NFTs

Today’s takeaways

- recently vs. lately: 쓰는 문맥이 다름
Recently는 single event 언급할 때

e.g. 최근에 머리 짜름
cf) Lately -> 요새 사람들 트렌드
- Rather than: preference 얘기할 때 쓰임

cf) Instead of

 

Do you think that NFTs are valid investments or just speculation?

I don't think that NFTs are valid investments. They are merely (another way to say "simply") speculation because the NFT market is still new. It isn't well established. I can't find public information on NFTs' price changes over long periods of time.

 

What do you think makes an investment a good one? (examples: tangible items, historically sound, etc.)

I think that good investments have/come with/involve public information about price changes. 
I think that there is usually public information about the price changes of good investments.

Have you ever heard about or experienced speculation before you heard about NFTs?

While/Although I can come up with examples, I'm not sure if they can be considered speculation. Take Bitcoin, for example.(note: (Take) + (object) + (for example) = one way to say "For example, (object)" in a more native way). Sometimes I think that it's speculation because some people invest a lot of money without significant(native speakers use this word to show that something is great enough to matter)  evidence or logical reasons to do so. They hope that the prices of purchased goods will rise someday, so I think that Bitcoin involves speculation.

 

Famous value investor Charlie Munger has said “Since I never buy any gold, I never buy any bitcoin.” What does he mean by this quote and how could it apply to NFTs?

I'm not sure(while a lot of words can be negated by "un-," for "sure," we can simply say "not sure") what he means by "...." I guess he doesn't consider gold or bitcoin as valid assets("both" isn't necessary, but can be used to emphasize that both objects aren't considered valid). However("but" is not usually used to start a sentence in written paragraphs), he might not completely understand why people consider NFTs to be digital assets if he prefers traditional ones.

Although "un-" is often used to negate words, native speakers will usually say "not sure" instead of "unsure." 
Generally, writers will avoid using "But" at the beginning of a sentence and will opt to say "However," or another substitute instead.

 

If he doesn't invest in gold, what type of investments do you think Munger makes?

• first, we change "stock" into "stocks" <-- to keep things plural
• I guess typical investments would be stocks or property (like a house/like houses) .
• "I have a lot of property." <-- correct. We don't need to say "properties" when referring to "property" as an entity. 
• We do say properties when we refer to a specific person's group of assets. 
• He has a few properties near the beach. == He has some property near the beach.
• "Properties" is used when referring to specific properties, "property" is more commonly used generally.  

Did you expect that NFTs would become popular?

No, I didn't expect that NFTs would become popular. Honestly, when I heard about NFTs for the first time, I didn't really understand the concepts around them because I didn't know why people needed rights to own art files. After I studied about the art industry a little, I realized how NFTs could serve to prevent copyright issues.

We clarified "it" in the last sentence by saying "NFTs." 
Generally, "Honestly for the first time" will be rephrased into "Honestly, the first time." 
ex) 
"Honestly, for the first time I heard about it I didn't understand it." <-- this sentence is unclear. Because "for" does not add anything to the sentence's meaning, we remove it.

 

Will digital art ever replace physical art? Why or why not?

I believe that digital art will replace physical art someday.  Lately, people have been using less paper. In the IT industry, information once stored on paper has been transferred to Cloud. The same trend can be applied to art. People can display their digital art collections on monitors or displays. They don't need to buy picture frames to display works of art(can also be "artwork").

Works of art and artwork sound more natural than art pieces. "Works of art" == pieces of art that they are very impressed by. "Artwork" for pieces of art in general. "Statement pieces" <-- furniture, artwork, etc. that is considered the focal point of a location. Ex) "She makes a lot of artwork." "Pieces of art" sounds more like we are referring to how tangible art is, or that the art is considered more as an object than artistry.

 

Have you displayed art digitally?

No, I haven't displayed art digitally yet because I'm not that interested in art. I enjoy visiting art exhibitions to survey some works of art(we can also just say "art") , but I don't really feel like having or buying artwork to display in my home. 

 

Would you consider buying digital art?

"No, I won't(won't is about reality, wouldn't is more for hypothetical situations) consider buying digital art because I'm not interested in owning an art collection physically or digitally.  If I had more money, I would spend it on other objects or experiences instead.

Instead of" is more common than "rather than" in spoken English.

 

Have you read eBooks?

Yes, I have read some eBooks. However, I prefer reading paper books because I like highlighting sentences that I want to remember or words that I want to look up. One thing I don't like about eBooks is that it's rumored that Amazon tracks what kind of sentences users highlight.