Way to get girls (?!): the new column for the new Dragon.

[billd91]

The other day, I was sitting with some friends (who speak English very well) in a new coffee shop near my workplace. They had brownies on the menu and none of my friends knew what brownies are.

Not everyone knows what tiramisu is either, but I doubt most people would assume, in this context, that they'd have anything to do with members of a young girl's association.

That said, there are puns of a ribald nature that conflate the two.

 

[Sammael]

Not everyone knows what tiramisu is either, but I doubt most people would assume, in this context, that they'd have anything to do with members of a young girl's association.

Actually, tiramisu is a lot more common here than it is in the US...

That said, there are puns of a ribald nature that conflate the two.

I don't know the words "ribald" or "conflate." I'm off to look them up in a dictionary.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I think it's about time for some of you folks to go watch Fear of Girls again. Eesh.

Are you trying to suggest that the reason we don't like the article is that it was written by a woman? I don't like it because it's not a good article. I couldn't care less about the gonadal status of the author.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I am not the original poster, but I think I can add to the comments he made...


I am non-native English speaker who lived in the US (attending high school and college) for three years between 1997 and 2000. I am currently employed as a translator (that's my second, part-time job). I had to re-read that sentence five times to figure out that "ISO" means "in search of."

I'm a native English speaker, and it took me a minute. Perhaps in part because if you replace the acronym with the words being represented it reads "in search of of".

 

[Ulrick]

Paizo lost the license for this?

Paizo lost the license for this!

As a fellow writer, I think her writing style is rambling for reasons mentioned already.
If this is the future of Dragon, Paizo is better off without it.

 

[billd91]

I don't know the words "ribald" or "conflate." I'm off to look them up in a dictionary.

Thanks for illustrating a point about international audiences. Ribald and conflate are perfectly normal and non-slang elements of the English language, but not necessarily commonly known to non-English speakers. Why should a term like brownies, a perfectly normal word in the English language, be held out as being particularly non-international-friendly?

 

[Arnwyn]

What ever happened to the teacher?

LOL! That's the very first thing I thought of (and the only thing I cared about) after finishing the article. What happened to Mrs. Dancy?

I have (had) no idea what the heck "7 unruly, unfocused PCs ISO of Dungeon Master" meant. It read like gibberish to me.

I think it's about time for some of you folks to go watch Fear of Girls again. Eesh.

Can you be more clear about what you're trying to get across, here?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Thanks for illustrating a point about international audiences. Ribald and conflate are perfectly normal and non-slang elements of the English language, but not necessarily commonly known to non-English speakers. Why should a term like brownies, a perfectly normal word in the English language, be held out as being particularly non-international-friendly?

I'd bet $10 that over half of my (ostensibly native English-speaking) students can't properly define either ribald or conflate. They're not part of the common parlance.

 

[billd91]

I'd bet $10 that over half of my (ostensibly native English-speaking) students can't properly define either ribald or conflate. They're not part of the common parlance.

I'd be willing to bet a similar number would have trouble with parlance as well. But just because something is not in everyone's usual vocabulary, that's not really an indication that its use is deficient in a magazine article.

 

[Sammael]

Thanks for illustrating a point about international audiences. Ribald and conflate are perfectly normal and non-slang elements of the English language, but not necessarily commonly known to non-English speakers. Why should a term like brownies, a perfectly normal word in the English language, be held out as being particularly non-international-friendly?

Actually, I don't think they are perfectly normal. As I said, I attended high school and college in the US. I took two semesters of Honors English Composition in college and scored an "A" in the first semester and a "B" in the second. I have several certificates of proficiency in the English language, one of which allows me to teach English at elementary-school level. I read English books and magazines, work as a translator and interpreter for a person from the UK, and visit a huge number of sites and forums written in English - all on a daily basis. I have never before in my life seem the words "ribald" and "conflate." I could guess the meaning of "conflate" from the context, but "ribald" was a mystery to me.