Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: The proper sentences in the proper situations

Hi, friends.
I've just started learning English so forgive my errors. Any
correction will be much appreciated.
I know that different situations require different ways to express
oneself thoughts. For example, there's a difference in the way you
greet an old friend or your new employer. Likewise, common situations
require common sentences. I was wondering if there's some kind of
resource (on the Internet or a book) which strictly treats these
subjects in deep. Any good ideas? :-)
Ciao ciao.
Franco
-- 
Please correct my English errors  :-)

 subjects in deep. 
"in depth". And I'm not sure about "strictly" - what do you mean?
Anyway, one sentence you should be able to deliver with aplomb is:
"Quicksand or no, Carstairs, I've half a mind to struggle."
-- 
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - 
http://www.Mailgate.ORG

 I've just started learning English 
Really? Well, not bad in the least.

 subjects in deep. Any good ideas? :-)
I'm not sure of the word "strictly" unless you mean "specifically", as
though it focuses on this element. Your word is okay here; it just made me
"pause briefly". Also, the phrase is "in depth". Otherwise, Buon Lavoro!
 
-- 
The foregoing is my opinion, and my opinion alone. It is intended to
demonstrate modern American English -- colloquial and spoken, (but well
spoken) for the most part; not literary American English. Ergo, caveat
lector. (No, not you, Hannibal)
Oh, if you feel the need to e-mail me, un-not my address first.

 styles will give you some idea.
You can be formal, if you want.
Bye, FB
-- 
"Nasalization is just a part of life"
(Joey DoWop Dee on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese)

 Bye, FB
My tux is at the cleaner's at the moment. (And I can't fit into Ketzl's.)


"Quicksand or no, Carstairs, I've half a mind to struggle."
Sorry but I can't understand...  :o)
Is this some kind of film quote?
Should I tell that to my university teacher when I meet him tomorrow?
:-)
And Joey DoWop Dee, thanks for your help.
I hope mister Joe will take part of this discussion.
Joe, Joeeee!! Can you hear my painful scream?  :-)))



I am the "other" Joe, Joe from Massachusetts, originally from New York
City.
Don't be alarmed if that other Joe, "Joey D" acts a little strangely.
He had a serious accident on April 31st, and has been slow to recover.
If it hadn't been for his cat, he would never have made it.    :>)
I spent about six years in Italy, when I was in the Army: almost three
years in Vicenza, and a little more than three years in Naples.
When I was in Vicenza I knew quite a few students from the Istituto
Tecnico Industriale Alessandro Rossi, with whom I had something in
common, because I was working in an electronics repair shop at the
Caserma Ederle in Vicenza. I was learning Italian, and they were
learning English. That was before the paratroopers came to Vicenza.
You may recall that the Caserma Ederle is the base from which the
American paratroopers  deployed to parachute into Iraq last year. They
have since returned to Vicenza, but unfortunately they lost nine of
their number in Iraq. Vicenza is also the home of the Caserma
Chinotto, where the Carabinieri receive special training before they
go on assignment to other countries, including Iraq. Many of the men
who perished at Nassiriyah had received training at the Caserma
Chinotto.
I have been working in the field of Electronics since I left the Army.
Good luck with your Electronics Engineering and your English.
Joe from Massachusetts

>"Quicksand or no, Carstairs, I've half a mind to struggle."
He often quotes from books. I often don't understand. (witty face) I
understand there existed a certain Norbert Davis who wrote a dog-detective
trilogy featuring Carstairs and Doan. He also committed suicide, but that's
another story.
Bye, FB
-- 
"Gli americani sono ignoranti per loro stessa natura"
that is "The Americans are naturally ignorant"
(Paolo Bonardi on it.cultura.linguistica)

He often quotes from books. I often don't understand. (witty face)
It's the caption from a cartoon of two explorers up to their waists in
quicksand.
-- 
A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

 quicksand.
What about Norbert Davis, then? (smiling face)
Bye, FB
-- 
Mrs. Palmer, in her way, was equally angry. 'She was determined to drop his
acquaintance immediately, and she was very thankful that she had never been
acquainted with him at all'. (Jane Austen)

