Random Chat, Thoughts, Posts, and/or Rants Thread

[Guest-5ty5s4]

The world would be a much nicer place if something easier than English (such as Spanish) would be the international language.

I'm primarily referring to pronunciation which makes zero sense in English and is extremely frustrating to learn. In my native language, everything is spoken the same way it's written. Same in Spanish. In English, everything will have different pronunciation just for the fun of it. To this day I find it incredible that in languages like English once you learn a new word you need to learn how to pronounce it (yes, you can guess the pronunciation but you'll never be sure).

For example:

• pathos
• pathological
• pathetic

All three words start exactly the same way but in all three, the first vowel is different. Add for example the words "python" and "pithy" and you have five different vowels in similar words.

I've been learning the American accent for a couple of years (the last 1.5 years very seriously with a coach 3x a week). After so much time and effort I've only managed to maybe neutralize my accent (my coach says that at this point it would be hard for him to pinpoint where I'm from by my accent alone). But I'm still nowhere near sounding like a native speaker.

I keep repeating this all the time to native English speakers: you have no f*cking clue how blessed you are to speak English as your native language. No. f*cking. Clue.

Embrace your accent! Women born in America, native English speakers, will find it attractive.

We are a nation of different accents. If you can get your point across in English, you’re already solid.

 

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[Andy Black]

Embrace your accent! Women born in America, native English speakers, will find it attractive.

We are a nation of different accents. If you can get your point across in English, you’re already solid.

Exactly.

I don’t have the same accent as the people in the town I live in. I get a bit of friendly “stick” when England play Ireland. I wouldn’t change it.

 

[Mathuin]

In line with my Tchaikovsky post, I refuse to believe that mainstream music is anything other than a psy-op to make masses retarded.

Pop music is about dysfunctional relationships (Dua Lipa, Ava Max, etc) and garbage like mumble wrap with people who can barely string together a sentence make people more likely to talk like idiots.

All a psy-op. Owned by Intelligence and Big Pharma

Garden tools like Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion doing further damage to the family unit.

"Depressed" rappers like Future who lie about their depression and drug use, creating more weak men.

Future Lied About Being a Drug Addict, But I'm Not Afraid to Be Honest

What happens when music's leading drug addict admits "I’m not a drug addict."

djbooth.net

Then there's all the LARPers pretending to be "gangsters"

Alex Jones summed it up pretty well 10+ years ago.

"MAGELLAN IS A LOT COOLER THAN JUSTIN BIEBER!!!"

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qemu_ZzsJUA

 

[MTF]

I’m a native English speaker. Like many, I don’t speak any other languages. How many languages do you speak @MTF? Do those different languages give you different ways of thinking?

I speak three and thinking of learning my fourth one. I have a different personality in each, particularly when speaking it in another country face to face (and not just online).

Embrace your accent! Women born in America, native English speakers, will find it attractive.

We are a nation of different accents. If you can get your point across in English, you’re already solid.

No. This is wrong. I get so frustrated when native speakers say that. It's well-intentioned but it's wrong.

Would you tell me to embrace being a shitty entrepreneur? Because this is what it comes down to.

A non-native accent is wrong. If you're embracing your non-native accent, you're embracing your mistakes.

This isn't Andy saying certain words consistently differently compared to Americans. It's a person making random mistakes (for example, using sounds from their language that don't exist in any dialect of English) that make them hard to understand.

Native speakers speak a recognized and consistent accent. Non-native speakers are inconsistent with their accent (for example, the same vowel will sound different depending on the word while it should always sound the same).

Here's a response I posted in another community about that:

If you have a foreign accent, this isn't who you are unless you define yourself by the mistakes you make in a foreign language.

If you say "shit" instead of "sheet" this isn't your adorable accent. It's a MISTAKE, and an embarrassing one at that, that can cost you a client. There's very little difference between this type of a mistake and a grammar mistake like, for example, saying "How much good you like it?" Both are mistakes that may prevent other people from understanding you or treating you seriously.

People DO judge others by their accents, and this is even more important of a factor in business. No matter what people tell you about how they "love" a particular accent, there's zero advantage in having a foreign accent in a business context. Ask any American how they enjoy their customer support calls with Indians. Perhaps they enjoy foreign accents when watching a movie but speaking with a person you're struggling to understand quickly gets old.

