Language thread

[Sporting]

She shouts at everybody the waiter knows.

[Duncan Gardner]

A Pangram

Quiz Mr T why Sven fax'd KP JCB log

[Discordant Resonance]

Everybody she knows, shouts at the waiter.
The waiter she shouts at knows everybody.

[Nefertiti2]

Has this lovely thread been shared here already?

https://twitter.com/bogatatimar/status/1773489584183119891?s=46&t=8oLqNHLiemnJFQZY2zDdMw

[MsD]

I’m on Day 94 of Duolingo. Concentrating on French now, near the top of the Diamond League and not mixing up Spanish and Italian as much as I was.
However, in each language I would still struggle with speaking outside the Duolingo vocabulary range.
I added Russian today at Level 2 and stormed it through 10 lessons, except for the speaking part which I’m worse at than the other 3. Maybe my accent is too sophisticated for them, eh. Reassuring to find it easy to understand and read - so it should be, but I worried I’d lose it by learning the others.
I didn’t get an interview for the job I was cramming Spanish for, but may as well plod on.

[ad hoc]

I’m on Day 94 of Duolingo. Concentrating on French now, near the top of the Diamond League and not mixing up Spanish and Italian as much as I was.
However, in each language I would still struggle with speaking outside the Duolingo vocabulary range.
I added Russian today at Level 2 and stormed it through 10 lessons, except for the speaking part which I’m worse at than the other 3. Maybe my accent is too sophisticated for them, eh. Reassuring to find it easy to understand and read - so it should be, but I worried I’d lose it by learning the others.
I didn’t get an interview for the job I was cramming Spanish for, but may as well plod on.

Speaking part? What speaking part?

[MsD]

Where you have to repeat what they say. The app couldn’t understand me saying “no, I don’t smoke”, a phrase I know very well. I said it again with an exaggerated pronunciation and it worked.

[ad hoc]

My duolingo doesn't ask me to speak. It would be good if it did

[Mitch]

I only use the Duolingo mobile app myself, but i think the desktop version has speaking exercises if that's what MsD's using?

[Etienne]

I have to speak on my mobile app.

[Lang Spoon]

Speaking on the mobile app is a weak gag in Barbie.

[Mr Delicieux]

Where you have to repeat what they say. The app couldn’t understand me saying “no, I don’t smoke”, a phrase I know very well. I said it again with an exaggerated pronunciation and it worked.

I find the same thing on duolingo when saying certain Swedish words, particularly 'läser' (reading), often rectified when putting on my best comedy swedish accent.

[ursus arctos]

There is a setting in the app that one can turn on or off.

One can also decline speaking exercises individually, just as with listening exercises that require one to type a complete response.

In each case, that choice lasta for at least 15 minutes.

[ad hoc]

There is a setting in the app that one can turn on or off.

One can also decline speaking exercises individually, just as with listening exercises that require one to type a complete response.

In each case, that choice lasta for at least 15 minutes.

I've found the settings and apparently speaking exercises are turned on (and have always been) and yet I've never actually encountered one

[MsD]

I’ve got Super Duolingo if that makes a difference? Can’t say I’m not getting my money’s worth.

I was about 50 days in when I learnt how to turn the sound notifications off.

Losing points for pronunciation irritates me, but I do want to practice.

[MsD]

The Russian one is, aptly, a bit more nuts than the others. Like “what does your horse think?” and “the wolf is smoking”.

[ursus arctos]

The German does that as well

My bear never surfs

[MsD]

I didn’t realise I’d paid for a year of Super Duolingo in January!

Mamma Mia, gonna smash the merde aus diesem app.

[MsD]

I haven’t watched the video or listened to the podcast, but what she has to say on the blog about learning multiple languages is encouraging.

https://www.lindsaydoeslanguages.com...ever_be_fluent

[Sporting]

The website flashfootball uses the rather odd word roughing for one kind of bookable foul:

53'
Antonio M.
(Roughing)

https://www.flashfootball.com/match/...summary

[ad hoc]

That's an ice hockey term. No idea why they're using it for football

[Sporting]

Interesting. It's used a lot on the site.

[ad hoc]

Tripping also. The other commonly given reason for a penalty is cross-checking. I'll be interested if they start using that too, since it basically means hitting someone with your stick

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I've been struck recently by the expression "out of sight" with the meaning "exceptionally attractive" (or perhaps just generally fantastic), in the lyrics of some 20th century songs by black American singers.that I listen to a lot. In particular, it's quite prominent in Steve Wonder's Uptight (Everything's Alright), in some Buddy Guy song (I forget which one) and of course in James Brown's, er, Out of Sight. All rather old stuff now of course. Does the expression still get used at all? Was it ever used by Americans generally or was it a specifically African American bit of slang?

[ursus arctos]

I would say it reached general usage (see, e.g. the Geprge Clooney film adaptation of an Elmore Leonard novel), though a lot of USian slang in the period (and now) had its origins in the Black community