I had enough brain cells awake on getting up today to remember to get the chicken breast and a chunk of olive bread out of the freezer to defrost for the evening meal. All without a post-it, a note on the whiteboard or an alarm on my phone!
Many years ago a well known brewery put out ads with a bottle of champers and a bottle of their lager. Under the former was, "To celebrate a birth, graduation or wedding etc." Under the lager was, "To celebrate the Readers' Digest marketing department losing your address."
This got them into legal trouble with RD!
Legal trouble? RD's attorneys aren't any better than mine. ;D
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 01:47:57 AM
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
I wonder why...
Quote from: jumbojak on September 29, 2018, 02:14:47 AM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 01:47:57 AM
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
I wonder why...
Why what, exactly? :scratch:
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 01:47:57 AM
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
Good news, but hardly surprising. Your command of English is much better than that of many native speakers (of English, of course).
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 01:47:57 AM
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
:dance1:
I should bloody well think so!
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 02:47:00 AM
Quote from: jumbojak on September 29, 2018, 02:14:47 AM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 29, 2018, 01:47:57 AM
Just got the result of my English proficiency test back. It is a mandatory test and I passed, thankfully. :dance:
I wonder why...
Why what, exactly? :scratch:
I was referencing you hanging out here, displaying a better grasp of the English language than some or our resident native speakers. Me for sure!
:badger: Thanks guys, I feel motivated to learn more because speaking English made my world a whole lot bigger than it would have been.
:hammock:
Quote from: jumbojak on September 29, 2018, 12:55:41 PM
I was referencing you hanging out here, displaying a better grasp of the English language than some or our resident native speakers. Me for sure!
Oh, come on JJ! :eyebrow: You're way more competent than me. Or than I. I don't know. :P
You should hear me speak... I generally speak very slowly and tend to mangle a lot of words. When I'm upset I stutter like I did as a child.
You know, that's not a bad idea. Remember when The Walking Contradiction was here and a bunch of us made short recordings so we could put a real voice to the written word? We could pair up and push each other out of our comfort zones.
Like, if I were to read something to do with neuroscience and xSilverPhinx read something about diesel injection pumps. Maybe Hermes reads something about prototyping and Dave reads something about design. Not sure who we'd pair Gene up with. He's knowledgeable on just about everything.
Your modesty is showing xSP. Your command of the English language is more than merely satisfactory.
I feel inferior to you multilingual people. I know little bit of Spanish but mostly of the profane type. That is not very useful in polite conversation. My young Lithuanian friend with whom I have become close friends, is an accomplished English speaker that boggles my mind. Justinas is also fluent in Russian, some German and Polish, and pig Latin too I would suspect.
Keep up the good work Silver. We are proud of you for more than one reason.
Quote from: jumbojak on September 30, 2018, 02:08:27 AM
You should hear me speak... I generally speak very slowly and tend to mangle a lot of words. When I'm upset I stutter like I did as a child.
You know, that's not a bad idea. Remember when The Walking Contradiction was here and a bunch of us made short recordings so we could put a real voice to the written word? We could pair up and push each other out of our comfort zones.
Like, if I were to read something to do with neuroscience and xSilverPhinx read something about diesel injection pumps. Maybe Hermes reads something about prototyping and Dave reads something about design. Not sure who we'd pair Gene up with. He's knowledgeable on just about everything.
The beauty of this forum is that the written word is a levelling field that eliminates any accent-related prejudices. We can express our thoughts very clearly, without any distractions. I believe that many English speakers are unconsciously affected by a speaker's accent, probably owing to past (and present) social strata in the UK. My own accent was affected by the various environments I lived in, but to anyone in the know it is clearly white English South African. In the UK I am often mistaken for an Australian, but in Europe and the Middle East people assume I am British. Environment can affect one's accent in quite strongly. An example is Elon Musk, who has lost much of his South African accent, although it is still detectable, even after many years away from where he was born.
Quote from: hermes2015 on September 30, 2018, 07:01:02 AM
Quote from: jumbojak on September 30, 2018, 02:08:27 AM
You should hear me speak... I generally speak very slowly and tend to mangle a lot of words. When I'm upset I stutter like I did as a child.
You know, that's not a bad idea. Remember when The Walking Contradiction was here and a bunch of us made short recordings so we could put a real voice to the written word? We could pair up and push each other out of our comfort zones.
Like, if I were to read something to do with neuroscience and xSilverPhinx read something about diesel injection pumps. Maybe Hermes reads something about prototyping and Dave reads something about design. Not sure who we'd pair Gene up with. He's knowledgeable on just about everything.
The beauty of this forum is that the written word is a levelling field that eliminates any accent-related prejudices. We can express our thoughts very clearly, without any distractions. I believe that many English speakers are unconsciously affected by a speaker's accent, probably owing to past (and present) social strata in the UK. My own accent was affected by the various environments I lived in, but to anyone in the know it is clearly white English South African. In the UK I am often mistaken for an Australian, but in Europe and the Middle East people assume I am British. Environment can affect one's accent in quite strongly. An example is Elon Musk, who has lost much of his South African accent, although it is still detectable, even after many years away from where he was born.
