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ESL homework (lemmings.world)
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[-] tias@discuss.tchncs.de 258 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

You: Cool! The entrance to the subway is around the corner.

Bob: Thanks for the help, friend!

You: You’re welcome! Good luck.

[-] homes@piefed.world 106 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I have always thought that being able to read, let alone write, Cyrillic cursive is a form of magic. I’ve known a lot of grown Russian men who absolutely could not do either.

[-] milk_steak@lemmy.world 33 points 6 days ago

Obligatory лишишь ("you will deprive"). Cyrillic cursive really is wild

[-] gegil@sopuli.xyz 38 points 6 days ago

I write all text in my own custom font, which only i can read. I cant barely read other cursive cyrillic text.

[-] AppleTea@lemmy.zip 30 points 6 days ago

Damn, these look kinda fun...

I feel like at least the example here is very legible. What I can not do is read Sütterlin, a historic form of German handwriting script. The text in this postcard is German, which is my native language. Except for some very simple words like "wir" or "mit", I cannot read this.

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[-] cRazi_man@europe.pub 24 points 6 days ago

You: you're inside it already my dude

Bob: o rly?

You: ya rly

Bob: thanks bro

[-] Buddahriffic@lemmy.world 23 points 6 days ago

You: the existence of the subway is actually a lie to make Russia look strong to the west.

Bob: oh damn

You: we aren't allowed to talk about it in English. The birds are microphones.

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[-] mastertigurius@lemmy.world 104 points 6 days ago

Hhhhehhhhh.... Why do some teachers feel the need to be such dicks? Just smile, have a laugh, get with the joke, let it spice up your life.

[-] AyuTsukasa@lemmy.zip 174 points 6 days ago

I can laugh and not give them the points at the same time.

[-] turdas@suppo.fi 74 points 6 days ago

The "???" suggests they didn't get the joke. Like come on, not even a sarcastic "very funny, 2/5"?

[-] Klear@quokk.au 53 points 6 days ago

I read the ??? as "Are you fucking kidding me?"

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[-] drcobaltjedi@programming.dev 55 points 6 days ago

One time back in AP physics on a test I was prompted with "Find the accelerating force on the electron". I could not think of the way to do that in the moment, so I literally wrote No, and wrote down a fake answer so I could use that number for the next part of the problem. I got back the test a few days later and the teacher wrote a smiley face down there. Apparently I made her laugh so long and so hard her family had to check in on her so she just gave me the points.

[-] faythofdragons@piefed.social 15 points 6 days ago

Back in middle school history, they wanted to know who the UK Prime Minister was during WWI, and I couldn't remember so I wrote down James Bond, and got half credit for making the teacher laugh.

[-] AllHailTheSheep@sh.itjust.works 12 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

in college calc classes, my handwriting was famously quite poor. I'd scribble down some illegible notes and formulas, draw a few pictures illustrating the problem, then come up with a random answer. most of my classes graded work, not correct answers, so if I had an inkling of the right way to do it I could fake it and usually get at least 75% credit for the question.

always hated the questions that make you use the answer from previous questions. always a good time when you get to the end and have a nonsensical answer and have to redo 4 pages to find where you forgot to carry a 1.

[-] shneancy@lemmy.world 27 points 6 days ago

when it's every now and then it's great! but some students try to get out of learning by being funny, and it's your job to actually teach them something

[-] herrvogel@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

On our German tests back in hs, there was a vocab section where we'd use words in sentences. I didn't know one of the words in one of the tests, so I wrote "ich weiß nicht was bedeutet", which means "I don't know what means". Our teacher accepted that one with a laugh, but said it was a one time thing and it would not be allowed again. People still tried their luck with similar tricks after that, but got nothing.

Me, I was just surprised she'd never seen that in her career before. I wasn't expecting to get any points for that. Thought she for sure would have had other smartass students like me.

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[-] homes@piefed.world 21 points 6 days ago

Plus, if that kid can write in Cyrillic cursive, good for them!

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[-] Underwaterbob@sh.itjust.works 24 points 5 days ago

Haha! I am an ESL teacher in Korea. One of the funniest things I've had a student submit was about their family's favorite foods. A student somehow managed to translate "chicken" as "cock". More than one of their family members liked "cock" a whole lot.

[-] VindictiveJudge@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago

Oh, I know how that one happened. A rooster is also called a cock, though we don't much use that word anymore, for obvious reasons. Probably didn't know the word and checked Google Translate or something similar.

[-] TheSeveralJourneysOfReemus@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Well this game is notorious for the cover art and that funny world (The game is easily found on myabandoware, but the cover art itself is rare and this is the highest quality scan of the image i found online. Make of this what you wish but i think it looks funny)

[-] Bassman1805@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

It's also the French word for rooster (though spelled "coq" in that language). If these kids are learning multiple languages at once, that could cause some confusion, given how often French and English overlap.

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[-] alexc@lemmy.world 68 points 6 days ago

Reversed, this is how English as a first language conversations go in foreign lands

[-] mech@feddit.org 37 points 6 days ago

In many countries they don't even ask. They recognize your accent and reply in English right away.

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[-] helpImTrappedOnline@lemmy.world 18 points 6 days ago

In American English it would go

"Do you speak English"

"Nein"

"O K. I. Will. Talk. Slow. So. You. Can. Under. stand. Me."

