btw, if we keep doing it, and a very very very very very long message appears, definitely it would crash. Someone from the SE officials would have to disable oneboxing, delete the message, and then continue...

Damkerng T.

Btw, my iPad also was fine.

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. Its weird, it doesn't affect you...

@DamkerngT. yep, it does

Damkerng T.

Isn't it strange? :-)

Awal Garg

04:00

@DamkerngT. oh, ofcourse. Mr. Jobs made it :)

Damkerng T.

No, my old iPad wasn't fine.

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. Try going to sandbox and check it again... It should affect you. I am sure. Check, scrollbars would appear.

Damkerng T.

What? A scrollbar is already there.

Awal Garg

horizontal one...

Damkerng T.

Imo, it works fine even when I resize the window to ~100 pixels wide.

It just looks a bit funny, but it's fine.

The only thing that might be a bit annoying is that I can't see the whole input box. That's all.

Awal Garg

04:04

umm, maybe you have got a stainless steel screen which that lil prank couldn't break :?

Damkerng T.

lol

I'm not sure what will happen to Android browsers.

Awal Garg

someday, when I get time, I will plan a cUrl attack to repeat the nesting many a times. Maybe, your steel screen would break then?

Damkerng T.

If that happens, I'm not sure how others' screens will be like.

Actually, I think you can do SE a favor by experimenting that in a temporary chat room. If the problem exists, you can report the problem (or the bug).

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. its not a bug, its a prank :)

Damkerng T.

If the chat room can't handle it well, I would say the code should be fixed to handle it.

Awal Garg

04:10

@DamkerngT. its not the chat room. Its the memory. A mega super computer will be able to handle it...

Damkerng T.

Considering that they employ a strange mechanism to avoid spamming, I think they care.

Awal Garg

Its not strange, its age old. Its derived from the Hitler's period. - "Kill and let kill!"

Damkerng T.

They limit the length of a message, so I think the memory isn't really a problem.

Awal Garg

no, this is the trick!

The length of message I send is a just a couple of bits - the url

Its the server that translates it into a long damn message!

Oneboxing is used here to play the prank.

Damkerng T.

I understand that, which is why I think you could report it.

Awal Garg

04:14

But, yes, this for sure is a loop hole. I am 16, and with a lil dirty hands, I can easily attack with a simple cUrl command. Some attacker may jam all the servers with this with a dirty mind!

Damkerng T.

That's a fact of life in webdev.

Awal Garg

This has already reached a mod called Undo in the Charcoal HQ room. I dunno why, he didn't take it seriously, so didn't I!

Damkerng T.

Well, if they knew it, just leave it to them.

Awal Garg

sure.

Damkerng T.

Really, I think oneboxing can be much improved.

But we work with what we have.

Awal Garg

04:16

I guess there maybe a limit as the amount of data a single chat message can carry even from the database. Still, I think, it is very much exploitable.

@DamkerngT. But we work with what we have for free.

Damkerng T.

Eh, I think my work and your work seem to have different meanings. :)

Awal Garg

oh, I get it. You meant it in a more general way, right?

Damkerng T.

Yes.

Awal Garg

See, I am not that a n00b!

Damkerng T.

In that sentence, I thought of a chat room as a tool.

You sure aren't! :D

Awal Garg

04:19

@DamkerngT. XD

Bye! Got coding work piling up ;) CU soon

Damkerng T.

Have fun coding! See you soon!

Fantasier

09:12

Facebook is now blocked. :( Now it's something...

Fantasier

09:37

...And now it's back normal. LOL

Damkerng T.

13:31

1

Q: "Could have“ = "would possibly have" here?

The following parts are taken from Michael Swan's, Practical English Usage (aka PEU): 259.2 could have ... and might have ... We can use could have + past participle to mean 'would have been able to .. .', and might have + past participle to mean 'would perhaps have ... ' or 'would ...

modal-verbs

One thing I noticed in this hot question (because of the bounty ;-) is that everyone seems to get distracted by the examples, where the subjects are only human beings (he, I, you). So, everyone seems to think of it as something that the subject might do some kind of action, such as "blame", "reproach", "capacities", "responsibilities", "to be able to", "ability/capacity".

Some went even further, saying that "the nuance of 'would have' and 'could have'" is "very minute difference of capability and possibility."

