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Dear All Idioms are hard to translate. That's why I would like ALL of you to participate in this little task/game. I created a new Google Documents List and listed some of the most popular English idioms/sayings. Please help to translate them into your language. I already added some languages. Feel free to add your language if not yet on the list and provide the translation. Only translate the idiom if there is actually an idiomatic/metaphorical equivalent in your language. Feel free to add new English idioms as well. The English idioms are in alphabetical order, so when adding new idioms, make sure you add them at the right place. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1hSeZC1VuczQsbxgWnomagUcfGqETh07BHDqRRvp9QfE/edit?usp=sharing Happy contributing! Thanks for your support

DEAR MEMBERS AND VISITORS of Linguaholic.com I proudly would like to announce that linguaholic.com will be changing to new forum software, soon. The site has been running on SMF (Simple Machines Forum Software) since day one and the overall experience with it was fantastic. However, as SMF basically is an open source forum software (and therefore free), it comes with some limitations and is probably not always up-to-date in terms of Design, User Friendliness and Features. Moreover, it is really difficult to offer the members a member-friendly mobile access to the page. As more and more members of linguaholic.com access the page with a mobile device, it is our top priority to ensure a mobile friendly environment. This is very hard to achieve with SMF and therefore we decided to move to IPB. IPB offers amazing forum software and has many mobile-friendly themes on the market. As for existing members of linguaholic.com, we do try to make the switch to IPB Software as smooth as possible. All individual posts, Ranks and Titles are supposed to be taken over to the new Software and should display in the same way it was the case with SMF. So if everything works out well, nothing will change with your member account! We will keep everyone updated about this change to IPB. Due to this change, linguaholic.com will be down for some time, soon. So if you are trying to access linguaholic.com and get an error, don't worry. The page will be up again as soon as possible (we are talking about 24 hours to a couple of days here, not more). I hope you will all enjoy the change to the new forum Software! Best wishes Linguaholic

General / Language Courses: http://www.polishforums.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/polish/ http://mowicpopolsku.com/ http://polish.slavic.pitt.edu/ Reading: http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/poland.htm http://literat.ug.edu.pl/autors.htm https://pl.wikisource.org/wiki/Kategoria:Autorzy_alfabetycznie Video & Audio: http://www.polskieradio.pl/ http://www.tvp.pl/ Grammar: http://www.learnpolishfeelgood.com/index.html http://free.of.pl/g/grzegorj/gram/gram00.html Dictionaries: http://sjp.pwn.pl/ http://oxford.pwn.pl/ http://pl.bab.la/slownik/polski-angielski/ http://ling.pl/ http://www.wordreference.com/plen/

General / Language Courses: http://www.impariamoitaliano.com/ http://www.oneworlditaliano.com/index.htm http://parliamoitaliano.altervista.org/ http://www.educational.rai.it/ioparloitaliano/corso.htm http://www.italianolinguadue.it/ http://www.oggi-domani.com/site/tableofcontent.htm http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/italian/ Reading: http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/languages/it http://www.letteraturaitaliana.net/ http://www.medialibrary.it/home/home.aspx http://felicitaraggiunta.blogspot.com/ http://www.filastrocche.it/nostalgici/filastr.htm http://www.onlinenewspapers.com/italy.htm Video & Audio: http://www.almaedizioni.it/it/almatv/ http://www.rai.it/ http://www.radioitalia.it/ Grammar: http://grammaticaitaliana.net/ http://homes.chass.utoronto.ca/~ngargano/corsi/varia/indextesto.html http://grammatica-italiana.dossier.net/grammatica-italiana-06.htm http://www.culturaitaliana.it/e-learning/esercizi/index.asp Verb Conjugators: http://www.verbix.com/languages/italian.shtml http://www.italian-verbs.com/ Dictionaries: http://www.dizionario.rai.it/ricerca.aspx http://en.bab.la/dictionary/italian-english/ http://www.wordreference.com/enit/ http://www.sapere.it/sapere/dizionari.html http://parole.virgilio.it/parole/sinonimi_e_contrari/

Teaching a language to people who are not native to it can be difficult and you have to understand that it is not easy even if you are teaching basic language lessons. The students might not be able to speak at all and to have patience to teach and explain is necessary for them to learn and speak back to you but the reward is once they are able to speak after your teaching skills

So, this is my life now. I am a banana.

