The General Chat Thread (2024)

I went with 120 (250F) and 3hrs because the webpage looked familiar 🤷‍♀️ 😆
I'll check them long before then.
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Not impressed with the quality this time, usually they're pretty good, this time they are quite under ripe, never mind they may cook well 🤷‍♀️
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
It's just as soon as they start explaining there are four different variations of the word 'The' depending on whether it's singular, plural or masculine, feminine I find myself totally switched off!
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Ever since I started teaching EFL (erm, nearly 50 years now!) I've used a method called Functional/Notional. You learn the language like babies do: listen, speak, read, write - in that order. No grammar explanations until the student is absolutely confident of the pronunciation, the collocation and the meaning (and NO translation, either). Then I teach the basics for the students, what they most need to begin with, so the first thing they'll learn from me is "My name is XXXX. I'm from Spain. I'm a pilot" . They will not learn idiotic things like "this is a book. It's not a table" or "my giraffe is in labour but doesn't fit in ze car".
Wanna speak faster? Watch some Spanish TV shows, without subtitles. It doesn't matter if you don't understand; you'll pick up the pronunciation, the modulation (ie., the music of the language), the shortcuts, etc, etc. Forget grammar. It's useless until you're fluent.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Ever since I started teaching EFL (erm, nearly 50 years now!) I've used a method called Functional/Notional. You learn the language like babies do: listen, speak, read, write - in that order. No grammar explanations until the student is absolutely confident of the pronunciation, the collocation and the meaning (and NO translation, either). Then I teach the basics for the students, what they most need to begin with, so the first thing they'll learn from me is "My name is XXXX. I'm from Spain. I'm a pilot" . They will not learn idiotic things like "this is a book. It's not a table" or "my giraffe is in labour but doesn't fit in ze car".
Wanna speak faster? Watch some Spanish TV shows, without subtitles. It doesn't matter if you don't understand; you'll pick up the pronunciation, the modulation (ie., the music of the language), the shortcuts, etc, etc. Forget grammar. It's useless until you're fluent.
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Excellent advice and have attempted that route multiple times but sadly I am deaf, very deaf, have been since I was 36 when a very mild version of swine flu took my hearing and I woke up deaf.
I’m lucky to be a good lip reader and have truly excellent hearing aids so people don’t realise I am deaf, even my family don’t seem to be able to remember I can’t hear them if I can’t see them 😂

The downside is it’s incredibly hard to learn a new language, impossible to pick it up from watching television as they don’t form sounds in any way I’m familiar with and the noise is one long burble.
It took a couple of years to get good at lip reading in English but I have all of the tools for that preloaded, I know what the word being spoken looks like on the lips and it fits with what I can hear.

I’m really enjoying the Nintendo DS learn Spanish. You can use headphones, slow the speed of the speech and play both you and the ‘tutor’ speaking your recorded version back together to hear where you differ.
You have to earn quite a lot of points to move on to the next section but it’s all good fun, things like timed multiple choice, timed word searches and my favourite whack-a-mole 😆

I must be doing kind of ok because the assessment before I started on it wanted me to start on level 7 - when I wanted to start on level 1 😂
My understanding of learning a new language is having the commitment to do it and keep doing it.
My hearing likely means I’ll never be able to speak Spanish well (tbh I’m just grateful I don’t sound deaf when I speak) but I think I could get to the point where I can understand it spoken by others (I can a little bit now) and I don’t see any barriers to being able to read and write it 🤞🤞🤞
 
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medtran49 said:
When I make my oven dried tomatoes, it's 175 F.
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That my friend is far more sensible than whacking the oven on 120 (250f) for three hours and then b8ggering off to do other jobs….

