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6 votes
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Language learning thread #1 - Share your progress, tips and questions
As discussed and suggested here. What are you learning? How is it going? Share your progress, tips and tricks. Ask other learners questions. Writing in non-English languages is welcome in this...
As discussed and suggested here.
What are you learning? How is it going? Share your progress, tips and tricks. Ask other learners questions.
Writing in non-English languages is welcome in this thread if you want to practice, but please at least include a Google Translate or Deepl translation in a foldable paragraph, using
<details>[your translation]</details>
18 votes -
Interesting histories: Female — Male — Woman — Man
6 votes -
The six villains of language learning
6 votes -
How Mormon missionaries learn new languages in 6-9 weeks
7 votes -
What are your linguistic idiosyncrasies?
In a previous topic, people discussed their pet peeves, but that's not what this post is about. The idea is not to list (or rant about...) the ways in which others use language incorrectly or...
In a previous topic, people discussed their pet peeves, but that's not what this post is about. The idea is not to list (or rant about...) the ways in which others use language incorrectly or annoyingly, but rather to talk about our own habits and preferences both in writing and in speech.
Things like:
- How do you like to talk (complex, simple, formal, informal, brief, lengthy...), and what do you like or dislike listening to?
- Do you have certain words or phrasing patterns that you either love or avoid at all costs?
- Do you have a tendency to be overly formal? Conversely, are you often too informal, or use too much slang?
- Do you have an inner dialogue?
- If so, how does it sound?
- Do you think exclusively in your mother tongue? If not, which situations bring up specific languages in your head?
- How do you adapt your patterns to different contexts (formal, informal, social, professional, etc)?
- Does that come easy for you?
- Do you prefer to be addressed by specific pronouns which people often get wrong?
- Do you clearly differentiate between serious and jokeful registers?
- Do you use phrasing and tone of voice to differentiate between the two? Does it work?
- Do you sometimes talk too much or too little?
- Do you make a lot of faux pas?
So, what are your linguistic idiosyncrasies? In what ways is your use of language particular, odd, or peculiar? Let's begin!
15 votes -
Beside the point? Punctuation is dead, long live punctuation
3 votes -
Interactive International Phonetic Alphabet
5 votes -
Greenland offers a roadmap for how to get Inuktut taught in Nunavut's schools
3 votes -
How China conquered the keyboard
5 votes -
Duolingo on Ukrainian and Russian: How do these languages differ?
19 votes -
New gender-neutral pronoun is likely to enter the official Norwegian language within a year, the Language Council of Norway has confirmed
17 votes -
The English language rules we know – but don’t know we know
17 votes -
What words would you want to see 'reclaimed'?
Reclaiming a word means stripping it of it's negative baggage and giving it either a neutral or positive meaning. The most common example is the word Queer going from a slur to a descriptive term...
Reclaiming a word means stripping it of it's negative baggage and giving it either a neutral or positive meaning. The most common example is the word Queer going from a slur to a descriptive term for non cis-het people.
My personal pick would be returning the term "incel" to it's original meaning of "involuntary/involuntarily celibate" or someone who wants a relationship but doesn't have one, because the word is currently associated with the few tens of thousands of extremists who occasionally commit terrorist attacks, consider the redistribution of women reasonable and created the black-pill, but the amount of men (and realistically also women) who would consider themselves as wanting a relationship but not having one is much higher than a hundred thousand violent extremists, and if they could all describe themselves as incels, I think that would help steer the conversation about wanting a partner and not having one away from the extremists and to the much more numerous pool of mostly young people, seemingly mostly men who just want a partner and can't have one and usually mostly just feel bad about it to varying intensities. It wouldn't completely detach the term from cringe online right tropes as a lot of the dudes who can be described as incels often tend to fuel the kind of "women aren't real"/"Girls don't exist on the internet" culture that makes complaining about dating so 'lame'. (As in, the default reply is "just do basic self-improvement it'll put you ahead of most people lol".)
Another term I would reclaim if I could is the Red-pill/Blue-pill dichotomy with becoming red-pilled either being a joke about some vaguely red pill used to transition or as a shorthand for adopting leftist beliefs, mainly because the creators of The Matrix were Trans women who intended the movie to have a strong Trans subtext, and red is usually a leftist color instead of a conservative one, so becoming red-pilled meaning becoming a leftist is more intuitive in most places.
13 votes -
From respair to cacklefart – the joy of reclaiming long-lost positive words
8 votes -
On communicating accurately with Americans
11 votes -
The rise and fall of rationality in language
7 votes -
The melancholy decline of the semicolon
17 votes -
Longstanding discourse w/ my SO about the phrase "a couple of..."
#couple Defined as: noun: couple; plural noun: couples 1. two individuals of the same sort considered together. "a couple of girls were playing marbles" a pair of partners in a dance or game....
#couple
Defined as:noun:
couple;
plural noun: couples
1.
two individuals of the same sort considered together.
"a couple of girls were playing marbles"a pair of partners in a dance or game.
MECHANICS
a pair of equal and parallel forces acting in opposite directions, and tending to cause rotation about an axis perpendicular to the plane containing them.
2.
two people who are married, engaged, or otherwise closely associated romantically or sexually.
"in three weeks the couple fell in love and became engaged"3.
INFORMAL
an indefinite small number.
