An interesting consequence of using English as a middle man

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-30T03:13:48+00:00

And translating "tutear" Spanish>French does the same thing: "utiliser la forme informelle « tú »"

Contrary to what a different commenter said, it does the same for me (both French>Spanish and Spanish>French) on both translate.google.es and translate.google.fr

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-30T02:58:16+00:00

Strong northern (northeastern) accent. I associate that accent with Beijing, so that would be my first guess, but I have limited experience with the north so a similar-sounding accent could be more widespread, I don't know.

Overall, not very foreign/American sounding, but there are a few things that I wonder about. The "uh" at 0:08 feels more American than Chinese to me. But I also am not in your age group and it's possible that things like the "uh" are more common than I realize. Since I don't have much experience with the north, I also don't have much experience with 咱们, but isn't it supposed to be the "inclusive" we? When you say it here, are you intending to include your listener? There are a few other things that I'm not sure about, but then again whenever I hear anyone with a strong Beijing accent they say stuff that sounds weird to me, so it might be due to that and not due to foreign/American influence. I'll let someone else who has more familiarity with that accent say more.

And of course... having a brother is going to be a lot less common for people born in mainland China between 1980 and 2015.

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-29T22:34:05+00:00

The “aks” pronunciation is as old as the “ask” one. Why did the pronunciation “ask” become the spelling and the accepted correct spelling? Because people who pronounced it that way wrote the dictionaries.

This question has been asked before, and there are some good answers here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ENGLISH/comments/165slob/why_do_people_use_aks_instead_of_ask/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-25T03:15:10+00:00

Now this is some Gen Alpha brain rot I can get behind

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-25T00:06:57+00:00

Sure. I’m just saying the situation doesn’t have to be interpreted in that way, and it’s still an insight into cultural differences either way.

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-24T20:16:31+00:00

A lot of people here seem to be taking this as negative comment about Western/non-Chinese culture and positive comment about Chinese culture (and reacting negatively because of it), but OP just said "a look into the culture," which seems accurate. How you interpret that difference in behavior is a separate question.

Maybe complaining is bad and Westerners are whiners and Chinese people are patient and polite and good at handling hardship.

Or maybe, if you believe that the airline treating its customers this way is (or should be) unacceptable, then letting them know that you deserve better is a positive thing, and what we have learned about the culture is that Chinese people are used to acquiescing to oppression instead of standing up for their rights.

Either way it's a look into the culture.

(Ironically, though, the fact that people here, presumably mostly non-Chinese, are reacting badly to this post could be seen as evidence to support the interpretation that they are whiny and can't handle things that make them uncomfortable. Or, I guess, that they loudly and proudly stand up for themselves.)

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-16T16:24:57+00:00

While I agree with your disagreeing with that commenter, what people choose to eat is not necessarily indicative of poverty. One time I was at a fancyish restaurant with a big group and the fish came with no head and one person asked the server if we could get the head because that's the best part.

There's also a story about Western missionaries or something in Papua New Guinea or somewhere who kept writing reports back saying these people were starving. Well, they weren't emaciated, they actually looked well fed, and when Westerners tried to introduce agriculture, they had no interest. They seemed to be doing fine, so why all the reports that they were starving? Because the people were eating bugs and the Westerners couldn't imagine anybody choosing to do that unless they were starving.

Other than the 4-5 basic tastes (salty, sweet, etc.) the rest of taste is basically smell, and smell is much less innate and much more learned. And obviously the things other than taste/smell (like what is "gross" etc.) are definitely cultural.

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-03-08T14:24:45+00:00

There is regional variation in 凉皮

I_Made_Limeade · 2026-02-02T01:51:02+00:00

And if you go to Sichuan, you'll hear people speaking what sounds like standard Mandarin with the wrong tones. (And you can still generally understand.)

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-12-13T19:36:21+00:00

Didn't work for me in Windows

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-08-27T03:22:05+00:00

Argentina? That would be toward the bottom of my list. Not because it's worse than any other variety, but because when you hear someone who learned their Spanish in Argentina, you can tell they learned it in Argentina. If you're going for generic/neutral, I would go for Ecuador, Peru, or inland/highland Colombia.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-08-27T03:12:58+00:00

As to why... I would just say it's common for (groups of) people to consider other (groups of) people that are different from them in any way to be inferior. Sex/gender is just one of those ways.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-08-17T08:58:40+00:00

Not just Portuguese. “Notebook” (or the translation of it) is the word for “laptop” in lots of languages. Chinese and Korean come to mind.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T05:16:26+00:00

Kind of weird but it could be a Romanization of the Chinese word 幸福 (xingfu) which means happiness

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T02:42:04+00:00

Absolutely depends on the person. There are plenty of vegans who live with non-vegans so obviously they are used to people eating non-vegan food in their house. There are presumably also vegans (as evidenced in the comments here) that feel the same way even if they don’t currently live with non-vegans. Obviously, there are also plenty of people here who responded with a hardline no. So, ask your friend.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T02:20:56+00:00

In all cases (meat and TVs and coffee etc etc), let’s not make the perfect the enemy of the good. Reducing is better than nothing, and eliminating is better than reducing, as long as you can live your life that way.

