@Mitch There is a difference between hearing voices and merely thinking with a metaphorical voice in your head, and some people don't know that and think they have schizophrenia. I have a feeling some shrinks don't ask their patients properly and misdiagnose them. After all, shrinks can be quite stupid.
@englishstudent If you notice, that collection of sites has lessons for many languages, not just English. But I don't buy any Living Language products myself to learn languages, because I think there are better alternatives like Teach Yourself or Assimil.
There are usually three adjacent T in this chat: terdon, Tonepoet, and tchrist.
There are many language resources for learning foreign languages that people can use in different ways. Two people can use the same resource in different ways and get different benefits.
@tchrist It probably means the ones you don't know you don't know rather than the ones you don't know, I think.
@JasperLoy Even if you accept that he/him is gender neutral, sir most certainly isn't. So calling someone whose gender you don't know "sir" can be quite strange.
We should not even have actor/actress and lion/lioness. One word is enough for one thing. See, we don't have doctor/doctress! Are we going to have two words for every thing?
@terdon There are some people who even identify as neither sir nor madam. They are in-between.
@englishstudent What do you mean when you say 'lel' at the end of a sentence? YOu've done that a couple times, but I don't understand it at all. Is it a funny spelling of 'lol', or is it Singlish, like 'la', or something else?
Well, I used to work as a waiting staff in the past and people liked it when I called them sir (males) but @terdon is right, here I don't know people's genders so it can be grating and strange.
Actually, I would hesitate in saying people like it unless they told me explicitly so. I for example don't want people calling me sir or madam. But it is standard practice in some letters and some occupations.
@englishstudent BUt that doesn't ... correspond to anything that I know of. Is that something you've seen elsewhere? Is it supposed to correspond to how you pronounce it?
> Lel (and variations including lal) resulted from the use of random vowels substituted in place of the 'o' in LOL. These vowels were used in an attempt to be different from the millions of internet game fags. The word however, in essence, still means LOL.
@JasperLoy John McWhorter has a language pdcast and his most recent one is the use of 'like' in English (and how kids these days ruin their speech by sprinkling 'like' all over it like) and he is very descriptive about it (as a linguist should be) and noting that there is a 'end of sentence' usage and I just realized that that is a lot like 'la'.
@JasperLoy I can't deny that teen girls say that, even popular teen girls. I can't confirm it either. I can confirm that usually they say things like 'Who?'.
@terdon that sounds like a joke from an American military movie from the 80's, where the cadet has to respond to a female senior officer and doesn't know whether to say sir or ma'am. hahhaha 50 pushups now you maggot.
@englishstudent you may notice that people here (ELU chat, and possibly other SE chats) aren't too into using all the internet slang abbreviations. Like 'u' or 'ur' for you or your, no one ever uses those here.
Although this constant “sirring” comes off as the verbal marker of obsequious sycophancy by kowtowing toadies like so many mendicant paupers clutching at one’s hemline, they do this without understanding what a terrible cultural faux pas they’ve committed, because it is normal in their culture but not in ours. These intentions to be polite come off as exactly the opposite. — tchrist ♦Jan 27 at 12:41
I come from a culture where kowtowing is common in a metaphorical sense in society, but as you all know, I do not belong to this culture in Antarctica and will leave for Arctica as soon as I can.
@JasperLoy there are biological systematizations that are finer grained than species. 'veriety' I think. and Indian teas are distinct varieties from the Chinese ones. (i.e. not just processing methods)
@JasperLoy I drink tea mostly, except the one day a week I'll drink coffee (as long as it is highly sweetened and chocolate and milk, so that it doesn't taste at all like coffee)
@Mitch It's more like sucking up rather than being polite. That's what I had in mind. But yes, there is sucking up everywhere, but I think there is a more extreme form of it as well.
@JasperLoy like the recognition that someone else is of higher social status, people usually are overly polite, offer things to them they wouldn't to someone of their own social status, or use terms of address that are special?
I am writing a Cover letter and my paragraph reads as follows:
(the last line sounds somewhat clumsy to me).
