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00:07
Hi!
Your schedule is off still/again?
Or, no.
A bit.
I got a little HW problem.
Egocentric thinking. It's me who's here at a strange time.
You might always be here for all I know. :)
Oh. Sorry.
I'm mostly around my computer, so...
00:09
Like it's too hard or too much, or you procrastinated? O.o
I'm around my computer, and I can access ELL easily but that doesn't mean ELL always has all my attention.
Or the assignment was to write a sample program, which could have been writing, "Hello world" on the screen, but instead you are designing your program to model world climate changes (on Jupiter)?
I might as well be writing a program to change our Earth's climate, for all I know. :-)
Oh my.
You are an ambitious person. The number of tabs says it all. OK. Peace. Go ahead and homework away.
Or go into hibernate.
00:18
5 hours ago, by Damkerng T.
Oh, someone just got a date cancelled!
Many of my students use date to mean any kind of appointment or plan, business or social.
@JimReynolds Interesting.
Almost all of my students are adults. It must be used that way in one of their junior high school textbooks!
They also use "until now" to mean "still". I am not sure if it can have both meanings.
I think date is never used in the business context here in Thailand.
(I only know the meaning of true before a current/recent change.)
Lunch date with a friend?
Not the use that I'm familiar with.
00:26
Right. You could be an honorary American, although I know you did learn mostly BrE.
So if I heard anyone used it, I might think to myself, well, that's probably okay in another English.
@JimReynolds Not really. I learned BrE as a kid, but it was taught very badly.
At least in your electronic childhood.
O.o
I don't blame our teachers. It's the method.
@JimReynolds Hehe!
Rote memorization of vocabulary and facts.
I assume.
I'm not even sure how exactly I learned English when I was a boy.
00:27
Slaps all of Dam's childhood teachers.
But lots of books.
And I always couldn't make sense of anything in English.
Hmm... According to my newest religion, that's why you're so good now.
Until the last year before I went to the university.
(Hide this from sn@il.)
o.o
Then what happened?
I found one book!
00:28
You woke up one day feeling fluent?
O.O
It taught me how to find the main verb in sentences!
And -click- !
Yes, but only the reading.
Sure.
I guess there must have been a great deal of learning going on earlier, in the confusion. It's so interesting, even if tragic.
Maybe it was just how it was "supposed to" happen.
Yes! Sadly, but true!
00:31
Oh. I'm getting philosophical.
Eastern!
o.o
I tried it the hard way once (before I found that book).
I borrowed a textbook from my library.
I looked up every word I didn't know (which is basically about 80-90% of the words in the book!)
Hmm... I wonder if in some way, it would have happened with or without that book.
It took me a week to get to page three.
So I gave up. (sort of)
But I knew English was so important, so I kept trying to look for other ways. (And I found that book.)
It took you a week to get to page three of another book, books in general, or that book?
Oh, another book. A textbook.
The first English textbook I borrowed from the library.
00:35
I gotsted it.
O.O
The book that taught me to spot the main verb was in Thai.
o.0
So Thai people are now in a position to . . . OMG!
Become the next masters of the planet!
Unfortunately, I lost the book, and I can't recall the book's name!
Screams. Hurls self in front of bus.
00:37
What? Now I have to go to the hospital for nothing!
Tries to strike Damkerng T., but finds that the bones of every limb are shattered.
I guess that book is not that unique, though it's rather rare.
Hmm... What's your HW situation now?
I suppose that good English teachers could do the same thing. (Teaching their students how to spot the main verbs.)
Do you need my laptop's CPU, and my microwave oven's?
Yes. But it's interesting.
It's kinda late; it doesn't progress as fast as I planned.
But it keeps moving.
00:39
I think different students have different issues that they have sudden insights around.
Oh, that's a different HW. Never mind.
@JimReynolds nods
The HW you mentioned when we started talking earlier.
@JimReynolds It could be a SW problem.
Or a little bit of both.
Oh. Funny. I was thinking homework.
