30 - How does one recover from failure?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Release Date: 02/12/2022
What are some experiences you've had regarding the awful 9/11 attacks?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Original .
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Personal Stories About New York City
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Original on Quora.com I was standing outside an art supply store on central park, south side. Looking in the window at all the canvases and paint brushes. Wondering whether I should start painting. Gradually, I became aware that someone was standing next to me. A bit too close. I looked at her, a classy looking older lady. Maybe in her sixties or early seventies. She smiled broadly at me and said, you look nice. For a long time. I didn't know what to say. And then I stammered. Thanks. She said, would you like to come to my apartment for dinner? For the next five or six...
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Vocabulary that you like better in your target language than in your own language
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This episode is related to the following Reddit post: https://www.reddit.com/r/languagelearning/comments/15by64n/are_there_any_words_or_phrases_that_you_like/
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Twittersode 1 Convincingly Awful Advice for Language Learners
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Kevin Abroad asked this: Share bad language learning advice but make it convincing.
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Who is Jimmy Carter? (39th U.S.President)
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Jimmy Carter to begin receiving home hospice care. But who is Jimmy Carter? Listen to a brief summary in this podcast.
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ChatGPT: Chatbot interviews an English learner - AI Artificial Intelligence in action
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Summary: In this interview episode, the host of the language learning podcast , Daniel Goodson, is interviewed by an AI called Peter about his English learning journey. Daniel shares that he has been learning English passively for many years through activities such as reading books and listening to podcasts in English. He also started his own podcast, My Fluent Podcast, to practice speaking with native speakers and improve his skills. Daniel shares that immersing himself in the language and speaking with others, whether native or non-native speakers, has helped him a lot in his learning...
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37 Why do people read novels?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Why do people read novels? Transcript: We read novels because we want to live, even vicariously, in a world with meaning. Too many senseless events happen in the real world: children die of starvation at the very gates of the wealthy, innocent and admirable people perish in natural disasters, wars that destroy young lives and entire countries are waged for the pettiest of reasons. A novelist, whether realistic or fantastic, extrapolates meaning onto his or her envisioned world. Sometimes the good guy wins. The sick child recovers. The impoverished orphan has a secret fortune. Even when the...
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36 I love my wife but she cannot cook. What should I do?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Never mind if she can’t cook. If she loves you and you love her, that is enough to lead a happy married life. Cooking is not rocket science. Both of you can learn it together. By the way my wife married me in spite of my inability to cook. I married her in spite of her inability to drive. We are a happily married couple. She cooks for me and I drive her around. Don’t let these minor difficulties come in your way. Here is a of us that I haven’t shared before. Vocab: rocket science (something very difficult to understand) Original article on Quoa.com:
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35 What screams "I have a low IQ"?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Quora.com (Whis is not an official Quora Podcast) Difficult words: ambiguity (he presence of two or more possible meanings in a single passage.) cliches (Formally, a cliché is “a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse, as sadder but wiser, or strong as an ox.” It can also be defined as “anything that has become trite commonplace through overuse.) monosyllabic (having only one syllable) perception (opinion, perception,...
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34 Is it rude to flake on someone? Why do people do it?
Quora knows best - For English learners and others
Is it rude to flake on someone? Why do people do it? Transcript: Original post on Quora.com Other examples with the expression "to flake on someone": The one time I actually depend on you, and you flake on picking me up from the airport. Marge, don't flake out on me. Don't you flake on me!
info_outlineChris Ebbert Senior Lecturer in Industrial Design, Mid Sweden University
Transcript:
Realise that you may not be a failure in the eyes of someone else.
Here’s my story. I was 40, divorced, had left a life in New Zealand behind that had fallen apart in the most dramatic way possible, and was invited at my cousin’s house in Austria to a summer party.
As we ate barbecued things and drank local beer, dreams were swapped and future visions exchanged. My cousin is a sound engineer, struggling as a consultant, doing the odd gig in Vienna or Salzburg.
We talked about happiness.
And I heard myself saying, “maybe some day, when I am successful, I will know what happiness is.”
My cousin looked at me as if I was very, very drunk. And maybe, I was. And he said, “Chris; you are the dean of a French university, a Grande Ecole at that, in Shanghai. And you say ‘some day when you are successful’?”
That changed my world view.
I realised then and there that it depends very much on whom we ask whether we feel like failures, or not. All I had been able to see was how badly things had gone for me in New Zealand, and how the expat position in China really was only a gap filler till I would be able to find something to replace the life I had had in NZ. That that life in Shanghai was in itself pretty cool was somehow off my radar.
Perhaps you need to ask the right people? Try to understand what the average person’s existence on this planet is like. Success and failure are not quantitative values. They are dangerously subjective perceptions, and require some grounding in basic values.
So, stop comparing yourself to the wrong people. By comparing ourselves to stars or celebrities of some standing, we will always look bad.
Here is the full episode of My Fluent Podcast with Chris Ebbert reading out loud:
E56 - Do we have another personality in another language?