What they all seem to forget is it's perfectly fine to say It could have been ...

I think this 'It' doesn't really do anything.

Hmm...

As far as I can tell, perhaps there was only Ukemi that mentioned quite explicitly that "Could have" is the same as "Might have been possible". Too bad that Ukemi's answer falls into my category of "I kinda agree, but I think I want something better", so I didn't upvote it. (I also didn't know what could make it better, so I didn't comment anything to the answer.)

jimsug

Good evening.

Or morning, afternoon, etc. :P

Damkerng T.

Hello!

jimsug

13:47

A couple of the Qs in the reopen queue still didn't seem on-topic.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I didn't review it. Not yet. :)

Gotta have my dinner. BBL.

jimsug

Okay :)

Damkerng T.

14:17

Ah, I saw one left in the reopen queue. I agree that it's not on-topic.

Though I'm sure that the question is useful for learners.

jimsug

Yeah.

It's a bit tricky with some of those

I mean, I see some questions that I'd definitely see people having issues with, when learning English.

Damkerng T.

Basically, it's almost everything. :-)

jimsug

English is a pretty difficult language to learn, I don't envy anyone in that position.

Damkerng T.

It's very challenging. :D

Awal Garg

Ah, such a good day it was. I'm in mood. Lets talk!

:) :) :)

@DamkerngT. You and your way of talking reminds me of Doraemon...

Damkerng T.

14:29

Oh, nice!

Awal Garg

@jimsug no, its just so weird that humans being so intelligent find it pathetic...

ok, I have two sentences, tell me which is better:

jimsug

@AwalGarg Come again? What do you mean?

Damkerng T.

@AwalGarg Wait, are you saying that you think of yourself as Nobita?

Awal Garg

My statement is pretty self-explanatory, but I will repeat it again
English is just so weird that humans being so intelligent find it pathetic...

@DamkerngT. no, Negisuki!

ok, I have two sentences, tell me which is better:
> 1) I have got to raise a concern.
> 2) I have got a concern to raise.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I'm not familiar with this character. Is Negisuki a teacher?

jimsug

14:32

@AwalGarg If I may be frank: if it were self-explanatory, I wouldn't ask you what you mean. Do you mean that Because English is so weird, human beings that are so intelligent find it pathetic?

Awal Garg

@jimsug yes, I mean that.

jimsug

@AwalGarg What do you mean by weird and pathetic, then? That English is very unusual, and therefore, any human being that is intelligent should find it pitiable and inadequate?

What are you comparing it to? What language is "normal"?

(Unless you're using the term pathetic as in pathos)

Awal Garg

@jimsug yes, I mean that. But, not any human being that is intelligent. All human beings, even me are intelligent enough to find it pathetic.

jimsug

@AwalGarg Wow, let me ask you: what language is "normal", then, if English is weird?

@AwalGarg These statements don't mean the same thing, so the one that is better will depend on your intention. Do you mean to say that you are obliged to raise a concern (1) or that you have a concern that you wish to raise (2) [no obligation]?

Awal Garg

@jimsug I dunno, but please don't take it personally. The language I know, I think is pretty much logical than English. (Not that mine is perfect, but still, not pathetic)

^and, stop pinging me. I am here :)

@DamkerngT. doraemon.wikia.com/wiki/Hidetoshi_Dekisugi

Damkerng T.

14:37

Suddenly starts to think of Klingon, Vulcan, Romulan, ...

jimsug

@AwalGarg , I'm directing my responses, since I'm actually responding to an earlier statement - that way if people wish to follow this, they can.

Awal Garg

turning my speakers off...

Damkerng T.

@AwalGarg Oh, Dekisugi. He's somehow memorable enough that I can't remember him. :)

Awal Garg

@jimsug yeah, I know they mean differently. I am asking, which one sounds more appealing, leave behind the fact what I want to say

jimsug

(You can turn the sounds of by clicking on the speaker icon in the top-right.)

Awal Garg

14:39

@jimsug Ikr

@DamkerngT. haha, lol... (you as well can use the speaker icon)

@jimsug ok, sure.

jimsug

What language do you know, then? Also, I'm not sure that you are aware of this, but the term pathetic is loaded with negative connotation - it's not a neutral term at all, and it affords negative judgement, and invokes the sense that you are making an attack.