I wrote this a while back... Step 1 – Isolated pronunciation Goals: Correctly repeat any single pinyin syllable after hearing it. Read single pinyin syllables out loud with correct pronunciation. Do all this with correct tones and know which tones are being used when you hear them. Expansion: Pronunciation requires special attention in Mandarin because it’s a tonal language, with tone changes (sandhi), and a few sounds westerners aren’t normally accustomed to. I know I’ve said this before, but I’ll say it again here – tones are crucial. If you don’t make a serious effort to get them right before you start conversing, you will probably not be understood. Tones are more important than initials and finals (consonant and vowel sounds); there are regional variations in pronunciation of initials and finals, so natives are used to that fact and will give you some leeway with them. But tones are consistent, meaning there is very little leeway, so it’s more important to get them right. How to do it - working with a pinyin table. There are many available - I’ve picked one at random to work with. Pinyin is made up of initials and finals. Initial + final = syllable. You’ll find out later that each Chinese character (hanzi) has a one syllable pronunciation. The table has all possible syllables; there are about 400. If you click one of the syllables, you get a pop-up with audio for the four different tones. The goal in working with the pinyin table is to be able to pronounce all the syllables correctly in all four tones. There are many ways to do this, so it’s ok to experiment, but always listen to the audio before trying to pronounce a syllable for the first time. Here’s the method I suggest: 1) Select the 1st syllable in the 1st column (a), select the 1st tone, listen, repeat; select the 2nd tone, listen repeat; select the 3rd tone, listen, repeat; select the 4th tone, listen, repeat; pronounce the 1st tone, listen, repeat; pronounce the 2nd tone, listen, repeat; pronounce the 3rd tone, listen, repeat; pronounce the 4th tone, listen, repeat. 2) Select 2nd syllable in the 1st column (ba), and repeat step 1. After completing the first column, do them over, but only pronounce, listen, repeat. 3) Repeat for the 2nd column. Keep it up for 30min – 2hrs per day. 4) The next day, do it by row instead of columns. You will need to work through the entire table by columns and rows several times to get comfortable reading pinyin. It takes some time to get comfortable reading the pinyin table, probably 10+ hrs. Spreading it out over a couple weeks makes it sink in much better. Reading about and studying pronunciation. After you have finished your dose of pinyin table work for the day, do some reading. First, read this pronunciation guide in Sinosplice. There is a lot to Chinese pronunciation. It’s best to practice it, read about it, and practice it some more, each time trying to incorporate the things you’ve read about. You will always be checking your pronunciation by listening to the table, so try to pay attention and pick out the things that you read about too. After finishing Sinosplice, work your way through the pronunciation module for FSI. This might sound like overkill, but there are actually some things in FSI that aren’t in Sinosplice. Note – for this stage, focus on single syllables; leave multiple syllables and tone rules for later. Practice recognizing tones. After you feel like you are reading single pinyin syllables correctly, it’s time get good at recognizing tones. I recommend using Pinyin Practice. At this stage, just do the single syllable drills. You can come back to combinations later.

General Online resources http://www.velingua.com (Learning by Translating) http://www.studyspanish.com/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/ (The Spanish section of the very well known BBC language lessons) http://www.duolingo.com (Learn Spanish and many more languages) http://www.spanishdict.com/ http://www.qlipo.com (Learn Spanish through Music) http://www.aprenderespanol.org/ http://www.onlinefreespanish.com/ http://www.spanishunlimited.com/spanish-lessons/ http://www.practicaespanol.com http://www.online-spanish-course.com http://www.livemocha.com http://www.fluencia.com http://www.bowdoin.edu/~eyepes/newgr/ http://www.notesinspanish.com Dictionaries: (mostly English-Spanish, Spanish-English and more combinations) http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp (Dictionary & an incredible forum for many different languages, Spanish included) http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english-spanish/ http://dictionary.reverso.net/english-spanish/ http://www.larousse.com/en/dictionaries/english-spanish http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-spanish http://www.oxforddictionaries.com http://www.hablaa.com (Spanish-English, English-Spanish and much more)

