Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

Siobhan · 19-06-06 02:17:59

Elfman wrote:

Nowaysis you and all the Scandinavians on this site show a command of English I wouldn't expect from the majority of my own countrymen and I'm English (and I'm sure that all of the other Brits, Yanks, Ausies and Canuks will agree with me on that).
Elfman.

Not to mention the South Africans.

No fucking kidding. I'm blown away by y'all.
Is it REALLY true that some of you have never even visited an English-speaking country? IF so, then that gives the lie to all of my compatriots who insist that the only way to learn a language is through immersion.

Last edited by Siobhan (19-06-06 02:47:07)

Burlesque · 19-06-06 02:29:57

Well, I haven't.

Shall I blush becomingly now?

Burlesque.

Siobhan · 19-06-06 02:48:28

Damn right you should!

Tell me, how long do you think it would take me to learn Zulu in a non-Zulu-speaking country?

As for smilies, I also used to cringe, but that was in grade school when they were made by girls who wrote in a very round hand and dotted their "i"s with hearts. just too cutesy and reductive.

When I entered the net-world, I was initually suspicious of smilies, but came to see quite quickly, as several of you have said, that they are often crucial for communicating with strangers that one means no harm -- hah! smilies suddenly seem like the charming habit of neighborhood dogs who expose their necks: "I come in peace! and I like you!"

Another thing I used to loathe until the internet made it sensible is not capitalizing proper names, sentence openers, etc. I used to be so adament about spelling, grammar, etc.; at some point I began receiving emails from people -- and I'm talking about emails from people with whom I had some sort of a professional relationship -- and they would be in lower case, or they would have glaring spelling or syntactical errors, and I was appalled, I tell you! (Incidentally, Warmtouch, while I shared your anathema for the practice of lower-case, I did not see it as a sign of self-abnegation so much as laziness and lack of respect for the reader.)

And then over a few years the elision began -- probably concurrently with the beginning of IMs, it became useful to be able to type very, very quickly, and I noticed that I could type a bit faster if I dropped the caps and typed run-on sentences. . . .

Now I can type as fast as a speak, and I speak very quickly. I also make a lot less sense, and am overly verbose, but it was useful at the time.

I, too, look forward to hearing from Lia, since she was the person to whom the comment was largely directed, yes? But I had to get in on the round of applause for the Scandinavians. amazing.

Anyone else here writing in their second language?

Burlesque · 19-06-06 03:02:42

It's not the same thing as learning Zulu, Siobhan. For the last few decades Sweden has been so immersed in American TV shows, movies and records that we might as well be one of the United States. I am not entirely satisfied with this state of things (even though I'm a sucker for the high quality TV shows that come out of the US these days), but obviously it helps us to learn English pretty well, since we subtitle everything - children's shows being the only thing that gets dubbed into Swedish. Most young people here speak English with an American accent (or an attempt at one), but I'm so fond of England and English comedy, the old Hammer films and so on that I've maintained most of the RP-ish accent they tried to teach us in school.

I think smilies are extremely useful, because I want to make it absolutely clear that I mean what I say when I tell someone that I loathe them more than the plague .

What I can't bring myself to do is drop the capital letters. Uh-uh, not me. I accept it when other people do so in posts, e-mails and so on, but it does put more of a strain on the reader, since the eye doesn't as readily see the beginning and end of sentences. It's a subtle thing, but it does make a difference in accessibility to the text, at least for me.

Lia will probably be out of it for a couple of days, regrettable as that is.

Burlesque.

Siobhan · 19-06-06 03:17:19

hey, Burlesque -- i think it's just us here!

::shhhh!::::

this was it -- was my first post to the site, but you'd whisked it away -

write this down because it will be gone in about two minutes:

Last edited by Siobhan (19-06-06 03:24:14)

Burlesque · 19-06-06 03:27:52

I MISSED IT!!!!!! (Crying hopeless tears of anguish.)

Burlesque.

Siobhan · 19-06-06 03:35:36

LOL.

ohhhh, so close. Well, then, Silly, send me an email! and I'll attach it in the reply. The last one I sent you didn't get to you.

Burlesque · 19-06-06 03:36:27

It didn't? How bizarre. The first one did. I'm right on it.

By the way, I'm only moderately silly!

Burlesque.

Last edited by Burlesque (19-06-06 03:37:03)

nihpuad · 19-06-06 06:56:20

Siobhan wrote:

Is it REALLY true that some of you have never even visited an English-speaking country? IF so, then that gives the lie to all of my compatriots who insist that the only way to learn a language is through immersion.

Not necessarily. Even discounting the informal sort of immersion Burlesque mentions, arising from Wicked American Cultural Imperialism... err, sorry, I mean "the vast global popularity of American culture" (;)), English immersion education is probably available all over the world.

Years ago, my wife and I spent a year in Korea teaching in a commercial English school, and even though many of the teachers knew languages other than English, none of us knew Korean. It wouldn't have mattered if we had, though, because the rule was nothing but English at school: Students were required to speak only English, not only during class, but even amongst themselves on breaks or at lunch. And this rule also included after-hours socializing with teachers (Asian culture reveres teachers of all kinds, and the students were always eager to take us out for dinner or drinks. Unfortunately, the food -- especially the snacks that invariably accompanied alcohol -- was sometimes a bit challenging to the Western eye and palate ). This isn't 24/7 immersion -- the students did go out into a Korean speaking world -- but it was immersion-based teaching.

It was also really cool living in Korea, strange food (and occasional air-raid alerts) notwithstanding.

Nowaysis · 19-06-06 10:44:04

Siobhan wrote:

Elfman wrote:
Nowaysis you and all the Scandinavians on this site show a command of English I wouldn't expect from the majority of my own countrymen and I'm English (and I'm sure that all of the other Brits, Yanks, Ausies and Canuks will agree with me on that).
Elfman.
Not to mention the South Africans.

No fucking kidding. I'm blown away by y'all.
Is it REALLY true that some of you have never even visited an English-speaking country? IF so, then that gives the lie to all of my compatriots who insist that the only way to learn a language is through immersion.

Hmm... maybe I should have mentioned I learned English at the age of eight, when my father received a large scholarship to take his entire family to England for a year of research and studies towards his thesis.

It took me a few awkward months, but by the time Cambridge winter rolled around, I was as fluent as any of my English classmates, and when we moved back to Sweden the following summer, I was probably as good at English as I was at Swedish. This is no longer so, I've long since lost my inate Cambridge schoolyard accent and fight ferociously to not sound like the cast of Friends (damn this American pop culture influence!), but the fact that I never had to learn, but instead acquired English still means everything comes much easier, more naturally I believe, than if I'd learned it the way most of my Swedish classmates did.

Last edited by Nowaysis (19-06-06 10:45:53)

#26 19-06-06 02:17:59

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#27 19-06-06 02:29:57

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#28 19-06-06 02:48:28

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#29 19-06-06 03:02:42

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#30 19-06-06 03:17:19

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#31 19-06-06 03:27:52

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#32 19-06-06 03:35:36

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#33 19-06-06 03:36:27

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#34 19-06-06 06:56:20

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

#35 19-06-06 10:44:04

Re: Vocabulary -- What Is It, and How Do I Get Me Some?

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