I have a friend who was born in Scotland and has a quite strong Scots accent. Of course, when she goes homw here family all tell her she has an Australian accent. I was born in the UK and my family has tapes that we used to make to send back to our Australian family when my sister and I were both quite small. Right proper little Pommie accents we had. You'd have to ask Tank to be sure, but I think I've completely lost any Englishness in my accent.
Quote from: jumbojak on September 30, 2018, 02:08:27 AM
You should hear me speak... I generally speak very slowly and tend to mangle a lot of words. When I'm upset I stutter like I did as a child.
You know, that's not a bad idea. Remember when The Walking Contradiction was here and a bunch of us made short recordings so we could put a real voice to the written word? We could pair up and push each other out of our comfort zones.
Like, if I were to read something to do with neuroscience and xSilverPhinx read something about diesel injection pumps. Maybe Hermes reads something about prototyping and Dave reads something about design. Not sure who we'd pair Gene up with. He's knowledgeable on just about everything.
:blush: Heh, I'm really, really shy, pathologically shy when speaking in English to native speakers. Since I started learning English as a very young child my accent is less Brazilian than most, but still... :P
I can pronounce 'th' and don't pronounce the 't' in 'time' like...like Brazilians do. :grin:
But what's funny is how English speakers pronounce my first name, Fernanda. Makes me think of people dressed up as animals. ::)
Quote from: Icarus on September 30, 2018, 04:56:01 AM
Your modesty is showing xSP. Your command of the English language is more than merely satisfactory.
I feel inferior to you multilingual people. I know little bit of Spanish but mostly of the profane type. That is not very useful in polite conversation. My young Lithuanian friend with whom I have become close friends, is an accomplished English speaker that boggles my mind. Justinas is also fluent in Russian, some German and Polish, and pig Latin too I would suspect.
Keep up the good work Silver. We are proud of you for more than one reason.
Thanks, Icarus. I just feel like I need to ace these things, you know? I don't even know the mark I got, just that I passed. But that's good enough for me! ;D
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 30, 2018, 04:12:35 PM
I can pronounce 'th' and don't pronounce the 't' in 'time' like...like Brazilians do. :grin:
But what's funny is how English speakers pronounce my first name, Fernanda. Makes me think of people dressed up as animals. ::)
I'm intrigued: please explain more about the
t sound.
I would pronounce your name "Fernahnda", with the first a as in "barn", not a short a as in apple. Am I wrong?
Quote from: hermes2015 on September 30, 2018, 06:20:15 PM
Quote from: xSilverPhinx on September 30, 2018, 04:12:35 PM
I can pronounce 'th' and don't pronounce the 't' in 'time' like...like Brazilians do. :grin:
But what's funny is how English speakers pronounce my first name, Fernanda. Makes me think of people dressed up as animals. ::)
I'm intrigued: please explain more about the t sound.
I'll do better, found a video in which an accent coach briefly explains. :grin:
Starts at 2:38
The difficulty is mainly with words starting with 't', many Brazilians would say 'chew' instead of 'two' or 'time' with a weaker 't'.
QuoteI would pronounce your name "Fernahnda", with the first a as in "barn", not a short a as in apple. Am I wrong?
Oh...what do I say to that? :lol: I wouldn't say it's
wrong, just different.
In Brazil it's pronounced more like 'Fair-nun-duh'. Here's an audio of someone from São Paulo saying it:
While her accent is not like mine, it's close enough. ;D
Thanks for that. I got your name almost right. I would actually say the "e" like the "ai" sound in air, but I did not specify that. Probably thought it went without saying!
Having been around many Spanish speakers I might have pronounced the R in you name with a rolling sounds as in a tongue flutter. The Brazilian apparently uses the first syllable as in aehr. In any case I am pleased that we can understand each other in most cases.
"The beauty of this forum is that the written word is a levelling field that eliminates any accent-related prejudices"
Not to mention race, gender, age, physical appearance and other causes of unconscious bias and prejudice.
Apparently all children are born with the ability to make all linguistic sounds but some are reinforced and some are not. Those sounds not reinforced can't be recreated at a later date, they can be mimicked in some cases but never truly regained.
Quote from: hermes2015 on September 30, 2018, 07:24:33 PM
Thanks for that. I got your name almost right. I would actually say the "e" like the "ai" sound in air, but I did not specify that. Probably thought it went without saying!
Quote from: Icarus on October 01, 2018, 03:52:44 AM
Having been around many Spanish speakers I might have pronounced the R in you name with a rolling sounds as in a tongue flutter. The Brazilian apparently uses the first syllable as in aehr. In any case I am pleased that we can understand each other in most cases.
That's cool...what would the world be like if there were no people from different linguistic backgrounds to say your name in different ways? :grin: