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Why civilization? For about 4 hundreds of thousands of years: We lived in nice places with good, appropriate climate. Plains, forests, islands, and mountains were our homes, not concrete beehives and cement pavements. We worked for 12 hours a week. That’s instead of 40 we have now and 70+ we had a century ago. And the job we used to do was that every man likes doing - meaningful, engaging, cooperative, and requiring to exercise all the natural talents. We fished, we gathered, we hunted. Today we spend our holidays and weekends that way, we try to replace hunting with football or pay for it, but we used to do it for living. And we had more time on arts and communication with our children, wives or husbands, our tribesmen. Today we bow down before our desks and keep our backs bent for most of our lives and shuffle symbols on paper in stuffy solitude. There were no wars, no burglary, no fraud, because there was no property to hold, hence nothing to kill for or die for. There were no governments because there was nothing to lay taxes upon. There were no borders, no visas, no red tape, and other chains that we need so much today. There were no and couldn’t be epidemics that could obliterate half of the mankind, because the groups of people were sparse and separate in distance. We had all that and then. Snap! About 8000 years ago we decided to change everything by settling down and taking up agriculture. Instantly we lost our 12 hour workweek, we started to live years shorter, we got many more diseases, we had to begin organizing cruel governments to rule us, we had to learn and do warfare, we had to learn how to deceive for power and murder for metal. We started to get our first worldwide plagues and pests. We started to enslave people to work in the field, because working in the field is so damn difficult so let another person do it, but me. For the purpose of slavery we ingeniously created racism and nationalism and many other isms, because it makes it so easy to maintain power and sway people. Bureaucracy began to grow to feed growing bureaucracy. And this wheel of surprising and fantastic consequences has never stopped spinning. So why did we do that bold first move? Was it worth it (and eventually and in the process)?
9. Juni 2014
8
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on something = about something? S. King has a book called "On writing". Do I correctly understand it as just "About writing"? And if so what title to an article would be preferable "On Americans" or "About Americans"? "On learning English" or "About learning English"? Or are they interchangeable? Thanks.
9. Juni 2014
3
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Could you recommend a good non-fiction book?

Something that changed or broadened your understanding of the world greatly, or is just a fun and interesting read.

Many thanks in advance.

31. Mai 2014
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Could you help me with the oblique mood? In one quite old textbook I read: " Exercise I. Rewrite these sentences, using Pattern 1 and the examples below: Example: a) If it is cold, we'll put on our warm coats. If it were cold, we should put on our warm coats. b) If my friends come to see me, I'll be very glad. If my friends came to see me, I should be very glad. ... " So, does the exercise ask me to rewrite "conditional 1" (If I go to London, I'll be happy) as "conditional 2" (If I went to London, I should be happy), supposing that the meaning isn't changed? Or the meaning changes? Are "I should be happy" and "I would be happy" interchangeable and have the same meaning? Or perhaps "I should be happy" isn't "conditional 2" (hypothetical), but more "conditional 1" (factual)?
15. September 2013
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Is it possible to learn English only by ear and mouth?

English has firmly glued me to computers, desks and books. My eyes keep getting worse and the sedentary lifestyle makes its presence felt. I'm wondering if it's possible to learn and master the language without leading such an unhealthy lifestyle.
I'm a huge fan of listening activities (e.g. listening to audiobooks while strolling) and I like talking (although I rarely do it). Would these be enough to improve the language? How about vocabulary, usages of prepositions? Can one gets them mainly through extensive listening?
I'll be grateful for your opinion.

12. Juli 2013
4
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Is it outside outside? I'm slightly fed up with sitting at my desk all days long, glazing at the monitor, slowly turning into mr. Chairpotato. I'd eagerly go out, strall in the park while listening to a good audiobook in English or chatting with my language partners via skype on my smartphone. I feel that there, in the place called outside, life is awaiting me, and everybody is dancing with birds in a beautiful whirlwind and songs are singing themselves. But there, outside, there is no work, no productivity, and without WordReference forum that Outside lacks so much it would be so difficult to check up every crazy preposition usage that emerges in my head. Oh, I'd rather write about it - it's good, it's practice, I need practice. And for the rest spare minute I'll enjoy outside from the goodle images.
11. Juli 2013
4
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[Suggestion to ITalki] Random Video Chat with Other Learners

Hi. There is only one thing that Italki has to have in order to be better than the best (here and further I’m mentally putting IMHO after each and every word). I would really like Italki to implement the following service on the site:

Instant video chat with random conversationalists who are learning the same language as you and have approximately the same level of the language as you. It would solve several existing problems:

1) Instant chat is a terrific thing that may fill in several spare minutes you have with tremendous use. In addition, instant video chat is a great tool to battle one’s (my) shyness.

2) The registration of the users and specialization of the site would eliminate the abundance of perverts who like using such services so much.

3) An emphasis on conversations between people who study one language, rather than on language exchange partners would remove the inequality of supply and demand between English and non-English natives. In one of my posts here I’ve already written that the ratio of native English speakers who are looking for native Russians to Russians learning English is 61 to 30378 (!) (this is the statistics from a similar to Italki respectable site; I suppose Italki has approximately the same ratio). There already is such a site that’s implemented the described idea, but it only allows to create an instant chat room for language exchange partners, so non-English-natives has to wait for an hour+ to be connected to a native speaker. I don’t understand why it is so mandatory to practice spoken word only with native speakers. I do it with the wall and it says I’m making progress (unfortunately it is not).

I could send the suggestion directly to Italki, but I’d really like to discuss it with you. Do you think if the idea is worth a penny? If so, please, cast your vote for this topic or state your opinion in comments. If this message has got your support perhaps the God of Italki will condescend to us and pay some attention to the message.

If you strongly disagree and think that the randomness will open Pandora’s box and overall I’m writing rubbish, please write furiously why you think so (and don’t forget to thumb down).

P.S. If you know a good site where such functionality is already implemented and works perfectly, please, send me a message with the link, I’ll pay you back with thanks (I have a lot of them unused). ;)

22. Juni 2013
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Dieser Inhalt verstößt gegen unsere Community-Richtlinien.19. Juni 2013
23
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Do you use Skype on your mobile phone? For a change I'd like to have Skype talks while I'm not sitting at my desk, but walking in the park or along streets in Moscow. It seems to me healthier and more relaxing. I've heard that Skype on mobile phones works pretty well. So I decided to purchase a not very expencive smartphone with 3g/4g and give it a try. But firstly I'd really like to hear if somebody's here on ITalki uses their mobile phone while chatting with language partners. And if so, could you, please, answer several simple questions: - Is 3g connection enough for audio calls? how about video? - Does Skype eat too much traffic? - All handsfree headsets I heard had terrible microphone sound quality. How have you solved this problem? - Do noise and winds outside make it difficult to talk? I would be really appreciate for your answers and opinions. Best,
6. Juni 2013
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When did you speak in Engish not for educational purposes last time?

I recently realised that I've never had to use or used oral English in my life, except when I was studying it. Even since I reached some degree of fluency in it I can't find or, perhaps, haven't tried to find where to use it here in Moscow. What a strange thing, isn't it 0)0

What about you? Where and when do you use your oral English (not in order to practice it)?

18. Mai 2013
2
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