Take a vocab break: babel

a confusion of sounds or voices

 a scene of noise or confusion

Take a vocab break: jabber

to talk rapidly, indistinctly, or unintelligibly

to speak rapidly or indistinctly

Relax: English language learners

We're nonnative speakers of English [=a person who speaks English but whose native language is not English]

Study Shows Humans Can Communicate From Brain To Brain (Telepathy)

UW students Darby Losey, left, and Jose Ceballos are positioned in two different buildings on campus as they would be during a brain-to-brain interface demonstration. The sender, left, thinks about firing a cannon at various points throughout a computer game. That signal is sent over the Web directly to the brain of the receiver, right, whose hand hits a touchpad to fire the cannon.

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/11/27/direct-brain-communication-between-humans-study-successfully-replicated/

Take a vocab break: smarmy

behaving in a way that seems polite, kind, or pleasing but is not genuine or believable

Take a vocab break: know-it-all

 a person who talks and behaves like someone who knows everything

Example of vocab in a Sentence

Stickies: Put up Post-its around the house with spelling words, science facts, foreign language vocab or whatever your kids need to memorize.

Example of vocab in a Sentence

Plaza insisted that Lenny's original, somewhat gendered dialogue—smarmy, crass, with a barstool intellectual's love of old-timey vocab—be kept in tact.

Take a vocab break! :-)

LEANING, PROPENSITY, PROCLIVITY, PENCHANT mean a strong instinct or liking for something. LEANING suggests a liking or attraction not strong enough to be decisive or uncontrollable.  a student with artistic leanings  PROPENSITY implies a deeply ingrained and usually irresistible inclination.  a propensity to offer advice PROCLIVITY suggests a strong natural proneness usually to something objectionable or evil.  a proclivity for violence  PENCHANT implies a strongly marked taste in the person or an irresistible attraction in the object.  a penchant for taking risks 

telepathy

Study Shows Humans Can Communicate From Brain To Brain (Telepathy)

https://www.collective-evolution.com/2014/11/27/direct-brain-communication-between-humans-study-successfully-replicated/

Telepathy

Telepathy, direct transference of thought from one person (sender or agent) to another (receiver or percipient) without using the usual sensory channels of communication, hence a form of extrasensory perception (ESP). While the existence of telepathy has not yet been proved, some parapsychological research studies have produced favourable results using such techniques as card guessing with a special deck of five sets of five cards. The agent may simply think of a random order of the five card symbols while the percipient tries to think of the order on which the agent is concentrating. In a general ESP test the sender concentrates on the face of one card at a time while the receiver tries to think of the symbol. Both subjects are, of course, separated by a screen or some greater obstacle or distance. Scores significantly above chance are extremely rare, particularly as testing methods have become more rigorous.

wraith

Did You Know?

If you see your own double, you're in trouble, at least if you believe old superstitions. The belief that a ghostly twin's appearance portends death is one common to many cultures. In German folklore, such an apparition was called a "Doppelgänger" (literally, "double goers"); in Scottish lore, they were "wraiths." The exact origin of the word wraith is misty, however. Etymologists can only trace it back to its first use in an English text in a 1513 translation of Virgil’s "Aeneid" by Gavin Douglas (the Scotsman used "wraith" to name apparitions of both the dead and the living). In current English, "wraith" has taken on additional, less spooky, meanings as well; it now often suggests a shadowy - but not necessarily scary - lack of substance.

wraith

the exact likeness of a living person seen usually just before death as an apparition

doppelganger

a ghostly counterpart of a living person

a ghostly duplicate of a living person

the supposed ghostly double or wraith of a living person

doppelgänger

An apparition or double of a living person.

doppelgänger

a spirit that looks exactly like a living person, or someone who looks exactly like someone else but who is not related to that person

doppelgänger

Did You Know?

According to age-old German folklore, all living creatures have a spirit double who is invisible but identical to the living individual. These second selves are perceived as being distinct from ghosts (which appear only after death), and sometimes they are described as the spiritual opposite or negative of their human counterparts. In 1796, German writer Johann Paul Richter, who wrote under the pseudonym Jean Paul, coined the word Doppelgänger (from doppel-, meaning "double," and -gänger, meaning "goer") to refer to such specters.

F-E-A-R

Movie: The Man Who Haunted Himself

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Man_Who_Haunted_Himself

Movie: Before I Go to Sleep

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_I_Go_to_Sleep_(film)

It's me: The Man Who Haunted Himself

The Fear of Fear Itself

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/articles/200511/the-fear-fear-itself

Functional illiteracy

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Education, 32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read.

