calebmelvern

I just used Google Translate a little while ago to translate a page with Indonesian text. There were words left unchanged, and the English grammar is terrible. But there were a few sentences that were correct. While it is far from perfect, I would still use it simply because I think it's enough to meet my expectation, which is simply to make the page understandable.

Many of my professors in college used to give multiple choice exams. I didn't find it easy and I remember wishing that the exams were of a different type. I'd say that my professors were great item-writers. Creating questions for a multiple choice exam requires skill and patience. Good item writers are rare. In my opinion, a good writer could eliminate the problem you have mentioned where a student could just pick an answer based on its familiarity.

Another problem with multiple choice tests is that while it can be a good measure of a student's knowledge, certain topics are better off given in another type of exam. Some common examples include problem solving and reasoning skills.

One advantage of multiple choice is it can be scored objectively while certain types of tests such as essay obviously has a subjective element. Multiple choice is also preferred when evaluating a large amount of test takers because it takes significantly less time.

I actually do this and find it really useful. I want to learn Japanese. I play video games and watch anime and I use subtitles to help me understand the dialogues and learn the characters at the same time. I used to do this just because I find it fun, but when I decided that I really want to learn Japanese, I took it more seriously.

No doubt it, it's speaking for me. I used to be very shy and speaking in front of a large audience terrified me. I'm glad I was able to overcome this though I still get nervous which is only natural I think. I sometimes feel too conscious and as a non-native English speaker, I'm still not fully confident with my diction.

Reading is the easiest for me, then close to it is writing. I've been writing online for the past two years and this helped me improve my writing a lot.

The next language I'd like to learn is Japanese. I've always wanted to go to Japan and I watch a lot of anime and subbed Japanese TV shows. I also play video games from Japan, and I'd really like to understand completely all the conversations to have a better gaming experience.

Broccoli. Did I get that right?

Whenever I encounter this word, I always have trouble spelling it out. I sometimes get confused about which letters to double up as in occasion, embarrass, and accommodate.

I live in the Philippines. English is the second language here. It is taught in all schools and many parents teach their kids how to speak in English at a very young age. In fact, there are kids here who are even better at speaking in English than in Filipino. The Philippines is also known as one of the best English speaking nations in the world.

My favorite English word has got to be silver. I don't know; I just like the sound of it. And it's unique because as far as I know, silver has no perfect rhyme.

Wow this is really interesting! I use the term "tol" a lot but I always thought it originated from the word utol. I didn't know about kaputol ng pusod. Thanks for sharing this! I'll be sure to bring this up in our next drinking session!

I hate it when people use Taglish a lot. I wouldn't mind if somebody uses an English term here and there, if there's a lack of an appropriate Filipino term for a specific word. But most of the time, simple sentences are still said in Taglish. It's really sad because I think this will eventually lead to the death of the Filipino language. I always try to speak in straight Filipino or English. This is also an attempt to influence my friends to do the same.

Recently, I've noticed that I was using the word "so" a bit too much. It's as if I'm starting every sentence I type with so when I'm chatting with friends. I'm sure they've noticed too, but they're just too kind to tell me it's getting annoying.

I'm guilty as well! I just got so used to typing LOL whenever I encounter something funny, even if I am not really laughing out loud. But I guess it expresses so much emotion and tells the reader that you really found something funny. After all, people usually suppress their laughter when just chatting. I guess typing LOL is like saying you would've laughed out loud when you are with the person you're chatting with.

My grade school teacher used to remind us about this rule all the time. I'm glad it didn't stick with me. If I embraced this rule as much as my teacher wanted me to, I think I never would have picked up a dictionary to check the spelling of certain words.

I sometimes find if difficult to pronounce words with a lot of Rs. I'm a Filipino, and we tend to accentuate the letter R. Sometimes, I make a conscious effort of making my Rs less noticeable.

I'm interested in learning Japanese as well and this thread guided me towards some very useful resources. I just want to thank all of you for sharing! I'm off to study now!