SpiralArchitect

What booze parties do you frequent man? I'll add inebriated to the list.

I have never noticed anyone write etc as ect. Irregardless is one of those words that when written looks completely wrong but doesn't sound so wrong. Probably that's why it's so commonly used.

True. Always thought the argument for using "could care less" was just a flimsy excuse considering that the grammatically correct statement already conveyed sarcasm well. But the use is unfortunately so common that it is easy for a non-native speaker to actually question if the correct usage is actually valid!

Our chief warden in college right now. I had to take a course under him and found that he was a brilliant teacher and not strict at all when in class. But when out of it, he was nightmare come to flesh. I've never seen a man more hated by the student community than he was.

Its one of the more common German words in English, what with there being no direct word for it in the language. Also, it's getting used more and more in the world, for the past 3-4 years. I've seen people use it here in India quite frequently.

It seems obvious that "couldn't care less" should be the correct usage, implying that you care so little about something that it isn't possible for you care any less i.e. you don't care at all. But the statement "could care less" with a sarcastic tone is also very common. I have seen both being used with equal frequency. The general excuse for the second statement is that it suggests sarcasm when used while the first one is quite point blank and serious. So, is the practical usage of "I could care less" acceptable?

Unlike the OP I actually like Amelie quite a bit. Its such a simple and optimistic movie that you just can't stop smiling while watching it. Great work done by everyone involved. I, of course, saw it with subtitles.

The word translucence sounds somewhat beautiful. I am sure everyone knows what it means. The words elucidate, effervescence, crooning and acoustic also sound very pretty.

I was pretty sure schadenfreude would have taken it one of those years. :grin:

Welcome fellow countryman. As I am living in Pune right now, I hope I can learn some marathi from you. What city do you live in? Mumbai?

Thanks. That was as close to a perfect answer as one can hope for.

I suppose I should be the one welcoming you, having been around longer. Most of us here are actually in the learning phase only, so you'll be right at home.

It's not exactly the most difficult to use word in the world. It's just that a lot of people are so used to the incorrect usage that they stick to it no matter what. But still, it's annoying alright when somebody shows up and says, "Dude. that song literally blew me away".

Non native speaker here. We did Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in school and Macbeth was suggested reading in class 12th although it was not mandatory. Neither of them helped my English one bit. I have voluntarily read most of his famous works in rewritten in modern English though. They supposedly lose some of their charm in the new format but I don't really mind. Much easier to understand that way.

Apologies for the delayed response. Didn't see the reply until today. I intend to take classes later on but as of now I am using Rosetta Stone. So far it has seemed good as far as learning the basics of the language are concerned but I think to get a practical grasp of the language, a few classes later might be essential.

I am learning German right now using the internet and Rosetta stone. So, yeah essentially alone. On the other hand, I learnt English in school with other students. I personally think that the latter is stimulating as far as learning the language goes.

I think "Born on the wrong side of the tracks" is an interesting one. It implies that somebody was born in the poor part of the town. Another one I've read but not heard being used a lot is "Fight like kilkenny cats". It means fight valiantly till the end, even though total destruction may be the only outcome.

Bamboozle always sounded pretty weird to me. What does a plant really have to do with being confused!! :confused:

I think the first English book I had ever read apart from my textbooks was something out of Enid Blyton's Secret Seven series. I loved them as a kid and read all 15 of them in a few months. Hungry for more and intrigued by English literature in general I started buying Hindi translations of English classics like Ivanhoe, Gulliver's Travels, Alice in Wonderland, Sherlock Holmes etc. Harry Potter was a new and exciting series at the time, so I went read the first three books which were out by that time. The original English versions of aforementioned classics followed. By the time is 13-14, I was already reading books by relatively mature authors like Stephen King. The book that affected by outlook towards the English language as well as helped insolidifying my tastes in literature was JRR Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. I followed that up by reading a lot of fantasy and speculative fiction which even included the likes of Mervyn Peake and Franz Kafka. Basically, 90% of my control of the English language comes from reading habits and a mere 10% from TV, movies, music and what I learned in school.

A product of its time, it sounds pretty close to what I thought it would sound like. I mean the English language of the time can be pretty indecipherable to someone only exposed to its modern usage. Little wonder that the accents of the time were even more esoteric than the language itself. Now if somebody can do a narration of the Cantebury Tales with that accent and I'll be interested.

The longest I have ever gone without verbal communication was around 8 days. That too was because I was staying at a place where very few people could speak Hindi or English. The people who could though were just too annoying for conversation or chose not to use those two languages. I think I could have gone 2-3 more days without any verbal communication but something like a month is just pushing it.

My native language is Hindi and is completely different from English, to the point that their scripts are different. While English has indeed incorporated a few Hindi words in recent times, a person with an English background will find more difficulty in learning Hindi than something like German or French. From the point of view of conversation, Hindi words can be pretty tricky to pronounce properly for non-native speakers. The British actually renamed a lot of Indian towns during colonial times because they couldn't pronounce the names properly.

Technically, in India we are already forced to study a foreign language. The language of course, being English. Assuming that we discount English from the conversation, I don't think a foreign language should be forced on an individual. Unless a language is necessary for growth in your field, then I think learning it should be the student's prerogative.

The funny pages count. Semantically speaking, there can be no 'comic book' without 'book'. :grin:

It is spoken as if with a 'yu'. A consonant sound. Similarly, a 'yu'nicorn. But as you said, one has to read and listen to the usage more to catch things like this. For example, I had no clue that it was, 'a ouija board'.