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Comment by wk_end

2 days ago

Even though I lived in the US for a decade, it still surprises me to learn that certain words are Canadianisms. I wonder how often people had no idea what I was talking aboot and just didn't speak up.

4 comments

wk_end

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Cthulhu_  2 days ago

I strongly suspect most language / communication is clear from inference and context, and the exact words used aren't super important unless they are really out there or a different language entirely. It's the same with learning a foreign language (english in my case), you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.

  • darkwater  2 days ago

    > you read books and posts on the internet but once you reach a certain base level, except for the really out there words, you can infer the meaning from context.

    Yes. Unless you are like me, you think you are good at inferring from context, never lookup a word in the dictionary and think for a few years it means something while it actually means the opposite.

    • 0xEF  2 days ago

      Could be worse, and be like me, who instantly looks up any word he doesn't understand, and because he does it so often, forgets the definition almost as soon as it is read after moving on.

      It probably takes me a good seven to ten times of looking up a new-to-me word to really nail it down. As a result, a lot of my blog/personal writing is filled with odd phrasings of things because I never quite learned the prescriptive way of using said word.