Scrutable

Italian seems to be the "cleanest" romance language compared to some of the weird orthography and pronunciation in the others, I'm really happy about being able to speak it. You've just got to exercise the usual caution with false cognates.

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 4:00 pm

Italian seems to be the "cleanest" romance language compared to some of the weird orthography and pronunciation in the others, I'm really happy about being able to speak it. You've just got to exercise the usual caution with false cognates.

A friend of mine teaches classics and says he can more or less get by on holidays on the strength of his Latin. Which is impressive if true.

To be fair he could also read a fair bit of Portuguese, but it's full of extremely strange noises when you do it out loud.

But yes, I sucked at languages at school but I quite enjoy having a decent extra one and a couple more works-in-progress now. Stretches a different part the brain, and I'd hate to be linguistically isolated from everyone around me for a long time.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:07 pm

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 4:00 pm

Italian seems to be the "cleanest" romance language compared to some of the weird orthography and pronunciation in the others, I'm really happy about being able to speak it. You've just got to exercise the usual caution with false cognates.

A friend of mine teaches classics and says he can more or less get by on holidays on the strength of his Latin. Which is impressive if true.

To be fair he could also read a fair bit of Portuguese, but it's full of extremely strange noises when you do it out loud.

But yes, I sucked at languages at school but I quite enjoy having a decent extra one and a couple more works-in-progress now. Stretches a different part the brain, and I'd hate to be linguistically isolated from everyone around me for a long time.

When I watched Bacurau, with English subtitles of course, I felt almost bitter that I hadn't tried to learn Brazilian Portuguese rather than Spanish...mind you I'm not sure if the clarity of their speech was more a feature of the film.

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:15 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:07 pm

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 4:00 pm

Italian seems to be the "cleanest" romance language compared to some of the weird orthography and pronunciation in the others, I'm really happy about being able to speak it. You've just got to exercise the usual caution with false cognates.

A friend of mine teaches classics and says he can more or less get by on holidays on the strength of his Latin. Which is impressive if true.

To be fair he could also read a fair bit of Portuguese, but it's full of extremely strange noises when you do it out loud.

But yes, I sucked at languages at school but I quite enjoy having a decent extra one and a couple more works-in-progress now. Stretches a different part the brain, and I'd hate to be linguistically isolated from everyone around me for a long time.

When I watched Bacurau, with English subtitles of course, I felt almost bitter that I hadn't tried to learn Brazilian Portuguese rather than Spanish...mind you I'm not sure if the clarity of their speech was more a feature of the film.

To be fair, Brazilian Portuguese is quite a lot easier than its continental counterpart, just like most of Latin Spanish is easier than that from Spain (as long as you stay away from parts of Chile and Argentina).

If I were a foreigner I'd probably rather start with US English than British as well, for the same reason - the American continent seems to encourage speakers of European languages to slow down, open their mouths and distinguish between different vowels.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:39 pm

discovolante wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:15 pm

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:07 pm

A friend of mine teaches classics and says he can more or less get by on holidays on the strength of his Latin. Which is impressive if true.

To be fair he could also read a fair bit of Portuguese, but it's full of extremely strange noises when you do it out loud.

But yes, I sucked at languages at school but I quite enjoy having a decent extra one and a couple more works-in-progress now. Stretches a different part the brain, and I'd hate to be linguistically isolated from everyone around me for a long time.

When I watched Bacurau, with English subtitles of course, I felt almost bitter that I hadn't tried to learn Brazilian Portuguese rather than Spanish...mind you I'm not sure if the clarity of their speech was more a feature of the film.

To be fair, Brazilian Portuguese is quite a lot easier than its continental counterpart, just like most of Latin Spanish is easier than that from Spain (as long as you stay away from parts of Chile and Argentina).

If I were a foreigner I'd probably rather start with US English than British as well, for the same reason - the American continent seems to encourage speakers of European languages to slow down, open their mouths and distinguish between different vowels.

Yeah, I sometimes curse Spanish and how they only seem to pronounce every 6th syllable and even then barely bother with the consonants, and then I say something like 'whachonado' (what do you want to do) and think well, fair enough.