You really can't use the term pathetic in English without loading it with negative appraisal of whatever you're describing as pathetic.

Damkerng T.

@AwalGarg I think you can get away by saying something like Mathematics or Vulcan is a more logical language. :)

Awal Garg

I know Hindi, a bit of Sanskrit (which I find extremely up to the mark), and few local derivatives (which I don't consider languages). Oh, yeah, by God's grace I know what the term pathetic means... :)

jimsug

@AwalGarg In that case, please don't ask people not to take it personally if you ever call them - or something about them (such as their language) - pathetic. You're essentially asking for it.

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. I can't just get away with it... Oh yeah, you are right. I had a nice day today, lets keep it nice :)

jimsug

14:43

@DamkerngT. Constructed languages, by and large, are much more logical than any natural language, but that's because inconsistencies in natural language obviously develop through repeated use.

Damkerng T.

@jimsug To that, I surely agree.

jimsug

@DamkerngT. Also, I don't think anyone who develops a language would intentionally create rules that have exceptions, can you imagine if there were exceptions in math or, say, a programming language? :P

Awal Garg

@jimsug chill man, if you think it was personal and that English is your mother tongue, or something relates you to English, I take my sentence back from you. But otherwise, I stand on what I wrote...

Damkerng T.

@jimsug Oh, well, I'd say that most programming languages are less logical than math. :D

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. I would substitute "apparently" to that :)

^above format courtesy of snailboat

Damkerng T.

14:46

nods

Fantasier

There is Exception in programming. :P

Awal Garg

^ enlighten me with one

jimsug

@AwalGarg What I'm saying - and this is with the assumption that English isn't your native language - is that if you're having dinner with an English speaker and then say that English is pathetic, and then ask them not to take it personally, you can be assured that they will. In general, asking someone not to take something personally, is like asking someone to calm down - it's infuriating because you're simultaneously judging them, as well as commanding them.

@Fantasier These generally occur when you don't follow the rules, no?

Fantasier

Well, that was a joke ;)

Damkerng would get it, I think.

Damkerng T.

nods

Awal Garg

14:48

@Fantasier or maybe this one is :)

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier I threw many of them often enough.

Awal Garg

@jimsug I have an idea, why don't you flag the original statement of mine for offensive or something. Mods will look at it.

Fantasier

@DamkerngT. I've never really implemented them because my programs are so amateurish.

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. how many times have you written that thing - "nods"?

Damkerng T.

I think more than I can remember. :D

jimsug

14:51

@AwalGarg No, that's fine, because I know enough about Hindi and Sanskrit to be able to confidently say that they're just as much of a mess as English.

Awal Garg

@jimsug that's fine as well :) Cheers!

@DamkerngT. nods

Damkerng T.

:D <-- I also do this a lot, too.

Fantasier

D: <-- I like this better.

Awal Garg

And on my TV set, you also eat a lot of Doracakes! :P

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier D: -- :D

Awal Garg

14:53

@Fantasier that makes me wonder, why do we normally write emoticons as - ":)" and not "(:"

Damkerng T.

@AwalGarg Ah, you mean Dorayaki?

Actually, I have one in my fridge!

Fantasier

@AwalGarg Maybe they do that in right-to-left languages.

Damkerng T.

(: is cute, too.

Maybe cuter, even.

Awal Garg

@DamkerngT. umm, I guess they are cakes, brown coloured, looking like UFOs...

Damkerng T.

@AwalGarg Yup. That's it. :D

Awal Garg

14:55

@DamkerngT. ^its cos we don't normally look at it. so we are bored of the original ones...

Damkerng T.

Prolly.

Awal Garg

`if(@DamkerngT.==@Doraemon){echo "Hi Doraemon";} else { echo "Hi not Doraemon"; }

Damkerng T.

Hi prolly Doraemon

I like the one-liner version better.

Yay!

Awal Garg

Lets do a cUrl sandboxing attack...

but after I am done with supper! bye!

Damkerng T.

Ah, enjoy your meal!

Fantasier

15:02

@DamkerngT. You mean echo (@DamkerngT.===@Doraemon) ? "Hi Doraemon" : "Hi not Doraemon"; ?

Hmm, is that how we do it? I forgot almost everything about these stuff.

