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[scrdest]

That weird moment when you realize you're spending so much time on English-speaking parts of the Internet that you start slipping into thinking in English as a non-native speaker.

[miauw62]

That weird moment when you realize you're spending so much time on English-speaking parts of the Internet that you start slipping into thinking in English as a non-native speaker.

I've had this for at least a year. I think in English a lot.

[Dutchling]

That weird moment when you realize you're spending so much time on English-speaking parts of the Internet that you start slipping into thinking in English as a non-native speaker.

I've had this for at least a year. I think in English a lot.

Me too. It kinda sucks because every mistake you make gets reinforced instead of corrected.

[Avis-Mergulus]

I think in English about everything non-serious - it just has less of an emotional impact on me than my native language, for obvious reasons. So if I think about serious things in it, I end up making regrettable decisions because of being emotionally detached. Like, if I'm considering what to say to someone, I can contemplate much harsher, more dickish things than I would usually say.
However, English is just easier to use than my native language. It's like the difference between a shovel and an excavator.

My God. In my head, English is the language of frivolties and dickishness. Is that discriminatory or something?

[Vorthon]

English is my native language, and even I think it's a mess. It's like the Frankenstein's Monster of languages, really. Germanic base, Latin influences, borrows words from who knows how many languages, etc.

[Digital Hellhound]

Silly Indo-Europeans, thinking your languages are confusing. Finnish is just our big, cruel joke on the world.

[scrdest]

I think in English about everything non-serious - it just has less of an emotional impact on me than my native language, for obvious reasons. So if I think about serious things in it, I end up making regrettable decisions because of being emotionally detached. Like, if I'm considering what to say to someone, I can contemplate much harsher, more dickish things than I would usually say.
However, English is just easier to use than my native language. It's like the difference between a shovel and an excavator.

My God. In my head, English is the language of frivolties and dickishness. Is that discriminatory or something?

I think Cracked recently had an article mentioning that people thinking about a problem in a foreign language arrived at the more rational of the two alternatives more often than those thinking in their native language. The problem was about whether to take a vaccine that is guaranteed to save twenty thousand people or one with 20% chance to save all of the hundred thousand people infected with the deadly disease.

[Avis-Mergulus]

I think in English about everything non-serious - it just has less of an emotional impact on me than my native language, for obvious reasons. So if I think about serious things in it, I end up making regrettable decisions because of being emotionally detached. Like, if I'm considering what to say to someone, I can contemplate much harsher, more dickish things than I would usually say.
However, English is just easier to use than my native language. It's like the difference between a shovel and an excavator.

My God. In my head, English is the language of frivolties and dickishness. Is that discriminatory or something?

I think Cracked recently had an article mentioning that people thinking about a problem in a foreign language arrived at the more rational of the two alternatives more often than those thinking in their native language. The problem was about whether to take a vaccine that is guaranteed to save twenty thousand people or one with 20% chance to save all of the hundred thousand people infected with the deadly disease.

And what is the correct answer, pray tell?

[scrdest]

I think in English about everything non-serious - it just has less of an emotional impact on me than my native language, for obvious reasons. So if I think about serious things in it, I end up making regrettable decisions because of being emotionally detached. Like, if I'm considering what to say to someone, I can contemplate much harsher, more dickish things than I would usually say.
However, English is just easier to use than my native language. It's like the difference between a shovel and an excavator.

My God. In my head, English is the language of frivolties and dickishness. Is that discriminatory or something?

I think Cracked recently had an article mentioning that people thinking about a problem in a foreign language arrived at the more rational of the two alternatives more often than those thinking in their native language. The problem was about whether to take a vaccine that is guaranteed to save twenty thousand people or one with 20% chance to save all of the hundred thousand people infected with the deadly disease.

And what is the correct answer, pray tell?

The latter.

[ChairmanPoo]

There's no correct answer. That question (and it's variants) is often used as an example of ambiguous morality issues, and how the wording of these can affect people's opinion on them.

Also Cracked is a terrible info source.

[Parsely]

English is my native language, and even I think it's a mess. It's like the Frankenstein's Monster of languages, really. Germanic base, Latin influences, borrows words from who knows how many languages, etc.

Well yeah. English is, comparatively, one of the youngest languages in existence, right? So it makes sense that back in the day it would have borrowed from language that already existed at the time. That's how science works. You don't want to start from the beginning every time otherwise it takes too long.

It has roots in French and German because of the two groups that originally emigrated to old England and made up that community. The Normans (lived in present day Normandy. still live there) and the Franks (a confederation of German tribes). Also people nowadays when they learn someone else's language they borrow some of those words and bring them back home.

The evolution happens over such a long period of time that no one even notices it happening!

Also, other languages borrow words too, not just English. Everybody uses everybody else's words, all the time! Etymology is super badass.

[Avis-Mergulus]

There's no correct answer. That question (and it's variants) is often used as an example of ambiguous morality issues, and how the wording of these can affect people's opinion on them.

Also Cracked is a terrible info source.

Yes. And anyway, I can see only one answer to that question that I consider morally right, regardless of whether I think in English or Russian.
The issue is that it's easier for me to dismiss things as unimportant in English, to disastrous results. My system of values remains unchanged.

[scrdest]

There's no correct answer. That question (and it's variants) is often used as an example of ambiguous morality issues, and how the wording of these can affect people's opinion on them.

Also Cracked is a terrible info source.

This wording doesn't, you're right. But 30% of 100 000 vs. guaranteed 20 000 does have a more rational (not necessarily more moral, but more rational) answer, and I might've screwed up the wording.

[ChairmanPoo]

This wording doesn't, you're right. But 30% of 100 000 vs. guaranteed 20 000 does have a more rational (not necessarily more moral, but more rational) answer, and I might've screwed up the wording.

Why is it more rational?

[Parsely]

Its not. Its the kind of question that's supposed to get people worked up.