Learning English- aim to achieve better English

黑山老妖

Just go watch a chic movie and you will see how differently male and female use language. It's like totally different.
Remember we men are from Mars, they are from Venus.
Yeeewwwl

coolioo

chicks？？Chick is not a respectful way to call a lady....

coolioo

Dont call a lady chick unless you wanna flirt and have sex with her...

黑山老妖

These days not many girls deserve to be called "lady" any more.
Especially the young ones.

WTFAUS

原帖由 coolioo 于 2007-9-20 16:40 发表
Dont call a lady chick unless you wanna flirt and have sex with her...

huh? we are just here to talk about and didnt actually call anyone chick. don't we usually say chicks for gals?
Of course,  it is improper to call someone that as their name.

WTFAUS

原帖由 黑山老妖 于 2007-9-20 16:46 发表
These days not many girls deserve to be called "lady" any more.
Especially the young ones.

yeah not many ladies now. some chicks can even be called whores or sluts these days if the stories of those Chinese students in NZ were true

WTFAUS

oops maybe called 'professionals'

shefanie

Only Astina has presented the language point in the conversation format. Good on her ! It seems people mark around here just to have a fun!  I appreciate everyone who shares the English learning experience here. As I state my objective at the beginning, this thread is only for the people who are interested in learning English and aim to improve it. I am not here to discuss how good English speaker/writer you need to be. Instead, all I request is to share language points.

By the way, pls ref to another thread for the swearword as I saw it before. I am not encouraging people to use F*** to replace all words. At the end of the day, you will find F**** eats up your vocabulary as your brain can’t bother to pick up another word.

Pls bring it on! Help yourself, Help others. Pls take it seriously.

黑山老妖

Okay, we are trying here too. :)

If you don't mind, I think all of us are talking as if we were having a conversation.

To type it up in a conversational format is form over substance.

Just my 2 cents.

Now carry on as you were.

flyspirit

What does "just my 2 cents" mean?

patrickzhu

means "put my two cents in"
I understand that the big good thing starts with a very small amount. i.e. just 2 cents.
Famous sentence for encourage:
"If you don't put your two cents in, how can you get change?"

patrickzhu

Interesting Dialogue from TV Drama "HOUSE" regarding "Fair Enough"

House       : People don't want a sick doctor.
Dr. Wilson : That's fair enough, I don't like healthy patients.

黑山老妖

原帖由 patrickzhu 于 2007-9-21 08:11 发表
Interesting Dialogue from TV Drama "HOUSE" regarding "Fair Enough"

House       : People don't want a sick doctor.
Dr. Wilson : That's fair enough, I don't like healthy pati ...

That's a cracker.

WTFAUS

原帖由 shefanie 于 2007-9-20 21:39 发表
Only Astina has presented the language point in the conversation format. Good on her ! It seems people mark around here just to have a fun!  I appreciate everyone who shares the English learning ex ...

ok. Fair enough. lets be serious.
It should be 'muck around' not 'mark' ( I suppose it was a typo?)

muck around (with something)
to do something without a serious purpose. Why was she mucking around in such a risky neighborhood? I kept working on this text until I thought it was good, and then I tried not to muck around with it anymore.

黑山老妖

See? For all intent and purpose we are all trying to help here. :)

Sometimes life is such a bitch. But you just have to try your best and hope you will get something in return.

WTFAUS

Lets list some common phrases or sentences here to show the gratitude to someone for help?  Here are what I often hear as short phrases.

1, cheers
2, ta
3, much obliged
4, thanks

黑山老妖

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2007-9-21 09:19 发表
Lets list some common phrases or sentences here to show the gratitude to someone for help?  Here are what I often hear as short phrases.

1, cheers
2, ta
3, much obliged
4, thanks

Add one more:
Much appreciated. (This one is more civil :))

WTFAUS

just got an email for organizing a b'day party for our boss:

We are arranging a small get together that night here in the office – from 5.00 to 7.00 pm approx – to drink his health, make a small  presentation and embarrass him with speeches.

***************************************
it was my first time to hear the phrase:  drink one's health. My colleague explained it to me that
it's actually not like kinda curse as I thought and its just like to make a toast for his health.

