howsmyenglish

Thank you, dear friends, for accompanying me in 2024! It has been a better year thanks to your presence in my life!
Wishing everyone a good beginning to a year that hopefully will bring something good (apart from everything else, hehe).

And just because I've apparently missed this place much more than I realized, here's quite a different discussion.

( adult content, enter at your own risk )

A couple of days ago, I got myself this inflatable balance pillow. I thought I'd sit on it while working on my computer. And idiotic as I am, I decided I'd just sit on it. All the time. Like on a chair. When I got up after the first 40 minutes, I felt my hamstrings ache. Interesting, I thought. But I did not think "time to stop". I sat back down and had a 1.5 hour long zoom meeting. Next morning I felt different. Different is good. I mean, at 45, waking up with some pain is quite usual, and having a different pain is definitely better than having the same you had yesterday. So, quite satisfied with the result, after breakfast, I sat back down on my new pillow and did some... 3-4 hours of computer work with short breaks for getting or getting rid of fluids. After this, I decided that my back was hurting because I hadn't been swimming in a couple of days, so I went swimming. It was a cloudy day, it was raining a bit on and off. Hardly any people in the open air village pool. I swam and swam, had such a good time. Until I realized that the more I swam, the more in pain was my back. Hmmmm, thought I, I'll go home and put some Arnica oil on it. That's what I did. About an hour later (and in-between, I have trouble believing this myself, I sat on the balance pillow working at my computer again!) we went out to celebrate my brother-in-law's birthday. We had to walk for, like, 20 minutes? So we walked there. Then we were there* for some hours and I got cold (but a nice woman gave me her coat, but it might have been too late), then we walked back. By that time, I was aching all over, from my heels to my ears, every inch and centimeter was in pain. All I could think of for the last hour or so before going back was a hot shower and covering myself in something muscle-goody. I did all that. I also had a hot tea. I went to bed.
Omg, that was one of the worst nights ever. The minute I got to bed I started shivering like hell - as you do when your temperature is going up quickly - and I kept shivering for about three hours. No sleep. I put two thick blankets on myself and at some point I even put on a really thick bathrobe, because I couldn't stop shivering. No idea, how high my fever rose, I didn't have a thermometer and didn't want to wake the others - this house is wooden and extremely loud. But at some point I remembered that I had some cold medicine in my room and decided to take it to loose some fever. From that point on, I was sweating. Still no sleep. I had to get up and change out of wet clothes... every 20 minutes? That's what it felt like. I fell asleep at around 4 in the morning, but still had to get up and change very often. When I finally got up in the morning, all I could think of asking for were dry shirts. I've been sick all day yesterday, and, thankfully, I slept well last night, and while I'm still weak, I'm much better now.
But can I finally remember NOT TO OVERDO IT whenever I find a new training toy?! How idiotic does one need to be to train for hours on end on a new device one is not at all familiar with?! Let this be a lesson to you, me! And also, to you, you! Do not repeat my mistakes. You'll thank me later.


*"there" being an open space, where a lot of people from villages around here were engaging in something people in these parts traditionally engage in from time to time, but I won't mention details in case some people with less traditional and more modern food tastes might feel sick. But there was also an orchestra!

You know, it's curious that everyone who answered the question about full or shortened versions of words, suggested the use of full terms like "introduction, vocabulary", etc. But the reason I asked is because, of course, we compare what we do with what others did, and one of the most widely used books on the same subject (it's a language textbook, from level 0) does use things like "quick vocab". I think they do it because language learning is considered to be so complicated due to all the grammatical terminology (does "grammar terms" really look less intimidating?), and they aimed to make it look simpler. But in the end we will probably have to use whatever our publisher, if we ever find one, will want us to use. It just helps to think out loud about these things.
Thanks so much for all your answers!

What do you think about long vs. shortened forms of:

intro vs introduction

vocab vs vocabulary

We want the instructions to be as short as possible, but understandable and sounding professional, not as if two kids are talking.