As an Spanish I must admit I'm not very familiar to how you learn our grammar and the terms "present progressive" and "regular present" were complete strangers to me until 2 minutes ago that I googled it. If I'm not mislead you ask for the difference between "Andar/Ando" and "Andando" Well it's pretty much the same as "I walk" and "I am walking" The regular present is used for daily basis actions or general expressions that are "commonly true". For example: Yo ando todos los días para ir a clase. The present progressive is used to express and action that is taking place in that exact moment. For example: Ahora mismo estoy andando para ir a clase. Hope this helps, though I know I'm kinda late to answer and probably you sorted it out long ago

Many people often wonder why kids learn languages fast? The answer is simple. Children practice what they learn a lot. I was listening to a child who is learning to talk and she'd repeat the same words over and over until she got the pronunciation right. And when kids see something they don't know, they'll ask their parent, sibling or someone to trust to tell them what it is. And when they've heard the word they'll repeat it until the parent, says "yeah, you've got it right." To learn a languge well and fast be proactive about learning. Ask questions and practice speaking the words you learn until you get them right. That's how kids do it and you have to admit they certainly do learn new languages really fast.

There is no such thing as an easy language. The level of difficulty totally depends on how much difference there is between your mother tongue and the one you would like to master.

Ok, so I tried three tests, and here's what they say. 1. http://my.vocabularysize.com This one is adapted to one's native language (by the way, I found numerous mistakes when it comes to Russian translation of the site, and it makes me wonder...) You are given a bunch of English words, and you must choose 1 correct Russian translation out of 4 definitions. This is a serious drawback when it comes to evaluating if you really know the words or not: some I wouldn't know how to use but I have heard them somewhere (or I know them from other languages), so it's easy to choose the correct definition. I got "You know at least 20 200 word families" as a result, which is a bit too high. Besides, I most definitely do not think that this is "better than 50% of the native speakers taking this test". 2. http://testyourvocab.com Here you have a list of words where you just tick those that you really know. Probably this is more accurate, and I got my vocabulary size estimated to be about 17 400 words. Definitely more plausible. I also like the statistics you get after the test, and according to this site, native speakers have about 20 000 - 35 000 words in their vocabulary. Yes, I definitely like this site better! 3. http://vocabulary.ugent.be This test shows you a range of real and fake English words, you must mark those that you know for sure to be real. I've first seen this testing method in Dialang (my favourite language testing software), and generally it works quite well. It says I know "69% of English words". I've heard English has more than a million words in it, so I'm guessing they mean I know about 69% of the most commonly used? So what, around 30 000? However much I'd like to believe that, I don't think it's true - or will ever be true in the course of this lifetime. Maybe in my next life, when I'm born as an English native speaker, I'll be able to use that many words... but certainly not now. All in all, I think site nr 2 - testyourvocab - gives the best results in terms of their truthfulness. Let me know if you find any other places on the web where people can test their vocabulary size. It was fun I'd like to try more tests!

It seems that a lot of people here like learning new words with the help of songs, so I have a question for you. How useful do you think it is to write down the words of the song? When I was a teenager and actively trying to learn French and English, I'd swear by this method as one of the most efficient to improve one's listening skills. Those were the times when the Internet in Russia was practically non-existent, and lyrics were not widely available online. If you really liked a song in a foreign language and wanted to understand what it was all about, the only way to do it was sit down and listen to it for hours on end, trying to pin down all the words correctly, and then look up those you didn't know in a paper dictionary. It was hard work, and I was rarely lucky enough to understand every single word, but it was a thrill each time you managed to identify some expression, especially if it was one you never heard before. I had a feeling my listening skills were getting better, and I also learnt a lot of vocabulary this way. Now that I'm a pampered Internet user, I get the lyrics to all of the songs online, sometimes even without having to look for them - I got myself a program that does most of the work for me. However, a couple of days I ago I was extremely surprised (and annoyed, I have to admit) to realize that there's nowhere I can find the lyrics to some Austrian Christmas songs that I have on my playlist now. What? Google doesn't have the answer? Yandex is powerless? Seriously? I had no choice but to come back to the good old "Listen, pause, write down what you hear, listen, pause, try again". Actually, it felt good. I learnt a lot - much more then when I just throw a look at the ready-downloaded lyrics. I felt happy. I now know some grammar structures and some words I hadn't known before. And I thought - maybe my 14-year-old self was not wrong after all? Maybe it is really useful to write the words down? What do you think? And what do you do when you love a song in a language you're not fluent in but can't find the lyrics online?