Ok. this is my two cents chipped in for today. Thank you.

WTFAUS

原帖由 黑山老妖 于 2007-9-21 09:17 发表
See? For all intent and purpose we are all trying to help here. :)

Sometimes life is such a bitch. But you just have to try your best and hope you will get something in return.

very true. Life's like a bitch? hmm sort of.  Its like either you f***  hard and get a happy ending, or just get f***ed ?

黑山老妖

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2007-9-21 09:29 发表


very true. Life's like a bitch? hmm sort of.  Its like either you f***  hard and get a happy ending, or just get f***ed ?

roflmao

Let's not put too fine a point to this.

黑山老妖

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2007-9-21 09:25 发表
just got an email for organizing a b'day party for our boss:

We are arranging a small get together that night here in the office – from 5.00 to 7.00 pm approx – to drink his health, make a sma ...

I understanding of drink his health is like "drink to his health".

maribel

Good post and idea.

I wanna point out some normally seen mistakes in people's posts:-

1) MAIL is uncountable noun. Have heard/read many non-english-native-speakers say - mailS. "You've got mail!" Thru the well-known film name you will see ;-).  PS. Email is countable noun, an Email, some Emails. ^^

2) Slang is also uncountable noun. However you can say, some slang TERMS if you want.  Same applies to "Software", which is also uncountable noun, however you can say "I am coding a software program." which sounds all right.

3) Regarding: - I am calling regarding .................(something).  Have seen people write "Regarding to...." very often, this is incorrect. However you can say, I am writting/calling IN/WITH regard to ......(something)

That's the most frequently-seen mistakes I have found in people's articles/resumes/posts. And hope it helps. ;-)

Do I sound like Dr. Grammar? ha ha ! That's attributed to a tough language training received from an American Teacher who taught me a lot.

黑山老妖

Good stuff Maribel. a.k.a Dr. Grammar.

WTFAUS

原帖由 maribel 于 2007-9-21 10:53 发表
Good post and idea.

I wanna point out some normally seen mistakes in people's posts:-

1) MAIL is uncountable noun. Have heard/read many non-english-native-speakers say - mailS. "You've  ...

thx for sharing this, Dr. Grandma. I didnt know mail belongs to uncountable nouns.

maribel

Thanks Laoyao, as I am as sick as a dog today(pooor me ;((((((), so can post as much as I want. haha

I believe everybody has their own method of learning languages. As to me myself, I use a lot the one as shown in WTF's post at 46th step, which is very helpful to learn various idioms/slang to express the same meaning making our sentences more vivid.

"An apple a day keeps the doc away."
"A post a day makes you move forward an extra mile". ;-)

Below are some expressions I know to express when someone's BUSY:

A. - Mari, You must BE SNOWED UNDER today as you haven't said a single word to me the whole morning.-

B. - Oh no, I have BEEN SWAMPED WITH so many paperwork, I'd better go out to stretch my legs now.

C. - Poooor me....have BEEN INUNDATED WITH soooo many emails today.....feel myself like a Cyborg.

Btw, as to my understanding, "my 2 cents" means "my humble opinion", isn't it?

Appreciated if someone can contribute more.

[ 本帖最后由 maribel 于 2007-9-21 11:26 编辑 ]

maribel

原帖由 WTFAUS 于 2007-9-21 11:13 发表

thx for sharing this, Dr. Grandma. I didnt know mail belongs to uncountable nouns.

hey, I don't like the addressing. I look very girlish and sound like a teen. :si2

黑山老妖

原帖由 maribel 于 2007-9-21 11:23 发表
Thanks Laoyao, as I am as sick as a dog today(pooor me ;((((((), so can post as much as I want. haha

I believe everybody has their own method of learning languages. As to me myself, I use a lot  ...

黑山老妖

Maribel is right. My 2 cents means my humble opinion. Can also mean don't think it's worth much, but here is my take of things.

patrickzhu

原帖由 黑山老妖 于 2007-9-21 11:29 发表
Maribel is right. My 2 cents means my humble opinion. Can also mean don't think it's worth much, but here is my take of things.

Useful, thanks for share

yanyan

Love this post,guys,keep going