Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

Translator Added

In my continuous efforts to meet the wishes of my readers, I have today added a translator to the blog.

It is - and will always be - placed at the top of the left sidebar.
© Can Stock Photo / dizanna
It's strange that I hadn't thought of adding a translator earlier, but it wasn't until a German friend told me today that he was sorry his English wasn't better so he could read my blog that I recognized the need for it.

Well better late than never! I hope it helps those of you who would want to use it, even if it is Google Translate with all its weaknesses it's still better than nothing. Google Translate supports over 100 languages at various levels, so hopefully, you will find your language in it.

Monday, February 6, 2017

The Pronunciation of "Urinal"

My otherwise wonderful husband Tomais has been giving me some hassle concerning my way of pronouncing "urinal".

I got it solved here, it seems I am using the British English pronunciation, whereas he is - of course -using the American English version.

Listen to this: How to pronounce urinal.

Monday, August 3, 2015

My Upgrade to Windows 10 (Updated)

Yesterday I upgraded to Windows 10. The upgrade itself was rather easy and took little over an hour.

All my personal files (pictures and documents) were left undisturbed, but most of my additional tools like Adobe Reader, AVG TuneUp, Chrome, Firestorm, GeForce Experience, Kaspersky Total Security, iTunes, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware, Skype and Quicktime were lost. This was possibly due to those apps being set to a different language (American English) than my computer is (Swedish), it could also be because they weren't - and still aren't (as I found out when I tried to reinstall some of them again (Kaspersky and GeForce Experience) - compatible with Windows 10.

My biggest concern initially was the loss of all my browser bookmarks, however they all miraculously returned to me today, once I had logged into my Google account. With the returning bookmarks I also got all my saved passwords in Chrome back.

I have reinstalled AVG TuneUp, Firestorm, iTunes and Skype, but - as I said above - Kaspersky (solved) and GeForce Experience (solved) don't seem to be compatible with the platform yet.

The only problem I have right now, is that my SLT time app on the blog isn't working in Chrome but is OK in Microsoft Edge... (solved)

Glory hallelujah!

Sunday, June 7, 2015

On "VPL" - Updated

My husband Tomais steadfastly insists that he is not funny, but I disagree completely. No man has ever before consistently made me laugh so often and so much as he does.

A couple of nights ago, while we were talking on Skype as usual, Tomais suddenly mentioned the abbreviation VPL, don't ask me how and why because the conversation leading up to it has been wiped off my teflon-memory. 

Jon Hamm,
The King of VPL
My understanding and knowledge of the English language is quite good, even if I say so myself, but it is not my mother-tongue so there are still some unchartered areas that become apparent occasionally. VPL was one of those, I had never heard the expression before so I asked him what it meant.

Jon Hamm, a.k.a.
"The Rosetta Bulge"
"It means ´Visible Penis Line´", my darling told me with a serious voice, as I exploded with laughter.

Then as he continued telling me about the rules I almost croaked, "Underwear, bicycle pants or wet boxers don't count, because anyone can show a VPL in those outfits". (This means that my friend Kandinsky's favorite picture of a Polish bicycle team is out of the contest, see my previous post Re: Bicycle Pants.)

According to writer Christian Zamora at Buzzfeed, when he ranks The 21 Most Important Celebrity Bulges Of All Time: "All bulges are ranked and measured on a scale of zero to five Jon Hamm's. Each bulge [is] evaluated on its outline, girth, and prominence to determine its rank and the number of Hamm's it deserve[s]".

As far as I know there is no equivalent term for this phenomenon in the Swedish language, except possibly the Swedish words for "poseur", "indiscreet" or "show-off". That fact does however not mean that we haven't noticed the phenomenon before.

---
Update 2015-06-10
For those who want to see more VPL you should visit the Tumblr-blog "Visible Penis Line", although from what I could see at a quick glance most of the pictures posted seem to fall into the illegitimate category according to "Tomais Rule of VPL´s"

Saturday, November 1, 2014

A Linguistic Mishap

This is a difficult confession, as I have always prided myself of my command of the English language, so I will use my alter-ego when sharing this glimpse into my life with you.
The laird. Photography by J.J. Goodman
The Much Honored Bock McMillan, laird of Southern Charm, prince of Cascade Falls, Sovereign Ruler of the Commonwealth of Southern Enchantment Region and Outer Territories and finally UN appointed Protector of the Solace Island and Mount Whitney sims in SecondLife, was laying in bed with his beloved consort Tomais a few nights ago. (The Solace Island sim no longer enjoys the protection of the laird.)

Earlier the same day the laird had been cleaning out his Inventory and reduced it from 30,430 items to 25,643 by deleting a whole lot of system clothing (except a few who had sentimental value to him). He was pleased with his accomplishment and was now thinking of the next step to take after he had culled his objects folder, his textures folder, his snapshots folder, his note cards folder and his landmarks folder. (Although he himself emphatically maintains otherwise, he really isn't the most patient man in SecondLife, as you can establish from his skipping the arduous work still remaining with the aforementioned folders.)

The laird had, ever since he heard of his consorts neat and well-organized Inventory, wanted to learn how to organize his own Inventory in a similar way so that he would be better able to find what he was looking for and no longer having to rely on dumb luck or that he remembered the correct name of an item. Even though the laird himself is not a pedantic man by nature, he (most likely through his upbringing and his meticulous parents) has always held a deep and lasting admiration for well-organized people, although he tries to hide that fact and talks rather disdainfully about it. He was therefor very eager to learn from his lover how to organize his Inventory better.

But I am procrastinating, onward with this gory confession.
The laird and his consort. Photography by J.J. Goodman
With those thoughts in his mind, the laird turned to his consort and said - in his usual rather bossy way, "Next weekend you really must show me your anal content..."

The laird was not at all prepared for the rumbustious and boisterous laughter that erupted from his lover before he could complete his sentence. He was rather taken aback and wondered what had happened until his lover, still laughing loudly and heavily. managed to squeeze in a coherent sentence, "You want me to show you my shit?"

At which point the laird blushed (which he rarely does) and started stammering that that was indeed not the request he wished to express at all.

After my lover had calmed down, he related a story about his mother who committed a similar faux-pas at a social gathering and very kindly pointed out that such unfortunate occurrences do happen and although embarrassing are never fatal. A while later, once the laird had collected himself, they could both laugh at it.

Monday, February 18, 2013

The Other English Disease

Quite possibly meaningful
Chinese characters that I do
not know the meaning of
The Swedish language shares a peculiarity with Dutch, Finnish, Welsh, Thai, Maori and perhaps some other languages, it has a penchant for constructing compound words.

The effect of the English language's preference to split compound words and the introduction of word processing programs (mostly based on English originals) are creating havoc among Swedes, especially the ones who know written English.

All would be well if it weren't for the fact that when one splits Swedish compound words they often change meaning. The problem is called the second English disease, the first being rickets.

An example. Lets try this Swedish sentence
"En brunhårig sjuksköterska tvättar barnunderkläder" with split compound words we get
"En brun hårig sjuk sköterska tvättar barn under kläder"

The first sentence means, "A nurse, who is brown-haired, washes children's underwear", while the second sentence means "A nurse who is sick, brown and hairy washes children who are under clothes"

Another example is the word "rökfritt" and the split compound version "rök fritt" where the first version means that smoking is prohibited, while the latter version means the opposite and is an invitation to unlimited smoking.