English Language & Usage: Multi-Layered Discourse Room - 2019-02-21

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6:13 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword in body, bad keyword in title, bad keyword in username, potentially bad keyword in body, potentially bad keyword in title, +1 more (290): What is digital Marketing Course by Digital Marketing Course on english.SE

1 hour later…

7:22 AM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Few unique characters in answer (86): Why are there so many words of apparent (Middle) Dutch origin in English? by jhgfdsw on english.SE

@RegDwigнt When did you become Italian, LOL.

2 hours later…

9:20 AM

is it right to say "like tossing coin" as you were giving an example?

Matt E. Эллен

like tossing a coin

thank you

2 hours later…

11:09 AM

@Jasper when did you become not Italian? WTF

11:28 AM

how to describe "disappearance of doubt" in a sentence?

in a scientific article of course

2 hours later…

1:05 PM

> I need two motifs for two cats one is mischievous and the other is curious.
I am doing a string quartet in G major the time signature is 4/4.
Each motifs needs to start and end on G/B/D and be no longer than a bar long.
Any suggestions please.

@Student404Mus give us the whole paragraph please. If you can't think of anything with all the context that you have, we certainly won't be able to do better when given no context whatsoever.

@RegDwigнt I see. for example i want to make a sense in this sentence, after you toss a coin you know the result. knowing the result removes your doubts ( being head or tail) before you toss it

1 hour later…

2:32 PM

@RegDwigнt Ask them if they want fries with that.

3:12 PM

@Student404Mus "It's better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than open it and remove all doubt."

Matt E. Эллен

As you can see from my avatar, my mouth is constantly agape

noöne should doubt my stupidity

Exactly what a monster would say.

3:30 PM

@Robusto thank you. Sometimes the audacity is so transcendental, it transcends even me. I am paralyzed and don't know what to say. I will put your suggestion on my short list for future occasions.

@Cerberus Do you know about Rutger Bregman? Is he a known entity in the Netherlands? He just popped into notoriety in the US for getting Tucker Carlson (on his Fox conservative propaganda show) to 'swear profusely' at him (Rutger). RB was the guy at Davos recently who called for higher taxes on Davos bajillionaires.

Like what kind of person would even write that, "I need two motifs. I am doing a string quartet". No you are not. You are doing anything but a string quartet. If you can't even think of a motif you are not doing anything except sitting on your fat arse.

@RegDwigнt It almost sounds like Music composition 101 homework.

You are not writing a quartet, you are not writing a trio, you are not writing a tune for your mom to whistle in the shower. All you are writing is a comment on the internet, about how you are not writing anything else.

@Mitch it's below that. A motif is not composition. A motif is literally absolutely any pair of notes.

You can toss a coin or some dice or whatever. Or let one of your fat cats walk over your keyboard.

There's your motif right there.

Wait... one bar long? Here's my solution: both are the same, a whole note G. Both mischievous and curious cats are always napping. Also dead cats. Dead cats look like they are napping.

Cats are insidiously clever little bastards that will bit your face off while you are sleeping.

Good music will show that.

@RegDwigнt Shut up about my mom.

That's uncool man

3:35 PM

@Mitch I was thinking about that. Either a whole G, or four quarter Gs.

@RegDwigнt Exactly. A+ on that homework.

But really, the best punishment for these levels of idiocy is ignoring it altogether.

She's not worthy of my attention.

@RegDwigнt Also, don't talk about my cat's weight problems.

Uncool in exactly the same way

Have all of you learnt the 5 tones of Chinese already?

@Mitch yeah. A motif cannot have character. That's what you do to the motif.

3:37 PM

@Jasper Done. mā, má, mã, mà, ma

If you have a capable composer, you can give them literally any motif at all. Literally any two notes. And they will turn that into a tune for a curious cat. Or a dead parrot. Or a living dead pirate.

I'm having trouble with that 3rd tone though

Slap some sharps on it.

Five should do.

all on one note

Of course.

3:38 PM

that's jazz!

@MattE.Эллен Do you have a better idea of the tones now after watching that video?

@Mitch why are you saying, in Chinese, "the mother is hurrying through rice fields on a white stallion with her hair blowing in the wind because her child is ill?"

@Mitch what do you mean?

Matt E. Эллен

@Jasper I haven't had a chance to watch it, but I will

Yeah I was wondering about that, too. Mitch. Did you comment on the wrong comment.

3:41 PM

@Jasper What does 'learn' mean? One can attempt to make the pitch contours, but no guarantee that other people will understand you. And then hearing, OMG, that's nearly impossible. Is it mái or mài, bought or sold? context tells you everything so you don't need to bother learning. It's really hard.

