How did you learn English?

Guest   Tue Feb 07, 2006 9:08 pm GMT
I understand his posts perfectly. I find them very unusual and unnatural though. I'm not sure if this is because English is not his native language or because of the influence of these books he has been reading. Anyway, the only book I've read written by Charles Dickens is "A Christmas Carol". Stan is the fool in this topic. He is an elitist who thinks he is better than everyone else because he reads old books. Old books are not superior to modern books as he claims.
Stan   Tue Feb 07, 2006 11:48 pm GMT
I will be very pleased to apologize to, only you if you denounce your earlier statement in which you used the word "idiot." I admit that I was less civil in my response, but I do believe that we all were once thought that social protocols demand that you do not label people "idiots" with careless discretion.
Guest   Wed Feb 08, 2006 12:52 am GMT
Okay, I apologize for calling you an "idiot". I just find it annoying that some people think language is somehow deteriorating with time. Change in language is inevitable and it is my opinion that such change is usually benefical.
Guest   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:17 am GMT
BTW, what is your native language? I notice there are some mistakes in your last message...

Stan - "I will be very pleased to apologize to"

Do you mean "too" or "to you" here? I assume "to you".

Stan - "only you if you denounce your earlier statement in which you used the word "idiot."

I would say "but only if you apologize for your earlier statement in which you used the word 'idiot'." People usually "denounce" other people's actions/words, not their own. You "apologize for" or "tack back" your own words normally.

Stan - "I admit that I was less civil in my response"

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here. Do you mean that you were "less than civil", i.e. not very civil, or that you were less civil than me? If the latter, I would change "response" to "response to you" to make it clearer, because I'm not sure if you mean your response to the OP (original poster) or your response to me.

Stan - "but I do believe that we all were once thought that social protocols demand that you do not label people "idiots" with careless discretion."

This contains two errors and its worded oddly... Your "we all were once thought" should be "we all once thought". "With careless discretion" should be "without careful discretion". As for "that social protocols demand that you do not label", I think "that one should not label" would be a better way to say that. So... "but I do believe that we all once thought that one should not label people "idiots" without careful discretion."

I hope you're not offended by these corrections!
Stan   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:17 am GMT
Apology very much accepted, I am glad to let you know that you are an outstanding individual, as its is very rare to see anyone apologize on this forum, they hardly do that over here. I hope you would forgive me for my unpleasant comments.

Change without a doubt; is inevitable - it is also painful to see creativity die with that change; that is the part I am concerned about. I used to enjoy the mere beauty of the English language when I read certain books, now it is mostly about the content (the particular line of thought). Novels are no longer rated with the excellence of its style and use of language, now it is about who killed who and who did what.
Guest   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:29 am GMT
Hmm... I can't say I agree with that. I think that creativity can be expressed just as well today as it could then. As for the beauty of the English language, I'm not sure why but I don't find any novels beautiful really. A well-written poem can be very beautiful though. Emily Dickinson wrote many, for example.
Stan   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:36 am GMT
In Response to the suggested corrections.

It is clear you do not understand the circumstances for which those sentences were meant, your corrections are clear examples of taking words out of context (as it is common in the news media). Your interpretations of my expressions are mostly wrong, I do not think it is right for you to give contrary meanings to my words, they are mine, not yours, I wrote them and I know what they mean; more than anyone else. They do not mean what you say they do.

I will be very glad and honored to discuss linguistics with you, but not now. And if I have painted the picture of a perfect speaker or writer of the language in the minds of people, then I should make it clear to everyone that I am not, I am still learning the language (and will never stop learning).

Infact, I know I have made mistakes, even numerous mistakes on some other threads which sometimes could be difficult to point out - even if I looked at them again.
Guest   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:46 am GMT
You didn't say what your native lanugage was... Anyway, as I said, the corrections were not meant to be offensive. I would like to know what you actually did mean though, because your message was not correct English...
Stan   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:51 am GMT
--I do not think it is right for you to give contrary meanings to my words--

"contradictory" would have been more appropriate to replace "contrary" in the above statement.

A correction of my own error. I forgot to thank you (Guest) and Paul for pointing out to me the importance of being clear with my approaches and statements, and even reminding me of mistakes :)

And "Guest," I think it will be nice if you had a name.
Guest   Wed Feb 08, 2006 1:54 am GMT
Well, I used to have a name, but then I was impersonated by the many trolls on this forum. Since there is no way to reserve a name on this board, I don't see a point in using one...
Stan   Wed Feb 08, 2006 2:11 am GMT
Oh, forgot to mention, I guess some will find it amazing if I said that English is not even my first language. I thought I mentioned that sometime ago, but I did not. I am certainly not a native speaker, and never wished I was one. The language I speak is on the infamous queue of extinction, we are just a handful of people that speak it, there is no way to even express it with the computer keyboard and I am not even the best speaker of this very unique language (that has no doubt lost the battle for survival, thanks to English).

I went through an intense study of English literature at a very young age, so you can say I learnt by means of the old fashioned way. I was once an aspiring writer - but was greatly discouraged by events I wouldn't want to discuss right now (it was really painfull to burn 400 pages of a good story). During my period of "aspiring to be a writer," I went through another season of intense study of the language - which in all sence amounted to a brutal waste of time.

Infact, I wish I didn't study the language as much as I did, maybe I would be on an online - video game forum at this very moment.
Franco   Wed Feb 08, 2006 3:10 am GMT
<<The language I speak is on the infamous queue of extinction, we are just a handful of people that speak it, there is no way to even express it with the computer keyboard and I am not even the best speaker of this very unique language>>

What language is that?
Leena   Mon Feb 13, 2006 7:37 am GMT
Hi guys.
i would like to ask Sandar who is Mohammad he means? Im a little bit confused!!!!!!
ravi   Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:17 am GMT
i learnt english mostly by watching tv.when i started watching english programs there used to be a translation of english into hindi(national language of india) running across teh screen.it helped me.also i read any english book i could find in the local library.luckily i got good books when i was 12.i got tintin,asterix and obelisk,enid blyton,nancy drew,hardy boys etc.later i got hooked to hip hop.i spent a lot of time listening hip hop.then came the internet.all this helped me a lot.it also made me think in english but speaking was a whole different story.it was hard to find speakers of english.so i joined a call centre.after three years,im much better but iam not excellent.i cant maintain the flow for long.iam still working on that.iam right now researching on the net about clarity of speech and intonation.
Holly   Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:22 am GMT
Leena,
Ignore what that message said. It is offensive and rude I suggest you forget what it said. That message wasn't by the real Sander.

Mohammed is someone else who also posts here.

I can't believe this site hasn't got moderators especially with an open forum such as this one.