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Re:Mayday! Mayday!
Very cute! Thank you.
FYI: The prayer the control tower was using goes:
Our father, who art in Heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.
It actually means the same thing, but I thought you might want to know how the prayer goes.
Thanks again!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, USA.
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Language pair: English; Filipino (Tagalog)
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Mark S.
February 11, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 14, 2009
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Re:Thoughts
I was disappointed that nobody has responded to your message. They aren't jokes obviously, but very powerful, moving quotations. I'm glad you shared them. I wonder if you might not get more responses if you put them in the literature bulletin board.
Anyway, thank you. Tell us about yourself. Where are you from, and what is your cultural background?
I'm Mark Springer, from Sacramento, California in the U.S.A.
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Language pair: English; All
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Mark S.
February 11, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re: Joke about U.S. Americans
I am also a citizen of the U.S., and this is one of my very favorite jokes.
I'm proud to be the citizen of a country where we have the freedom to love our nation and to criticize it and make it better. I look forward to a future where the arrogant attitude that seems to dominate our culture in relatinons with other cultures will have been overcome and forgotten.
I hope that thoughtful, well-meant humor can be a gentle way of pushing our nationalal community in this direction.
As a point in fact, I expect that there are really a very small percentage of U.S. Citizens who are aware of the hemispherical significance of our calling ourselves, "Americans", that we take over the entire half of the world by doing that. It would seem to be obvious, but honestly, it never crossed my mind until someone told me.
Before that time, it only aggrivated me. I mean, there was a United States of Brazil, a United States of Mexico--I felt like every country in the world had a real name of its own except us! I'd really like to see us change that.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, U.S.A.
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 11, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Only a Joke - Vocabulary English -Spanish
By the way: A "conundrum" (See how I spelled it?)
is any problem that needs a solution. So a good riddle is a conundrum, but so is the question of how I might get off of work early to meet my girlfriend without getting caught and making my boss mad at me.
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 11, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: February 11, 2005
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Re:Re:Only a Joke - Vocabulary English -Spanish
Excuse my typing errors--they keep telling me not to use the computers with my gloves on, but I never listen:
In my last message I meant to say that the English word for "adivinar" is "Guess". Maybe that didn't confuse anyone, but I thought I'd set the record straight.
Enjoy!
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 11, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: February 11, 2005
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Re:Only a Joke - Vocabulary English -Spanish
Hi Mary,
There are a couple of things you might be talking about. A "riddle" is a puzzle who's answer is a joke. Perhaps the most famous riddle in English is
Q: Why did the chicken cross the road?
A: To get to the other side.
This may seem very confusing from outside our culture, but the point of it is that the question sounds like there is supposed to be some fascinating thing going on, but the answer is really obvious.
We also have riddles which are intended to be very challenging puzzles. We think of them as Sphinx riddles, perhaps. There are a number of these kinds of riddles in The Hobbit when Bilbo Baggins is in the Cave with Gollum. A typical Sphinx riddle might be:
I build mountains and tear them down,
I blind men and help them to see
What am I?
I'll leave you to think about that one for a while. Answers to Sphinx riddles tend to be someting simple and common, like "fire" "man" "Time" That sort of thing. You want to think of some commonly known thing or concept that can do all of those things I mentioned.
The question you asked, however, about the movies, I wouldn't reallly call a riddle, because it's not funny and because it's not puzzling in the way that sphinx riddles are. I would call it a puzzle, maybe, or a trivia question. It simply challenges me to come up with the answer to a question that is not one that everybody would know immediately. I could solve that one by looking it up on the Internet (Regan was in the movie, "Bedtime for Bonzo", and Bonzo was a chimpanzee, while Hepburn was in the movie, "Bringing up Baby", and Baby was a leopard.
So that was just a trivia question. (trivia is a word meaning informaiton that is not particularly important). One more word you might like to learn, adiviar in English is "guess" so when someone asks you a riddle, you should try to guess the answer.
