English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room

RegDwigнt

15:00

Stephen Colbert is the most overrated piece of fluff since the invention of sitting in an empty eggshell-painted room for seven hours.

Mitch

@Gigili You're asking me? Probably some dude who went on an odysspey to get back to Ithapca

@RegDwigнt holds me closer

Robusto

@RegDwigнt That may be, but he's crushing Jimmy Fallon with help from Der Rump.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt like cotton candy

RegDwigнt

Fallon's got The Roots tho, so he wins on principle.

Mitch

or the released stuffing of a well-upholstered chaise longue

@RegDwigнt Which reminds me. The Little Prince is the most boring story ever. And it does that even with pictures.

englishstudent

15:03

@Mitch I think your writing needs speech therapy =)

Mitch

War and Piece didn't even have pictures.

RegDwigнt

@Mitch you should read it in French.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt not understanding it may make it better

RegDwigнt

No, I mean you'd get even more bored.

Mitch

I'm bored just talking about it

RegDwigнt

15:04

Seriously though I think that's the point. Of course you'd find it boring as an adult.

You should have read it as a child.

Mitch

hm...that would sound better with an exclamation point.

Robusto

I often go back and read things as a child.

Mitch

I'm bored just talking about it!

Hell yeah! Kick ass! I'm filled with the swirling miasma of ennui!

RegDwigнt

@Robusto yes, as do your Presidents.

Mitch

Which reminds me of a joke about cotton candy. Do you know that one?

RegDwigнt

15:05

@Mitch no bukkake in this chat.

Robusto

... and a wave of passive indifference swept over the crowd.

englishstudent

@RegDwigнt Yeah that's a good idea. I used to play videos games in the past but I have kind of lost the habit. Playing mutiplayer games with native speakers of English is a good idea.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt You monster. You know I could never do that.

RegDwigнt

I'm in a clan with like thirty native English speakers and none of them can speak English. Idiots.

Robusto

1 hour ago, by Robusto

ELU chat is the place where you come to jerk off, and not the other way around.

QED

RegDwigнt

15:07

No wonder they can't learn any foreign languages. They can't even fucking learn their own mother tongue.

Mitch

@englishstudent the kind where people type or were they wear headsets and talk out loud?

Robusto

@RegDwigнt What game is that?

RegDwigнt

World of no tenks.

englishstudent

@Robusto Yah I hope I get better at it though. My writing is not bad though. I just have an accent when I speak English, which I'm trying to get rid of. But some people have told me it's okay, and it doesn't look bad.

Robusto

@englishstudent See, they should have told you it doesn't sound bad.

RegDwigнt

15:09

wotinfo.net/en/clanoverview?id=6461&server=XBOX

Mitch

Coke and cock are pretty different. I don't think there is a coke-cock merger anywhere in English.

RegDwigнt

There is in Naughty America.

Mitch

Oh.

Ah.

englishstudent

@Mitch Yeah, the kind where they wear a headset and talk out loud and shout and swear at each other. So that's a drawback =)

RegDwigнt

Stop channelling Keeley Hawes.

Robusto

15:10

May 2 at 2:26, by Robusto

Jun 9 '15 at 10:53, by Robusto

Possibly one of the worst crimes Britain perpetrated on the world was to give English to the subcontinent.

I said that affectionately, btw.

RegDwigнt

Science fection, double feature.

Mitch

@englishstudent Yeah. That's really annoying. Well, not the swearing as much as the taunting. OK the swearing to. But mostly the taunting.

RegDwigнt

Well. That's really in your hands. Just don't be friends with idiots.

Mitch

@RegDwigнt She didn't explain how her son thought it was weird that Lara Croft sounded just like her.

RegDwigнt

It's not like I've never come across a nazi on XBOX Live. But I'm under no obligation to stick to them.

Mitch

15:12

That's the story I wanted to hear

RegDwigнt

She looks so old it's daunting.

She used to be quite an eye candy.

Robusto

Well, that's all for me today, folks. Can't waste too much time in ELU chat. I'm retired, I have things to do. You people with jobs enjoy yourselves. Ciao!

englishstudent

Ciao.

RegDwigнt

CU

englishstudent

@Mitch You seem experienced with the gaming community. Were/Are you a gamer?

Mitch

15:17

> Come on, you're too good-looking. Girls go out with you and get nervous.
They feel dumpy, they don't want to compete.
They want a guy ... who'll make them look good.
Best thing that could happen to you is an industrial accident.

