this post was submitted on 03 Feb 2026
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Uplifting News

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[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 91 points 1 week ago (11 children)

For other ESL speakers who had problems parsing this headline, swifts are a type of bird:

[–] atomicbocks@sh.itjust.works 70 points 1 week ago (2 children)

English is my first language and I was still confused about what fast bricks were for.

[–] AA5B@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

I knew they were birds but wondered what the bricks are for. It’s not an efficient way to drive away pests

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

my first thought was that it's a euphemism, like the architects have to be smacked in the head pre-emptively so they stop making dumb designs

[–] prex@aussie.zone 18 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Also a programming language developed by apple.

[–] Valorie12@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Fuck, why'd you have to remind me of that garbage

[–] prex@aussie.zone 6 points 1 week ago

Because the subject of this thread was just too wholesome.

[–] Toes@ani.social 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Objective C was so much better I agree

[–] Flyswat@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 week ago

Buildings already must have Windows

[–] Aatube@thriv.social 16 points 1 week ago

I'd say it's not an ESL problem so much as a "common swift not endangered nor news here" problem.

[–] lena@gregtech.eu 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Ohhhhh I thought this was about the SWIFT banking system at first lol, TIL

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I thought it was about the speed the brick could fly at when thrown, so yeah…

[–] lena@gregtech.eu 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

This is quite weird, your comment was downvoted by a bunch of accounts (that are now banned) that joined about 15 hours ago: https://lemvotes.org/comment/lemmy.world/comment/21934464

[–] cannedtuna@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago

Yeah there’s someone on this site who makes throwaway accounts constantly. They create accounts, post a bunch of stuff in comics and news communities, then self deletes after a couple hours before they can be banned.

Any time someone calls them out on it they use their throwaway accounts to go through your recent history and downvote everything you post. They also like to make impersonation accounts to spam from.

There’s a couple threads calling this shit out here in c/comicstrips and c/support

[–] lena@gregtech.eu 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

LMFAO that's hilarious. What's next, high-speed roof tiles?

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

wireless chimneys

[–] Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz 9 points 1 week ago

More like non-uk inhabitants

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

English is my second language, but instead of swift bricks I had to web search what ESL stands for... When addressing non-native speakers, please don't use cryptic and ambiguous acronyms.

[–] PoastRotato@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (3 children)

ESL (English as a Second Language) is an incredibly common and widely recognized acronym (at least in the US, not sure about other countries).

[–] Saapas@piefed.zip 13 points 1 week ago

incredibly common and widely recognized

(at least in the US

LOL

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (4 children)

I researched this term (I read the wikipedia page) and apparently it is used in Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US. In Ireland and the UK, ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) is more common, and some other terms are floating around in the anglosphere. Where this is notably not used is where English is not a native language.

Again, when addressing non-native speakers, using cryptic (and ambiguous, I as a German mostly know ESL as an abbreviation for Electronic Sports Leagues, swiss people could first think of l'École Suisse de Langues, etc) terms is really not the best idea.

[–] xploit@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

I have now spent majority of my life speaking English/living in English speaking country and yeah they love their acronyms. Unnecessary useless acronyms. I suspect they're wired for it from young age and don't even realize, because despite starting to learn English at a young age, there was no incentive for me to start coming up with or learning acronyms.

No we're not. I fucking hate them and don't understand things at work because there are too many to know.

[–] brian@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

notably not used is where English is not a native language

I mean, not to be blunt, but duh?

it would only really make sense to even talk about English as a second language if the general population does speak it as a native language. in the US people arent ever going to say something like french as a second language, because there's no need for the distinction

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (2 children)

But most people with English as an additional language live outside countries where English is a native language. So again, when addressing people who speak English but not as their native language, why use terms that are exclusively used in countries with English as a native language?

Or do you think the internet exists only in countries where English is a native language?

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 4 points 1 week ago

So again, when addressing people who speak English but not as their native language, why use terms that are exclusively used in countries whith English as anative language?

As an English speaker in a city with many people whose first language isn't English, it was probably just habit. I didn't originally know it wasn't a well known term either.

[–] brian@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 week ago

the likelyhood of talking about ESL (an initialization of English words to begin with) wouldnt generally happen where English is non-native, though. you don't have two Germans asking if the other speaks English as a second language

It was used in my (German) university's English classes.

To be fair, they are taught by native speakers. But still!

[–] Aatube@thriv.social 1 points 1 week ago (1 children)

unfortunately ESOL is the less common/more cryptic term generally. we all learn a lot every day!

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de 3 points 1 week ago

I figured as much. That's why I thought it might be helpful to explain the cryptic term to make communications easier. Hoped it was helpful.

[–] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 week ago

to large parts of the world that's just normal english, and implies absolutely nothing about ones fluency since we learn english in school and y'all have culturally colonized us to the degree that our fucking advertisements are in english these days.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I mean, you don't need to know what ESL means for my comment to be helpful. The helpful bit is in the second part without any confusing abbreviations.

[–] CyberEgg@discuss.tchncs.de -1 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

So? I mean, while honorably clearing up some confusion, you created another point of confusion for someone else to clear up.

[–] tauonite@lemmy.world 4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

why do we want to brick birds

[–] prex@aussie.zone 4 points 1 week ago

Birds need homes too.

[–] heydo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The swift swift swiftly swifted in the swiftest way possible.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

You ever think about the word "saw"? It's a motorized power tool used for cutting. But it's also the past tense of having seen something. So if you see a saw, later can say you saw a saw. And it's also a verb. So if you watch a saw cutting another saw, you will have saw a saw saw a saw.

English is weird.

[–] Rcklsabndn@sh.itjust.works 2 points 1 week ago

You can also play on a seesaw.

[–] altphoto@lemmy.today 1 points 1 week ago

Golondria or golondrinas in Spanish.

There's a song in Mexico "las golondrinas". They sing that at your funeral. I don't know why, maybe the shape of the bird looks like a pastor or maybe because it lives on churches?

I think those birds look crazy cool and they fly crazy fast too. Totally not something related to a funeral. So I don't understand. But its Mexico, they're weird over there. In their own charro hat way.

[–] AntiBullyRanger@ani.social -1 points 1 week ago

Adoring your generosity here.

I conceptualized perfectly the first time, but I am glad you helped others🧵

[–] SanctimoniousApe@piefed.social -4 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If your goal was to seriously derail the topic of discussion, I applaud you for a job extremely well done.

[–] state_electrician@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I just wanted to help because the headline really confused me. Then it took on a life of its own.

Yeah, sorry - my comment was meant to poke fun, but unfortunately came out more accusatory. Not what I meant, so sorry about that. I just thought it amusing how quickly and thoroughly things veered off in another direction.