Boomerang for Gmail: disappointing

Boo­me­rang is sup­po­sed to make up for a lack of mail sche­du­ling in Gmail. Good idea, but sadly too much flaws to make it a viable option.

  • You must resort to the English inter­face (I tried with English (US); I did not try English (UK)); at least with French, the « Send Later » but­ton won’t appear.
  • You must allow pop-ups for authentification!
  • You must allow IMAP access; if you acti­va­ted the Advan­ced IMAP control lab, you must also allow Drafts to be visible in IMAP — does it mean that Boo­me­rang has access to my mail?
  • The Hour must be ente­red manually, because the bulit-in calen­dar doesn’t allow selec­ting hours.

Extra condi­tions:

  • Sche­du­led mails do not appear in Drafts, but in a <q>Boomerang-Outbox</q> label (or in a new but­ton in the toolbar!
  • It seems that Boo­me­rang for Gmail can’t be deployed in Google Apps; it must be manually ins­tal­led in any Chrome browser :/
  • Worst of all, the free ver­sion only allows for 10 mes­sages to be scheduled.

It’s a shame, espe­cially consi­de­ring an ear­lier ver­sion was much better.

Using English

My English is good enough that I can high­light it on my résumé. But I am not a native and it shows, espe­cially when tal­king. Even when wri­ting, it is not that idio­syn­cra­tic; idio­tisms, phra­sial verbs and plain voca­bu­lary are (somew­hat) frequent shortcomings.

I try to use inter­na­tio­nal English, because I find id “clas­sier”. Colour, grey.

Tricks for non-native:

  • For trans­la­ting a tech­ni­cal term, go to Wiki­pe­dia in your lan­guage, expect to have an entry for the term, then look on the left column for the English inter­wiki link (pro­vi­ded it exists).
  • For trans­la­ting a phrase, go to Wordreference.com. It is a gold mine.

Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns in French and English

For French, the value after the slash is for femi­nine, when the demons­tra­tion is gender-sensitive.

Demons­tra­tive adjec­tives and pro­nouns in French and English
Sin­gu­lar, near Sin­gu­lar, far Plu­ral, near Plu­ral, far
English this that these those
French ce/cette ces
English this one that one these ones those ones
French celui-ci/celle-ci celui-là/celle-là ceux-ci/celles-ci ceux-là/celles-là
English this (very) book that (very) book these (very) books those (very) books
French ce livre-(ci) ce livre(-là) ces livres(-ci) ces livres(-là)
English this is a book that is a book these are books those are books
French ceci est un livre celà est un livre ceux-ci sont des livres ceux-là sont des livres

For rea­son of euphony (more spe­ci­fi­cally, a sort of liai­son), ce becomes cet before a noun sta­ting with a vowel — anorak. Thanks to Sinead for poin­ting this.

Please notify me of any mistake/oversight.

AskOxford.com: great links about the English language

Ghoti or Fish

English pro­non­cia­tion can be incon­sistent. An often-quoted example (often attri­bu­ted to George Ber­nard Shaw) is the following.

Ghoti can be pro­noun­ced as Fish.

If you pro­nounce the Gh:

  1. gh as f (as in rough)
  2. o as i (as in women)
  3. ti as sh (as in nation)

You can pro­nounce ghoti (a word that doesn’t actually exist) as fish!

While, Whilst, Whereas

Whilst
Contrast
I am talking to you whilst you are not here.
I am talking to you although you are not here.
Je te parle alors tu n’es pas là.
Je te parle bien tu ne sois pas là.
While
Time simul­ta­neity
I am talking to you while you are eating.
I am talking to you during your eating.
Je te parles alors que tu manges.
Je te parle pendant que tu manges.
Whe­reas
Space simul­ta­neity
I am working whereas you are playing.
I am working where you are playing.
Je travaille où tu joues.
Je travaille à l’endroit où tu joues.