Damkerng T.

@Fantasier You can write that expression in most languages nowadays.

Some use echo, some printf, some print; puts also exists.

Fantasier

Ha, I didn't know puts.

Damkerng T.

Oh, some use write or writeln. Hmm, what else?

Fantasier

printIn? :P

Damkerng T.

lol

Fantasier

15:06

System.out.printIn()!

►

Damkerng T.

Oh, that video is very well made!

puts is used by another language Sun invented around the same time they invented Java.

Too bad that that language is not as widely known as Java.

Fantasier

I see, I see.

Damkerng T.

You can search a corpus such as COCA: master thesis - master's thesis — snailplane 1 hour ago

@snailboat You used the new trick!

jimsug

15:21

@DamkerngT. Such a great trick.

Damkerng T.

@jimsug Indeed!

Anonymous

15:47

Languages all have complexity in different places. We tend to be less aware of the complexity in languages we've acquired natively because we don't need to be aware of it to speak fluently

Anonymous

No natural language is "logical"

2

Anonymous

I rolled back ZZ's question. I didn't recognize it under CoolHandLouis's edit.

Anonymous

But then I saw ZZ's comment:

Anonymous

Thx for all your edit. You did an excellent job for future visitors! These questions looks more concise by now. @CoolHandLouis — Zhanlong Zheng 2 hours ago

Anonymous

So I guess I'll put it back.

Damkerng T.

15:51

Oh, well, I think I like version 7 more.

Anonymous

Well, other people besides me can do stuff.

Anonymous

I've decided not to interfere since the OP seemed happy with it.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I've always liked C's puts()

Anonymous

Everyone uses printf() and friends instead, though.

Damkerng T.

Oh, C's puts() and gets() are quite useful.

Anonymous

15:53

No, not gets().

Damkerng T.

Poor gets(). Was there anything wrong with it?

Anonymous

There's a reason gets() was removed in C11

Anonymous

Yes

Anonymous

It has no bounds checking

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I can't see anything wrong with it. Could you hint me a bit?

Anonymous

15:55

No matter what size you pick for your input buffer, the end user can overflow it

Damkerng T.

Hah! Bound checking is irrelevant in C, I think.

Anonymous

...Yikes!

Damkerng T.

:D

Anonymous

I hope you write code in other languages :-)

Damkerng T.

Wait, I think we can specify bufsize in gets().

Anonymous

15:56

Nope.

Damkerng T.

Oh, probably it's fgets().

Anonymous

fgets() is a fine function.

Damkerng T.

Ah, I think we can set _buflen or something similar somewhere.

Anonymous

There may be implementation-specific workarounds for the problems in gets().

Damkerng T.

It was a long time ago for me.

Anonymous

15:58

But they're not part of C.

Damkerng T.

Not in the standard?

Anonymous

Nope.

Damkerng T.

nods

But really, if I write a program that uses gets(), chances are, it's not a very serious one.

So in that sense, it's very handy. Kinda like one-liners.

Anonymous

Oh, I never write programs like that in C

Damkerng T.

But I can imagine what could happen when we let people write CGI programs in C.

@snailboat I remember you told me that you don't write easy stuff. :D

Anonymous

16:03

I've written thousands of tiny programs.

Nico

@DamkerngT. or CGI programs that call other programs using gets()

Anonymous

But I usually use the language appropriate to the task, and especially whichever one minimizes my work

Damkerng T.

@Nico True, that!

I had to write some simple stuff in C because I had no better choices.

Things are a lot easier nowadays.

Anonymous

I wrote a lot of tiny programs in C in the early 90s

Anonymous

Around 1995 I discovered shell scripting and perl

Anonymous

16:06

These days I'm as likely to use python as perl

Nico

I still use C from time time. Heck! I'm still forced to used FORTRAN77 on a daily basis. :p

Damkerng T.

Python has its strong points, mostly because many people think it's good, so they invest in it.

Anonymous

I use C, too.

Damkerng T.

The same thing happens to many other languages, such as Java.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Python has weak points which make it really irritating from time to time, but for a lot of things it's pretty good

Anonymous

16:08

Sort of an alternative to perl with a different set of problems

Anonymous

Better reference semantics, worse FP support

Damkerng T.

@Nico Fortran has its strong points too!