Yes, I was thinking homework!
00:41
HW = homework, and SW = software?
O.O
Head hurts.
I thought we were on the same page already! (HW = hardware)
Maybe I'm still sleeping!
I think my problem is one of the followings: SATA, AHCI, DMA, PIO. (But don't worry about those terms. It's my problem anyway. :-)
Are we inside Inception?
00:43
Stares blankly.
Um-Hmm.
I seem to have a chance to go to China to set up an English program/school. O.O
Hey, that's awesome!
At first, I told them No.
But they are asking again. O.O
Oh! And now?
Hehe!
It makes me think I must be special!
Maybe they're using a classical Chinese technique.
00:46
Brainwashing?
It's in Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
Have you heard of "death by a thousand cuts"?
o.o
Oh, yes. In Wuxia.
Hmmm . . .
I think my life will change.
For better, I think. :-)
00:49
I kind of went into sleep mode for three years.
Yes. For better.
Jiggles some wires in Dam's computer for him.
Any help?
By the way, the technique (or tactic) I was thinking about is 三顧茅廬 (Three visits to the thatched cottage).
@JimReynolds My computer says, it's tingle!
Ah, my hunch was right. It should be tingling.
00:52
Maybe my presence was inspiring?
O.O
Oh, I didn't know this one!
I really enjoy Dr. Seuss's, btw.
China is a very big place. I've visited only Beijing.
Which part of China will your school be?
Well, my partner's sister is married to a guy from Shenyang.
I'm quite close to both of them.
They lived together in the US for 15 years, then they lived in Taiwan for most of the time that I was here.
Finally, the Chinese son's duty claimed him!
01:00
His parents have a well-established private school.
General school for like elementary through . . . middle school or high school.
From what I've heard, Chinese students are very eager to learn English.
Now Amber, (Chris's sister), started some children's art classes.
She's extremely successful.
And they were asking me what I'd do if I could design an English program for kids.
I just thought I want to stay here in Taiwan, but I gave them some ideas.
Now they are saying I can just come for six months. Then once in a while.
I dunno!
I guess talk to them more.
01:03
Maybe they want to make me rich!
Hehe!
I guess that a flight between Taiwan and Shenyan is not as expensive as the flights I used to take.
(A lot of things are much cheaper nowadays anyway.)
Yes. That's what Chris is telling me.
He seems to think it's a good idea. So this morning, I started thinking about it in a new way. That made me get up early.
I wonder if they'd give me the time (and maybe some of the resources) to study and plan for a while. That would be really nice.
Ahh... so that's why.
nods
I'm listening to Marco's "he wanted to spend."
I'll make him a nice file.
:D
:D
Oh, I remember I enjoyed food in Beijing so much!
I just searched for Shenyang for a bit and found some of its attractions.
01:10
I went to Shenyang for a visit once. It was a nice time. Mostly because my friends and their family has some really nice people in it.
I know it gets unbelievably cold there in winter.
Hey, wait. Where is the Forbidden City exactly? In Beijing or Shenyang?
Let it go, let it go, la la, lah, laaaa, lah la.
Beijing.
But Shenyang was a capital I think.
Some Mongol's capital, or if not a capital, at least there was like a second palace there, or something. O.O
I am almost finished reading a huge history of China for the second time, and I've read another huge one, too. Apparently not much sticks in my little brain.
I didn't learn China's history formally, but it's everywhere in Chinese TV series!
(Mostly from Hong Kong)
So, I don't really know, but kinda have a very good idea.
But names and places are very difficult to remember.
01:15
Yes.
Unless we have some emotional reason to remember.
Threatens to take Dam to the thatched hut and beat him with a thatch if he doesn't remember something he wants to remember.
There, now you are motivated.
Like, I share the family name with a character in Romance of the Three Kingdoms. ;-)
@JimReynolds Hehe!
Hmm... Do you have a Chinese family name?
A Chinese family?
A Chinese . . . everything?
O.O
I don't. My grandma had.
01:17
:-)
Neat! I always wonder how he would look like. Now I can associate him with a face. :P
I'm a quarter Italian. We have some kind of Marco Polo thing together.
0
Q: Am I saying "wanted to" correct in American accent?

