English is Still Hard for Me, and Thoughts on (Computer) Language Wars - Why are language wars endless? | /en/2018/11/english-is-hard/

访客 *Shrek, Tan* @ 2018-11-11 15:20:40 写道：

看到你在美国呆了这么些年还写了这么多书还经常作报告，却也会有这些发音问题，我不会再为自己单词发音错误的问题感到羞愧了。

可能正是R有一些Lisp的源头吧，我觉得R的表达能力超强，而且很灵活，再加上现在的R社区的氛围也是超级好，蒸蒸日上，不时地会产生一种很“爱”它的情感。

@shrektan

访客 *Liechi Zhang* @ 2018-11-13 12:09:36 写道：

“There are too many hills for me to die on…”这是英文谚语吗？

我在想你写这个得时候是不是想着类似“埋骨何需桑梓地，人生何处不青山”，或是“青山处处埋忠骨，何须马革裹尸还”这样的中文，不过氛围好像不大一样：）。

你说听力不好，听不懂笑点，我觉得这或许偏多是文化差异的原因吧。我认识一个会说中文的老外，非常喜欢中国的影视剧，如《上海滩》等。我推荐她看《大话西游》，她看完跟我说非常无聊，不理解为什么我跟她推荐这个...

@liechi

Guest *Elio Campitelli* @ 2018-11-14 22:58:34 originally posted:

English is a complete train wreck when it comes to pronunciation. With its completely random rules and exceptions for transforming written text to sound, not even native speakers know how to pronounce words they've only seen in written form. So don't feel bad. Is not your problem, is theirs.

They should learn from Spanish or German. Two perfectly good languages in which you can tell (almost very time) precisely how to say a word the moment to read it.
I don't know how it is in Chinese.

Guest *Daijiang Li* @ 2018-11-15 17:13:50 originally posted:

I think all these English problems are common for non-native speakers. At least for me, I have all these problems! I already give up about correcting myself.

Another thing that I feel really bad is that I cannot remember people's name without knowing how to spell it. I am a visually oriented person; just saying the name means hardly anything for me (unless very common names).

@daijiang

Guest *tiagombp* @ 2018-11-15 17:28:17 originally posted:

This a great, great post, Yihui, light but full of wisdom.

I too rely heavily on dictionaries, spellcheckers, translators and even Google when writing anything, even a one line tweet.

For reading, though, what has helped me a lot was the Kindle, with its built-in dictionary that offers handy, quick definitions by just selecting a word while reading. Most of the time they are enough to understand the meaning of a word with little interruption in the reading flow. It's hard in the beginning, you will struggle and have to make a conscious effort to not give up and just pick a translation of the book, but your vocabulary (and confidence) gets better and better with each reading, and the effort really pays off.

Regards from Brazil.

访客 *Li Wang* @ 2018-11-19 21:47:26 写道：

英文里面的拉丁语词发音是按照英语习惯来的 凯撒（Carsar）的发音我觉得中文还更好些。 酒吧（吵）和电话会议（看不见表情）我觉得实在不适合交流....

Guest *Łukasz Bartnik* @ 2018-11-23 18:25:18 originally posted:

I have a very similar problem, although not as extreme I suppose (I'm Polish). Bars, loud places, fast speaking ppl, jokes... I just keep asking until I get it, even if people get annoyed. Whoever still hangs out with me, is obviously OK with that. The rest... I guess it's their loss.

Guest *username* @ 2019-01-09 21:06:48 originally posted:

I am looking for emacs and vim, wait but none of them?

Guest *Nam Nguyen* @ 2019-05-22 01:26:57 originally posted:

You are my idol! thank a lot for sharing.

访客 *dongyuwei* @ 2019-07-15 01:24:15 写道：

英文写作的话，推荐试试我写的英文输入法，词库较大，词频精准，自带拼写校正，支持英文模糊音似词，支持拼音输入英文： https://github.com/dongyuwei/hallelujahIM

Guest *dongyuwei* @ 2019-07-15 06:45:22 originally posted:

start a background process in my brain

Process is too heavy, please use actor, dude.

Guest *Kimki Pang* @ 2021-04-30 05:01:22 originally posted:

I still remember the first time I flew to the US, on the plane, I asked a stewardess for some snacks, I said " Could you please give me some snakes?"
Similarly , I couldn't understand most of the jokes that were told by Americans. However, I do can understand Joe Wong or other Asian standup comedians, including your jokes lol. I guess the cultural difference is the Great Wall to learning a foreign language.

@JinjiPang