I demonstrate ample professional experience in the academic writing sector and communication sector acquired at prestigious international universities, research centers and organizatio...
Shouldn't the OP's background as an international editor and writer have equipped her with the skill to craft that final sentence in a more clear, concise and when needed compelling manner?
@Mitch Like maybe someone comes in to the hall and people have to stand and rise even though he is not of a rank that people have to stand and rise in other countries.
@Hellion I am not talking about this case, but in general, lots of people do jobs that are not suitable for them because they lack the necessary skills.
@Mitch Or when I went for an interview and someone told me to read the book which describes the achievements of the interviewers when I don't care who they are and they are nobody to me and I was only there because they forced me to.
Talking about lacking the skills to do their job, there are math teachers here who think that the empty set containing the empty set is the same as the empty set.
@JasperLoy Camellia sinensis is the species of plant that tea comes from, but you're right, most of the drinks are differentiated by preparation process mostly amount of 'oxidation' (less is greener, more is blacker)
@Mitch I would like to share a secret with you. At home, I usually tell my mum in response to all these small people thinking they are big (not physically): At my level, I only listen to my mum and the Buddha. Now I sound bigoted instead of the people I claim to be bigoted.
@Mitch That day, I actually saw a Wikipedia article with crap sentences. Some prankster actually managed to do it but it was removed in a few minutes.
@Mitch Another secret. At home, I usually tell my mum: These people think they are one level above me, but they don't know they are ten levels below me.
@tchrist Well that is true and strange at the same time. I have worked some low level jobs and I have noticed that people secretly like when you give them respect like “sir” etc. but then when you are direct and them and not sycophantic and toady like you say, then, quite often they take it the wrong way, like “Look at your status and the way you talk to me!”.
People are idiotic more often than not. Sorry if that’s rude but I don’t mean anyone in particular, just making a general observation about the world.
Also if someone calls you a sir and they are not making a mistake like they can know the gender from your name then why is that sycophantic? Maybe it is cultural but I don't follow. Maybe I'm programmed that way.
@JasperLoy YOu just have to be polite and look at the book and say something nodescript like 'Wow, this must have been quite an accomplishment. Such a sign of erudition and effort! Look at the binding how strong it is. The font is clear and readable, yet one each page there are many letters..."
@JasperLoy yeah (respnding late to this). I feel like if people were only told that those voices are random things from your own head, just think of them as dreams, then that might give them a strategy to deal with them.
Also psychologists are people too, they're not perfect. You'd think they'd know enough things by now to help, but they're not perfect.
in the US clinical psychiatrists/psychologists also have to go through talk therapy themselves as part of their job qualifications. a it of the snake biting its own tail, but still gives them perspective on their own patients by being a patient themselves. Hopefully they have their problems under control.
I don't think that really hinders them terribly. The vague "what you say to yourself without speaking" is probably sufficient. Most people's problems are substance abuse, OCD, anxiety, depression which aren't really 'train of thought' centered.
Whatever you're calling consciousness, even if it onl partially overlaps mine, even if you can yourself not decide on exactly what it is, is any of that relevant to the problems I mentioned?
The problem with some single word requests is that they ask for a word that has to satisfy so many requirements at the same time that it actually does not exist!
Then someone comes along and gives a word that doesn't satisfy the requirements, and the asker says it is perfect!
In this case, it seems that neither the asker nor the answerer knows what he is doing.
Some answers are upvoted because the user has a high rep, or because it contains difficult words or technical words, not because they are good or correct.
I'm looking for a concise way to describe expanding the dimension of an object, i.e. taking a square and turning it into a cube.
In order to turn a square into a cube, you _____ it into three dimensions.
I am writing a Cover letter and my paragraph reads as follows:
(the last line sounds somewhat clumsy to me).
I demonstrate ample professional experience in the academic writing sector and communication sector acquired at prestigious international universities, research centers and organizatio...
I'm looking for a concise way to describe expanding the dimension of an object, i.e. taking a square and turning it into a cube.
In order to turn a square into a cube, you _____ it into three dimensions.
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…
English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…