@MattE.Эллен that's what she said. About the last eleven M. Night Shyamalan movies.

@RegDwigнt It's more of a question (with the 'ma' untoned particle at the end)

It certainly is a questionable activity.

@MattE.Эллен OK. I think the part in it that helps you get the second sound is comparing it to the French Oui?, and the part that helps you get the third and fourth sounds is comparing it to Mhm! or Aha! Note this special thing about that video.

No offense meant towards your mom.

@Mitch Ah. I see. Thank you. Let me rephrase, then. Why are you asking, in Chinese, "the mother is hurrying through rice fields on a white stallion with her hair blowing in the wind because her child is ill?"

3:43 PM

@Mitch I don't know what I meant either.

@RegDwigнt poetic, nicht wahr?

@Mitch no offense taken. We don't own a horse. Or a rice field.

Also I'm not ill.

I'm insane, but not ill.

@Jasper I 'know' what you mean, but I don't know what you mean. Know what I mean?

@Mitch Yes, I know what you mean.

@RegDwigнt You're mad, but not crazy.

3:44 PM

@Mitch that's just, like, your opinion.

Maybe when I start my new youtube channel, I will do a video of the 5 tones.

But all I will be doing is ma ma ma ma ma.

In Soviet Russia, YouTube channel starts you.

@Student404Mus It was an example of a sentence where I was using 'remove' and 'doubt' in a natural way. Also it's funny because people say stupid things sometimes.

By the way, in case you don't know, while ma is mother, ba is father.

I know it very well. I also know what the other three mas mean, as demonstrated above.

Anyway. I need to hurry find some rice fields to ride in a bus across.

3:47 PM

@RegDwigнt I often have the desire to say 'STFU, Donny' that I have to squelch. Not here though. Not often that is. Not the squelching part. I get all my squelching done walking with rubber boots through melting muddy snow.

I have not found a single youtube video where the person in the video can speak both English and Chinese fluently.

Maybe if I make a video, I will be the first one.

@Jasper Where did your old channel go? Or rather the old videos on them? Those are like your portfolio man.

@Mitch I deleted them, sadly. But it's OK, they were not making me any money or bringing me any love.

@Jasper You could do it better than that lady who you linked to last. She was good (with the repetition and all) but it could be done better.

@Mitch But she did explain how the third sound is truncated in running speech. The others I watched did not mention that, so that also gives it an edge.

You know what is funny?

3:51 PM

@Jasper Can you do Singlish too? That would be awesome lah.

When I learnt Chinese and pinyin all those 10 years or so, they never mentioned to me that the third sound goes down and then up.

@Jasper That is not the point of it. If those happen, great, but also if you take a walk and that happens, also great.

I was so surprised that all the online instructional materials teach it to you that way, which is why it also confused me.

In my mind and in my speech, I have always just thought of the third sound as "low".

@Jasper yeah, the actual sound isn't exactly like that

@Mitch Yeah, the Wikipedia article on phonology also mentioned how things are in running speech, but of course all that is very academic.

3:53 PM

also when two 3rds are next to each other, the first one is rising, which now makes more sense

Yes, that one is standard.

Otherwise, it just sounds terrible.

@Jasper OMG the weird notation was very difficult to read: ˥ ˧˥ ˨˩, ˩, ˩˧, ˨˩˦ ˥˩

However, note that when you actually write the pinyin, you still write it as third third, though when you actually pronounce it, you change the sound yourself.

that was cutnpasted from that page, it doesn't look like anything

@Mitch I am actually not familiar with that weird notation.

3:55 PM

@Jasper that's fine, that's how most orthography in the world works

Today I went out to various shopping malls to walk.

@Jasper they also give some numbers which make more sense and while easy to parse and figure out, take to long to read (eg (55) for high tone, (241) for 3rd falling rising tone

And today I spoke to three different people quite a lot, in three different shops.

@Jasper in my mind and speech none of this matters because I only took one chinese class which means you can't speak well enough to talk to a baby.

@Mitch In practice, when you actually learn to speak the language, nobody thinks in terms of 12345. Nobody actually records the sound and compares the actual pitch using a pitch pipe. We just learn by speaking it and from a teacher in person.

3:58 PM

@Cerberus twitter.com/nowthisnews/status/1098282209834950657

that's one clip of the conversation (which was never aired on Fox)

@Mitch Your one class must have lasted a long time, because your Chinese is very good, considering you only took one class.

