English Language Learners

Damkerng T.

00:00

I thought that word has been copyrighted here!

MARamezani

I already have permission from @JimReynolds TM.

Damkerng T.

:D

user116848

10:01

@anongoodnurse Hi. You grace us with your presence here :)

anongoodnurse

@arrowfar Hey, arrowfar! It looks like you have found yourself a home here! Is that right?

Thank you for your kindly welcome.

I popped in to see if JR was about (he is not).

user116848

Yeah, I hang around here :)

user116848

@anongoodnurse I see.

anongoodnurse

It is friendlier here, I would bet.

(is it?)

user116848

Yeah, it is good here :)

anongoodnurse

10:08

I'm glad. There are so many good people here.

user116848

@anongoodnurse I didn't know you became a mod. Congrats!

anongoodnurse

Take care, Talk to you next month or so!

user116848

See ya!

anongoodnurse

Haha! When did you hear that?

user116848

I just checked the profile you know :p

anongoodnurse

10:10

OOOH! blue name! DUH!

user116848

Yeah blue.

anongoodnurse

yes, I'm a mod on a tiny site called parenting. I really like it.

user116848

I see.

anongoodnurse

Nothing like ELU, so busy there,

user116848

Yeah that is a very big site.

anongoodnurse

10:11

but very nice. Slow. Trying to grow it.

Well, I've been mean tonight so I should scoot before the bitch makes her appearance, so: Hasta la vista, baby!

user116848

Hasta la vista!

anongoodnurse

(Terminator 2)

:D

user116848

I know :)

MARamezani

11:47

@anongoodnurse Parenting is an awesome site! I hope I see you as a bio.SE mod!

Hullo world!

@anongoodnurse J.R.'s unfortunately rare in chat, just like our shooting star.

But he (?) is sometimes digging in, but not talking.

I guess he's doing mod stuff, so catching him (?) here is hard enough job.

I was so bored I went and wrote this in the bad translator:

> I just love ell's chat.

And the result was:

> I want to talk about something.

Now this one isn't funny.

But it's thoughtful. Why do other languages translate it like that?

Damkerng T.

12:04

@MARamezani The bad translator is actually pretty good!

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Hullo!

Damkerng T.

Hallo!

MARamezani

Eating lunch

Damkerng T.

sipping tea...

MARamezani

That's why my typing is slow now.

Damkerng T.

12:07

That's fine. I like doing things slowly.

MARamezani

How is the day?

Damkerng T.

Not very good so far, but still okay. I'm waiting for Day of the Future Past.

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Gonna be on TV?

Damkerng T.

Yes! It's its premiere night.

MARamezani

Anything good on ELL today?

Damkerng T.

12:10

Hmm...

Hmmmmm......

MARamezani

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm........

Damkerng T.

I hope someone will post a better answer to this question: ell.stackexchange.com/q/54074/3281

MARamezani

Grammar and verb tenses. Hmm, not in the mood now. But maybe I'll be sometime later.

Damkerng T.

0

A: Allegory: 'a grain of sugar in your eyes'

1 It is a metaphor. This is how Betty spins the phrase in S03E09 of the show. 2 One mentions the eyes because one watches the TV show using one's sense of vision. Metaphorical sugar in one's eyes does not hurt. This blog post goes into more detail.

I haven't read the mentioned blog post in detail, but I think the answer's summary is counter-intuitive.

Fantasier

@DamkerngT. lol? Is there a need to take shelter after the rain has stopped?

Damkerng T.

12:23

@Fantasier :D

MARamezani

@Fantasier Hullo!

Fantasier

Hello!

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. Could you lend a hand in closing thy Q?

-1

Q: What is the meaning of to head for the head

What is the meaning of to head for the head in the following sentence: Two girls went into their hotel room after spending a hot afternoon. The girls have consumed enough soda pop to fill a small barrel. As the two bursting kids enter their room, they have but one thought - to head for the head.

meaning

Fantasier

I'm gonna be heading out for some good noodles :D So brb I guess.

MARamezani

@Fantasier Save some for me!

Damkerng T.

12:25

@MARamezani The problem is I disagree with voting to close it.

In the USN, in boot camp, the boots were taught to refer to the restroom as "the head". And so, to go to the head would mean to go to the restroom. — F.E. 7 hours ago

I'd love to see that turn into the answer. (No need to add any further explanation, even.)