Good luck with your Electronics Engineering and your English.
Thank you very much!
Today I've had a phone call with my teacher. He said that we are going
to Austria on July 15th for a preliminary discussion with a man of the
Infineon staff (hopefully my future employers). Now I'm in terrible,
terrible troubles... :-)
How should I introduce myself to the Austrian guy?
Should I say something like: "Hi, mate, I'm your man!" ?  :-)))
Ciao ciao,


say.
I heard so too. I tried it just for fun and I think it does a good job
(on-the-fly translation of unknown words, very useful). Unfortunately
it isn't a free program. On the contrary, WordWebFree is free for
personal use. It has been developed by Princeton University. It is
much more like a dictionary/synonims searcher, very useful too.
You can find it here 
http://wordweb.info/WW2
Ciao ciao


 wrote in message
news:hthre05skbeao0p06...@4ax.com...

Maybe if you're going to Australia, but not Austria.
You can't go wrong if you wear lederhosen, and a hat with an edelweiss
on it, and say  "entschuldigen sie bitte", and "danke schoen" a lot.
:>)
Wait a minute, forget the edelweiss. I think it's an endangered
species.
(My German is not that good, and with the new orthography, I don't
even know if the accents I learned are still in use).
Joe from Massachusetts

follow the main subject.
Books on technical subjects are probably easier than novels. I can
read "Le Scienze" and books by, say, Richard Dawkins in Italian pretty
much as easily as if they were in English, but I'd expect to find
quite a few unfamiliar words in a novel. For instance, when I read
"Io non ho paura" by Ammaniti I found quite a lot of words I didn't
know: many of them didn't really matter as they were clearly names of
plants, rock formations and similar.
Try something short, like "Smith of Wootton Major" by Tolkien or "The
Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde.
-- 
Adam Atkinson (
gh...@mistral.co.uk
)
A hollow voice says "PLUGH"

 even know if the accents I learned are still in use).
The accents?
Bye, FB
-- 
Io ho deciso di rifiutarmi di vederlo: Ettore con la faccia di Eric Banana
mi fa venire i conati.
(commento sul film "Troy" su it.fan.scrittori.tolkien)

 -- 
:>(
I should have said diacriticals, or accent marks.
Joe from Massachusetts



What diacriticals are there in German, apart from the umlaut? Weißt du,
auch mein Deutsch besteht aus wenigen Wörtern. (<== and I hope I didn't get
even them wrong...)



You got me again.
I should have said that I am unclear as to what ettect the new
orthography has on spelling, and how extensive the changes are,
particularly in reference to the changes in spelling for words
containing the umlaut. I am still not sure if use of the ß has been
affected. I understand that the "Frankfurter Allgemeine" is ignoring
the new orthography altogether, but I do not check the German
newspapers very often. I think the last time I checked one was when
Mr. B. made his famous speech in Strasbourg, in which he used the
now-infamous "k"-word, "kapò", which was erroneously interpreted by
many, including the New York Times, to mean "commandant", here in the
US. I think I discovered that this word did not exist in the current
German vocabulary.
Vielen danke,
Joe from Massachusetts

 Vielen danke,
Bitte sehr!
Tschüs, FB
-- 
Se dico "siedi!" manca l'oggetto.
Siedo chi? Lei o me?
(da it.cultura.linguistica.italiano)

 But then, I don't know the new system anymore than I knew the old
... one?
Bye, FB
-- 
L'importante è che risplenda tu, sola primadonna e immarcescibile leggenda
del tuo pianerottolo.
(Lucangel su it.cultura.libri)

 -- 
I've seen tschüs, tschüss and tschüß, so I guess even the Germans are
confused.
Joe from Massachusetts

 confused.
I used to write "tschüss", but a native speaker told me that "tschüs" was
the correct spelling.


 Bye, FB
You could add "one" but it's not necessary; the sentence is understandable 
and common as you first wrote it.


 and common as you first wrote it.
I wouldn't have thought. Thanks.