Nico

@DamkerngT. I've burned my fingers too many times with FORTRAN to be able to agree with that (especially, when the code grows or you have to merge codes :S).

Damkerng T.

Before SciPy emerged, I think we didn't have any better number-crunching tool than Fortran.

Anonymous

I've never really used Fortran.

Damkerng T.

16:10

lol

Nico

Matlab?

Anonymous

Or FORTRAN, for that matter.

Damkerng T.

Oh, yes. Too bad that MATLAB is not free.

Nico

@snailboat (I was just being pedantic, sorry)

Anonymous

@Nico Oh, me too.

Anonymous

16:11

FORTRAN 77 was capitalized, Fortran 90 is not.

Damkerng T.

I think I've used both of them.

Anonymous

So I was just following convention and saying that I've used neither older nor newer versions of the language.

Nico

21

A: What's the difference between "center" and "centre"?

Originally, everyone spelled it centre, but because of Noah Webster's spelling reforms, people in the US started spelling it center, particularly in the last century. Although the revised spelling center has been adopted internationally to varying extents, centre is still more popular in most re...

Once more Australians being more British than the Brits! :p

Damkerng T.

I haven't checked out Octave for a while. I don't know how fast it is, compared to MATLAB.

Does anyone use Boost around here?

Nico

... exactly what in Boost?

Anonymous

16:21

Yeah.

Damkerng T.

Linear algebra stuff.

Anonymous

With C++11, a lot of the stuff I used in Boost got pulled into std::, though

Nico

One of our students was using lapack++

Damkerng T.

You mean, directly with C++, not with Boost?

Anonymous

Most non-native speakers I talk to online seem to have pretty good spelling.

Damkerng T.

16:28

Hmm... Interesting. I don't know if I can make Lapack++ work under Windows.

Anonymous

It looks like it'd be really hard to learn, but I've never really put a lot of thought into it since non-native speakers seem to be pretty good at it.

Anonymous

But maybe I'm thinking about it wrong, since most non-native speakers have obviously non-native accents.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat count me in; count me in; ... (wishing)

Anonymous

I should be thinking about sound-spelling correspondences, not about the ability to reproduce arbitrary sequences of letters.

Nico

and if you don't mind just C, some people here are very fond of mcs.anl.gov/petsc

Damkerng T.

16:31

@snailboat Considering that we have considerably more power to process visual information than auditory information, I think that is quite reasonable.

Nico

@DamkerngT. This student was working in windows

Damkerng T.

@Nico Oh, nice! With MinGW, by any chance?

Nico

he was using visual studio

Damkerng T.

Aww... I don't like Visual Studio much. It looks bloated.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. Sure. Maybe 90%+ of the non-native speakers I talk to are good at spelling.

Anonymous

16:32

The ones that aren't tend to repeat the same mistakes over and over, seems like.

Anonymous

But maybe that's in line with native speakers who are bad at spelling.

Anonymous

I've never really paid a lot of attention.

Nico

@snailboat That's probably because we do more reading than listening or speaking (don't want to claim I'm one of those with good spelling - I can't help sprinkling type all over the place :P)

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I don't think that native speakers are really bad at spelling, I think most of them just don't care much enough to correct the typos.

Anonymous

I'd think you'd start by doing as much simultaneous listening and reading as possible.

Anonymous

16:34

@DamkerngT. No, a lot of native speakers really are bad at spelling.

Anonymous

You wouldn't want to do a lot of reading and get the wrong sound-grapheme correspondences cemented in your mind

Damkerng T.

Oh, that's interesting!

Anonymous

Doing a few hundred hours of listening with same-language subtitles can do wonders for your ability to connect the two, I think

Anonymous

(target language subtitles, I mean)

Damkerng T.

@snailboat nods -- I still can recall taBLE, paPER in my mind. :(

Anonymous

16:35

Most native speakers can acquire the ability to spell things without much effort.

Anonymous

I've never put much effort into it, even for comparatively rare words.

Anonymous

But there's a sizeable portion who need special instruction and need to put in more work than others

Anonymous

Often lumped together under the label dyslexic

Damkerng T.

Ah, we can't blame them for that, I believe.

(I think I don't quite really know about dyslexic, though.)

(Just have a rough idea.)