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. What about I'm voting to close this as off-topic cuz it ain't about standard modern English.

@DamkerngT. Gonna ask tiger to post an answer.

Damkerng T.

Hmm... I'd suggest adding the tag american-english instead, then.

Good morning! @snailboat

MARamezani

Goooood morning @snailboat!

Mine was fancier

Damkerng T.

lol

Anonymous

@DamkerngT. I like the second sentence better, but I'd probably use the simple past in both spots

Anonymous

12:29

It might depend on context

MARamezani

Ah what? Argh. Chrome's zooming function just doesn't like me.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat Ah, that's pretty much in-line with my conclusions!

Anonymous

Hello

Damkerng T.

@MARamezani Poor you! Chrome just unliked you a moment ago. :P

MARamezani

@snailboat Hullo.

@DamkerngT. It happens. And I didn't say what! Suddenly, in the middle of a useless argument with alien, this thing zooms.

o.O

Hehe. Majid +1'd my NaCl3 Q and I got a badge for it. Yay!

Damkerng T.

12:34

Congrats!

MARamezani

Thanx!

Though I don't like to thank using that phrase

0

Q: Which tense should be used?

I wonder which tense should be use in this case: a) When Columbus arrived in America he thought he is in India. b) When Columbus arrived in America he thought he was in India I guess both are fine, or am I wrong?

past-tense present-tense

O.o

Damkerng T.

@DamkerngT. You have to disagree with it. Because I know the origin of massage. It might be new to modern doctors, but mentioned in Ayurveda (5000 BC!). In Ayurveda, the word is 'champi' for kneading and 'abhyanga' for massage. — Maulik V 2 mins ago

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. What are those swear words in his last sentence?

Damkerng T.

Um... I thought I was thinking only about massage, not champi or abhyanga. But whatever.

Anonymous

Oh, it's been a while since I've seen anyone write thanx!

MARamezani

12:36

@snailboat You're welcome! :P

Damkerng T.

So, claiming that champi is not massage is not about English, imo.

(And why do I have to disagree with it?!)

MARamezani

Maulik is weird. o.O

0.O

Anonymous

I don't think the author of that comment knows much about massage

MARamezani

Nope. Still trying trying to figure out why alien does these o.Os too much

Anonymous

It's similar to raising one eyebrow quizzically

MARamezani

12:40

@snailboat I remember the zero version was. 0.O

Anonymous

But I have to assume I didn't understand your question

Damkerng T.

@CoolHandLouis You might find that comment (ell.stackexchange.com/questions/54143/…) interesting too! (I remember you're interested in language learning through miscommunication.)

MARamezani

Oh my! I am reviewing first posts!

Okay, now I have no idea what to do.

0

Q: Which tense should be used?

I wonder which tense should be use in this case: a) When Columbus arrived in America he thought he is in India. b) When Columbus arrived in America he thought he was in India I guess both are fine, or am I wrong?

past-tense present-tense

Anonymous

Massage can, for example, involve applying a great deal of pressure by leaning on a point with your body weight

MARamezani

Q: Be the most nitpicky you, and tell me how to write an obnoxious comment.

Damkerng T.

12:42

Oh, that's a new question! (I wonder how delay it is before we will be notified of that!)

MARamezani

@DamkerngT. I already got notified.

Damkerng T.

@snailboat nods -- That crossed my mind immediately when I read the claim.

@MARamezani Hah! I haven't gotten the notification!

MARamezani

1 min ago, by MARamezani

Q: Be the most nitpicky you, and tell me how to write an obnoxious comment.

NOW!

RIGHT NOW!

Tell me!

Anonymous

It's a question with a clear answer

MARamezani

@snailboat I don't wanna answer in comments.

Damkerng T.

12:45

@MARamezani You can try to invite the OP to think first. :P

Not that I would do that, nor I think it's a nice thing to do. But you said obnoxious.

MARamezani

How about this:

> Think. Think harder. Or I'll close this.

I'm not commenting that BTW.

Anonymous

Be Nice.

2

MARamezani

@snailboat I know.

Damkerng T.

+1

Also, try to put yourself in their shoes.

Anonymous

English contains lots of optional backshift, so there's often a choice of two tenses

MARamezani

12:46

@snailboat It's a psychological [something I can't remember] to address what's already not good and counter-productive.

