What is Digg?51 Comments
- DaffyDuck, on 10/12/2007, -7/+46What about proper use of grammar such as when to use commas and periods? :)
- mynickel, on 10/12/2007, -3/+36Some people actually care to use their words in a way that appears educated and demonstrates at least a basic understanding of the English language.
- Crowe, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17Ask and ye shall receive!!
(From the same site)
Grammar Girl's Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=173429229 - kjmatthews, on 10/12/2007, -2/+18@Mandeep:
The proper placement of punctuation like commas and periods can completely change the meaning of a written sentence, just like stressing improper words can completely change the meaning of spoken words. Punctuation is also extremely useful for people whose first language is different from your own. Try reading stream-of-consciousness prose in a foreign language, or show an ESL student a Faulkner novel. For that matter, read one yourself and you'll see how hard it is to figure out how to read a sentence without punctuation.
YOU may know what you're typing and how it should be read, where the pauses should be, and what groups of words go together, but when you leave out punctuation it makes it that much harder for everyone else. - ludwik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+8I'm learning foreign language by listening to TWIT Network Podcasts and reading digg.com. And I have to say - it helps a lot. In couple of months I made a bigger progress than in a couple of years before. If you want to learn a language you have to switch to content in this language. I'm Polish, anyway.
- Spook27, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10@Mandeep :
People care about grammar and punctuation because it can make a significant difference in how a sentence is interpreted. Observe the following example :
"Surrender Dorothy"
versus...
"Surrender, Dorothy"
A world of difference can be based on the presence of a comma.
Nobody has perfect grammar skills and I don't think anyone really expects you to - but having at least a middle-school grasp on where punctuation goes is what separates knuckle-dragging mouth-breathers from everybody else. - burgerboy06, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5My sister is getting through college Chinese with the help from a podcast.
- Snooper1989, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7@Mandeep
Grammar is the difference between, 'i helped my uncle jack off a horse,' and, 'I helped my Uncle Jack off a horse." - irregardless, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6A comma saved a man's life once. From: http://www.canongate.net/Lists/Words/3FamousCommas
"Czarina Maria Fyodorovna once saved the life of a man by transposing a single comma in a warrant signed by her husband, Alexander III, which exiled a criminal to imprisonment and death in Siberia. On the bottom of the warrant the czar had written: `Pardon impossible, to be sent to Siberia.' The czarina changed the punctuation so that her husband's instructions read: `Pardon, impossible to be sent to Siberia.' The man was set free." - NewChar, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Thank you, for, this excellent source of information. I will put it to, use at some point.
- jakebouma, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I was excited to see that they have Greek!
- YouKnowWho, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hey the german ones will sure come in handy. If you are a starting with german, check out DW's Deutsch, Warum nicht? podcasts or BBC's web page http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/german/
- Tetraca, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I haven't found a podcast but you might want to try textkit.com to learn latin.
- nrvous250gt, on 10/12/2007, -3/+6@Mandeep
Looks like you could use some help with prepositions, too. - gonzo1773, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Some of these look really good. Particularly the Chinese one. Good find.
- cybernezumi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've used the JapanesePod101 series and its really great. They've got a large group of people that take part, so its always lively and interesting (which is sometimes hard to pull off in podcasts, especially educational ones). They also do a great job of breaking things down and feeding the sounds to you slowly when you are first introduced to a new word or phrase.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Anybody know where I can find Latin?
- super_spyder, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4any body know of one that teaches farsi (persian) ?
- kjmatthews, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4See above, re: "Surrender Dorothy" vs. "Surrender, Dorothy" and my comment about how using punctuation may, in fact, HELP speakers of English as a second language whose cause you so nobly champion. Both are in the first comment thread.
- AllnightChemist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2BitTorrent.
For Estonian, try your library. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@Jaycliche,
Work on your crappy spelling before worrying about your crappy grammar.
From our beloved wikipedia:
"A pidgin, or contact language, is the name given to any language created, usually spontaneously, out of a mixture of other languages as a means of communication between speakers of different tongues. Pidgins have simple grammars and few synonyms, serving as auxiliary contact languages. They are learned as second languages rather than natively. Not to be confused with pigeon, a type of bird." - dstart, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2or Estonian?
- erkokite, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Anyone know where to find swedish lessons?
- cybernezumi, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4Another even more enlightening example -- how would you punctuate "Woman without her man is nothing"?
- bmc2010, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Thanks for this ArbuZz, this is an excellent find! :)
- scotsman, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I've been using the French lessons by French Ecole. It's really fantastic and easy to follow. I've actually learned more from this podcast than I did with two years of French in secondary school! And it's free! Can't go wrong.
