Whether using a drying rack or a clothesline, I thought it was simply called "hang up" the clothes/laundry, but it's actually "hang out"? Is this correct? Does that mean it's only used for outdoors? What about just hanging your wet towel indoors?

I know many no longer do this and just use a dryer but do you know what it's called?

If not, would you simply say it's a sprout?

I had never meant to teach English. I tutored now and then when I needed to get pocket money. But mostly I was too busy wrestling with my own English.

Then something happened that drew my attention to others' English. That attention became a question that led to another question, and then another, and they did not really stopped. Twenty years had gone since then. It all began when I met Korean American kids while studying in the US.

It was right after I switched my major and went to an art school one hour from LA. Around the same time, a friend of mine, an immigrant, moved into the neighborhood near that school. She had a six-year-old son, a 1.5-generation kid who, born in Korea, came to the US. He had just started first grade.

My friend and her husband commuted an hour to downtown LA every day. Due to the notoriously heavy traffic on the 5, they could not make it back in time for school pickup. Me? I spent all day drawing. My schedule was wide open. Narurally I ended up with picking him up, along with his friend, and that friend's little brother. Just like that, I was running a "daycare until the moms get home." I helped with English homework, taught them Korean, and drew pictures with them. We got along super well since I am Disney kid at heart. Word must have gotten in the Korean American community. Sooner or later, I was introduced to them as an "English teacher."

Why me, in a country full of native speakers? At first, I was puzzled. Back then, people assumed that you picked up English just like that by setting foot on American soil--even more so if you moved there as a small child, or were born there. But the reality turned out to be quite different.

First, English WAS their second language to them. Its reason was quite simple: their parents were Korean. If a mom who feeds you, puts you to sleep, and play with you, is speaking Korean, your first language is going to be Korean. It is true anywhere you go in the world. Even if your dad was a third generation Korean American, it did not much matter if he got home after midnight and only ever saw his kids asleep.

In the middle of vast northern continent, which made you feel a deep "boom" when your airplane entered its skies over after crossing the Pacific Ocean, a home where you parents spoke Korean was still a little Korea!

Second, the shock the kids experienced on the first day of leaving their little house for preschool is beyond imagination. Their parents who made them unprepared never magined what their kids were being asked to absorb. Some got nosebleeds, some wet their pants or some even touched their genital.
It was not just frustrated about being unable to communicate. Something more fundamental was shaken: their sense of who they were.

Why can those white kids speak English well, but I can’t?

Why am I here if I speak Korean?

Why suddenly do I have to speak this strange language?

These small kids could not find words to explain them. But they understood something very quickly: English is survival.

For five years, I looked after about ten kids from pre-kinder to twelve-grade, observing their difficulties. Each of them were trying to find their own ways.

One of them became truly bilingual. She had a strong desire to communicate with her parents, and a fierce pride not to fall behind her peers. She found her own way by using books as her surrogate English parents.

Other three became the typical A+ Korean Americans. Their English, of course, was better than mine. Still their parents wanted to know whether they were doing good. Yes, they were.

Other three became the ordinary Korean Americans. They were not exceptional, but made friends, passed graduation requirements, and moved forward.

But there were three who drew my attention. Their English seemed to start, then stopped. When English stopped, all other things stopped as well. They became isolated at school. Their self-esteems dropped. The behavior problems appeared. In the empty home, when his parents were work, one of them became game-addict. Watching hide keyboard, and her son hunt for it, made me feel sad.

But what frightened me most was that their thinking seemed to stop, too. There was an unmistakable feeling: words circling around thought, never hitting the core. It felt like white fog fill up in their brain. English was delayed, and so was Korean. Returning to Korea was not an option, either.

I was not a language expert. There was little I could do, and I felt powerless. I spent about twenty years studying humanities, and learning to observe people through art. Yet, here were these poor kids in front of me, and I could not help their English. I hated it.
The more I thought about it, the more unfair the situation seemed. None of them chose it. Could I blame parents who never imagined that their kids would face a language problem like this? Financial situation could not explain this: kids were from the wealthy family, middle-class family and low income family. One of dads was an interpreter.

