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Off topic: 茶馆 : 所有"无关紧要的"话题
Thread poster: chance (X)
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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李克强 夫人相貌有点儿像 王光美 May 6, 2014

http://baike.baidu.com/view/320422.htm

看了一下 王光美的生平介绍。 没想到 她不仅会说英语,年轻时其它学业成绩也都是非常出色的。


[Edited at 2014-05-07 00:47 GMT]


 
wherestip
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Funny Internal Memo May 17, 2014

http://money.cnn.com/2014/05/17/autos/gm-words-not-to-use/index.html?hpt=hp_t2



"Deathtrap," "widowmaker," "rolling sarcophagus."

Those are a few of the words that General Motors asked its employees to avoid using in their internal communications.

A lengthy list of unacceptable terms appeared in a 2008 presentation given to GM employees on how to communicate with each other regarding possible safety issues.

Besides individual words, certain phrases were also discouraged in the presentation. "This is a lawsuit waiting to happen," and "Unbelievable engineering screw-up" were among what the presentation described as "examples of comments that do not help identify and solve problems."

Rather, employees should use phrases like "Windshield wipers did not work properly. Would run for 3-4 seconds and then quit for the next 7-8 minutes... repeatedly."

Among the "Judgement words" employees were told to avoid: "Hindenburg," "powder keg," "Titanic," "apocalyptic," "You're toast," and "Kevorkianesque."

Less inflammatory words such as "safety," "safety related," "serious," "failure," and "defect" were also listed as words to be avoided.



 
pkchan
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救了瀕死的鯨魚後,竟發生神奇的事.. May 21, 2014

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBYPlcSD490#t=27

[Edited at 2014-05-21 03:04 GMT]


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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The power of an immersive language environment Jun 3, 2014

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to
... See more
I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.
Collapse


 
pkchan
pkchan  Identity Verified
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語言失靈不要緊 Jun 3, 2014

wherestip wrote:

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.


最怕是染上斯德哥爾摩症候群。


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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erratum Jun 3, 2014

I guess it should have been captured and imprisoned by the Haqqani Network, not the Taliban.


[Edited at 2014-06-03 19:41 GMT]


 
David Lin
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Moderator of this forum
cultural adjustment on returning home Jun 4, 2014

pkchan wrote:

wherestip wrote:

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.


最怕是染上斯德哥爾摩症候群。


Both would have "reversed cultural shock" and requires a little time to adjust back to home culture, language being a major adjustment.


 
Jinhang Wang
Jinhang Wang  Identity Verified
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用进废退 Jun 4, 2014

wherestip wrote:

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.


他们的问题已经不是浸入式语言环境的问题了,而是与语言环境完全绝缘了,没有讲话的环境了,这一点才是致命的。

[Edited at 2014-06-04 13:45 GMT]


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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与当地人融合 Jun 4, 2014

J.H. Wang wrote:

wherestip wrote:

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.


他们的问题已经不是浸入式语言环境的问题了,而是与语言环境完全绝缘了,没有讲话的环境了,这一点才是致命的。


J. H.,

My guess is they were speaking Italian or Pashto, or whichever language it was for multiple years respectively. It's not so bad if one's sole objective was to acquire a second language; but that's a big if.


 
Jinhang Wang
Jinhang Wang  Identity Verified
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有可能 Jun 4, 2014

wherestip wrote:

J.H. Wang wrote:

wherestip wrote:

I remember when Amanda Knox was found not guilty and released from an Italian prison, she said she had difficulty communicating in English when she first arrived back home in Seattle. Her stay in the Italian prison was for about 4 years.

Now they're saying Bowe Bergdahl is having the same kind of trouble speaking English. He was captured and held prisoner by the Taliban for 5 years.

I'm sure people in these extreme circumstances quickly readjust after life returns to normal as far as their native language ability is concerned. But I believe that's just a testament of the power of an immersive language environment.


他们的问题已经不是浸入式语言环境的问题了,而是与语言环境完全绝缘了,没有讲话的环境了,这一点才是致命的。


J. H.,

My guess is they were speaking Italian or Pashto, or whichever language it was for multiple years respectively. It's not so bad if one's sole objective was to acquire a second language; but that's a big if.


不过,我猜测在监狱中本来讲话的机会就很少。我们都知道,一些长期被监禁的人出来后在其他方面的能力也严重退化,以至于生活都成了问题。一些功能长期不用就退化了。


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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Life as an inmate Jun 4, 2014

J.H. Wang wrote:


不过,我猜测在监狱中本来讲话的机会就很少。我们都知道,一些长期被监禁的人出来后在其他方面的能力也严重退化,以至于生活都成了问题。一些功能长期不用就退化了。



Well, I don't know about Bergdahl, but I'm pretty sure Knox was not treated that badly in the Italian prison system.

Here's one of her fellow inmate's recollection of Amanda Knox's life in prison. I wouldn't call it a normal, happy existence. But IMO she wasn't isolated to the extent that she was miserable and couldn't even function. If anything, her Italian must have improved tremendously after 4 years of being locked up in addition to constantly fighting for her innocence in court. BTW, I believe she addressed the court in Italian herself and didn't have the need for an interpreter either.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/09/14/amanda-knoxs-life-in-prison.html



Then De Jesus was suddenly transferred again and didn’t return until March 2010. She says she followed the end of the trial, watching the verdict and wondering about her friend in Capanne. When she returned to the prison nearly eight months later, the younger Amanda was back. The inmates were celebrating the Feast of San Giuseppe and all of the female inmates were dancing and singing in the common area. “She was so light-hearted, singing, jumping and dancing and talking to everyone,” De Jesus writes, wondering if the end of the trial and, in turn, her decreased celebrity made Knox a more acceptable member of the prison population. “I saw the beautiful angel once more.”