@snailboat So as I suspected, both are right, no?

Anonymous

There isn't a choice here, and an answer could explain why

MARamezani

Of course, with different grammatical structures.

An edit and an upvote.

Done reviewing that. Sheesh.

Damkerng T.

applauds

MARamezani

They look weird. 0.0

Damkerng T.

Off to the movie!

Jim Reynolds

13:05

27 mins ago, by MARamezani

Maulik is weird. o.O

The apple is calling the tree old.

The donkey is talking about long ears.

Oops. I meant: The tree is calling the apple old. O.o

Damkerng T.

15:17

It was a nice movie!

Anonymous

I question your assumption that any book on Java is going to have stellar grammar, especially if it's written by a programmar. Of course, you could also have done a websearch for "what kind of an animal" and seen what kind if results you got. — δοῦλος 2 hours ago

Anonymous

Seems a bit ironic casting stereotypical aspersions with that many errors mixed in

Damkerng T.

nods

I remember that most of O'Reilly programming books were great.

Anonymous

I'm also not sure that the web search would have been particularly helpful

Anonymous

O'Reilly is good.

Damkerng T.

15:25

nods -- I think part of the reasons is that the editors did their jobs pretty well.

Anonymous

That's true of almost any published book of good quality, I think

Anonymous

Even then, even in high quality books, we can expect at least an error or two to slip through

Anonymous

Editing and proofreading are difficult

Damkerng T.

nods -- To err is human!

@snailboat And not everyone will appreciate the work.

Anonymous

There's been a bit of a self-publishing boom lately

Damkerng T.

15:30

Yes. I can feel that the quality will never be the same.

But that's probably what we want (unconsciously).

Anonymous

coursera.org/course/humanlanguage

Damkerng T.

Hey, I remember that tower!

(But not its name.)

Babel?

Or it's happening now. I mean the course.

Anonymous

It seems you do remember the name!

Anonymous

Yes, people can still sign up if they're interested!

Damkerng T.

Hehe! I typed Oh! as Or!

It's funny how my fingers work!

Anonymous

15:40

I make lots of typos myself. Brainos, too.

Damkerng T.

By the way, before the massage question, I knew that the word knead is used in bakery and cat kneading! I always wish that my cat would do his kneading on me sometimes. (He would knead a bit when I stroke his back.) It never happened, though. :-)

Anonymous

I enjoy kneading dough

Damkerng T.

I enjoy making my cat knead!

@snailboat Oh, I remember that you make pasta yourself!

Sorry, I meant pizza.

Anonymous

Yes, I do like making breads of various sorts, including pizza dough!

Anonymous

I have yet to make my own pasta from scratch but someday I will :-)

Damkerng T.

15:47

:D

Maybe Mr Greenwald is a synaesthete. — TRomano 29 mins ago

Um...

(I laughed, but then I felt it was rude!)

Anonymous

16:09

@DamkerngT. Doesn't make any sense. It's not Greenwald's phrase.

Anonymous

He says he's quoting a character from the show.

Damkerng T.

I think it's a bit ambiguous because he borrowed the phrase from the show.

Anonymous

Looks like the original line was "We no longer had sugar in our eyes."

Damkerng T.

Ahh

Anonymous

transcripts.foreverdreaming.org/viewtopic.php?f=116&t=17501

Anonymous

16:11

I've never seen the show

Damkerng T.

Me either!

Anonymous

It sounds a bit like rose-colored glasses to me

Damkerng T.

Exactly!

By the way, I just finished watching X-Men: Days of the Future Past. Fox is rerunning The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug after it. It's kinda weird to see Magneto (Ian McKellen) as Gandalf within some ten minutes!

Damkerng T.

21:55

23

Q: A question asked in order to expose ignorance

I am looking for a particular word that describes: a question that is asked in order to expose ignorance/lack of knowledge. As with a rhetorical question, the questioner knows the answer, but suspects the person being addressed doesn't.

meaning british-english questions

Strange. Everyone seems to know whom the question would be asked to expose ignorance to.

To me, it's ambiguous. It could mean exposing that for the sake of the student himself (or herself), or it could mean to mock the poor guy or to make the poor guy feed bad.

Maybe mentioning "rhetorical question" makes everybody think one way.

Reading this in English makes me think the other way.

Reading this and thinking in another language makes me think in yet another way.

Transcript for

English Language Learners