Here is a link to a page about the wind chill index used in the U.S. https://www.weather.gov/safety/cold-wind-chill-chart It has a wind chill calculator in the middle of the page, which will accept either Fahrenheit or Celsius-- so you can figure the wind chill for where you are if you are somewhere cold and don´t have access to wind chill figures.
Basically, wind chill is a calculation not just of the temperature but of the effect of the wind, that effect your risk of freezing outside.
Vera´s comment on the other thread that she was unfamiliar with ¨wind chill¨ made me wonder if this is only a U.S. weather policy to publicize ¨wind chill.¨ It seems to me like Russia would be one of those places that would have some really dangerous wind chill.
Here, my current wind chill temperature is -1° C, which is not at all unusual this time of year for Kansas. Tonight the temperature is supposed to drop very significantly tonight.
In episode 8, at around 28:11 of Love My Garden (available in Netflix) the woman in it is talking about how she deals with the death of her daughter and says what appears to me to be ¨you can decide you are going to make good of what you´ve got or you can mullow in it.¨ By context, I would have thought that meant mull over in a negative way. The translator for the Spanish subtitles chose ¨y decidir tomar lo bueno de lo que te toca o regodearse en ello.¨
I have been unable to figure out just what verb this woman from Ulverston, Cumbria, is saying-- every spelling I can think of that it sounds like does not bring up an appropriate verb for me in a search engine. My Spanish dictionary says regodearse means ¨gloat over,¨ ¨take pleasure in,¨ or ¨delight in¨ which does not seem to me like it would be a good translation of what I was understanding from the context.
Can anyone tell me what English verb or expression the woman is using and what it means? Or tell me if regodearse can also mean brooding over negative things?
This doubt was raised in my mind on this thread https://www.italki.com/discussion/186828, and instead of taking a tangent on that thread I thought I would start the discussion of this here.
What is international English? Is it fair to say it is more of the commonwealth variety than the American variety? Is it not really an unstandardized mix? Are there facts to support whether ¨spoken¨ English is more like American English or more like British English. Ola was kind enough to answer why he included in his topic the assertion that worldwide spoken English is more of the commonwealth variety-- putting American English in comparison to the English of all the rest of the former British colonies, there are fewer Americans. Do Canadians, Australians, Indians, and others from former British colonies really appreciate being lumped together that way. (To me it almost sounds like they are included as part of the British team in a competition about the dominant or correct English, although I imagine that was not his intent.)
I would argue that the worldwide written English is not more ¨commonwealth¨ than American, based on the spelling statistics by the dominant search engine in most countries other than China and Russia. For example, ¨colour¨ is cited 965,000,000 times in Google vs. ¨color¨ cited 4,700,000,000.
So what do you think? What facts would support or argue against whether the English spoken worldwide is more of a commonwealth variety? What is your own personal perception? Would you have agreed with him? Am I just being argumentative about this or is it worth thinking about what international English might be?
While using an NPR podcast to practice Spanish, I discovered two podcasts that I thought some of the members on this board, either advanced English learners or native English speakers, might find entertaining and educational.
¨Ask me another¨ is a podcast of puzzles, English word games, and trivia. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510299/ask-me-another
¨You´re Saying It Wrong¨ is a podcast that just started this August. It discusses words in English that are commonly mispronounced. https://www.npr.org/podcasts/642595029/you-re-saying-it-wrong. The most recent episodes talks about the word ¨sherbet¨ and the phenomena of people putting ¨r¨s in words where they do not belong.
Someone´s post reminded me tonight of a way to find award-winning books in English that are designed for English native speaking students in grades 3 through 8, but are often also interesting for adults.
Every year since 1952 there are William Allen White children´s books awards listed for grades 3-5, and for grades 6-8. Some of the books are fiction, some are biographies, and some are non-fiction. The lists, with pictures of the cover and a short description, are available here: https://www.emporia.edu/libsv/wawbookaward/masterlists/
You can explore the lists and you can often read samples of them free on Amazon. They often get very high ratings from users. For example, ¨Out of My Mind¨ by Sharon Draper. Looking on Amazon tonight, this book has an average of 5 star rating from 2622 reviewers. Apparently it was on the New York Time´s best seller list for 2 years, and I would not have known that it is written at an easy reading level appropriate for children in 3rd to 5th grade.
This award organization is based in Kansas and is highly regarded by Kansas teachers. I looked online and it does not seem to be as well known as some of the other award foundations for children´s books. Does anyone know if some of the other award agencies for children´s book lists them with their level of difficulty and descriptions about them as well?
Doesnyone know if there are similar lists of award winning children´s books in Spanish?
No, I am not talking about weapons. I am talking about mosquitos.
A few weeks ago my Venezuelan teacher was busy swatting mosquitos with an electrified tennis racquet-like device during our lesson. I had never seen anything like it. I discovered that in his area, they leave their windows open and do not have screens on their windows. Where I live even poor people have screens on their windows to keep out mosquitos. I decided to ask another teacher about the customs and she confirmed that even the wealthy do not generally put screens on their windows there and they generally leave their solid doors open although often have an outer door with open areas and bars to keep out human intruders and dogs. She said they all keep one of those swatters by them and just swat away, especially in the kitchen and when dining. In discussing it further with my first teacher on a later occasion, he thought it was a matter of aesthetics-- that screen would not be expensive but it was not the style of their houses. Personally I do not find the bars on windows and walls around houses to be more attractive than screens on windows which to me are not even visible unless you are very close, but it made me realize how powerful customs can be (even when they do not entirely make sense to someone from far away.)
I wondered how it is around the world. Is it uncommon around the world to use screen windows and sometimes screen doors to keep out insects?
Do municipalities spray against mosquitos in your area?
Are there other practices about mosquitos in your area?
I am working on some vocabulary related to courts, crimes, and law. Today I used a series in English (The Practice) with a teacher. I found it was very useful, not just because of the legal terminology, but also because I have very little opportunity to practice speaking and asking questions addressing someone as usted, and the courtroom drama was full of opportunities to practice this.
However, there were quite a bit of courtroom specific words that my teacher was unsure of the translation.
If you can think of movies or series in Spanish that have quite a bit of scenes related to courts, and especially, the formal language during a trial, I would appreciate suggestions.
