http://www.englishforums.com/search/pro.htm?q=user%3akumambachi&o=DateDescendingSearch results for 'user:kumambachi'en-USXMOD (Build: 3616.28671)http://www.englishforums.com/English/ICantCanNotVersusCannot/dndgm/post.htmMon, 15 Jan 2007 08:37:24 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:315413kumambachiIs it "can not" or "cannot?" I come across both usages but I am unsure which is correct. Are both correct, but only appropriate at certain times? Is the difference regional? Thank you so much for your help! -Kumambachihttp://www.englishforums.com/English/RatherQuitePrettyFairly/pvpg/post.htm#75332Sun, 20 Feb 2005 21:05:30 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:75332kumambachiSo are you saying that the sentence "This cake is quite good" would mean "This cake is not very good (perhaps even terrible)" to speakers of BrE? Or, when you describe it as a "euphemism" do you mean it stands for something even more profane? I have never heard of this. Maybe I am misunderstanding something. If anyone could explain a little more it would be helpful. : ) I learned American English and it seems that in AmE you can use these four words interchangeably and "quite" sincerely, as in "this thread is quite interesting."http://www.englishforums.com/English/GotMilk/pdkl/post.htm#74854Fri, 18 Feb 2005 13:58:27 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:74854kumambachi"Got Milk?" is a catch phrase used in advertisements paid for by the dairy industry to get people to buy and drink milk in the United States. The campaign used pictures of famous people with "milk mustaches" in order to encourage milk drinking. I think before that it was "Milk, it does a body good." The U.S. dairy industry must be the official sponspor of the 2005 Rookie Challenge, so this year it is being called the 2005 "Got Milk" Rookie Challenge. If Coca-Cola were to sponsor it in 2006 I guess it might be called the 2006 Coca-Cola Rookie Challenge.http://www.englishforums.com/English/ReceivedPronunciationEstuaryEnglish/xczx/post.htm#74487Thu, 17 Feb 2005 00:31:43 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:74487kumambachiI recently read somewhere that the Estuary accent was slowly taking the place of Received Pronunciation in the UK. Whether it is true or not, I have no idea what the Estuary accent sounds like! Is there anyone that is fairly well-known (in the news or in movies) that speaks with an Estuary accent that someone could point out so that I might be able to hear it and distinguish it? I sure hope it isn't the UK accent that pronounces the "th" sound as a "f/ph".http://www.englishforums.com/English/PeriodPeriodOfTime/xpnd/post.htm#73396Fri, 11 Feb 2005 11:05:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:73396kumambachiSome people say "in three weeks". Others will say "in three weeks TIME". This goes for days, years, months, etc. Sometimes the latter feels redundant to me but it seems common.http://www.englishforums.com/English/ForeignForeigner/xpbd/post.htm#73260Thu, 10 Feb 2005 14:27:40 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:73260kumambachiThanks for the responses! So if the person is a tourist it may be "fair" to call this person a foreigner, yet if the person has lived in a country for a long time then they might become offended. From just a glance, to tell how long someone has been in a foreign country is sometimes a hard thing to do. I rather like Matthewg's examples. I have even had people become offended when I called them tourists before. Some people are just sensitive I guess. In Japanese, the word "gaijin" can really be both innocent and a bit derogatory, depending on the situation. I try not to use it. "Gaikokujin" is always safe to use. Perhaps the English word "foreigner" and "gaijin" are somewhat similar. Neither are inherently derogatory but could be...http://www.englishforums.com/English/ForeignForeigner/xpbd/post.htmWed, 09 Feb 2005 19:54:09 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:73137kumambachiThe word "foreign" used as an adjective seems innocent enough. There are foreign languages and foreign objects. However, when applied to a person it seems to have negative connotations. In English, is the word "foreigner" derogatory? What are your opinions? Are there better words to use when you do not know someone's nationality or name?http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhileVsWhilst/vrpm/post.htm#73015Wed, 09 Feb 2005 09:47:25 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:73015kumambachiSame here, but I have always thought that "whilst" was on the slow road out of common English usage. "Amongst" and "among" both seem to occur in American English however. Whilst "whilst" seems very King James.http://www.englishforums.com/English/NorthernSouthernEnglish/2/dwpj/Post.htm#72837Tue, 08 Feb 2005 12:06:27 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:72837kumambachiIf you want to hear an accent that is fairly representative of the contemporary Southern U.S. accent, then you should try to listen to an interview with the American pop singer Britney Spears. She is from Louisiana. The way she speaks is fairly widespread in the South.http://www.englishforums.com/English/NorthernSouthernEnglish/dwpj/post.htm#72704Mon, 07 Feb 2005 20:06:37 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:72704kumambachiIn some ways the American Southern accent might be easier to understand because people who use it tend to speak slower. U.S. President Bush speaks pretty slow. The accent used to portray people from the South in movies is not one that accounts for all the varieties of the Southern accent though. There are both rhotic and non-rhotic Southern accents. It varies from state to state. The one used in movies is usually the non-rhotic one, like the one used in the movie "Gone with the Wind". Most people from the South do not speak this way. I consider it the "Hollywood Southern accent". The stereotypical Northern American accent is usually considered nasally and loud. However, even in the Northern U.S. there are a variety of accents. In...http://www.englishforums.com/English/IsAmericanEnglishLazyEnglish/3/bhwl/Post.htm#72347Sat, 