Language Learners' Library

Someone trying to learn everyday central Greek accent :stuck_out_tongue:

In central Greece people tend to destroy vowels and say the word without them, ending up with something that sounds like from a different language.

Japanese for sleeping

What does 吃素 mean exactly?
I thought it meant vegetarian, but on chinese TV I often see it used as a character trait, nothing to do with food.

I think the slang is usually used in a negative sentence. 某人不是吃素的

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I found this little kanji channel

With videos on where did “four” kanji came from, abandoned kanji (膨脹と膨張 etc.), kanji with long readings, …

Kanji composition challenge

Yesterday I was listening to “Pinball wizard” by The Who.

That made me consider that the word “pinball” is somehow translated in Italian using another English sounding word: “flipper”.
I don’t know the reason but we call “flipper” the pinball.
Looking at the lyrics though I found this verse: “He’s got crazy flipper fingers” and Google Translate makes a mess translating that line. :slight_smile:

So here is my question for all the native speakers: is “flipper” any word actually related to pinball or does it mean just “that flip”? And what are in practice “flipper fingers”? Fingers that flip? In what way?

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These things are the flippers!

image

I haven’t played pinball in forever but I think you activate them with the side buttons (using your fingers.)

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Thanks!
Due to the strange Italian translation it was impossible for me to have useful results from Google

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Pro playing on fox but there’re Japanese subtitles for the most spoken lines.

Any help with this Chinese riddle?

tj2013 [5D]: 草包一个
tj2013 [5D]: 专玩草包

草包 means someone incompetent, because 包(bags) made of 草(grass straw) are not capable.

Cosmic go

Continuation of the previous video on AI. I didn’t understand anything but it’s a talk show, I doubt they talk about too in-depth stuff.
At 17:30 they seem to be talking about anti-Katago adversarial strategies so it’s an up-to-date talk, at least.
At 27:00 they talk about our favorite topic of how many handicap stones between pros and god. That modern AI is stronger than what we thought god would be pre-AlphaGo. But still AI makes simple mistakes here and there so actual god is much more stronger.
At 28:08 they talk about devil of go as opposed to god. Player that would play best moves with an expectation that opponent makes mistakes rather than playing fair best move.
They also compare (current) AI to Greek and Japanese gods which are imperfect.

Some people just want to watch the world burn…

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I need your help!

I’m listening to this album on Apple music:

I wish to do some online searching about it. Any information would be interesting. But that app doesn’t allow me to copy the title or the author name.
I don’t know anything about Chinese language, so I can’t read it, forget about writing it!

Is anybody here that could transcribe that for me in a message so I can copy it and paste in any translation app or search engine?
I’d very appreciate that.

image


古琴
成公亮
歸去來辭
沈思的旋律
良宵引

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If it’s only the characters, looks like

古琴
成公亮

The first characters mean Guqin, which is like a Chinese Koto (or presumably, the Koto is like a Japanese Guqin). Second characters seem to be the artist, this person

Basically, the same as what is written in English on the album cover… :stuck_out_tongue:

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Thanks a lot!

I love guqin.
I actually bought one! :grin:
It’s a fantastic instrument with a lovely sound.
The basics are quite intuitive for a guitar player: it’s a sort of giant acoustic 7 string fretless bass.
I really love it!
Unfortunately I can’t manage to play it as often as I wish.

Now I can learn more about that player.
Thanks again!

Now I feel stupid! :smile:
The cover is so small in the app that I didn’t notice the name written in English! :man_facepalming:

Search by image does recognise text?
I didn’t know that! I must give it a try.
Thanks!

Avoiding youtube copyright system. Considering how different the resulting song ended up, it’s rather wide, isn’t it. Seems even close plagiarism isn’t allowed.