[-] wieson@feddit.org 48 points 6 days ago

Sometimes, I think it's funny that in Anglo countries it's referred to as ESL, English as a second language.

For us (and I guess many others) it was always English as a foreign language. Could be first foreign language, second foreign language...

[-] nialv7@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

second language just means any languages that aren't your first language. not the second language you learn.

[-] HertzDentalBar 13 points 6 days ago

Majority of the world speaks a single language or two at most. Shit half the people I see online can't even speak one.

It makes sense you when you look at it like that. most people in ESL programs only speak a single language, if you speak more than two you probably don't need ESL classes and can learn on your own.

[-] squaresinger@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

Languages come in tiers. English is the global lingua franca. People use it to speak to anyone, no matter whether English native speaker or not. If someone from Norway wants to talk to someone from Japan, they'll most likely use English since both of them likely speak it.

Then there's regional lingua francas, languages like Spanish, Russian or Mandarin. These languages are popular in specific parts of the world and often used to get around there. Someone from Ukraine can speak to someone from Belarus using Russian.

Lastly, there's local languages that are spoken only in a country (or even only a part of a country). People speak them because that's what they were grown up with.

So in general, there's 4 "language slots" of languages people speak:

  • The global lingua franca
  • The regional lingua franca
  • The language of the country they live in
  • The language they grew up with

One language can fill multiple slots.

So for example, if you grew up in Ukraine and moved to Germany, you might speak the following languages, according to the slots above:

  • English
  • Russian
  • German
  • Ukranian

If you are born in Wales and never moved away, it might look like this:

  • English
  • English
  • English
  • Welsh

If you spent your life in the US, it would be like this:

  • English
  • English
  • English
  • English

This is the reason why people living in countries with lower-tier languages frequently speak 3-4 languages, while English native speakers really struggle to even learn the basics of one additional language. Because the former group has an actual use for more than one language, while the latter one don't.

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[-] Tja@programming.dev 10 points 6 days ago

Source? I think speaking one language is pretty rare. Most Europeans speak at least two, most Africans I've met speak 3, lots of Indians speak 3 as well...

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[-] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 9 points 6 days ago

Viewing it as primary/secondary makes more sense of it.

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[-] eah@programming.dev 37 points 6 days ago

I reject your reality and substitute my own!

[-] BowtiesAreCool@lemmy.world 9 points 6 days ago

Fun fact, Adam Savage got that quote from an old coworker who lifted it from 1984’s “The Dungeonmaster” which is ‘so bad it’s good’.

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[-] mudkip@lemdro.id 23 points 6 days ago

As someone who understands this language, this is hilarious.

[-] Stitch0815@feddit.org 12 points 5 days ago

Could you kindly translatem?

[-] Saprophyte@lemmy.world 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

It's around the corner

Thanks friend

You're welcome

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[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 24 points 6 days ago

Reminds me of how TV shows / movies just depict characters from a non-English country speak their native language for like 2 seconds before switching back to... English... for the rest of the conversation...

like... huh?

oh yea cuz its fiction and they don't want the audience having to read subtitles all the time...

Like who does that?

I came to the US at age 8 and still have to use my native language at home... like it feel really weird to be using English at home...

[-] vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works 10 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I think MGS: 3 does this best. The entire game takes place in Russia and most of the dialogue outside of with command is with Russians so they just say that the characters are speaking Russian to each other. Pretty sure the scientist you meet at the beginning of the game even comments on Snakes Russian being good.

[-] Narauko@lemmy.world 7 points 5 days ago

The Hunt for Red October did the same, the first minutes are in Russian with subtitles and then it slips into English mid sentence as if the audience adapted to the language. Very effective actually.

Doesn't change the fact that it's Sean Connery's brogue on a Russian naval captain, but at least it somewhat explains it. Clearly the captain is from wherever the Scottish equivalent for Russia is.

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

Sean Connery’s brogue on a Russian naval captain

I like how his Highlander character adds Egypt, Japan, and Spain together to produce Scotland.

Sean Connery as Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez, an Egyptian immortal who has lived for centuries in both Japan and later Spain

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cf6SaA-Kdro

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[-] FishFace@piefed.social 8 points 5 days ago

Do you find it weird that Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet and King Lear are all written in English? We've been doing this for centuries.

Having a snippet of native language is a more modern invention as far as I know (because if you can't rely on the audience understanding the language, you need to subtitle the snippet), but it's just a way of communicating to the audience in what language the conversation is taking place by showing, rather than telling.

[-] DrSteveBrule@mander.xyz 5 points 5 days ago

The English dub of the anime Monster has a really funny interaction between the main character (Japanese), a young child (German), and an older couple (English).

Despite the voice actors all speaking English, the main character and child communicate in German. The main character also knows English so he can communicate with the English couple. There are scenes in which they are all together and the Japanese guy has to translate what they are saying to each other, but to the viewer they are all speaking English. The kid and old couple just won't directly talk to each other.

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[-] Bazell@lemmy.zip 32 points 6 days ago

How the dialog trully should have happened:

[-] merdaverse@lemmy.zip 5 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

English teachers hate this one simple trick!

[-] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 16 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Why would the question have 5 lines instead of 3, it’s almost entrapment

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this post was submitted on 15 Feb 2026
1176 points (100.0% liked)

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