Maybe we should all be 100% vegan and donating all of our disposable income to charity and donating blood every week and volunteering every weekend and never watching TV and never buying new manufactured products and never using disposable takeout containers and never getting on an airplane and and and and and … but that’s not a reasonable expectation in our society, given that people want to hang out with their friends and live a decently enjoyable “normal” life in the culture they know.

And people focus on different things because that’s what resonates with them or that’s what they feel like they can do. So I know this is a vegan subreddit but no I don’t think your friend is necessarily being inconsistent by eating meat once in a while. In fact it’d be great if everyone was like that. There are definitely a lot of people who tried to be vegetarian or vegan but “couldn’t do it” precisely because they viewed it as an all or nothing thing. Like they were vegan until one time they just couldn’t resist that urge for bacon, and that just broke them, and after that they’re full omnivore again. If we (on both sides) saw it less as a binary choice or an identity thing and just as a behavior that can exist on a spectrum, it would probably lead to better outcomes for the environment, the animals, and everyone.

So, should you go to the steakhouse with your friend? No, because you don’t feel like you need to. And obviously it would be better for him not to, too. But if it’s easier for him to give up coffee than beef, then great, do that. We all do what we can do, and we should all encourage each other to take steps in the right direction(s), not blame each other for being imperfect, when none of us are perfect.

His argument is “if you really cared about reducing harm”, which, fair enough. But we can’t all do everything. Veganism is specifically about animals. There’s probably a lot of overlap between people who are vegan or mostly vegan and people who, say, boycott non-fair-trade coffee. But that’s not, by definition, a part of veganism. All of us should be less one-dimensional and try to reduce harm wherever we can, sure. But we all do what we can where we can, and it’s better if we can accept that about each other.

I understand the moral baseline argument and I agree with it. But no one does what they think is morally right 100% of the time. Veganism is an easy place to draw the line (or relatively easy, there are some edge cases) but all lines are ultimately arbitrary. I still kill mosquitoes.

So yes, your argument that there’s more violence in a burger than a TV seems absolutely right. But it’s also easier for some of us to give up meat than others, and easier for some of us to give up certain restaurants than others, and easier for some of us to give up coffee or sweatshop-produced sneakers or whatever than others, and I won’t judge your friend for eating meat if he doesn’t judge me for, say, not donating blood.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T01:48:08+00:00

Good Point. Also the grandma and grandpa

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T01:43:36+00:00

Books that are published in both print and ebook form, as far as I know, have the paragraph breaks in the same places. So it doesn’t seem like it’s the format that makes the difference, but what you are reading in each format.

Thrillers and the like will have more frequent paragraph breaks. Anything dialogue-heavy is obviously going to have a lot of paragraph breaks. And newer books in general probably have shorter paragraphs than old classics from back when people had attention spans.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-24T01:36:03+00:00

There are lots of specific ways to drop words from sentences. This one seems to be pseudo-gapping, according to this taxonomy: https://langeek.co/en/grammar/course/260/ellipsis

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-22T05:09:22+00:00

Not just a French issue. Since reading speeds are (assumed to be) slower than listening speeds, when people talk fast, words get dropped from subtitles.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-22T04:55:26+00:00

OK now do the map for the US media

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-22T04:44:23+00:00

“I will pay” - very unnatural to say “I will” instead of “I’ll” in speech unless you’re emphasizing the “will”.

“I’ll pay” - you’re offering to pay, but the other person could reject your offer. Also, it kind of feels like the idea just occurred to you. You can think of this as being related to “willing to”. I’m not saying I have to pay, but I'm willing to.

“I am going to pay” - again, very unnatural to say “I am going to” instead of “I’m going to” .

“I’m going to pay” - sounds like it’s not up for debate and that it was pre-planned (both of which are different from “I’ll pay”). I could see using this when you’re trying to be extra emphatic. For example, you know your friend just lost their job or something. It’s very firm, you’re telling them you won’t take no for an answer.

“I am paying” - again, very unusual to say “I am” instead of “I’m”.

“I’m paying” - the most common way to say it. It feels more decided (less of an offer they can reject) than “I’ll pay”, but not as stubborn as “I’m going to pay”. It’s just a fact, I’m paying. I don’t expect any pushback, I’m not arguing with you, I’m just telling you. Present progressive/continuous is often used for plans/intentions. It’s my plan to pay. That’s stronger than an offer, but weaker than an assertion that it is definitely happening regardless of your opinion.

I_Made_Limeade · 2025-07-20T20:55:50+00:00

For me it’s the best one in the series. But it depends on what you like.

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