Before when full of promise
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And after I’ve finished with them, beautifully bin ready tomatoes 😆
 
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karadekoolaid said:
Ever since I started teaching EFL (erm, nearly 50 years now!) I've used a method called Functional/Notional. You learn the language like babies do: listen, speak, read, write - in that order. No grammar explanations until the student is absolutely confident of the pronunciation, the collocation and the meaning (and NO translation, either). Then I teach the basics for the students, what they most need to begin with, so the first thing they'll learn from me is "My name is XXXX. I'm from Spain. I'm a pilot" . They will not learn idiotic things like "this is a book. It's not a table" or "my giraffe is in labour but doesn't fit in ze car".
Wanna speak faster? Watch some Spanish TV shows, without subtitles. It doesn't matter if you don't understand; you'll pick up the pronunciation, the modulation (ie., the music of the language), the shortcuts, etc, etc. Forget grammar. It's useless until you're fluent.
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Interesting, but to me...
Doesn't work without a bit of grammar and explanation trying to learn a language totally alien to me.
Imagine:
You want to say
I am going to ...
Now the way to say this depends on the distance of the person you are speaking to....
If close it is one way, if far, it's another
Does my head in
 
medtran49 said:
When I make my oven dried tomatoes, it's 175 F.
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Absolutely agree with you there. My oven only goes down to 200F, but the lowest possible.
After about 6-7 hours, I take a look and start pulling those that are ready. To misquote George Orwell, "All tomatoes are equal, but some are more equal than others"
Basically, some will dry out faster than others. You've got some burned ones there, SSOAP.
 
karadekoolaid said:
Absolutely agree with you there. My oven only goes down to 200F, but the lowest possible.
After about 6-7 hours, I take a look and start pulling those that are ready. To misquote George Orwell, "All tomatoes are equal, but some are more equal than others"
Basically, some will dry out faster than others. You've got some burned ones there, SSOAP.
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Yep as I said beautifully bin ready 😂
Serves me right for not bothering to look it up properly.
Now I think about it I’m sure last time it was closer for 60c for the majority of the day.
Heyho next time!
 
badjak said:
Interesting, but to me...
Doesn't work without a bit of grammar and explanation trying to learn a language totally alien to me.
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Everyone to their own!
But imagine you see the partner of your dreams in a bar and you just have to introduce yourself.
My way, you say "HEY! You and me - let's go!" because you communicate, albeit with errors On the other hand, you might be thinking "now should I use the present perfect or the subjunctive, and is it better to use a modal verb or not? Errmm - nominative, accusative, genetive, ermmm..."
Too late - he/she's gone. :laugh: :laugh:
 
SandwichShortOfAPicnic said:
Can anyone remember what temperature and how long I dry out plum tomatoes in my oven?

No, me neither 🙄😆
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As low as you can get. Dehydrators typically range from 95F to 145F . I would be aiming for the middle of that range which equates to about 50°C. Yes I did remember that ottomy
 
I remember being handed a chart for the different versions of “the” very similar to this one on my first day of German language class and feeling my stomach tighten:

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I ended up just slurring it when speaking, like “de…,” but always got caught out on the written exercises.

…and all the adjectives change form as well…a nightmare for me.
 
TastyReuben said:
I remember being handed a chart for the different versions of “the” very similar to this one on my first day of German language class and feeling my stomach tighten:

View attachment 116474

I ended up just slurring it when speaking, like “de…,” but always got caught out on the written exercises.

…and all the adjectives change form as well…a nightmare for me.
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Ah yes, my first day of learning German as a 12 year old. The master wrote that on the blackboard, and I just thought "Nope!"
 
SatNavSaysStraightOn said:
As low as you can get. Dehydrators typically range from 95F to 145F . I would be aiming for the middle of that range which equates to about 50°C. Yes I did remember that ottomy
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Yes I’m not after typical sundried level dehydrated (in-spite of the pic telling you otherwise), just a little bit concentrated which is a bit higher temp for a shorter time, but definitely nowhere near as high as I did it 😝

I have a dehydrator and the outdoor oven has a dehydrator function (as low as 40c) I just right royally screwed up 😂
 
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