And how would you call this? A table? A chart? Something else?

I stole these questions from loganberrybunny, because I thought they were fun to answer, and because I felt like just killing some time instead of working or worrying.

What’s the coolest thing you’ve ever seen in nature?
The Himalayas. Mountains fascinate me, and the Himalayas are for some reason the most important mountains for me. When I first walked up a hill in Mussoorie, India, and saw those snowy peeks, it just took my breath away. I felt like spreading my wings and flying. And if that would have been possible, I would not have minded to die as a result.

What national or international events that you lived through do you remember best?
Well, we are all of us cursed to be living in interesting times. But apart from the interesting events of the last couple of years, I do remember Boris Yeltsin announcing that he's stepping down and naming Vladimir Putin as his successor. I was lying in a bed in Berlin at the time. I don't remember the name of the owner of the bed. But I do remember the question "who is Vladimir Putin?" that seemed to resound everywhere I turned. Do you realize there is a whole generation of Russians who have never seen anyone else ruling that country?

Does technology make us more alone?
Define us. I don't think technology makes me more alone, it helps me to stay in touch with much more people than I would have been able to without it.

How much do you trust online reviews?
I trust my judgement. Put together with online reviews I usually can figure out what to think of a product. But one actually needs to invest some time and read those reviews.

What are your experiences with severe weather?
I grew up in a climate, where both under -30 C in winter and over +30 C in summer was normal. But that is not really severe, right? Where I live now, we regularly have heatwaves with 45+ C. But other than that, as far as weather phenomena go, I don't think I've experienced much (though I am fascinated by weather and would enjoy those experiences). What I have experienced were some natural catastrophes: the flooding in the Czech Republic in 2001 (or 2?), when the guest house, at which I was staying as part of an archeological excavation group was cut off from the world for a week; the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 when I my flight from Sweden to Germany got cancelled and I had to actually travel for over 24 hrs on 8 different trains and one ferry instead of flying for like 45 minutes. Or the earthquake in Mexico city in 2017 (I think), when we had to evacuate and walk around the shocked city with a rucksack until they would let us back into our apartment. Interestingly, while I didn't necessarily enjoy being in those situations, I am happy to have had those experiences, they too enriched my life. Did I already mention that I sometimes feel like I'm an alien, who has been sent here to experience as much as possible? I was even happy to have been in a car accident and experienced the state of shock.

What are your favorite commercials?
I only remember one commercial, because we talked about it just a few days ago. That's a Coca Cola commercial, with that pierced couple and Coca Cola coming out of all the holes... You know that one? I haven't had a TV for over twenty years, I don't really know anymore what commercials are. I'm happy to say :)

Do you believe in intelligent alien life?
Not so much believe as hope that it exists. And I agree with loganberrybunny - it seems extremely unlikely that we're the only ones. That's just... I find it really hard to believe that we are sooooo special.

Would you like to ride in a car that drives itself?
I would hate that. I'm a control freak, I get crazed sitting on a bus and watching the driver driving it, if it was a completely automatic car, the fact that I couldn't control it, would drive me completely crazy.

Have you ever interacted with the police?
Yeah. I've had to act as a witness thrice, as far as I recall. The fact that I was born in the UdSSR means here that my reaction to cops is best described by the phrase "we're use to stand at attention when seeing the police" (this is a quote from a song). And I am. Whenever I see the police I think, it's there to accuse me of something, not to protect me. But that's a reflex, not what I actually think. I think (and hope) that the police is actually there to protect us.