Also, an accent isn't just pronunciation. It's also resonance, stress, melody, formants, placement, and many other things (in addition to more basic things like word choice, proper grammar, body language, cultural understanding, etc.). Yes, learning to differentiate between vowels, diphthongs, and consonants helps but it's not everything. And it's extremely unlikely that self-study alone can get your sounds to 100% (unless you have a great ear but then you wouldn't have to study much).

I've been working on my accent for the past several years and my accent today is way better than before. It does include better pronunciation but pronunciation alone won't solve all of your problems. For example, unlike American English, Polish doesn't have a melody. It's a very flat language. If a Polish speaker speaks English with Polish melody, they'll sound disinterested, unfriendly, if not slightly aggressive. To make myself sound more like an American speaker, I need to be aware of my tendency to sound flat. I also need to learn what words and syllables I need to stress.

Don't let anyone tell you that your accent is fine as it is (or that you can't change it) if you clearly feel it's affecting your life negatively. It's sort of like telling people to embrace their bad driving habits instead of identifying and correcting them. If you want to become an excellent driver, you do your best to eliminate every single mistake. It's the same when learning a foreign language.

 

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[Guest-5ty5s4]

I speak three and thinking of learning my fourth one. I have a different personality in each, particularly when speaking it in another country face to face (and not just online).



No. This is wrong. I get so frustrated when native speakers say that. It's well-intentioned but it's wrong.

Would you tell me to embrace being a shitty entrepreneur? Because this is what it comes down to.

A non-native accent is wrong. If you're embracing your non-native accent, you're embracing your mistakes.

This isn't Andy saying certain words consistently differently compared to Americans. It's a person making random mistakes (for example, using sounds from their language that don't exist in any dialect of English) that make them hard to understand.

Native speakers speak a recognized and consistent accent. Non-native speakers are inconsistent with their accent (for example, the same vowel will sound different depending on the word while it should always sound the same).

Here's a response I posted in another community about that:

Fair enough. I only speak two languages: English and very broken, limited Spanish. I don’t try to fake a Spanish accent because it feels embarrassing, like I’m pretending to be someone else.

 

[cherubim]

Pop music is about dysfunctional relationships

An acquaintance of mine said that "toxic relationships are the best". Needless to say, I've kept him as only an acquaintance.

The desire for dysfunctionality in a world that is already dysfunctional and needs people to solve problems is insane. The culture (in the West esp) certainly doesn't help that.

There's a bizarre desire for dysfunctionality for emotional satisfaction/gain.

 

[Chapas]

I've seen so many couples over the last couple of days where the girl is wearing a mask and the guy is not. I could at least understand if they both were scared of catching Covid, but since they are a couple and if one of them gets it the other one probably also will. Makes absolutely zero sense - unless one of them is immune. And it is ALWAYS the girl with mask looking like a smurf and the guy without.

 

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[GPM]

I speak three and thinking of learning my fourth one. I have a different personality in each, particularly when speaking it in another country face to face (and not just online).



No. This is wrong. I get so frustrated when native speakers say that. It's well-intentioned but it's wrong.

Would you tell me to embrace being a shitty entrepreneur? Because this is what it comes down to.

A non-native accent is wrong. If you're embracing your non-native accent, you're embracing your mistakes.

This isn't Andy saying certain words consistently differently compared to Americans. It's a person making random mistakes (for example, using sounds from their language that don't exist in any dialect of English) that make them hard to understand.

Native speakers speak a recognized and consistent accent. Non-native speakers are inconsistent with their accent (for example, the same vowel will sound different depending on the word while it should always sound the same).

Here's a response I posted in another community about that:

My wife is Mexican and English is her second language. I find her accent and mistakes sexy as hell, and while I do correct her with proper English, it honestly pains me to do so at times because I absolutely love the way she speaks.

"mistakes", while technically incorrect, are not always bad things. Sometimes the features that make us the most attractive or the most likeable are the things that are considered wrong. Language is no different IMO. However, I feel like an a**hole when talking in Spanish because I am terrible at it and I pronounce it like a silly white person.

 

[MitchC]

TikTok - Make Your Day

vm.tiktok.com

My missus just showed me this.

I think it’s really interesting.

This is a guy who is not the usual TikToker age.

Not the usual tiktoker look.

With a really quite boring and simple product. Definitely not you usual tik tok product.

And he’s killing it.

