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Just talked to Dell Costumer Services. For some reason I felt really nervous. Maybe it's because I'm still not used to speak English for real. Oh well...
Wednesday, 27-Aug-14 18:01:07 UTC from web-
@coltz The people on the other end probably aren't used to speaking English either, knowing how customer support works
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@coltz i anything it's more practise for both the representative and yourself! (After 7 years of having to speak english i still prefer typing).
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@redenchilada Well, it was a Canadian customer support, if there is any difference.
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@coltz Really? I'm surprised. Usually they're in India or something
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@awlv2 Yup, but I still felt uneasy. When I speak, I tend to forget the right words. Typing is so much better because I have time to think.
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@redenchilada Yes. I mean, it was the Canadian Dell customer service that I called. I don't know if the guy I spoke to was actually canadian. He did seem to speak quite well thought.
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@coltz He probably was then, unless he had a noticable accent. It wouldn't make sense for them to not be Canadian anyway, since Dell is based in Texas (I used to live within walking distance of their headquarters)
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@redenchilada To not be Canadian if they're billed "Canadian customer support", rather
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@awlv2 Being used to slavic languages english must sound genuinely ugly to you.
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@nerthos and more adoring of latin languages english by comparison dull.
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@redenchilada Oh, cool. I almost ordered from the American Dell, but when I was purchasing I realized they didn't have the option to ship to any city that wasn't in the USA. I had to go to another website and order it again from the beginning.
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@awlv2 Really? I think it's okay. It's so much easier than Portuguese in most aspects, so I won't complain.
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@awlv2 That's one of the reasons I put so much effort into phrasing my ideas in a less than common way, The language has the potential to be too simple to be appealing, and requires a bit of a twist to entertain.
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@coltz I tried speaking portuguese and failed miserably.
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@coltz i enjoy it's written form thouroughly. It's such a strange mix of Latin, French, Greek and it's original Germanic roots. However in spoken form it's... Unpleasing. I cannot compare it to portuguese unfortunately.
RDN's Lucifer likes this. -
@nerthos I'd never speak it if I was wasn't bron in Brazil. I also suck at Spanish.
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@nerthos probably the second largest thing i enjoyed of studying english is its ability to be complicated. Russian can also be, just not in the same ways.
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@awlv2 They incorporated a lot of Latin words for some reason. Which is great for me. But I don't see how speaking English is unpleasant, sorry. xD
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@coltz I'm pretty good at spanish but that's because I'm adept at words and it's my mother language.
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@coltz The reason they incorporated latin words is because Britain was occupied by the Roman empire for quite a long time, and with the declive of the empire, the forward troops and their families, cut off from steady logistics from Rome, decided to simply settle down and mix with the locals.
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@awlv2 Ah, I see. My former teacher (who is British) said i have good speech, with almost no accent. I think that speaking the brazilian portuguese (which is a little different from the european, especially in the speech) make it a little easier to speak other languages, 'cause we have a wide range of phonemes we use daily.
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@nerthos Oh, interesting. I guess there is always an explanation to everything, after all. xD
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@nerthos Yup, I'm good atr Portuguese for the same reason.
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@coltz after all this time and speaking abkhaz, which has a vast inventory of consonant sounds but only 2 vowel sounds used in native words, i can speak english somewhat well. Still have not used the dental fricatives in speech (th).
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@coltz History explains most things if you take the time to dwelve in it.
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@nerthos That's why I liked the subject when I was in school.
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@coltz It's one of the most interesting ones at school because it allows for thought and further learning on wathever part of it that results interesting, with relative ease.
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@awlv2 Only 2 vowels? Wow, must be tough. I had quite the hard time with (th) as well, since it's almost like the (d) sounds to me. The key word here is "almost".
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@coltz geowing up with russian made vowels easier but not much else. English by comparision sounds soft. Learning written before spoken didn't help.
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@nerthos I agree. I've always preferred it over other things like math.
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@awlv2 And it is, that's why is came easy for me. But I think learning to write before speaking is a problem in the educational system. At least that's how it is in my country.
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@coltz Math is nice when properly applied to something, when there's a feeling that by doing it something is achieved. Sadly, professors in most cases fail to convey that feeling.
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@coltz It depends on what you want the language for. When I tried to take a course on portuguese, it was mostly focused on the spoken language, and I wanted to learn mostly the written form, to have access to literature and stuff. Needless to say I quitted pretty fast.
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@nerthos Yup. I kinda liked physics because at least the teacher tried to apply it in real life, so I was like "Ah, so that's why we're learning this...".
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@nerthos But it was a private course outside your school, I suppose.
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@coltz Yep, given by the municipality's house of culture
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@nerthos i thought so.
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@coltz School language courses are often just there to fulfill state-implemented regulations, not to actually teach a language to the point you can use it fluently. That's the big problem with them.
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@nerthos Yeah, you're right. I didn't go to any kind of language course (just to prepare me for the TOEFL exam), so I learned English pretty much by myself.
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@coltz Same here. I like that schools only teach you the very basis, then you can by yourself learn the rest if it interests you.
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@nerthos I feel like people would take math more seriously in schools if some sort of (even super-basic) computer programming class was mandated. It'd give that feeling of it being useful for something if that was the case.
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@redenchilada I'm actually taking a computer math class this year.
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@nerthos I'm not good at self-taughting at all, I just kinda learned by osmosis by listening to music and playing tons of video-games.
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@redenchilada I know I would.
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@redenchilada In my opinion programming isn't an assignement that should be put in all types of school, as it shapes the mind and thought patterns in a specific way. IMO it should be only put in career paths related to computing.
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@mrmattimation You should look into AP Computer Science if your school carries it. It's honestly easier than a lot of on-level courses, and those elective AP credits will probably be good for something.
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@coltz I did mostly the same. It's the easiest way to learn a language properly, to simply be exposed to it.
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@nerthos Exactly. That's why I'll try to learn some french while on Canada.
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@nerthos Well, complex stuff shouldn't be mandated, but even a bit of basic coding tomfoolery would benefit everyone to know IMO. It helps teach people how to break things down to the basic steps, since you can't just tell a computer "find the length of this line", for instance. The debugging process is also a good way to teach people to proofread their work, since it'll flat-out refuse to work if you miss a semicolon or something.
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@redenchilada The thing is, the process of thought used to tell machines step by step what to do is counterproductive in an all-social career, like say, politics. That's why I say that it shouldn't be mandated to /every/ career.
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@nerthos And I think that politics shouldn't be a "career" in and of itself.
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@scribus And yet, politics should be an obligatory course to be allowed to vote.
Coltzerino likes this. -
@nerthos I do agree with this.
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