[Edited at 2014-06-04 18:07 GMT]


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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How Amanda Knox became fluent in Italian under the most unfortunate circumstances Jun 5, 2014

http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.com/2011/10/amanda-knox-tragic-path-to-italian.html



For that period of nearly four years, Amanda found herself in a language immersion environment that no textbook prepares you for: prison. Whether strictly for survival purposes or whether to make lemonade when handed lemons, Amanda's Italian abilities grew under this difficult situation that, perversely, provided an immersion environment that was conducive to language learning.

Amanda revealed her prison routine in a diary she wrote while in jail:

I do exercises, sing, write, read, sleep, eat, drink and think. I can go to the library. I have eight television channels I can watch in the cell, I have a bath and a lamp for reading.

And you can bet that much—and probably nearly all—of that was done in Italian. The library most likely had few if any books that weren't in Italian. Those eight television channels were all probably in Italian as well. She may or may not have used Italian when singing or writing, but, when speaking to others, I'd wager that it was also almost all in Italian, whether with other inmates or with prison officials. Indeed, her being excited to hear English from a reporter seems to indicate that she had little exposure to English, although her cellmate being an American for at least part of her imprisonment might have meant that she wasn't completely without English.

...

Indeed, Italian became so ingrained that, since returning to the States, switching back to English has been a challenge. From ABC News:

Knox's father, Curt Knox, told "Good Morning America" today that his daughter out of habit occasionally slips back into Italian, a language she became fluent in during her four years in Capanne prison outside of Perugia while she battled charges that she murdered her roommate.

"It has become really almost her first language since she's been in prison so long…"


So, at the end of the day, for Amanda at least, the story has a silver lining. Her life may have taken a large and unwelcome detour due to a horrific crime that she was ultimately acquitted of, but she returns home a fluent Italian speaker.



 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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Competency Jun 5, 2014

http://money.cnn.com/2014/06/05/news/companies/gm-recall-probe/index.html?hpt=hp_t1



The delayed recall by General Motors that led to the deaths of at least 13 people was caused by the misconduct of about 20 employees and "a pattern of incompetence and neglect" throughout the company, according to an internal probe released Thursday.



It's probably a good thing that the translation profession typically doesn't directly result in the loss of life or other serious consequences. But in isolated cases, a translator's competency, or lack thereof, just might be significant enough to make a big difference.


 
Jinhang Wang
Jinhang Wang  Identity Verified
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其实我们的说法不矛盾 Jun 6, 2014

wherestip wrote:

http://www.streetsmartlanguagelearning.com/2011/10/amanda-knox-tragic-path-to-italian.html



For that period of nearly four years, Amanda found herself in a language immersion environment that no textbook prepares you for: prison. Whether strictly for survival purposes or whether to make lemonade when handed lemons, Amanda's Italian abilities grew under this difficult situation that, perversely, provided an immersion environment that was conducive to language learning.

Amanda revealed her prison routine in a diary she wrote while in jail:

I do exercises, sing, write, read, sleep, eat, drink and think. I can go to the library. I have eight television channels I can watch in the cell, I have a bath and a lamp for reading.

And you can bet that much—and probably nearly all—of that was done in Italian. The library most likely had few if any books that weren't in Italian. Those eight television channels were all probably in Italian as well. She may or may not have used Italian when singing or writing, but, when speaking to others, I'd wager that it was also almost all in Italian, whether with other inmates or with prison officials. Indeed, her being excited to hear English from a reporter seems to indicate that she had little exposure to English, although her cellmate being an American for at least part of her imprisonment might have meant that she wasn't completely without English.

...

Indeed, Italian became so ingrained that, since returning to the States, switching back to English has been a challenge. From ABC News:

Knox's father, Curt Knox, told "Good Morning America" today that his daughter out of habit occasionally slips back into Italian, a language she became fluent in during her four years in Capanne prison outside of Perugia while she battled charges that she murdered her roommate.

"It has become really almost her first language since she's been in prison so long…"


So, at the end of the day, for Amanda at least, the story has a silver lining. Her life may have taken a large and unwelcome detour due to a horrific crime that she was ultimately acquitted of, but she returns home a fluent Italian speaker.



我说的是长期与某种语言环境隔离,会造成该语言能力的退化。您说的是,长期沉浸在某语言环境下,有利于学会该语言。


 
wherestip
wherestip  Identity Verified
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The processes of language acquisition and attrition Jun 6, 2014

J.H. Wang wrote:

我说的是长期与某种语言环境隔离,会造成该语言能力的退化。您说的是,长期沉浸在某语言环境下,有利于学会该语言。


Indeed. The processes of language acquisition and language attrition are issues of two sides of the same coin. There are lots of different theories and hypotheses postulated by scientists and researchers. But the human brain is such a complex organ, most of those theories and hypotheses are just that.

Wikipedia has quite a number of related links on this subject. Here are just a few ...


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_acquisition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second-language_acquisition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theories_of_second-language_acquisition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_attrition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_language_attrition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multilingualism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_period

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_Period_Hypothesis


 
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茶馆 : 所有"无关紧要的"话题






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