@Robusto pfft

@englishstudent You should get your gaming advice from @Tonepoet

@englishstudent I also seem like I am experienced with Broadway musicals

Because I'm fabulous

englishstudent

@Mitch haha true. She is a pro, or seems like one. =)

Mitch

no exclamations needed

facts is facts

englishstudent

@Mitch Oh really? Any examples or samples from Youtube maybe?

Mitch

@Gigili are you outwaiting the day until dinner?

SBM

Hello back

Mitch

15:22

"Wicked" Original Broadway Cast - Idina Menzel & Kristin Chenoweth Sing "For Good"

►

englishstudent

@Mitch Heh. Your smugness is showing today.

Gigili

@Mitch Sort of.

RegDwigнt

It's not smugness if it's correctness.

Gigili

Do you also have an example of red keyboard shown in a youtube video?

englishstudent

@Mitch Neat.

Mitch

15:25

Smug brings to mind a wash cloth.

sticks wash cloth back in

RegDwigнt

Unboxing Cooler Master CM Storm Devastator Keyboard Bundle Red LED

►

Mitch

@RegDwigнt Damn you! That's not my keyboard!

Gigili

@RegDwigнt Have a butter bite.

RegDwigнt

Wait, if I posted a video of your keyboard, that wouldn't result in a damnation?

SBM

What? It looks so different

Mitch

15:27

@RegDwigнt sigh That's not how it works.

Gigili

Not if you post a video of his damn keyboard

RegDwigнt

Whatever mate too late now, standing behind you filming now.

Mitch

resists urge to look over shoulder

urge wins

RegDwigнt

No, don't that will break the fourth wall and we'll have to start over again.

Nobody ain't got no time for that.

Mitch

Isn't that just a door?

RegDwigнt

15:29

Remember that I'm in Managua, so I blend in with the environment.

Mitch

> James Baldwin sits next to David Brooks, who’s above Ta-Nehisi Coates, who’s next to “Pantsuit Nation”

RegDwigнt

And then they all did a great fall.

Mitch

This is obviously false because James Baldwin is ...

... or is he?

RegDwigнt

He's bald, that much is certain.

Anyways I'm checking out now. In a bit.

Mitch

That would explain so much

I haven't checked in for quite a while already

englishstudent

15:31

@Mitch So did you develop interest in Broadway musicals from the radio there?

I don't listen to them usually, only when someone mentions it or gives me a link. I'm more into Pop and other genres etc.

Mitch

?? If they play anything on the radio here, it is not broadway musical numbers.

They don't even play the news

except on the all-news channels

englishstudent

oh I see.

Well, I almost never understand it when an American mentions "Broadway". It is such a broad word for me.

hah.

Mitch

@englishstudent ha ha

It's just the short section of Broadway and 42nd street of Manhattan (around Times Square) which shows musicals like Wicked and Cats and Lion King and Frozen and Spider Man.

The hard part is what 'Off-Broadway' is. I haven't ever been able to figure that out. Is it near broadway but just off it a little? Do you have to be on Broadway literally to be a Broadway musical and anything just on the corner is 'Off Broadway'?

And then there is, I am not kidding, 'Off-Off-Broadway'

Is that just like two blocks away? or is it like... Chicago?

englishstudent

Funny.

@Mitch Btw which news channel you listen to or watch there? Just curious.

Because sometimes I hear bad things about Fox News and that other news channel... what's its name? Can't remember now.

Mitch

@englishstudent I'm sure there is a wiki page explaining it all.

englishstudent

15:39

I have never heard 'Off-Off-Broadway' before.

With double off I mean.

Mitch

@englishstudent Forgetting print news sources (newspapers and news magazines; @Cerberus and I did a full analysis of them the other night...wait, not news magazines)...

the main video newses in the US are Fox, CNN, MSNBC and the almost forgettable to me older network ABC, CBS

Fox is right, CNN is center, MSNBC left

englishstudent

I see.

Mitch

Everybody has something bad to say about al of them (not the same people at the same time)

SBM

Here news channels are a whole lot different I guess.

Mitch

What are they like?

@englishstudent Just so you know, I know very little about gaming and don't really do it. Similarly with musicals.