if he does actually speak 58 languages, we should bring him here to linguaholic.com. Would be nice to have him as a moderator :=)

I’m a native Spanish speaker so I can help you out with this. The thing is that even though all these expressions mean basically the same they’re not the same thing. Some are more casual or informal than others. “Qué tal” is a nice way of asking someone Hey, how are you? This is a nice expression that you can use as, “Qué tal, ¿cómo estás? Now moving to your second example, “Qué Hubo.” I wouldn’t use this one if I were you. It’s not a bad expression, but it’s not nice. How to explain this…like well-educated people don’t use this expression. “Qué Pasa” is not used to ask How are You, it’s more like a question of what’s happening, what’s going on. And “Qué Onda” is like saying, “What’s up’.” Young people used it a lot in the past, but now it’s not that common anymore, but I dare to say that almost anyone who speaks Spanish will understand it.

I actually just finished up a research paper about pronunciation and accents for my graduate program. The relationship between accent and pronunciation is completely inseparable. For English, the two most taught accents are Receive Pronunciation (Queen's English) and General American. Typically learners like to focus their English studies on a popular accent and learn that pronunciation. It's hard for someone who is a NS of English to not teach towards their own accent, but I think it's important to expand your students' input in the classroom from one general accent to others. Perhaps the other accents could include some fluent NNSs and other NS accents. If you don't expose them to these other pronunciations, could it harm their learning? That's not necessarily proven, but it's good to walk into a classroom with the concept of English being an International Language and not one that is bound to a certain group just because that's where you learned to pronounce it. I'm geeking out over here.

A lot of Setswana names have meanings, and are also unisex. So here goes: Girls: Neo (gift) Boitumelo (joy) Gaone (of God's will) Bontle (beauty) Mpho (gift) * Kgomotso (comfort) Basadi (women) Boys: Tshepo (faith)* Kgosi (chief) Pule (rain) Mpho (gift)* Thapelo (prayer) Thato (will)* Tebogo (thanks)* *These names are unisex @DivaDee....I love American type names including Hunter, Chase, Tailor, Tyler and Zac.

Hello there @Chiara Welcome to the forum. In my native language, which is not in your list, but nevertheless. Serbian, we say: Dobrodosla. That means Welcome. I have studied Russian, and French and Greek, and English, as my second language. I have taken great advantage of this forum, learning a lot of diverse things concerning languages. I would love to learn Italian - recently was provided with some software of Italian language on a CD, so I am planning to start soon. Wish me luck.

In italian we don't say "Qualcuno chi studia" but "Qualcuno che studia". "Chi" (who) is more used in questions, "Che" (that) is used in questions and answers like in this case And we also say "Come me" and not "Come io"; "Io" is the english "I", "Me" is the english "me", (but in english it is pronounced "mi", in Italian it is pronounced "me" with a close "e") so as in english, you say "like me" and not "like i" I hope this is helpful!

It is indeed Hangul! Anyway, I asked someone from work and according to her it reads as: insaeng-eun neomo siwon hagoissda! Closest translation is "Life's too cool!" Although, the following is google translates' version of: Life is too cool! 인생은 너무 멋지다. 인생은 = insaeng-eun (life) 너무 = neomo (too) 멋지다. = meosjida (is cool) (kindly delete the reply prior to this one. sorry, slow internet connection. thought, the previous one didn't go through) Deleted your double post as per request. ~Blaveloper

When the landlord asked about this month's rent check, Kim said, "It's on its way."