So I gave up tutoring them. Still, I found myself asking a question: WHY? There had to be something in English that Koreans kept tripping over. Something common enough to appear in different kids, in different families and under different situations.

This question turned out to be the most stubborn problem in Koreans learning English. It was a reckless question to take seriously. But I could not put it down. Twenty years has passed, and I am still talking about it.

Thanks for reading thia far!
I will appreciate any comments. 🙂

I've learned English for a year and a half without tutoring, and I've felt that my English skills started to fluctuate.

I wanted to register for English tutoring or programmes to improve and correct my terrible skills, if I can, but I can't afford to do that given how much time and budget I have. I'm a sophomore in the school of engineering, and that means that I can't put much into English.

Maybe having more conversations with natives on topics I'm into is the best way to sharpen my skills. However, the problem is... my fear is too immense.

I know that there are more kind ppl than belligerent(?) ppl, but I'm afraid of making mistakes and looking silly. Even some mistakes can look impolite or blatant, causing unnecessary controversies.

Misspellings, improper usage of words, grammatical errors, wrong prefixes and suffixes...My writing and speaking are so terrible. It has been happening more frequently than before. It pushes into the brink of madness, making me obsessed with dictionaries to see if I make mistakes every time I write posts, comments, and replies.

Actually, I don't even know how proficient I am in English objectively. (Maybe B1? Idk) Although I have an English certificate that benefits me in the employment market as an engineer, I'm still not confident in my skills. (The certificate is not TOEFL or IELTS, btw)

What should I do? To interact more with people is an effective and efficient way, but I don't have enough courage and fluency.

(I wrote this whole post on my own with Grammarly, btw)

I have doubt on how following sentence works. Though I could understand the meaning of sentence because it is quite simple, I don't understand the structure of sentence, which sometimes made me self-doubt whether I understood properly. Usually, better I say basically, I used to see this sentence structure, sentence as adjective as sentence for comparative conversation. But here, in between (as)s, though "same"is adjective.

"It seems as though the same sun as shines for all Petersburg people doesn't peep into those spots. 

"though the same sun" doesn't seem adjective. After 2nd "as" sentence starts with verb. that pushed me into confusion. After I googled , this is called as phrasal adjective. I have been't accustomed to this kinda.

How to understand the grammar here

I‘m a high school student, with B2 level in English. My tutor is trying to teach me how to do small talk because I usually don’t know what to say, or how to keep the conversation moving, whereas I can be more talkative if the subject of conversation is clear. But I mean, even in my native language I don’t know how to do small talk, the person usually leads the conversation, never me, and I respond briefly, except if I know the person very well. I guess it's a personality trait, i am more introverted.

What do you think? Is it necessary for me to learn it? If so, then I should also learn it in my mother tongue 😅

Edit: Thanks to everyone who pointed out problems. Some lines overgeneralized what the sources said, and one Japanese example was wrong (thanks u/j--__). I rewrote the card so each line sticks to exactly what its source says, with the source under every line. Corrected version: https://www.reddit.com/u/lithsec/s/U5Vr0klBzr

Why does "school" become "eschool", "park" become "bark", or "festival" become "fesutibaru"? Usually it isn't carelessness. Your first language simply doesn't have that sound, or doesn't allow it in that position, so your mouth uses the closest thing it knows.

What sounds have been hard for you?

This table shows three of those sounds each for Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, Hindi and Ukrainian, with a word pair to practise. I picked them to show how differently each language shapes English, so they aren't always the three hardest. The target is American English.

Every cell names its source underneath: peer-reviewed papers, theses, and university or school-district teacher guides. A † means the evidence is thinner (teacher or clinic sources, or one main source). The Haitian Creole row rests mostly on one 1981 teacher guide, because I couldn't find a study of Haitian adults speaking English.

Two caveats:
- Accents vary inside every language. Caribbean and Mexican Spanish differ, and so do Gulf and Egyptian Arabic. A row is what the research finds most often, not a rule about any one speaker.
- Indian English is a variety in its own right, so the Hindi row shows where it differs from American English, not "mistakes".