Off-Broadway

An Off-Broadway theatre is a professional venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but generally larger than Off-Off-Broadway theatres, which seat less than 100. An "Off-Broadway production" is a production of a play, musical or revue that appears in such a venue and adheres to related trade union and other contracts. Shows that premiere Off-Broadway are sometimes subsequently produced on Broadway. == History == Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway...

englishstudent

15:47

@Mitch I used to listen to BBC for my English. But now I like American accent. I think I'll let the accent come to me, I just try to be natural and not force the pronunciations etc. on myself. The learning becomes easy and interesting that way.

Mitch

Off-Off-Broadway

Off-Off-Broadway theatrical productions in New York City are those in theatres that are smaller than Broadway and Off-Broadway theatres. Off-Off-Broadway theatres are usually theatres that have fewer than 100 seats, though the term can be used for any show in the New York City area that employs union actors but is not under an Off-Broadway, Broadway, or League of Resident Theatres contract. It is often used as a term relating to any show with non-union actors. The shows range from professional productions by established artists to small amateur performances. == History == The Off-Off-Broa...

@englishstudent BBC news reporters tends to have many different accents nowadays. American News is uniformly the general American accent

terdon

@englishstudent Please don't try to mimic accents you like. You will almost certainly just make yourself sound really weird. Instead, forget your accent and focus on being understandable. You don't need to sound British or American or whatever, you only need to be clear and easy to understand.

That often involves making your accent less strong, yes, but it doesn't need to involve making your accent sound like a native speaker's.

Mitch

But the American accent is generally ugly sounding when speaking non-English languages.

@terdon What's wrong with trying to get an accent just right?

terdon

@Mitch I got news for you, so's are the UK ones. Depends on the language. And it's hard to beat the French on how silly the poor sods sound when speaking other languages.

@Mitch Nothing wrong if you can actually do it but I've never met anyone who could as an adult. Well, barring professional actors with voice coaches and the like.

Mitch

> It was a strange feeling, to go around a bookstore without feeling a single unexpected thrill. There were no wild cards, no deep cuts, no oddballs—just books that were already best-sellers, pieces of clothing I knew wouldn’t fit me or that I already owned.

@terdon French is overrated

terdon

15:51

The rest of us just learn to pronounce stuff they way they're supposed to sound. My point is that it makes more sense to focus on being understood than to try and pretend you're a native. The latter will almost certainly fail and is anyway not worth the effort.

englishstudent

@terdon Yeah, that's good advice.

Mitch

@terdon Yes, it's supper difficult to remove an accent entirely. But to try is a good thing don't you think?

helps with understanding

terdon

@Mitch Well, if you manage to make yourself easily understandable by the natives, you have managed to reduce your non-native accent.

Mitch

it's not pretending, it's when in Rome doing as they do.

terdon

I mean, there's no point in trying to speak a foreign language so well that the natives can't tell you're native. That may be possible if you're both lucky enough that your own language is close enough in accent to the target, and if you are living in the country where your target accent comes from.

I can pass for a native in Spanish, for example, but I could do so from day one since the Greek and Spanish accents are so similar.

After 5 years in France, the best I can manage is to be easily understood by native speakers but nobody would ever for a second think I'm French.

My father has been living in Greece since the early 70s and while his Greek is perfectly fluent, he still has a clear American accent. It just isn't a problem in communicating with him because he can still speak clearly with it.

Or, consider someone like Victor Borge. He clearly had an accent but it didn't make him any harder to understand at all. Granted, that's a pretty mild accent, but still.

Or think of Antonio Banderas or Arnold whose accents are still alive and kicking but who have no problem making their (admittedly few) lines understood.

tchrist

16:50

@terdon lscp.net/persons/ramus/docs/idlang99.pdf

Tonepoet

@RegDwigнt That is a sentiment Sherlock Holmes would surely find to be agreeable.

@Mitch I'm a little behind the times to be honest. With the possible exception of tactical R.P.Gs. I'm more interested in two dimensional games than three dimensional ones, by which I mean to refer to the field of play.

terdon

17:19

@tchrist Thanks! That looks interesting. I just skimmed it though, it will take me a while to digest that in French. I'll come back to it after work.

tchrist

@terdon I only skimmed it so far. And yeah, my brain slows down a little when reading French, at least compared with reading Spanish, where it doesn't seem to.

Gigili

18:06

@Robusto I wonder whether the glass has kept its shape.

Robusto

20:32

@RegDwigнt Ummm, is that for people who don't know how to open a box?

That's the keyboard/mouse combo I have, btw, only mine has blue backlighting.

@Gigili If not it would quickly overflow the buffers ...

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English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…