 

[Andy Black]

TikTok - Make Your Day

vm.tiktok.com

My missus just showed me this.

I think it’s really interesting.

This is a guy who is not the usual TikToker age.

Not the usual tiktoker look.

With a really quite boring and simple product. Definitely not you usual tik tok product.

And he’s killing it.

Lots of people dismiss things out of hand, like TikTok is just for a certain age, or just for silly dances, etc. It just goes to show there’s often someone somewhere making it work.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Does anyone go to symphonies? If so, have you noticed that the musicians never look happy? I rarely see any musician smile during a concert (or after a piece) as if they enjoyed the work. If you go on YouTube and watch live symphonies you see the same thing.

I wonder if this is an example of "following your passion" destroying your passion, getting paid to do work you normal would do for free, suddenly the joy of the work disappears.

Or maybe it's because symphonies have to act as entire collectives, vs individuals?

For example, these 2 cello guys look happy, not so much the people behind them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx1aV7Av2M&list=RDxjJnWuA7-ps

 

[WillHurtDontCare]

I wonder if this is an example of "following your passion" destroying your passion, getting paid to do work you normal would do for free, suddenly the joy of the work disappears.

While that is probably the case for a few of them, I think that the seriousness on their face is the result of the total focus on their craft.

I also believe that with elite performers, they don't work because it makes them happy, but because they're completely obsessed with performance. Tim Grover (Michael Jordan's strength coach) talked about this in his book Relentless.

The most fulfilling experience in life is struggling for the right reason.

 

[S.Y.]

No. This is wrong. I get so frustrated when native speakers say that. It's well-intentioned but it's wrong.

Would you tell me to embrace being a shitty entrepreneur? Because this is what it comes down to.

A non-native accent is wrong. If you're embracing your non-native accent, you're embracing your mistakes.

This isn't Andy saying certain words consistently differently compared to Americans. It's a person making random mistakes (for example, using sounds from their language that don't exist in any dialect of English) that make them hard to understand.

Native speakers speak a recognized and consistent accent. Non-native speakers are inconsistent with their accent (for example, the same vowel will sound different depending on the word while it should always sound the same).

What trips me up is the stress on words, intonation and rhythm (my first language is french). One example I like to use: give me his email address so I can address X with him. Use the wrong stress and the words means something completely different.

I agree that the "embrace your accent" is coming from a good place but is wrong. Whenever I go on a call, I speak slower, which someone makes my pronunciation and intonation close to the traditional Canadian accent. When I do embrace my accent, people will occasionally ask me to repeat myself or repeat a word because they didn't understand how I said it.

And it is not fun when you want to persuade someone or sell an idea. I can tell you that.

Makes me think of this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4k8dR04TzA



I stopped practicing out of sheer frustration. I am curious to know what a session looks like with your coach?

 

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[Mathuin]

While that is probably the case for a few of them, I think that the seriousness on their face is the result of the total focus on their craft.

That's what I was thinking. Most of them seem pretty happy at the end.

 

[MTF]

I stopped practicing out of sheer frustration. I am curious to know what a session looks like with your coach?

We do different things. Sometimes we focus just on a specific vowel, consonant or a combination. Sometimes we only work on melody. Sometimes we practice linking words.

We practice this through repeating certain words/combinations/vowels, sometimes we shadow (repeat) to clips, sometimes it's more of mental work as there are many psychological barriers with this kind of work as well (since you basically believe you can't ever learn it even though my coach is not a native speaker and sounds like an American).

There's a LOT of stuff that native speakers do instinctively that are completely strange to non-native speakers.

 

[No.1]

>High IQs build nice place
>Low IQs notice there's a nice place
>Low IQs move to that place
>Low IQs outbreed the natives
>High IQs move away
>Place that was awesome becomes trash
>High IQs build a nice place

Sounded a lot like “Hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times.” to me.

 

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[Raoul Duke]

Spoiler: Click Me!!

 

[Kak]

Virtue signaling has evolved a bit.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1504090362763264004

View: https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1504090362763264004?s=21

 

[StrikingViper69]

Does anyone go to symphonies? If so, have you noticed that the musicians never look happy? I rarely see any musician smile during a concert (or after a piece) as if they enjoyed the work. If you go on YouTube and watch live symphonies you see the same thing.

I wonder if this is an example of "following your passion" destroying your passion, getting paid to do work you normal would do for free, suddenly the joy of the work disappears.