"he hoped she'd be better in a couple of days"
verb:
couple;
3rd person present:
couples
past tense:
coupled
past participle:
coupled
gerund or present participle:
coupling
1.
combine."a sense of hope is coupled with a palpable sense of loss"
join to form a pair.
"the beetles may couple up to form a pair"2.
mate or have sexual intercourse.
"as middle-class youth grew more tolerant of sex, they started to couple more often"
#Discourse of the use of the word/phrase in this particular case
You
"how many would you like?"
Them
"just a couple."
When someone requests 'a couple of...' I respond with something similar to: 'How many do you want specifically?', which leads to the discourse of, 'A couple is two, a few is >2, several is <x' and so on.
I agree with the first two clearly stated definitions of 'couple', but in the informal use of a couple (eg. a depiction of a quantity) is not specifically two...nor is 'a few' three. How many specifically is several..?
I understand the semantics within the conversation. But, the expectation of understanding that two, and only two, is implied in the use of the phrase 'a couple' in a request; is ambiguously stating what one party desires. I'm the asshole now, just tell me how many you want.
And now...your thoughts, please.
12 votes -
A very quick lesson on the southern accent
5 votes -
Dead as a doornail
3 votes -
Gender in Latin and beyond
3 votes -
RIP Cure Dolly, YouTube Japanese teacher
3 votes -
Why do multiple meanings of words so often map across languages
The English word 'crane' means a large bird or a giant lever-thing for moving heavy stuff. The Hungarian word 'daru' means both of the same things. English and Hungarian are about as unrelated as...
The English word 'crane' means a large bird or a giant lever-thing for moving heavy stuff. The Hungarian word 'daru' means both of the same things.
English and Hungarian are about as unrelated as languages get ... and yet, I keep bumping into parallels like that.
Thoughts, anyone?
14 votes -
Someone dead ruined my life ... again. (Tiffany follow-up)
32 votes -
Against Theory, now with bots! On the persistent fallacy of intentionless speech
3 votes -
💖 The tale of Tiffany 💖
15 votes -
Kempt, couth, ruth: On the disappearing antonyms of “grumpy” words
7 votes -
Change in the implied meaning of "masked men"
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear...
Has the sentence "the masked men entered the store" changed meaning post the pandemic. I think it feels less ominous than perhaps it used to. Now the words could imply "responsible men that wear masks in accordance with guidelines entered a store" where it would previously almost certainly imply "robbers entered the store". Since I'm not a native speaker I'm curious if this is just in my head or a more general thing? Are there other similar statements that has change?
11 votes -
The private language argument
3 votes -
Surprising shared word etymologies
10 votes -
A century ago Ludwig Wittgenstein changed philosophy for ever
4 votes -
Roads into Norway will get new signs with the country name also written in the indigenous Sámi language depending on the region
10 votes -
Why West Africa keeps inventing new scripts
3 votes -
Tower of Babble: Non-native speakers navigate the world of 'good' and 'bad' English
4 votes -
Where does music come from? (An abridged history of music, memory and language)
3 votes -
Duolingo ends its volunteer Contributor program
7 votes -
The harmful ableist language you unknowingly use
24 votes -
Why the Buzzfeed News style guide will no longer hyphenate "antisemitism"
6 votes -
Esperanto, the invented language that found a second life online
9 votes -
Ido: A reformed and simplified offspring of Esperanto
12 votes -
Grammarly's predatory model and cultural biases
10 votes -
Birds: Surprisingly connected etymologies
5 votes -
A brief overview of popular slang of the 1920s in the US
2 votes -
Are there any gender-neutral or non-binary honorifics?
I've been thinking a good bit about gender-neutral language lately, and I've been making an effort to eliminate unnecessarily gendered language from my day-to-day speech. However, there are a few...
I've been thinking a good bit about gender-neutral language lately, and I've been making an effort to eliminate unnecessarily gendered language from my day-to-day speech. However, there are a few sticking points for me that I am having a hard time with finding my way around. One of the most difficult for me, having been brought up in the deep south and still living there, are honorifics like "sir" and "ma'am". I use these when addressing pretty much anyone, and it's a habit I'm having a hard time breaking. It's got me thinking about whether there are any good alternatives that would feel respectful of the person I'm addressing while not sticking out too much. If that's not an option (and I suspect it would be asking too much) then what are your ideal alternatives, either neologisms, borrowed from other languages, or just repurposed words that are in current use?
Examples of usage that I would love to replace:
"Yes, sir/No, ma'am"
"Excuse me, sir/ma'am"
"Mr./Mrs./Ms." (I use this less often but still catch myself at times. I also think this one has the best alternative currently in use, with Mx. catching on in some places)Also, if this question is missing the mark or disrespectful in any way, please let me know. I'm still learning!
21 votes -
Why is the shape (❤) called a heart? And why is biological heart called a heart as well?
4 votes -
What does "performative" mean?
Judith Butler has some influential pieces that talk about performative or performativity. I see online lots of people seem to think there's no difference between "performance" and "performative"....
Judith Butler has some influential pieces that talk about performative or performativity.
I see online lots of people seem to think there's no difference between "performance" and "performative".
So, in philosophy, what do theyean when they say performative?
7 votes -
Disney brought its streaming service to Iceland last year – the country's education minister has sent a letter of complaint over the lack of Icelandic dubbing and subtitling
5 votes -
Denmark sermons law could stifle free worship, warns Church of England bishop – Robert Innes says proposed translation law could affect religious freedoms across Europe
13 votes -
Salami slicing
6 votes