Off topic: Interesting hypothesis on language and COVID-19 Thread poster: Janet Muehlbacher
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B D Finch 
France
Local time: 08:00
French to English
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| Are you (or they) serious? | Sep 21, 2020 |
The writer is so vague about the number of Japanese visitors to China in 2020 that one wonders whether they can even count: "one to three millions of Japanese who travelled to China in 2000". The blaming of Chinese shop assistants as responsible for infecting tourists seems very unfair, especially as the Chinese shop assistants would have been wearing masks if they were in an area where COVID-19 had been identified.
May I also point out that the preposition "on" is wrong, it is a "h... See more The writer is so vague about the number of Japanese visitors to China in 2020 that one wonders whether they can even count: "one to three millions of Japanese who travelled to China in 2000". The blaming of Chinese shop assistants as responsible for infecting tourists seems very unfair, especially as the Chinese shop assistants would have been wearing masks if they were in an area where COVID-19 had been identified.
May I also point out that the preposition "on" is wrong, it is a "hypothesis "about" a load of nonsense, not "on" a load of nonsense. ▲ Collapse
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Tina Vonhof (X)
Canada
Local time: 00:00
Dutch to English
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I agree with B.D. that the study is too vague to lead to any valid conclusion. But we don't need a study to prove the point. We all know that we produce saliva when we speak, particularly with aspirated consonants, and some people more than others. That is exactly why we should now wear a mask.
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Speaking the word Hypothesis out loud might already increase the risk of transmission. Typing it might be safe, for now.
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Lincoln Hui
Hong Kong
Local time: 14:00
Member
Chinese to English
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| Aspirated consonants | Sep 21, 2020 |
Do you know which language uses even fewer aspirated consonants than Japanese?
Chinese!
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| I thought it slightly unusual | Sep 21, 2020 |
to present it in this way, in terms of tourism and country of origin, but it´s still interesting.
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Tony Keily
Local time: 08:00
Italian to English
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| Dangerous sounds | Sep 21, 2020 |
As an Irish person who sounds the "h" in question words (when, where, why..), I must pose quite a threat to those around me.
I'll either have to go into deep isolation... or maybe just stop asking questions.
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| No shit, Sherlock | Sep 21, 2020 |
I mean, ffs 🙄
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Mervyn Henderson (X)
Spain
Local time: 08:00
Spanish to English
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| Oddest research | Sep 21, 2020 |
Phew, the things they conduct research into. And not in isolation either, judging by the list of related papers on the right.
[Edited at 2020-09-21 16:56 GMT]
[Edited at 2020-09-21 17:00 GMT]
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LIZ LI
China
Local time: 14:00
French to Chinese
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| Inspirations | Sep 25, 2020 |
Time to learn sign languages, guys!
And I'm going to write an article to study the average mouth size of different ethnics.
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 09:00
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| There is something in it | Sep 25, 2020 |
Finnish has a very dry way of speaking compared to German or English. When learning English one advice is speak in front of a candle. The flame should react to your pronunciation of p, t, k. Not in Finnish, there is no aspiration "h". Finland up till now has had comparatively few cases of covid-19. The number now is about 11/100 000.
In any case speaking spreads viruses. If you wear a mask and speak, the virus will spread. But for some unknown reason no authority anywhere tells people "shu... See more Finnish has a very dry way of speaking compared to German or English. When learning English one advice is speak in front of a candle. The flame should react to your pronunciation of p, t, k. Not in Finnish, there is no aspiration "h". Finland up till now has had comparatively few cases of covid-19. The number now is about 11/100 000.
In any case speaking spreads viruses. If you wear a mask and speak, the virus will spread. But for some unknown reason no authority anywhere tells people "shut up in public places". Selling masks is business. ▲ Collapse
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expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 07:00
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
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| Using an iron mask | Sep 25, 2020 |
would do the trick, but able to prevent rust.
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