Nico

Something I've noticed is that when I started learning English I wouldn't make mistakes like "The results where here", but now I sometimes catch myself making such a mistake.

Damkerng T.

16:39

Because of the pronunciations of where/were?

Anonymous

I started making more spelling errors recently. I think it happens particularly when I've been spending more time using Japanese rather than English

Nico

@DamkerngT. yes

Anonymous

If I go back to spending more time using English (like the time I've been spending lately this chat), I don't make as many errors.

Anonymous

I correct them so you don't see them, but it's very strange to me that I would type the wrong homophone in the first place

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Oh, this reminds me of what one of my friends said.

Anonymous

16:41

Or type a spelling corresponding to the wrong sound, but not part of a valid homophone

Damkerng T.

After spending three years in Germany, and never said even a word in Thai, he found himself having a hard time talking Thai the first few weeks he came back to Thailand.

Nico

Happens to me every time I go back to Spain.

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. The worst effect on my English has been a significantly longer time to recall specific words

Anonymous

But since I rarely use uncommon words in the first place, it's not so bad.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat That's quite similar to what he said!

Nico

16:43

@snailboat Yeah, right! Homophone is perfectly cromulent, every-day word?

Damkerng T.

He told me something like he knew what that thing was, but he couldn't think of the Thai word for it.

@Nico Sometimes I wrote They're as There too. :(

Anonymous

Well, I certainly use words less frequent than homophone.

Damkerng T.

But I equate language learning to swimming. Once you know how to swim, you'll never really forget it.

Anonymous

Not true.

Anonymous

People can entirely forget their native languages.

Anonymous

16:46

It's like swimming. You need to do it every now and then to retain it, or you'll forget it completely.

Nico

@DamkerngT. On the contrary, continuous practice is the only hope not to forget.

Damkerng T.

Do we have a real example?

Anonymous

Yes.

Anonymous

Plenty.

Damkerng T.

That's interesting.

Anonymous

16:47

psychologytoday.com/blog/life-bilingual/201207/…

Anonymous

Likewise, your second language can decay if you don't use it.

Damkerng T.

> “No, not totally”.

That makes sense.

Anonymous

Maybe. Maybe not.

Damkerng T.

I mean, it's really difficult to drown once you know how to swim. I mean really know how to swim.

Anonymous

But even there, when it says "not totally", we're talking like < 1%.

Damkerng T.

16:49

(Which is about the same thing as L1.)

Anonymous

That is, you have to set up a complex experiment just to elicit any evidence that a trace exists.

Damkerng T.

It's interesting to study those who really forget.

Nico

It'd be interesting to know what the conclusions would be for languages closer than Korean, French and Sweedish. I reckon it'd be worse.

Anonymous

There are lots of physical activities which are generally assumed to be unforgettable.

Anonymous

For example, in English we say "it's like riding a bike". It's a phrase suggesting that no matter how long it's been since last time you did it, you can still do it.

Anonymous

16:50

But it's not true. People forget how to ride bikes.

Anonymous

Not everyone does. But it's possible.

Damkerng T.

No accidents or injuries involved?

Anonymous

I don't understand the question

Damkerng T.

I mean if we had a serious accident, some part of our brains could get damages.

Anonymous

Oh.

Anonymous

16:52

Yeah, without that.

Damkerng T.

Interesting!

Anonymous

I'm certain people can forget how to ride a bike, because I forgot over a 20-year period, and I know a couple other people who've had the same problem. To me it's obviously possible. But general wisdom is to the contrary

Damkerng T.

I always assume that our skills like swimming (and yes, riding a bike too) can get rusty, but to be forgotten what I've never thought of before.

Anonymous

I never really learned how to swim

Anonymous

I can float, though.

Damkerng T.

16:54

If you can float as long as you want, I'd say you know how to float.

But if you can float only, say 5-10 minutes, maybe you still don't know how to float.

Anonymous

Oh. I uh, don't have any long-term floating experience.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... maybe the level of skill before the forgetting process started is important.

Anonymous

There are a lot of things we never forget.

Anonymous

But I don't think there's anything we can't forget

Damkerng T.

It's hard to forget selectively, I think. :-)

Nico

16:59

Recently, I've started to notice that questions and answers don't get as many votes as they used to. Is that your impression too?

Transcript for