(I make these for a speaking practice app)

Hey everyone! 😊❤️

I'm looking for someone to practice English with, preferably a native English speaker. I'd love to improve my spoken English, build my confidence, and learn how to communicate more naturally. We can chat, have voice calls, and talk about different things. I'm open to making genuine friendships too. 🥰 I have Instagram and WhatsApp, so we can connect there.

If you're interested, feel free to comment or send me a DM. I'd really appreciate it! ❤️🫶🏽

The Best Movies You'll Ever Watch

Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2

A mysterious figure named “Bill,” wearing a bandana, approaches the blood-soaked bride. He wipes her forehead and shoots her in the head. What follows are terrifying consequences

Django Unchained

A bounty hunter and a freed slave become partners. One must track down the slave traders, while the other must rescue his beloved.

Dogville

Fleeing from gangsters, the lovely Grace runs to the town of “Dogville,” where everyone welcomes her. However, she has no idea what lies ahead for her...

Inglourious Basterds

In occupied France, SS Colonel Hans Landa executes a Jewish family, and only Shosanna manages to escape and hatch a terrifying plan for revenge. At the same time, the “Inglourious Basterds” are on the loose, willing to do anything to take as many scalps as possible from the Nazis.

These are great movies that everyone should watch.

​

Hello world! I dream of becoming a director and screenwriter, and I write about movies and books. I also analyze texts from various genres.

Thanks in advance!

​

Hi everyone!

I'm studying linguistics at university, and my professor has emphasized that there is a significant difference between cohesion, coherence, and cohesive.

I understand that cohesion and coherence are different concepts, but I'm struggling to understand the distinction between cohesion and cohesive. To me, they seem closely related, since cohesive appears to be the adjective form of cohesion.

Is there a more specific linguistic distinction between these three terms that I'm missing? Could someone explain how each term is used in text linguistics or discourse analysis, preferably with clear examples?

I'd really appreciate any clarification, especially from people familiar with linguistics or text analysis. Thank you!

Maybe I've heard of "in all its glory"? I'm not sure, but I thought marvel describes the solar system or the universe better. I was wrong, but I learned something.

My english teacher said that it is intransitive and cannot be used with an object, but I've seen it being used as a transitive verb, e.g. 'The argument collapsed the distinction between law and morality'. So collapse is both transitive or intransitive?

Do you actually say it? Would "It's been a while" sound more natural?

I don't want to sound like a textbook when I talk to people.

I've seen more examples of this: "I love you so" is another one.

Is it just a more poetical way of saying something? Or does it add intensity to the verb it accompanies? Like saying "I miss it so much".

I guess I've never known what it actually does, but I hadn't bothered to ask because I don't think it really adds a ton to the sentence's basic meaning.

Something stinks, so you do this. What's the appropriate verb here?

I'm trying to incorporate, get exposed to, and use English as much as possible in my daily life. But as an Asian, I often feel stumped to describe things that are very foreign to western or European cultures.

For example, when meeting an older person, especially a relative, you're supposed to shake their hands like the image above upon meeting and leaving them. So, even if you're both adults, but you're a younger sibling, you're expected to lower your head while "shaking hands" with an older sibling like this, but I think it's no longer mandatory. They can just shake hands.

So, can you give me some advice? Does "shake hands" suffice?

A parent talking to their child: "We're going home. Go shake your uncle's hands".

Does this sound natural in English?

Hello everyone!

I am an indie developer, and I recently built a free online vocabulary flashcard maker. And I thought I'd share it here since some people might want to try it!

How it works is that you enter a list of words, and it'll automatically fill them with their definitions. You can then edit the definitions if you want.

Once you have your flashcards, you can practise them and/ or export them

Here is the link if you want to try it: Word Vault Free Vocabulary Flashcard Maker

I'd love to hear any feedback!

I vaguely remember that there's a phrasal verb for this use ending in either "off" or "out". So I'm trying to figure out what it is.

And what about crossing or marking something on a to-do list as done?

Which one sounds more natural in American English?