Or maybe it's because symphonies have to act as entire collectives, vs individuals?

For example, these 2 cello guys look happy, not so much the people behind them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx1aV7Av2M&list=RDxjJnWuA7-ps

While performing they are probably intensely focussed on what they are doing.

They may be having the time of their life internally, but externally their face is all screwed up as their brain is executing the movements they have to do in response to their ears.

I often find performing music intensely stressful, and the time immediately after the performance a complete high (if it goes well ).

 

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[Kak]

Does anyone go to symphonies? If so, have you noticed that the musicians never look happy? I rarely see any musician smile during a concert (or after a piece) as if they enjoyed the work. If you go on YouTube and watch live symphonies you see the same thing.

I wonder if this is an example of "following your passion" destroying your passion, getting paid to do work you normal would do for free, suddenly the joy of the work disappears.

Or maybe it's because symphonies have to act as entire collectives, vs individuals?

For example, these 2 cello guys look happy, not so much the people behind them.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yx1aV7Av2M&list=RDxjJnWuA7-ps

Yes! The wife and I go to the Houston symphony frequently.

I would say it’s shocking when they smile, but somehow, at least the maestros here seem to enjoy what they do.

Golf is a big trap like this though. People love golf, so they “go into” golf… Their job is now folding shirts in a clubhouse. Serving drinks to others. Hosing out golf carts. Or picking up range balls.

 

[Raoul Duke]

Virtue signaling has evolved a bit. View attachment 42648

View attachment 42649

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1504090362763264004

View: https://twitter.com/mattdizwhitlock/status/1504090362763264004?s=21

 

[Kak]

 

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[Mathuin]

 

[Raoul Duke]

View attachment 42661

To the Moon!

 

[StrikingViper69]

Has anyone noticed pop songs getting shorter?

I've been seeing some coming out at barely 2:00 long.

 

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[Lex DeVille]

This made me laugh

 

[Mathuin]

Has anyone noticed pop songs getting shorter?

I've been seeing some coming out at barely 2:00 long.

I was thinking something similar. Thought it may have been due to lower attention spans with the current TikTok generation. Decided to check.

Top 7 in the UK right now on Spotify:
1 - Starlight by Dave - 3:30
2 - Baby by Aitch - 2:57
3 - Heat Waves by Glass Animals - 3:56
4 - We dont talk about Bruno by various - 3:35
5 - Where are you now by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott - 2:27
6 - Down Under by Lude & Colin Hay - 2:37
7 - Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender - 4:56

 

[Guest-5ty5s4]

I was thinking something similar. Thought it may have been due to lower attention spans with the current TikTok generation. Decided to check.

Top 7 in the UK right now on Spotify:
1 - Starlight by Dave - 3:30
2 - Baby by Aitch - 2:57
3 - Heat Waves by Glass Animals - 3:56
4 - We dont talk about Bruno by various - 3:35
5 - Where are you now by Lost Frequencies & Calum Scott - 2:27
6 - Down Under by Lude & Colin Hay - 2:37
7 - Seventeen Going Under by Sam Fender - 4:56

Pop is for your average person, there's still those of us who like long form content, like the symphony, a novel, Stairway to Heaven, Pink Floyd, or Dream Theater.

But a catchy pop tune can be fun sometimes too!

Stairway and Free Bird are the classics, though.

 

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[woken]

What trips me up is the stress on words, intonation and rhythm (my first language is french). One example I like to use: give me his email address so I can address X with him. Use the wrong stress and the words means something completely different.

I agree that the "embrace your accent" is coming from a good place but is wrong. Whenever I go on a call, I speak slower, which someone makes my pronunciation and intonation close to the traditional Canadian accent. When I do embrace my accent, people will occasionally ask me to repeat myself or repeat a word because they didn't understand how I said it.

And it is not fun when you want to persuade someone or sell an idea. I can tell you that.

Makes me think of this:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4k8dR04TzA



I stopped practicing out of sheer frustration. I am curious to know what a session looks like with your coach?

that’s just plain ignorance.( the mp in the video)

I’ve lived in London for the past 8 years. I went from understanding only foreign accents, to understanding different native accents and then all the accents.
I speak with an accent and I’m aware of it.

If I’m getting my message across clearly, then I couldn’t care less. I’d love a native English accent but without spending time on it, only time will fix that. Decades.

 

[WillHurtDontCare]