- whiteguysamurai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3For those unwilling, or unable to install itunes.
http://www.yamipod.com/main/modules/home/ - dyvbond, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I live in Japan and want to learn some more words and such to help me survive a little better in stores and such..I shall listen to the Japanese 101 podcast tonight...
- thatsmyaibo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This is great actually. My mother is from Holland and (even though it's not on this site) I have been brushing up on my Dutch via podcast for the past few months.
- BassCadet, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2These are awesome.
Granted, not as professional and thorough as the Plimseur stuff, but still very good (and free). - pestilence4hr, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2This seems like a great idea, however, what about those of us without itunes? It's very annoying that the links take you to something that is proprietary, and not just links to the websites that contain the podcasts. I have used chinesepod, and so I can provide the link to that one:
http://chinesepod.com/podcast/
I took 1 year of college chinese, and would say this podcast would probably get you just as far if you were dedicated to it. - AllnightChemist, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2So which Dutch podcast to you use?
- AllnightChemist, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Totally. Every time he tells me how they're going to "break it down" for me I cringe.
Peter, you're from New York, man. How 'bout you "bust it down" or "lay it on us" every now and then for variety's sake. - pairanoyd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1How can you download the damn files?
My MaknMac only has 512m ram and itunes won't even run, not to mention I don't have an ipod. - konaken, on 04/14/2009, -0/+1this page has moved to http://www.openculture.com/2006/10/foreign_languag ...
- bkemper, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"no incite into what someone is saying"
LOL (I mean "Laugh Out Loud", as in "I am laughing out loud at you")!
Ever think that if you are trying to learn English that maybe you should listen to people when they give you grammar or vocabulary or spelling tips, instead of just spewing sarcasm against them?
For instance, you might like to know that "incite" and "insight" are not the same thing at all. But since you don't take want to pay attention to other people correcting you, I suggest you grab a dictionary and look up those words yourself. - FredWatanabe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I love Japanese101 but Peter comes of a bit annoying at times, great show none the less
- pauldonnelly, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Your RAM *is* well beyond the minimum requirements, but what it the world is a media player doing with 256 MB of RAM? Talk about your bloat.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0listening to international foreign language internet radio will help you learn a language too
- freelanguage, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0Free Language also has loads of podcasts listed for learning foreign languages:
http://freelanguage.org - kingfelix, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1you (unnecessary comma), might want to stick with english for a while :)
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Very cool. Thanks ArubZz.
Second that, where's Latin? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1Seriously, anybody who tells me where I can find Latin will get a pony.
- pomcast, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1My podcasts ( http://www.pomcast.com ) are about the same subject (Apple) in 4 languages :) Good way to learn...
- CanceledCzech, on 10/12/2007, -17/+13@Mandeep
No. - gaoshan, on 10/12/2007, -4/+0"Another even more enlightening example -- how would you punctuate "Woman without her man is nothing"?" in Diggese? It would look something like this:
Woman without, her man is nothing... and he AIN'T.... he ain't NUTHIN!! - zeiben, on 10/12/2007, -8/+3The point Mandeep is trying to make, I think, is that grammar is of minimal help when you're learning a language. Ask anyone what would help them more, 2 hours a day of grammar exercises or 2 hours a day of immersion, and most people would say the latter. In fact, there is little evidence to demonstrate that studying the grammar of a language ever translates into actual acquisition of the language. Also, it's important to understand the difference between grammar (syntax, morphology, phonology) and punctuation.
- jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -10/+2LOL isn't how you spell it. It's laugh out loud. That IS proper English. Let us also start spelling words like comma just to be clear and concise. I have no idea what a sentence says without proper punctuation, because I think like a computer and have no incite into what someone is saying. I never talk to foreign people or people with accents because then I would have to try to think about what they were saying instead of spending my time correcting people which makes me feel ***** fantastic about my wonderful self. Do you grammar Nazis ever think that people who write on the big WWW might actually not be speaking English as a first language, be young, or might be rushed but still want to speak? Do you grammar Nazis ever even use slang, as thats not proper English?
- brandonking, on 10/12/2007, -11/+2Too bad there are none that will teach you how to use a comma correctly.
- jaycliche, on 10/12/2007, -13/+2URLs have horrible grammar. We really need to get that straightened out. Also, can we all just speak English. Anglo society has been the world dominator for centuries now and the world needs to know that. English is superior because you can't express certain terms and that helps keep a well ordered under class that doesn't demand much.
Oh and English is a pigeon, not a language if you want to get technical...so choke on that grammar Nazis.
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