 I've tried some audiobooks too. Have you?
I have the audiobook of "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (read by
Stephen Fry) and some tales by Oscar Wilde read, wonderfully, by Sir John
Gielgud.


:>)
They told me that English language will be sufficient.
They haven't asked me to wear traditional Austrian clothes and to sing
"Ein prosit, ein prosit, der gemoglichkeit..."  :-)
Now I'm serious, is a sentence like "Hi, mister Krapfen"  too much
informal? Is there a more formal way to say hello to an important
person? Any similar phrases? What should I say when we meet for the
first time? These are my kind of troubles. I started this thread
hoping to find a definitive solution to them.
Ciao ciao
Franco

Selfish Giant" by Oscar Wilde.
I'll certainly do it.
Maybe I should try some free English e-books first...
I think that kind of books are hard to find in a bookshop here in
Italy.
Ciao ciao
Franco

would do.
Seems easy...  :-)
Ciao ciao
Franco


I think using "Hi" and "Mister" in the same greeting is not a
good combination.  "Hi" sounds informal and "Mister" sounds
formal.  "Hello Mister Krapfen" would sound better to my ear.
-- 
Dale Erwin
Salamanca 116
Pueblo Libre
Lima 21 PERU
Tel. +51(1)461-3084
Cel. +51(1)9743-6439
DALE ERWIN'S OPERA FILES - 
http://www.geocities.com/dale_erwin



It would be good to know if he has a title or not; in some cultures
(including Italian, I believe), the title often precedes the name, though
generally not in English.
As Dale pointed out, "Hi, Mr. Krapfen" seems out of place. Stay with
"hello" and his name, and add something like, "It's a pleasure to meet you"
or "It's nice to meet you", which is slightly less formal.
If you have learned something of his history with the company, or in
general, you can also say "I've been looking forward to meeting you. I was
impressed with your XXXXXX project" or some such thing.
That's about all I can think of, but it will get you started.
-- 
If you feel the need to e-mail me, un-not my address first.

 Italy.
No, they aren't.


No, they aren't.
Yes, they are, if you don't live in a big city.
Sebastiano

Italy.
Order them from an online bookshop, you fool.^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H, Mr
Tiratore.
-- 
Adam Atkinson (
gh...@mistral.co.uk
)
"I got the first three wrong" he said, forthrightly.

Dale and Joey, thanks for your help.
Ciao ciao
Franco

Tiratore.
Are you making fun of me?
What does '^H^H^H^H^H^H' mean?  :-/
In the doubt, the same to you.  :-)
Ocjo a no dimi monadis, co sai iesi trist.
Ciao ciao
Franco



I don't live in a big city. You can order them: Tolkien books should be
widely available *. 
* I googled up "highly available" and only found a lot of computer stuff.
Can it not simply mean "largamente disponibile"?


Can it not simply mean "largamente disponibile"?
Don't know. I would use "widely available". È come "highly likely",
uno chiama l'altro.
Sebastiano

 What does '^H^H^H^H^H^H' mean?  :-/
"^H" is what appears in some environments when you press the
delete key. The above is supposed to suggest that I wrote
"you fool", deleted it, and typed "Mr Tiratore" instead.
Seriously, worrying about what is or isn't to be found
on the shelves of bookshops strikes me as pointless.
Get the shops to order the things for you, or order them
on-line. I buy almost all of my books from 
amazon.co.uk
,
bookshop.co.uk
, 
internetbookshop.it
 or 
amazon.co.jp
-- 
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - 
http://www.Mailgate.ORG