Do you worry a lot about germs?
Not a lot, no. I think they're managing fine without me worrying about them XD Hahaha. Sorry. I do get an icky feeling when I enter a full bus and think about the fact that we're all breathing the same air. But I have a mask with me for such situations and I haven't watched all Monk episodes for nothing: I know how not to touch stuff you don't want to touch XD

PMS is a bitch. I mean... if I could just lie around watching Gravity Falls (could someone make a dozen new seasons, please?) and eating crap all day, I'd love PMS. It would be a great vacation from life, from work, responsibilities, important big thoughts (sarcasm). But when you do have to work and think and be responsible... and talk to people while looking like you know what you're doing and saying... weeeeell... Can I spend the next two hours watching Gravity Falls please? Instead of preparing for a zoom meeting, which I HAVE BEEN DEMANDING FOR THE LAST TWO MONTHS? Sigh.

And also, it seems like all I've been doing recently is fighting my demons, and boy, is that exhausting. I wish I could just forget about all that and have a break. But I did decide to apply for the stupid post doc thing and... once again, I make a decision and just have to follow through because I do live according to plan. Plan is to try and get the fellowship. Nothing doing.

New friend N, whom I actually ceased thinking of as friend in the last month or two, is back in my Telegram. We want to buy a new mattress and the old one is still usable, and N knows a lot of war refugees around here, so I had to contact her - to ask whether she knows someone who'd like it. She suddenly responded with lots of exclamation points and "I've missed you"s and "come for a visit, we'll drink and chat"s. And I just looked at it and thought - yeah, sure, you've missed me, and "we'll chat" sounds so believable, considering you never talk, just look at me with those very attentive glances until I believe we're close friends again. I so don't want to do that. I deliberated between saying something evasive, disregarding the invitation altogether, saying "sure, just tell me when" (because until now, she has "invited" me like that a dozen times, but never with a date, time and address). I also thought about saying quite frankly that I don't feel like going down that road again. In the end, I wrote that I'm overwhelmed with life and barely coping right now. Which is true. And, to me, it also says a lot about how I feel about meeting her, but considering how blind she's been towards me in the past, I'm sure she won't even think that anything between us has changed. Sigh again.

I've been thinking a lot in the recent days about how my mom used to tell me that I always am very excited about new people at first and get disappointed to the point that I want nothing to do with them later. I do see the repetition of that pattern in the story with N, but.. even if our relationship could actually grow and become an actual friendship and not a shallow imitation of one, it would be so much work. I am not ready for that. I have enough of my own demons to fight, she can fight hers without me.

IS ON!

I'm flying to the conference in Italy the day after tomorrow.
Besides giving a talk there (the presentation for which is not yet ready), I'll need to talk to people about the new project, for which I'll need to write a research proposal to apply for a big post doc thing, the deadline for which is in September. And I also need to finish writing the article (on which I'm giving the talk in Italy) and submit that, because I really need it for the application for the big post doc thing.

I'm shacking on the inside. But I'm quite calm on the outside. Which is a new and nice experience.

But also, I need to remember, no one will die if I don't get it. It's OK not to get it. There are other things to life.

Public - toilet? lavatory? latrine?

In the context of South Asia, "latrine" is used a lot. I guess it's for two reasons: a) it kind of emphasizes the huge difference between what people know as a "toilet" in the Western world and a "latrine" in South Asia; and b) for obvious reasons, South Asian English tends to be very British and a bit archaic.

What I want to know is how weird the words lavatory and latrine sound to a regular native English speaker? (whether you're on this or that side of the pond)
Maybe, they do sound weird, but cease to do so when the context is South Asia?
How do you call a public toilet? And what would you use, if you spoke about South Asia?


And in case I don't say it enough, I'm very grateful to everyone, who responds to these questions - a broad variety of answers helps determine a kind of trend. Thanks to all of you!

PS after the first couple of answers: So who uses "toilet"? The Germans? XD Does anyone in the English speaking world actually use that word?

And completely unrelatedly, I just want to say that the former Soviet Union and Russia (whether now or then) are not synonyms. Not that I was offended or anything, but I just wanted to mention it, because several people have responded to some of my previous entries using the R word, when I used the SU one. I've never lived in Russia. I was a German, whose family was displaced from the Caucasus to Kazakhstan.