Yeah I'm a right old mumblecunt, plus I make up words sometimes.

Bird on a Fire wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 5:07 pm

shpalman wrote: ↑

Sat May 23, 2020 4:00 pm

Italian seems to be the "cleanest" romance language compared to some of the weird orthography and pronunciation in the others, I'm really happy about being able to speak it. You've just got to exercise the usual caution with false cognates.

A friend of mine teaches classics and says he can more or less get by on holidays on the strength of his Latin. Which is impressive if true.

When I did a couple of short contracts in Milan, I found I could understand a fair bit of the technical discussions from schoolboy Latin. I'm sure someone who taught it would also be able to get by in more informal conversation.

Powerful array of arguments for masking here - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... ce.abc6197, and a notably short and to the point abstract

Masks and testing are necessary to combat asymptomatic spread in aerosols and droplets

EACLucifer wrote: ↑

Sun May 31, 2020 3:53 pm

Powerful array of arguments for masking here - https://science.sciencemag.org/content/ ... ce.abc6197, and a notably short and to the point abstract

Masks and testing are necessary to combat asymptomatic spread in aerosols and droplets

When medical experts arrived in Lombardy in mid March one of the first things they asked was "why isn't everyone wearing masks?"

The authorities might have resisted for a while, insisting that social distancing was enough, but the public started wearing them anyway.

I'm not exactly sure what this week's rules are in Lombardy but they were generally obligatory when outside.

Anyone have any recommendations for actually buying them? Especially any that would stay in place and allow you to breath when running?!

We've been wearing neck cowls pulled up over nose when shopping, but there now seem to be rumours that UK might enforce wearing masks 'when in public', and WHO is mentioning '3 layer' which would make our solution unworkable. If so I'd like to get my stockpiling in before everyone else does it this time, and we discover we can't go out for a walk/run.

I saw boxes of "non-medical" face masks at the checkout at the grocery on Monday. 40 masks for £40.
Don't know what they would be like for runnning. Probably hot. Good for shopping, public transport, etc.

Yes, the point of the masks is to block your airways, so running with one on would be pretty steamy I expect. It's often about 30° here during the day and my face gets all sweaty when I wear a mask, even though I have a great big beard to provide a little extra ventilation (try as I might to achieve a good seal).

The disposable ones might actually be better for running, as they're lighter and then you can throw them away once they're all gross and sweaty. The more comfortable reusable cloth ones are good when you have to wear them for a long time, such as working, commuting or shopping, and there are some guides online to adjusting them (e.g. making the elastic more comfortable around the ears).

EACLucifer also posted a guide on this forum for making them at home viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1121 - he tested out some designs and adjusted them for comfort, so if you're handy with a sewing machine or know someone that is, it could be a good option.


One place I've seen them for sale online is vistaprint https://www.vistaprint.co.uk/clothing-b ... sks-family and surely Amazon must have something, the tax-dodging worker-exploiting c.nts. Oh and my mum says she's bought some in Boots, so pharmacies might be a good place to check.

Herainestold wrote: ↑

Fri Jun 05, 2020 7:40 pm

I saw boxes of "non-medical" face masks at the checkout at the grocery on Monday. 40 masks for £40.
Don't know what they would be like for runnning. Probably hot. Good for shopping, public transport, etc.

Packs of 4 selling for £3.50 at Asda. They had a bunch by the self-service tills last few times I've been in. Dunno what they're like for running in though. Also getting lots of emails at work from office suppliers who have PPE to flog. Seems to have been over the last week / ten days that firms have got stock in.

Starting to wish I'd nicked some of those sh.tty dust masks from my old work now. Or even a couple of the proper ones with charcoal filters (seem to be called "half-face respirators"). Look a bit odd using one of those on the bus though I suppose. You could tell who'd been using the decent ones at work as they had big indentations on their face where the straps had dug in.

I read somewhere (can't find it now) that the surgical/procedure disposable masks are cooler and more effective because they are a loose weave that depends on static electricity to trap particles. Once they are wet they are useless and should be discarded.