Help requested in a foreign language

[walter b]

Hi all,

The term used by our favorite SM in his most recent post isn't even found in Merriam Webster, nor does Google deliver unambiguous references. Can any native speaker please help in interpreting what he wrote? My command of that language obviously doesn't suffice, so please KISS. Thanks in advance.

d:-?

[Don Shepherd]

(01-10-2016 12:20 PM)walter b Wrote:  Hi all,

The term used by our favorite SM in his most recent post isn't even found in Merriam Webster, nor does Google deliver unambiguous references. Can any native speaker please help in interpreting what he wrote? My command of that language obviously doesn't suffice, so please KISS. Thanks in advance.

d:-?

Four questions Walter:

1. What is an SM?
2. What is the term?
3. What is "that language"?
4. Why is this posted in a new thread?

[Marcio]

As a moderator, Den Belillo (whom Walter refers to as Super-moderator, or simply 'SM') complains that forum members were spoken to without any respect or consideration, a polite substitute for 'to dog mouth'.

Question: Why don't we all forget all this and go back to discussing calculators?

Marcio

[walter b]

(01-10-2016 12:32 PM)Don Shepherd Wrote:  1. What is an SM?
2. What is the term?
3. What is "that language"?
4. Why is this posted in a new thread?

1&2: Marcio found out already.
3: Forum language - as in any language, native speakers have obvious advantages.
4: Since two previous threads were locked by said SM, the latter one without answering the question asked.

@Marcio: I try my very best, but progress in some sectors runs like a snail divided by 10G.

d:-/

[Gerald H]

I agree with your point 3, walter, while at the same time non-native speakers enjoy less obvious advantages, eg identifying strangeness in construction.

Consider the normal English "I won't go out unless it's sunny" - most (?) second language learners prefer "I'll only go out if it's sunny" on the grounds of simplicity & clarity, & I would hope native speakers would agree.

In English I submit that Joseph Conrad & George Mikes, neither of them in their youth educated in English, nevertheless wrote more finely than the majority of English natives.

So if you work at your English it may pay off. (Written by an English teacher.)