05 Feb 2005 22:58:27 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:72347kumambachiI don't think I would consider British English "Classic English". British English and American English were assumable one in the same 200 years ago. They have both diverged into their current dialects. If such a thing as "Classical English" exists, wouldn't it be Elizabethan English, a dialect that no country uses any longer but is the predecessor of both contemporary BrE and AmE? For your Japanese students you might explain that BrE is similar to the Kansai dialect and AmE is like the Kanto dialect. Users of the former are heavy on insisting its historical "classiness" while the later is relatively new and has been strictly standardized.http://www.englishforums.com/English/SimpleQuestion/xmbz/post.htm#72345Sat, 05 Feb 2005 21:57:01 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:72345kumambachiPerhaps it seems awkward because of the ambiguous nature of the word "while". It could mean both "at the same time" and "on the other hand". If the writer used "however" or "but" then the confusion is cleared up. If the sentence was spoken however, it may not sound as awkward. If spoken, a slight pause before and after the word "while" to add a directional shift would clear it up for me. Maybe if the assignments mentioned in the sentence were "reading assignments" it might also close the awkward gap.http://www.englishforums.com/English/Schedule/xlzk/post.htm#72157Fri, 04 Feb 2005 22:38:26 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:72157kumambachiIn this case it is not a matter of being correct. In the UK it is pronounced as "shedule". (no 'c') In the US it is pronounced as "skedule". (like the word school/s'k'ool) Most of the sch- words I can think of are prononced with a 'k' sound, like scholarship or scheme. The ones that are not, like schnauzer and Schubert, seem to have German or Jewish origins.http://www.englishforums.com/English/Tsunami/xdrv/post.htm#71579Tue, 01 Feb 2005 20:27:15 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:71579kumambachiNo. It does not resemble the "ch" sound. Japanese is a language of syllables. In all cases except one, the syllables are made up of either a consonant sound and one of five vowel sounds, or just a vowel sound. As an example, the Japanese word for "thank you", ARIGATOU, has five syllables: A RI GA TO U. The word TSUNAMI has three: TSU NA MI. The syllable for TSU is always pronounced as "tsu". This sound is not a sound that naturally occurs at the beginning of a word in the English language. Put your tongue in the position to say a "t' but say "su". That should be it.http://www.englishforums.com/English/AWordFromArgentina/xbwc/post.htm#69368Sun, 23 Jan 2005 03:55:09 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:69368kumambachiWhat about "cheapskate"? Or just "cheap". I have never heard anyone use "cheeseparing" before.http://www.englishforums.com/English/InHospitalHospitalUniversity/nxdx/post.htm#68323Tue, 18 Jan 2005 04:55:11 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:68323kumambachiThank you for the quick reply Mr M. It makes sense now with the examples you gave.http://www.englishforums.com/English/WhichIsRight/nxdn/post.htm#67984Sun, 16 Jan 2005 13:32:08 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:67984kumambachiIn this grammatical situation, only D is correct: "HOW DO YOU PRONOUNCE this word, can you tell me?" But, if the sentence is rearranged, "Can you tell me ______________ this word?" HOW TO PRONOUNCE would be correct.http://www.englishforums.com/English/InHospitalHospitalUniversity/nxdx/post.htmSun, 16 Jan 2005 13:16:44 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:67980kumambachiIn UK English, why are the "a" and "the" omitted when referring to being "in the hopital" or "in a hospital". This usage seems to treat hospital like a proper noun rather than common noun. Should hospital be capitalized? Is this a recent trend in UK English? This seems like the way a Scandinavian person might speak, accidentally leaving off an "a" or "the". I assume that in the UK it is not accidental. The word "university" is often treated the same way. Are there any other words that this applies to? Thanks!http://www.englishforums.com/English/LongTimeNoSee/4/zghg/Post.htm#67974Sun, 16 Jan 2005 12:59:51 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:67974kumambachiNative speakers say "Hey, long time no see!" all the time so there is not really any harm in using it. I am not really sure as to the origin but I cannot deny that it does seem to smell a little of imperialism. It has become part of the language however. Don't hesitate to use it if you like to use it. "Confucius say..." on the other hand, does seem wrong (and maybe racist) to me. It is usually said in a mock Asian accent. I think that is what the incorrect verb tense is supposed to imply.http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowToGetRidOfAccent/3/gxkl/Post.htm#67883Sat, 15 Jan 2005 22:22:46 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:67883kumambachiIn New York and in the Southern US, people who live right next door to each other can have very different accents. One person could have a very thick regional accent and the other could speak perfect standard American English. For a native speaker, usually the question of accent comes down to education. The higher an education a person receives, the more likely a person will be free of an accent. This does not mean that either person is any more intelligent however. In the US, the Southern accent is often stygmatized as sounding "uneducated" so it is not uncommon for many Southern children to try to consciously get rid of their accents. I have often wondered if a person who has already consciously tried to change their accent in their...http://www.englishforums.com/English/HowToPronunceTsunami/mqpq/post.htm#67880Sat, 15 Jan 2005 22:00:11 GMT946f00bb-57d3-4b7b-a9a2-059b5341af52:67880kumambachiIn the original Japanese it is pronounced with three syllables: tsu na mi . No syllable is stressed. I think the correct English pronunciation should be very similar to the Japanese.