@Jasper that's everything in life. but if you're not a centipede, you need someone to tell you the exact sequence of all 100 legs in order to walk.

@Jasper You have absolutely no idea how good my Chinese is. Ni hao

everybody in the world knows that from some kids cartoon.

Ni hao, Mulan?

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan

Ni Hao, Kai-Lan (simplified Chinese: 你好, 凯兰; traditional Chinese: 你好，凱蘭; pinyin: Nǐ hǎo, Kǎi Lán!; Hello, Kai-Lan) is an American animated (anime-influenced) interactive children's television series that premiered on Nickelodeon in the United States on November 5, 2007. It also premiered on the Canadian television channel Treehouse TV. Ni Hao, Kai-lan is based on the childhood memories of the show's creator Karen Chau growing up in a bicultural (Chinese-American) household. "Ni hao" means "Hello" in Mandarin, and Kai-Lan is the Chinese name Chau was given at birth, which was later anglicized to...

@Mitch Yes, he is somewhat well known, and gaining popularity.

@Mitch Did you know that I have said nihao almost zero times in my life?

I have known him (from his articles) for a few years, and I've always held him in high regard.

4:01 PM

@Cerberus Respectable? Or a gadfly in everything? (or both?)

Respectable.

@Jasper Because you're a monster.

With some unconventional ideas, perhaps.

@Mitch A millipede will have 1000 legs.

@Jasper OMG. so many more details.

4:02 PM

To some extent representing centre-left educated millennials, perhaps.

@Mitch I read about the incident earlier today.

@Cerberus He seemed to have respectable, well informed opinions. When he was talking I thought, 'Wow, that's not going to go over well with Fox viewers'

It's nice.

It seems that Trump likes Fox News the most, and all the rest is Fake News?

@Mitch Haha.

@Jasper yes.

That orange guy is just a 10 year old bully. Not metaphorically, it's an accurate assessment of everything he says and does. So if somebody acts like he is great, he'll like them back. If somebody complains they're enemies.

@Cerberus And then I thought, taxing the rich like that is a great idea for the good of all humanity, but neither leaders nor the rich themselves are going to choose to do that.

4:09 PM

@Mitch Only if the leaders are rich.

It's bad to have mostly rich leaders.

As it is bad to mostly have leaders related to big business.

It's the modern variant of legal corruption.

In feudal times, they also had legal corruption, though of a different sort. It seems absurd to us now.

yeah.

but...

haha, there's a but

Butt?

Oh I was thinking that if you need extra help for speaking Chinese, you can do a Hangouts video call with me if you want @MattE.Эллен

that's another joke that I'm saving up for later.

Is it accruing interest?

4:13 PM

But...to be a politician, you really need 1) to be attuned to working with a lot of people, and those skills often can come from being a business leader (and I'm having trouble thinking of other ways). and 2) to have enough money to not need to work every day because campaigning (I know that shouldn't be a defining part) and coming up with a platform of ideas takes a lot of free time.

@Cerberus Well, it has depreciated immensely because it's been over used.

My butt? yes, in fact I'm using it right now.

@Mitch Umm I don't believe any of those things are true, sorry.

Forgive me if I seem blunt, but you say things that match with the kind of people that happen to rule your country.

Hi

I am of the belief that experience is overrated. I think a lot of jobs just require common sense, including running a country.

could you suggest me a good Literature Study Guides

website

They rule your country because your country is perhaps highly susceptible to being ruled by the rich. But it doesn't have to be that way.

4:17 PM

What do you mean by literature study guide?

What exactly are you look for @Educ?

I'm looking about analysis and summary for some short stories

My country, for example, and probably many other European countries, isn't ruled by rich people, for the most part.

I found enotes and coursehero and others but I can't tell which best

@Jasper

@Educ I see. Well, this is something I know nothing about, so I have nothing to say.

Okay, Thank you I'm going to wait for others @Jasper

4:21 PM

@Mitch I think a decipede has 10 legs, and a pede has 1 leg.

Is the national curriculum English book ks-3 level in UK helpful for someone whose native language not

English

do you think that it's better for someone who's really interested to learn English has to begin from foundations ?

4:46 PM

I don't know that book, sorry.

@Student404Mus But, yes, I think it would be great to begin with the foundations.

You'll probably be able to go through them fast.

@Cerberus I failed to say that I don't think those are good things. The kind of things that 1) a business leader learns I find in general not that good for government leadership, and 2) well, I'm not sure how to fix that.

@Jasper monopede?

unipede. mono pod

hecatopod?