Hey all. Well, though I've also not heard of "active listening" throughout my 30+ years as an ESL teacher, I suspect that I know what Trellum experienced in the class; it was actually one of the core activities that I used throughout my career. To describe (in just a few words, hard for me! ha) what I did: Students will not be able to comprehend strings of sounds (utterances) until they have developed a "sound bank" of their own. This "sound bank" is a set of utterances (usually full sentences) which help the student when trying to recognize sounds that they hear. Just sitting and listening will not contribute to the development of this "sound bank"-- that is a passive activity. Students have to get the muscles moving, and those will be the mouth muscles. Now, this will not be simply repeating sentences over and over again. It will be sound manipulation exercise, meant to strengthen articulation muscles as well as to help overcome obstacles when trying to string sounds together. There will be a great deal of substitution involved, so a basic pattern may be worked upon, creating the base and words will be changed. A very simple exercise might be: It's a book. (chair) It's a chair. (table) It's a table. (cup) It's a cup. The emphasis would be on the rhythm of the utterance, the stringing together of words (it would never be: IT (PAUSE) IS (PAUSE) A (PAUSE) CUP, but rather [IT sa CAP]. No matter how much you wiggle your ears, you will not improve your listening comprehension through passively listening to speech. You will have to produce that speech as close as you can to the expected pronunciation in order to develop that "sound bank" (and not individual sounds, again, utterances!) that you will use to recognize what you are hearing. Perhaps because the student is actively doing something to improve comprehension, the course referred to in the OP was called "active listening", though I find that term kind of misleading and more marketing than descriptive of the process. Kind of like the "Natural Method" which was anything but "natural"....ha. peace, revel.

Online Resources: RUSSIAN http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language Standard Wiki article about Russian language. http://www.brown.edu/Departments/LRC/RU_writing/index.htm This website is great for learning calligraphy. You simply move the mouse and the system shows how to write Russian letters. http://tools.forret.com/translit/russian.php automatic Cyrillic converter for quick transliteration of Russian words. Grammar http://www.gramota.ru This website is writte in Russian, but includes many rules. http://www.alphadictionary.com/rusgrammar/index.html Excellent web site for beginners. http://www.du.edu/ahss/schools/langlit/programs/russian/resources/grammarx.htm http://www.russian.ucla.edu/beginnersrussian/student/Chap5.htm Dictionary http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english-thesaurus/russian http://en.bab.la/dictionary/english-russian/ http://www.babylon.com/define/118/russian-english-dictionary.html http://www.desy.de/cgi-bin/engrus/ can be for Windows, DOS and UNIX. http://www.ozhegov.org This is online version of popular Ozhegov Dictionary, that has definitions of words. http://ru.wikisource.org/wiki/Орфографический_словарь_русского_языка http://www.freedict.com/onldict/rus.html http://www.multitran.ru It is a great website, that offers many variations to translate the same word. http://translation2.paralink.com This is automatic translator PROMT. It is good for translating simple phrases, but if you want to get quality translation so this software will not be enough. http://jeck.ru/tools/SynonymsDictionary/ The dictionary of synonyms http://www.lingvo.ua/ru Russuian-English and English-Russian dictionary. Besides, you can select any language there. Now, Literature Surely, if you can read Russian you will want to find books in original. Review these links, you will find classic Russian poetry there. . https://sites.google.com/site/poetryandtranslations/ http://www.sussex.ac.uk/Units/russian/Ruslang/ Study works by famous Russian poets like Pushkin, Gogol, Tolstoy and Blok. https://librivox.org It is a database of audiobooks. Great for learners! Available in mp3 format. http://www.logoslibrary.eu/index.php?lang=RU&letter=A&source=search&page=1 Electronic Library with books for downloading. http://www.rvb.ru Virtual Russian Library Games and Exercises http://www.practicerussian.com This site offers Russian tests, lessons and games as well. http://www.digitaldialects.com/Russian.htm Numerous games http://www.russianforfree.com/quizzes-to-learn-russian.php Easy to use portal for learning vocabulary via games practice spelling. http://learnrussian.rt.com/speak-russian/russian-for-kids Games and exercises for children http://www.hello-world.com/Russian/index.php?translate=English Free portal with games for kids Society and Culture To improve skills, learners have to watch films, review news, listen to Russian music and so on. So enjoy it for your leisure! http://www.auburn.edu/~mitrege/russian/art/ Russian art http://nclrc.org/webcasts/russian/ Simplified news with transcripts and vocabulary. http://www.llrx.com/features/russian.htm#dictionaries Russian laws http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17839672 BBC Channel Russian version http://www.bbc.co.uk/russian/russia/ BBC Channel Russian version http://www.bucknell.edu/x17601.xml This site highlights history of Russia http://www.1tv.ru TV channel, which will be god if you want to watch films, TV-Show and so on. http://rt.com News portal http://www.rusradio.com.ua Popular radio station with only Russian songs. Online Russian Language Courses If you want to find a teacher or take some lessons from a native speaker, so follow the links. http://learnrussian.pro/?gclid=COv65vjPrbwCFaHbcgoduB0ARw http://www.russianlessons.net http://www.russianforfree.com/lessons-russian-language-contents.php http://www.ambergh.com/learn-russian/ http://www.memrise.com/course/78454/learn-basic-russian/ And finally newspapers http://www.pravda.ru This website has English version. So you can read news in Russian and in English languages. http://izvestia.ru