Thanks for the question, and have fun!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA, U.S.A.
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 10, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: February 11, 2005
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Re::-)
Gozó el primero chiste, y gosó traduzcar el segundo. Pero no lo entendí.
Comprendo : Mommy, mommy, my little brother made caca
Well, go and change him (his diaper)
No, no, he fell off the balcony!
Adivino que hay un modismo en español acerca de ese "hacer caca" que quiere decir tener un accidente. Y también sera un buen chiste en inglés decir,
Mommy, mommy, my little brother had an accident
Well, go and change him (his diaper)
No, no, he fell off the balcony!
Porque en inglés, "tener un acidente" puede decir lo que dice--algo mal que no espera, y también es un modismo que quiere decir "hacer caca en los pantalones"
Favor de decirme mas sobre ese frase, "hacer caca". ¿Quiere decir más en español?
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 10, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 10, 2005
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Re::-)
Gozó el primero chiste, y gosó traduzcar el segundo. Pero no lo entendí.
Comprendo : Mommy, mommy, my little brother made caca
Well, go and change him (his diaper)
No, no, he fell off the balcony!
Adivino que hay un modismo en español acerca de ese "hacer caca" que quiere decir tener un accidente. Y también sera un buen chiste en inglés decir,
Mommy, mommy, my little brother had an accident
Well, go and change him (his diaper)
No, no, he fell off the balcony!
Porque en inglés, "tener un acidente" puede decir lo que dice--algo mal que no espera, y también es un modismo que quiere decir "hacer caca en los pantalones"
Favor de decirme mas sobre ese frase, "hacer caca". ¿Quiere decir más en español?
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Language pair: Spanish; English
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Mark S.
February 10, 2005
# Msgs: 3
Latest: February 10, 2005
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Re:investigating international spanish salutations
También dicen "Hola," tal vez mas en españa.
Y tembién he estudiado Mandarín, y sé que en China,dicen "wei?" No sé qué quiere decir--a lo mejor no quiere decir nada, solo es lo que dicen.
Gracias por la pregunta tan interesante!
I'm sure they also say "Hola" in Spanish, although maybe that's just in Spain.
But I've also studied Mandarin, and in China, they say "wei?" I don't know what this means--it may not mean anything at all. But that's what they say.
Mark Springer,
Sacramento CA, U.S.A.
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Language pair: English; Spanish
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Mark S.
February 10, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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Re:Top 20 Things to Do at a Drive-Thru (continued)
> 1. Drive through the drive-thru in
> reverse and let your passenger order.
>
Beware. Your Coke may be delivered
to you upside-down.
> 2. Ask the price of almost everything
> on the menu and then order something
> that you didn't ask the price for.
>
You might be offered a topping
of ketchup, mustard, relish, etc. on top
of your ice-cream before they hand it
to you.
> 4. Go to McDonald's and demand a big
> breakfast at 11:30 at night. Put up
> a fight.
>
Then go home and try sleeping after
drinking the big coffee. :-o
> 5. Pay for a large order in pennies.
>
A diligent cashier would then count all
of your pennies, one by one, without undue
haste.
> 6. Drive in circles around the drive
> through, [...] For added fun, change
> clothes, hairstyles, [...]
>
Your hamburger might come camouflaged
as an apple pie.
> 14. Order 10 large milkshakes. [...]
> open the bonnet and pour 9 of the
> milkshakes into the oil filler. [...]
> Then drive off. Circle the block for
> 1 minute, [...]
>
Is the car able to run a full minute
after such a treatment?
> 16. Attempt to barter for your food.
> Offer CDs, Cassettes or anything else
> you have in your car (including friends
> and family members).
>
Barter wisely. The cashier might accept
your offer.
> 18. When they hand you your food, hand
> them a bag with all the trash from your
> car in it.
>
Junk for junk, huh?
Puti
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Language pair: English; All
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Juha-Petri T.
February 8, 2005
# Msgs: 1
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