dickybird

I am also guilty of using 'lol'. It also seems appropriate to use it at the end of sentences or when there is no other reply to a message that someone has sent me, I put 'lol'. I try not to use alot of slang and text talk but for some reason think that 'lol' is acceptable. Maybe I should challenge myself to see if I can stop using it and see how long it lasts.

The world would be easier if everybody knew English, but it would also take away individuality and make people lazy. It also depends how this would be enforced, would it mean one language for the whole world, or still keeping national languages. Is it not unfair to assume everyone should be forced to speak English, is that not why people go abroad to engulf themselves in a different culture.

Everything is difficult when trying to learn a new language. Personally, I think writing is very difficult. I know alot of people can speak a language very easily and read if they needed to, but find it very difficult to write. Especially with the order in which the words in a sentence should be, I am learning Turkish and the sentences seem backwards to me. Also getting the right tense and grammar correct when writing because if one word is wrong then the whole sentence doesn't make sense.

I agree your and you're are constantly misused. I believe people who speak English as their first language are the most common who make this error, and I think this is out of laziness, and now they have adopted 'your' from using it so much. The use of slang has made it easy to type or write short hand, people can not be bothered to write a full sentence. The amount of times I have been on Facebook and someone has used slang to write a status and I have not got a clue what they are saying!!

When I was at school cursive writing was really important, we would have handwriting lessons and be given homework. When I applied for my teacher training, they made a point of telling you that your writing had to be cursive, so that led me to believe it was still important. However when I have previously worked in primary schools I think it is dependant on the teacher. The head of English at the school where I worked thought cursive writing was extremely important and she made every teacher fit it in their timetable once a day, students would be rewarded with a pen if they have excellent cursive writing. My niece who is at another school in a different county does no handwriting in school and she can not join her letters, when I asked her why she did not practise or why her writing was not joined up she told me her teacher said it wasn't important!! I think we should be back to the good old days, and cursive writing should be compulsory and practised once everyday!!

I think it is a great idea to teach children second languages, they do tend to pick it up quickly. My partner is from Turkey, but his mother tongue is Kurdish and we live here in Turkey. So when we have children they will need to learn three languages, English, Kurdish and Turkish. If we continue to live in Turkey, they will be going to a Turkish school, and if we later decide to move back to the UK, they wll need to be fluent in English. I think if my children are bilingual they will be more determined and work harder. One of my friends is Fnnish and her husband is Turkish, they have a one year old and they speak to her in Finnish, Turkish and English, they want her to learn all three languages.

I am from the UK and i have worked in the US, I was lucky to have the English. I now live in Turkey, alot of people do speak English. However I would love to be able to speak Turkish flutently and not have to say, excuse me do you speak English or take one of my translator friends with me. I can speak the basics and understand words, so I can normally grasp what a converstaion is about. However I struggle with speaking back in Turkish, I get nervous and feel emabarassed that I will say something wrong. I do believe you need alot of confidence when learning a language and cannot wait until I will understand and be able to reply in Turkish.

I think it is so important to learn a new language I only wish my parents were bilingual and had forced me to do it when I was younger, as it is harder when you are older. I think alot of people learn languages because they move to a new country, that is my reason. I live in Turkey and I don't believe I will be considered a local until I can speak the language. I want to be able to have conversations with my mother-in-law, and not worry if someone speaks English because I know Turkish.

I fall into this category. I moved to Turkey last year to live with my partner, he speaks alot of languages and English is his third. We predominantly speak in English to each other. His English is excellent for speaking and writing, however he will openly admit then he struggles with his tenses, and grammar. For example, they don't differentiate between he and she in Turkish, they use one word for both so he can often use him when he is talking about a female. As I have been in Turkey I find my English has got 'sloppy', especially to write and I now use alot of 'Turkisk English'. I am hoping that writing on this forum is going to improve it.

I think it depends your reason for learning a language. If you are learning a lanuguage fluently then grammar is very important because you don't want to not be able to speak and write in the correct tenses. However if your learning for fun or have learnt by picking up from other people whilst travelling in that counrty, then it isn't as important and will hopefully fall into place later. I am currently learning Turkish and the grammar is really important to me as I want to work in schools, teaching English and want to be able to show my pupils I can speak Turkish, so they have confidence in me, teaching them.

I really struggle to pick up languages, and the information seems to go in one ear and out the other. Im currently trying to learn Turkish as I live here. But my next language I would love to learn is Kurdish. My partner is Kurdish so it is his mother tonge. However it is a difficult language as there are so many different variations on it depending on where someone originates from, and it is hard to find it written anywhere. For example, I have two friends with husbands that are Kurdish, but we cannot teach each other because are partners are from different areas and it would be completely different. This means that my partner and his mother will have to teach me, I have heard it is alot like French and you have to roll your tonge alot.