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For the many brothers who want to learn English, here is a link. P.S. American brothers can learn English too. http://getintopc.com/softwares/education/easy-learning-english-v6-free-download/

https://tv.jw.org/#de/video/VODStudio/pub-jwban_201411_1_VIDEO The talk from November 2014 was translated into German.

The following sentence is grammatically correct in English (although admittedly not very useful): "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo." The word "buffalo" has three possible meanings: - A city in New York State. - An American bison (plural also "buffalo", although "buffalos" or "bufaloes" are more common). - The verb "to buffalo" meaning "to bully". Since it's accepted usage to omit the subordinating particle "that", the sentence above can be understood as: Buffalo buffalo (bisons from Buffalo NY) [that] Buffalo buffalo buffalo (that the bisons from Buffalo NY bully) buffalo Buffalo buffalo (are bullying bisons from Buffalo NY).

Today I was listening to a song from my teenage years by British singer Colin Vearcombe aka "Black": I make no promises, I make no guarantees, it makes no difference when you're all at sea. I had always taken that "all at sea" literally, meaning that he was sailing somewhere far from the coast. But listening more carefully today I realized it must be some idiom since its literal meaning didn't make any sense. This expression is not included in most dictionaries I have checked, but Mr. Webster says "at sea" means "lost, bewildered". I am surprised though that I had never come across it before. Did you know it? Is it common where you live? Is it just a British thing or an old expression? I confess I am all at sea about it.

Today I was listening to a great song by David Bowie, Wild is the Wind and one of the verses says "Satisfy this hungriness". Hungriness? Is that a word? It's meaning is obvious but I had never come across it, have you? How is "hungriness" different from "hunger"?

I have an idea to start this thread few months ago but it is delayed due to hectic life... I am reminded when I saw my message to a fellow sister here. I promise I will send her some material for studying Chinese... But, I forgot I am sorry Sharon... I forgot my promise... Below is a baby step to understand Chinese which is called as Pinyin: Any brother and sister learning Mandarin who like to share experiences or problems during learning?

If you can pronounce correctly every word in this poem, you will be speaking English better than 90% of the native English speakers in the world. After trying the verses, a Frenchman said he’d prefer six months of hard labour to reading six lines aloud. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it’s written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation’s OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Fe0ffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation (think of Psyche!) Is a paling stout and spikey? Won’t it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It’s a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough, Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!! English Pronunciation by G. Nolst Trenité