Marco DinatsoliI am watching this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwyJlpgt4DI and I am trying to say wanted to in American accent. the n cancels the t the to becomes da the word become *waned da** the d in waned and the d in da becomes one d I recorded the way i say it here http://www.filedropper.com/...

Where did "Mayor Bloomberg's" name come from?
Oh, that!
Maybe it's in that YouTube video. (I didn't look.)
OK. I did and I don't see anything Bloombergian about it. :D
I go walk doggies.
fingers crossed. Testing... See if it works!
@JimReynolds Have a great walk!
01:21
Good luck!
Thanks!
Wear eye protection.
O.o
20%! So far not so bad... (Actually it looks pretty good)
Applauds.
40%! Hey, this looks quite promising!
60%! (It stopped dead at 54% the last time.)
Verifying...
Passed! Woo-hoo!
01:52
Let's have a parade!
Hehe!
I've just finished cleaning up. (Well, not all the clean up. The machine is still naked.)
I glanced at my tabs and saw that you're back, so I just came back in to say hello before retiring to my docking bay. :P
Good luck on your new journey!
And on that note, I have to say, good night!
02:29
night!
 
7 hours later…
user116848
09:11
I like these lyrics:
user116848
> When you're weary, feeling small,
When tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all;
I'm on your side. When times get rough
And friends just can't be found,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.

When you're down and out,
When you're on the street,
When evening falls so hard
I will comfort you.
I'll take your part.
When darkness comes
And pain is all around,
Like a bridge over troubled water
I will lay me down.
Like a bridge over troubled water
10:10
1
A: An earth vs the earth

Maulik VThat's because there's only one earth. The things that are unique (especially planets, stars, universe etc.) take the definite article. the sun, the moon, the earth etc. Worth noting that when the noun starts with a 'vowel', the pronunciation of the definite article is 'dhee' and not 'dhu'...

This is an example of answers I don't want to write, and it's why I refrain from answering questions I'm not really sure I know the answer. This answer is actually spot on on the main point, but supporting texts are just plain wrong.
Oh, he fixed it! (It was thee and dhu before. Now they're both dhee and dhu which is correct from the InE view.)
Still, the "planets" part is incorrect. I would never say "Our spaceship landed on *the Mars."
@arrowfar A part of me says, I can feel your pain, man.
Another part of me thinks, curiously, Is that why you turned into a bridge? It also said impatiently, Does that mean you're the bridge or the troubled water? Tell us!
10:37
0
Q: 'agree' as a transitive verb

Law Area 51 Proposal - Commit [OED:] 15. {trans.} = To arrange or settle (something requiring the consent of several parties); to come to an agreement on. In modern use chiefly Brit. Apparently RARE in the 19th cent. I already understand, and so ask NOT about, the above definition. Instead, why's this chiefly Britis...

A downvote?!?
10:49
Two downvotes?!!?
Any robot present?
Machinery? Apparatus?
11:07
@JimReynolds A robot is preparing himself for going out. :P
Go out there and be all the robot you can be!!!
(I'm not sure if that means charming people or destroying a section of the city, but I support either one.)
11:33
hi all
11:44
Hullo world!
hi
how are you?
Fine.
Thanks.
Dang they make some ice cream!
user116848
@DamkerngT. Well, I'm a bridge now. I can't tell much :)
Hullo!
user116848
Hullo!
11:52
How are you doing?
user116848
I'm fine, thanks. And you?
Fine here too. Thanks.
Do delete votes age away too?
'hot dogs'??? where did that 'dogs' come from ? any idea
?
@JudeNiroshan Ask Do|t.
@JudeNiroshan google.com/…
11:59
Oh, and
A hot dog (also spelled hotdog) is a cooked sausage, traditionally grilled or steamed and served in a sliced bun as a sandwich. Hot dog variants include the corn dog dipped in corn batter and deep fried, pigs in blankets wrapped in dough, baked, and served as hors d'oeuvres, and Beanie Weenies chopped and mixed with baked beans. Typical hot dog garnishes include mustard, ketchup, onions, mayonnaise, relish, cheese, chili, and sauerkraut. The sausages were culturally imported from Germany and popularized in the United States, where they were a working class street food sold at hot dog stands that...
nice
article

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