My comments: It's okay if you can't speak English fluently or mispronounce certain words or can't write well. Aren't you privileged than zillions of functional illiterates native speakers? So don't be embarrassed. Count your blessings. Native speakers of English can't speak your mother tongue / native language -- so vice versa. Cheer up. I don't mean to discourage you from learning but my point is do that with a positive mind-set.

That's all for now.

Thank you so much for visiting my Blog.

Bye.

The U.S. Illiteracy Rate Hasn’t Changed In 10 Years

According to a study by the U.S. Department of Education, 32 million adults in the U.S. can’t read.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/06/illiteracy-rate_n_3880355.html

A girl from Karachi and a boy from Hyderabad. This is their phone conversation. Read on:

Hey! I read on your blog that you've communistic leanings.

Oh yep....that's long, long ago!

Could you please elaborate? You mean your mind-set has changed? Your ideology?

How much to tip? Waiters etc.? I was looking up.

I feel guilty. Now I understand why people like Bill Gates give so much back to society.

Social security is in Islam. If we follow truthfully.

Wish I were a zillionaire.

Onomatopoeia

What's that, Mac?

Wordsmith

Used to speak to a man who you do not know

Used informally to address a man whose name is not known

obstinately defiant of authority

burnout

exhaustion of physical or emotional strength or motivation usually as a result of prolonged stress or frustration

Mac you're being incoherent -- get some sleep buddy.

Mac

Mac

Mac

zonked-out - I guess.

A girl from Karachi -- nickname: Miss Spock-y Ears and a boy from Hyderabad -- nickname: Dervish. This is their phone conversation. Read on:

You're a bot

And, you're a honeypot

Mr. Spock?

Yes,

Star Trek

Leonard Nimoy

Dunno! Who's that?

Spookism

Your ears are like that?

Miss Spock-y Ears!

You've got to be kidding me.

I kid you not.

Whatever

Spookism is the new word?

Yep.

Just one.

No. Dabbler too.

Oh, cool.

And, you're dervish?

Yep.

For short.

Hmm. Okay.

I gotta go.

The landline telephone — curly corded, cord-free, rotary or with chunky plastic buttons — used to be a fixture of American homes.

You're a junkie! 

Cradle.

A girl from Karachi and a boy from Hyderabad. This is their phone conversation. Read on:

So you're a self-styled Alpha Geek eh?

Self-proclaimed, yep. Reformed hacker.

So what's the difference huh?

I don't know. I'm not so well acquainted with the nitty-gritty of the English language!

So you're a hunchbacked whirling dervish?

Yep, but I'm not Sufi -- I'm Salafi.

Oh

Ah

So what's the difference huh?

I don't know. I'm not so well acquainted with the nitty-gritty of Islam.

Stop parroting!

Your know weasel is a sneaky, untrustworthy, or insincere person.

Me?

Nope. 

That's your vocab booster!

Thanks.

Plaza insisted that Lenny's original, somewhat gendered dialogue—smarmy, crass, with a barstool intellectual's love of old-timey vocab—be kept in tact.

What's that?

Mac, you're a very complicated person.

Me?

Yeah, who else?

A girl from Karachi and a boy from Hyderabad. This is their phone conversation. Read on:

Let me hypothesize something -- okay?

Yep. Go ahead.

What if you're globally sought-after -- some person?

Me?

Yeah, then who?

This is a hypothesis?

Yes. Don't act dumb, please!

No. No, I'm just trying to understand .  . . .

Cool.

Internationally popular?

OMG!

Listen.

Okay. Go on.

I'm a polymath.

Fine. Bye.

Okay. Sorry. I won't interrupt.

Hmm.

Is coconut water good for skin? LOL

LOL I hate you, bye.

Forget it. BTW, any new words?

Oh yep. Stonker and bonze

Mac.

Yep.

Sometimes you're very boring!

Me?

Yeah. Y-O-U.

Bonze is a Buddhist monk -- A Japanese or Chinese Buddhist religious teacher.

And, stonker: something that is very good or an extreme example of something

I've to ring off now.

Bye.

Oh so abruptly?

Yeah. I'm mad at you.

Guys listen to this speech of Shashi Tharoor sahib on British Raj. Incredibly brave and eloquent laureate. Nail-biting 99.9 percent guaranteed. LOL He nailed the Brits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S955fkSZd8

A girl from Karachi and a boy from Hyderabad. This is their phone conversation. Read on:

It's on the grapevine that you're a high-ranking RAW official. Is that true?

WWE Raw eh? LOL

LOL

Do you mean the one with ampersand huh?

Duh! Yes.

That job isn't there for someone persnickety like me.

You're being incredulous.

Wow! What's that?

What else did you hear about me?

Oh that your handle online is Charles Sobhraj --And, You're extremely lethal with a poker face!

To be continued . . .  .