I am starting this thread because a member mentioned he was interested in learning this language For those who don't know it, the ''ladino'' language is a dying language, and is the language of the Sephardic jews. I'm one of them, and this language used to be a big part of our culture, but sadly most ladino speakers are old people... and the younger generation of Sephardi Jews don't speak it. The language is basically a mix of (old) Spanish and Hebrew, but depending on where the speaker lives some words from Greek, Turkish, and Arabic are often borrowed. I am creating this thread in hopes I can add more and more resources to learn this language, not immediately but little by little, also depending on the interest of others to learn this language. If you want to know what this amazing language sounds like, then check this mix on YouTube: An interview with a native Ladino speaker born & raised in Israel:

If you mean everyday greetings, 你好 is the MOST common. When addressing a group, perhaps on stage, we say 大家好。 If you want to ask 'how are you', say 你好吗？ 早安/ 早上好/ 上午好 = for use in the morning - the latter two are more formal 午安 = for use at 12 o' clock 下午好 = for after 12 o' clock (this is also rather formal and used for groups) 晚上好 = night greeting (ditto above) 晚安 is mostly used for when you are leaving for the night/ going to sleep If you mean 'greetings' like those on greeting cards, we have 生日快乐 Happy Birthday 新年快乐 Happy Chinese New Year (Spring Festival) 圣诞节快乐 Merry Christmas Essentially just add 快乐 to the festival/ event you're celebrating. Hope this helps!

Hi there. I'm new to this site. My native language is Spanish and I'm learning English on my own. I would like to learn other languages later, maybe French and Russian, but not before I reach an intermediate/advanced level in English. So far I have spent my time reading and listening about different subjects, ESL and non-ESL, like art, politics, languages, etc. I have learned a bit about phonetics and the IPA, about accents in different countries and regional accents in the same country. I still have problems to understand some native English speakers, in particular those who talk like if they were drunk or something. Anyway, my immediate ambitions are improving my listening skills and start to "produce" English. I just want to be able to communicate with people in the Internet. That's it. I'm glad I found this site. Beautiful, beautiful site.

Hey everyone! Just found this forum today, and it looks really interesting My first time joining a forum based on teaching and learning languages. So a quick introduction from me. I'm from Indonesia and my mother language is, obviously, Indonesian (Pretty similar to Malay). But practically in every year of my education, I have studied in English, so I guess my English might as well be my first language. I'm definitely looking forward to helping fellow forum members who want to improve their English. I guess Indonesian isn't exactly a popular language most people want to learn, but I'll pop in the Other Languages section once in a while as well, just in case someone needs a little help with Indonesian/Malay. On the other hand, I am also quite fluent in German, since I took a preparatory course to study in Germany, although in the end, my family decided against me going too far away. My German is actually already at the university level (I even went through the trouble of taking the language exam), but I definitely could use a little help for the grammar. There are way too many rules and a refresher would be nice. Also, I'm currently (re)learning Chinese. I have spent 6 years studying Chinese in middle school, but I was just too unmotivated to properly learn it, and after 3 years of not using a single Chinese word, I'm nearly back to zero again. I'm taking a Chinese course right now, and I'll be sure to check out the Chinese Language section to boost my studies. So, I guess that's it about me. I'll see you around in the forums!

Do you find it easier to learn a language from someone that has an accent that matches the language you're trying to learn? For example, if you're learning English do you prefer the person you're learning from to have an English accent? Or would it not make much difference to you? I didn't think it would matter, and when I first began to learn Spanish I was learning from an English person. My accent in Spanish was then difficult to understand to native Spanish speakers. However, when I learned more Spanish from my friend that is Spanish I found my accent became better in Spanish too and therefore it was easier for me to be understood. I also found it easier to understand when Spanish people are talking to me (rather than English people speaking Spanish).