5:02 PM

Do you know a good book that focus on texts comprehension ? (text & questions)

5:19 PM

@Mitch I don't think you need to be in big business at all to be able to working with 'a lot of people'. You can work a normal job (30-40 hours a week) and still campaign.

You gather a number of like-minded people, or join a like-minded party, and they will do a lot of work.

You can't and shouldn't campaign all by yourself.

Again, most of our politicians aren't rich.

At least not millionaires.

The PM still lives in his old, fairly small house (two-bedroom apartment of middling size) and cycles to his office (probably followed by a few guards also on bikes).

He has an official residence, but most PMs don't really live there; they only use it for meetings and stuff.

Do you know a good book that focus on texts comprehension ?

I'm sorry, I don't.

Isn't that a bit of a catch-22? How can you have a text that teaches you to comprehend text?

i think this is obvious

Haha.

I think Terdon is joking.

5:26 PM

Sorry, I was being a little facetious, but it does seem like a problem. I don't really think there's any way to improve your text comprehension other than just reading text and trying to understand it.

@Mitch I mostly agree with this statement.

@terdon I think doing text-comprehension exercises can help!

Just the way we exercised in school.

And they will be in a book.

@Cerberus Ah yes, fair point. I was thinking of a book that tried to teach you text comprehension through, well, text and not exercises. Exercises make much more sense.

Text as in, a text taken from e.g. a newspaper, with multiple-choice questions about the text. And hopefully good tips and explanations on why answer X was wrong etc.

I see, yes you're right. Sorry @Student404Mus, I misunderstood.

If you meant that it is hard to learn text comprehension only from a theoretical text about text comprehension, then you may be right!

6:03 PM

@Cerberus I humbly submit that if a text about text comprehension is difficult to comprehend, it is not a good text on text comprehension and must not be comprehended.

On a side note, why is ELU full of people who need to close ELU and open a book instead.

And on a general note, why is the Internet full of people who need to close the Internet and never open it again.

If you go to, oh say, a concert hall, there's people making music there, and people listening to the music.
If you visit a construction site, there's some workers and a foreman. Maybe a crane driver and operators of earth-moving equipment, or the landlord and an architect to round it off.
If you go to a blacksmith's shop, there's just the lonely blacksmith there and nobody else.

But every time you go anywhere on the Internet, it's somehow full of people who do not belong every which way you twist it.

@RegDwigнt You sure have a lot of notes mister. Are you some kinda musician?

See. QED.

This guy isn't even a guy, he's a bison FFS.

And I'm an owl.

What is this madness.

Who's running this place.

Unsubscribed.

Dude, there are no blacksmith shops anymore. Except at the Ancient Arts for Muggles exhibit at the Hogwart's Normies Theme Park.

I've been there

The prices are horrible.

But I'm glad I went

@RegDwigнt account deleted

@Mitch there are no blacksmith shops anymore because all the blacksmiths are on the Internet. Asking how to spell "shop".

Are you some kind of elitist?

6:11 PM

I am the kind of elitist.

Expecting people to work and shit?

I don't expect people to shit. People shit regardless.

Case in point: the Internet.

I'd like to see that.

Wait. No. I don't.

Start by saying "OK Google". Then repeat what you just said.

The internet is the geek's way of making everybody else autistic also.

@RegDwigнt "Wait. No. I don't"

hm... nothing happened.

6:13 PM

I am not Google.

And you didn't say OK.

you got that right

I got all things right.

I am the elitist.

alright all ready

Now, with that out of the way, you were asking about notes. I have some notes. You need one? It's only $3000.

you're not elitist enough

6:14 PM

@terdon No problem

only the true elite would not bother with the whole 'elitism' scramble.

I am elitist enough for the elitist's needs. It doesn't get more enough than that.

@RegDwigнt I can make my own, thanks.

toot

And that is how scientists were able to discover that bisons were not singing birds.

That was an A-flat two octaves below a Hi-C

@RegDwigнt That's what makes scientists what they are.

Bison-bird discriminators

6:16 PM

Wait till they discover the Higgs Bison.

user image

None of these are Higgs Bisons.

It's real easy to tell the difference between a cat and a croissant

That is the second grossest image since Martha or Kit or whoever posted those babies made of marzipan.

slice it in half, spread butter on it (unsalted, please. we're not philistines), and consume.

6:18 PM

Hello @RegDwigнt have you finally found a Maria? =)

@Mitch Yes, yes, like nohat's instructions on shaving a kiwi.

@RegDwigнt mmmm that sounds nummy

@Jasper I am not looking for a Maria. Nobody is except for you.