 hoping to find a definitive solution to them.
The world is indeed a small place.
I have a nephew who has been working for the Toshiba Corporation, at
the huge IBM complex in East Fishkill, New York, for the past three
years. Toshiba is involved in several wafer fabrication ventures with
IBM, and I notice that the company you mentioned is also involved in a
joint venture with IBM at the East Fishkill facility. Sony, Motorola,
and Samsung are also involved in cooperative ventures at the Fishkill
location.
IBM dominates the lower Hudson Valley, with facilities in just about
every town from its headquarters in Armonk, to its research center at
Yorktown Heights, and  facilities in Fishkill, Peekskill and
Poughkeepsie, NY. This area is the "Silicon Valley" of the East, when
it comes to research and development and state-of-the-art
manufacturing in the area of semiconductor technology. The recent
additions to the Fishkill fabrication facility have made it the most
advanced in the world, in the opinion of many in the semiconductor
industry.
IBM so dominates this area of New York State that it even had its own
golf course when I worked at Fishkill ten years ago, but now the golf
course is open to the public, and what was once the "IBM Country Club"
is now the Casperkill Country Club, in Poughkeepsie, New York. I guess
that the elitist image projected by having its own golf course was not
the image IBM wanted to project.
I'm sure that being conversant in the state-of-the-art technology and
global enterprises in which your potential employer is involved would
make a good impression on the people you encounter at your interview.
Who knows, they might even ask you if you would be willing to relocate
to the Hudson Valley of New York!
http://nanotechwire.com/news.asp?nid=748
http://www.watson.ibm.com/
http://news.com.com/A+fab+construction+job/2100-1001_3-981060.html
Joe from Massachusetts


Furlano? Veneto? Castelano?
Joe from Massachusetts

Furlano? Veneto? Castelano?
Credo friulano.
Sebastiano

Joe from Massachusetts
Ciao ciao.
Franco


bookshop.co.uk
, 
internetbookshop.it
 or 
amazon.co.jp
Ok, thanks for your help.
I'm an old-style man, I've never bought anything online.
I prefer touching and viewing with my eyes the things I'm going to
buy. There are guarantee issues too.
Ciao ciao
Franco

Furlano? Veneto? Castelano?
It's friulano (furlàn).
You can find more informations here:
news:it-alt.cultura.lingua.furlan
Mandi
Franco

 buy. There are guarantee issues too.
Not really. Serious places like Amazon allow you to send stuff
back if it arrives damaged, incomplete or whatever. Or, actually,
for no particular reason at all if you send it back fast enough.
Also, if you ask a bookshop to order something specially for
you, you may find that they don't take kindly to your
saying "Oh, now that I've seen it I don't want it."
Alternatively, get on a bloody plane and buy the stuff in London.
Thanks to the miracle that is Ryanair, this is a perfectly
realistic thing to do.


 impression on the meeting of July 15th.
I know very little about SOI devices, except that devices fabricated
on SOI substrates may be less susceptible to catastrophic failure in
the harsh environment of space, at least in the short term.
When I was a student at the University of Maryland, I worked in the
Electronics Laboratory of the Physics Department, building all sorts
of devices for professors involved in research in various areas. Two
of the experiments involved gravity wave detection (which turned out
to be a total failure, but was nonetheless funded at five-hundred
thousand dollars per year for many years), and relativity, using
cesium clocks in an experiment which seems to have proven Einstein's
theory that a clock which orbited the globe would display an earlier
time when it returned to the earth than a clock which had never left
the earth.
The brilliant Doctor in charge of the laboratory had an interesting
theory. He had the opinion that when a transistor failed, and no cause
could be determined for its failure (thermal stress, contamination
during fabrication, overvoltage, etc), then the probable cause for the
failure was cosmic rays. He was talking about devices used on earth,
without ever having been subject to the space environment.
I don't know what the opinion of the scientific community is on this,
but it seemed logical to me at the time.
(Why are so many Italians so willing to become "cervelli in fuga"?
Talk about "monadis"!)
Joe from Massachusetts

 Alternatively, get on a bloody plane and buy the stuff in London.
Boy, we're a bit tart today, aren't we?
(Can one use 'tart' meaning 'acido' in this context?)
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

(Can one use 'tart' meaning 'acido' in this context?)
I _think_ so, though of course you need to be aware that "a tart" is
something else :-)
-- 
Adam Atkinson (
gh...@mistral.co.uk
)
A hollow voice says "PLUGH"


"A bit tart" and "A bit of a tart" conjure up two very different
images, when referring to people  :>)
Joe from Massachusetts

