In response to the recent discussion about whether grammar is necessary, I built a webpage that removes the word order from sentences, strips interpunction and tries to remove postfixes like "s", "ed" and "ing". That leaves mostly the words without grammar, so you can have a look if you can still understand!
https://mverleg.github.io/ungrammarify/
It only works (approximately) for English. Post your favorite example!
Hello guys and girls!
I'm looking for some (Mandarin) Chinese music to enjoy and learn from! If you have similar taste in music, can you tell me your favorite song?
In English music I like rock, poprock, metal... For example AC/DC, Aerosmith, Linkin Park, P1nk, Rolling Stones, Rammstein, Bon Jovi...
In Chinese I only know 崔健 (Cui Jian) so far but I'd like to know more! I generally like male singers more, and it's great if it's mainstream.
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你们好！
抱歉我的中文不是很好。
我找一些普通话的音乐，要享受和学习。
我最喜欢摇滚和金属音乐，但是至今中文的音乐只知道崔健。
请推荐你最喜欢的歌手，多谢！
I was reading funny English pick up lines and wondered if this is common in China!
I'm looking for ones that are sweet but also funny. Not lines that are just sweet, I already know that Chinese has no shortage of those :-)
For example (I found this online):
你相信一见钟情吗? 或者我该再次从你身边走过?
Maybe even some that are specifically Chinese?
I imagine this has come up before, but I'll post it anyway!
Useful features for italki:
* Record and play back short voice messages (like WeChat/WhatsApp)
* Use voice (and maybe video) call directly from the site, in modern browsers.
* A diff tool with color coding, so that suggestions automatically have changes highlighted (this'd probably take half a day for one person to make).
* Something to cooperate live, and give feedback, similar to etherpad.
* Keep a list of words and phrases (per language/topic), that you can easily add to as you encounter them.
* Flashcard study mode for those words, possibly just embedding an existing service.
* Ability to share lists of phrases with others, so that for example your teacher/partner can add phrases for you.
* An award for getting the most downvotes (kidding).
Some are a lot of work to make but I hope italki finds some of it useful and adds it! (It'd probably cost money though...).
If you're arguing with someone on the phone (about something not too personal, like politics) and you get frustrated, is it acceptable in your culture to hang up? Will that be seen as rude if you do? Will it be seen as 'losing' the argument? What about walking away in real life?