@RegDwigнt link? that sounds awfully unnecessary

But thank you for wondering.

@Mitch I believe it was on the main site, actually.

Back in the day where humour was allowed.

6:19 PM

@RegDwigнt go to Spain. Everybody's niece and aunt are called Maria.

@Mitch english.stackexchange.com/a/13748/300

You a 10k user, right? Then you can see that.

For prosperity:

user image

@Mitch Maria is very common in Russia too.

© nohat

@Jasper And italy

6:20 PM

@Jasper there are very few Marias in Russia actually. Quite a number of Марияs, tho.

and serbia

and poland

You're a serbia.

don't bother me with your puerile taunts

I do not bother you. I assault you.

your pants are too short

either that or your ankles must be stretched

6:22 PM

Bob's your ankle.

Bob? Let me tell you about Bob.

I shall not do any such thing.

Bobbing for french fries

@RegDwigнt I have been watching the youtube videos of a certain Maria. Her channel is now called Easy Russian. But she is already married.

All Russians are already married.

6:23 PM

It's a marvel

Well this is fun and shit, mostly the latter, but I need to go practice.

You assault me and I'll pepper you back.

Toddles.

No one in the UK is named Maria

Unless you count Mary.

That's strange. Maria is the most beautiful name in the world.

6:26 PM

You should count Mary even though there's a different vibe altogether.

Mary is an OK name. Maria has a better ring to it.

I prefer the way Maria sounds to Mary.

There is no song "How to solve a problem like Mary"

It would sound like some juvenile delinquent.

Maria = M = Mitch. QED.

Or like Mary is the Nazi, searching to deport her boyfriend's family

@Jasper Proof? Proof? You can't handle the proof.

Well, the French and German Maria would be Marie.

6:29 PM

Which reminds me, have you ever read "Proofs from the Book"?

Nope.

The German Maria would be Hilgagnurfen

@Jasper I recommend it. It's almost readable.

Are you reading any math books currently?

Nope. I am not reading anything, because I am very sick.

You're reading this chat.

But I will go back to the hospital next week and take some meds again.

6:31 PM

Unless you're that good at chatbotting and you've predicted everything I'm going to say and have set up a response mechanism for it.

I haven't been taking meds for quite a while.

Meds can help a lot.

I thought maybe it's time I give it another try.

I know it's a weird thing to recommend but exercise can help with a lot of psych issues

I walk a lot when I can.

6:34 PM

it's sorta like how brushing your teeth (or really having good mouth hygiene) is associated with good cardiac health and also reduces possibility of Alzheimer's.

It somehow works, and whatever, it's good for you anyway.

Yeah I walk a lot in shopping malls on some days.

too hot outside?

I think from my last few youtube videos you can tell from my expression that I have been very unwell.

or are shopping malls all 'outside' or storefronts open to the outside?

@Mitch Nope, because I love window shopping.

6:36 PM

here when you say shopping mall, the default is inside and air conditioned or heated to one exact temperature.

Yes, most shopping malls in the world are indoors I think.

I find the air temperature in many shopping malls here too cold for me.

I think it would be nice if they make it warmer and save some electricity as well.

I use AC at home, but I set it to a not very low temp.

Today I was in a computer store and I asked the guy how dual drives work.

I learnt that they can be called C drive and D drive and Windows is installed on the SSD instead of the HDD in these dual configurations.

7:05 PM

[ SmokeDetector | MS ] Bad keyword with email in answer, email in answer (160): Correct preposition with "to be jealous" by eghika on english.SE

Good job, Smokey. This kind of crap we don't need.

0

A: Correct preposition with "to be jealous"

After my boyfriend of two years broke up with me, I could barely speak without crying. I felt blindsided and didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I could get him back and the anxiety was unbearable. I spell with Dr Eghika, not knowing fully what to expect but knowing I needed somebody who had...

I flagged it as not an answer, but only because I didn't read far enough to realize it's actually spam.

Keep these mind

7:26 PM

It bothers me that computer hardware reviews on YouTube generally assume that video editing is the only thing that one does on a computer. And/or games. Discuss.

My thinking is that it is not because video editing or games are somehow testing the limits of what a computer can do, but rather because these are the only things that YouTubers do.

In which proportion, I wonder...

2 hours later…

9:35 PM

@Cerberus: Etymonline says our "cookie" comes from Dutch koekje. When I play that word on Google Translate it sounds like the first vowels in each is pretty much the same: kʊ. Is that true for Dutch, do you think?

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Feb '1921

English Language & Usage: Multi-Layer…

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