Talk about "monadis"!
?
Ciao
Franco

 
In fact it's a couple of something elses.  It's a type of
pastry, and it's a "loose" woman.


 something else :-)
Right :-)
Anyway, do you think 'acid' or 'sour' would be more appropriate, or just
more common?
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

 more common?
"Rude" is what springs to mind.
-- 
Mary

 "Rude" is what springs to mind.
I tend to lose my patience with people who ask for advice and then
say the answers aren't good enough. 
"How do I get to Scotland by road?"
(answer)
"Oh, but I only want to be told routes which don't involve turning
left."


 more common?
In the states, "sour" would be more common (though not terribly so);
probably something like "a bit testy" or "snippy".


 probably something like "a bit testy" or "snippy".
Thank you very sweetly, Joey :-)
-- 
Ciao,
Anna



Prego dolcemente, Anna.


 more common?
In fact, 'tart' isn't really appropriate, only acceptable since one can
gleen the intended meaning from the context. As long as you use the English
language well in other ways, you can win yourself lots of poetic license
(including personifying 'September' and bequeathing to it the quality of
possession). I don't think I've ever heard or read someone described as
'tart' in the sense of 'one who makes acidic comments'. In fact, 'tart' has
rather positive connotations except in the sexual realm. One might even
surmise that you were describing someone or their comments as rather 'dry'
if the context allowed. As you may have guessed by now, it is fairly common
to hear someone or their comments described as 'acidic'. Calling someone
'sour' has a different connotation. It implies some history of bad
exeriences that has turned the person cynical or antisocial. The words
'tart', 'sour', and 'acid' all have different, if also related meanings in
describing taste and are not exact synonyms.

 describing taste and are not exact synonyms.
I often wonder if exact synonyms really do exist...
-- 
Ciao,
Anna

Sob,  the meeting has been posponed, due to some problems of a
professor of mine. The date has yet to be decided...
Ciao
Franco

 journalist talking about economics and politics.
I think his name is Richard Quest. He cannot be very well, in my opinion.
Bye, FB
-- 
"Nasalization is just a part of life"
(Joey DoWop Dee on it.cultura.linguistica.inglese)

I think his name is Richard Quest. He cannot be very well, in my opinion.
Is he the conductor of the CNN program "Business Traveller"?
If yes, I realise who is the person you are talking about...  :-)
Ciao ciao
Franco

 If yes, I realise who is the person you are talking about...  :-)
Ci siamo capiti. Un po' eccitato.
Ciao, FB
-- 
Io ho deciso di rifiutarmi di vederlo: Ettore con la faccia di Eric Banana
mi fa venire i conati.
(commento sul film "Troy" su it.fan.scrittori.tolkien)

Ci siamo capiti. Un po' eccitato.
I love that man.
He always makes me laugh and feel better.
He speaks in a way that sounds something like "Amisci, ararara!".
I hope to meet him some day.
Ciao
Franco

 ?
I was referring to your post where you said  "Ocjo a no dimi monadis,
co sai iesi trist."
In this case, I was saying, more or less, that I consider it a
"monade", which makes me "trist",
that an Italian would have to leave the beautiful Dolomites to find
work.   :>)
I notice that in the "italia.citta.discussioni" newsgroups in the
Northeast, there is extensive use of the dialect, especially the
Veneto and Furlàn newsgroups, even though these newsgroups are
supposed to be conducted in Italian.
Joe from Massachusetts

 and qualifications, as Mr. Berlusconi's children seem to have done?
Raccomandazione, or clientelismo.
-- 
Mary

supposed to be conducted in Italian.
Are you talking about news:it-alt.cultura.lingua.furlan which I have
already mentioned before? One is supposed to write in Furlàn in that
newsgroup. It hasn't been a long time since our dialect was
acknowledged as an official language in Italy. There are rigorous
rules to follow to speak and write in correct Furlàn. I even have a
Furlàn dictionary at home. That newsgroup was created for the purpose
of practicing and propagating of the Furlàn language. Unfortunately, I
notice that recently it hasn't been much attended.
Ciao
Franco