Hi! Professional English-Spanish translator here. Yes, I've studied a degree in translation and interpreting. I have no strong interpreting skills but I've done many translation jobs since some years ago. There's something I'd like to add to your post - speaking two languages isn't enough. Any aspiring translator should've very strong writing skills in their mother tongue and they should be able to do a lot of research in order to deliver a high-quality job, as well as not to miss the author's message in the source text. While I've had successful moments in my translator career - I've also had big failures. Working as a professional translator is about a non-stop learning process that's rewarding eventually. My fifty cents.

I recently discovered NaTakallam: http://natakallam.com/ It's a startup that matches Arabic language students with native speakers living as refugees in Lebanon, most of whom are of Syrian origin. The project aims to help provide work opportunities for jobless Syrian refugees. Arabic language students who are keen to learn the colloquial Levantine dialect would definitely appreciate having the opportunity to learn from native speakers, besides making new friends from a totally different background from their own.

As a language teacher I have to disagree. ( I teach German, French and English) I`m talking about Switzerland in the following and of course there are exceptions to my statements: French natives hate learning German more than anything else. Swiss-German natives hate learning French more than anything else. But now and then there are students that like that language and what I observed is: Even if a French native loves German, his level of proficiency in German is lower,than that of a German native that hates French in French. And that`s not because I teach French better or anything. TheGerman language is just not as regular and grammatically more complicated. What do you think about that?

It just occurred to me, perhaps the subjects in the study are actually in committed relationships (as you defined) and were asked probably to participate in the speed dating activity. After which the said participants were asked to maintain communication with the participants of the research through instant messaging. the more likely they were to be together three months later, irrespective of how happy they said they were in their relationships at the time. = Ergo, even though the participants in the research were supposedly in HAPPY relationships (with people outside the speed-dating activity), they still were drawn to the stranger/speed-dater in the research whose use of function words were a similar match to theirs. If the results of this research were to be replicated, I can't help but think how funny it is and a bit scary for couples in committed relationships - as theirs could just end because there comes a stranger who happens to use the same FUNCTION words with high frequency as their partner. If this were to be the case, so you guys need to be careful with your use of "the, him, as, be," etc. (After all, these are really things we use unconsciously, haha!)

Study a language requires a lot of practice at home like writing, reading and training pronunciation. Have you ever had some funny experiences about this, or did you ever do a poor figure with someone? For example the other day i was cleaning my room, my mom entered to help me and she found a pair of sheets of my notebook that were written in Korean (with explanations of the meaning) in where i wrote the alphabet and its rules. She was just like this---> because she didn't even recognize what language was ahah, and i had to explain what it actually was. Sometimes it happens even that i go around the house repeating some words and my brother just stares at me in a really bad way. What about you? Some funny experiences?

The first time I tried to practice Norwegian with a guy I was dating back then, back when I used to work and live in Norway. I ended up saying something really embarrassing (I don't dare to say it here) , but thankfully he laughed it off and later explained me what I had just said. So embarrassing, my face got red Wish that was the only time, but I made a fool of myself so many times when I had just started learning English and was learning it very actively (practicing).

well I can help you with the two languages I know : in arabic we say : لا أستطيع تخيل حياتي بدونك I can't = لا أستطيع imagine : تخيل my life : حياتي without you : بدونك and in French we say : je peut pas imaginer ma vie sans toi je peut pas : i can't imaginer : imagine ma vie : my life sans toi : without you I hope that i've helped you a little bit

@pesic87 Thank you for that, it is really helpful for my question! @lushlala There is nothing cool about losing the own origin, you are lucky that you have a really nice family that made you grow up with both languages! @czarina84 Thank you! There is still a lot of words, expressions and things in general that don't know about english (most of all i'm not used to speak english normally so i don't speak it as fluently as i speak italian when i talk). Here one of the most common words that people confuse are "dead" "death" and "died". I'm just one of those people here that really liked the study of languages, unfortunately i had the opportunity to learn only english in high school (some schools teach French and Spanish too, in fact my brother learnt French in secondary school), but i think that knowing the basics could be very very useful...it makes you have a lot of advantages even in daily life, ora at least this happens to me

Now that it's the time of 2015 is running out, I thought it'd be nice to look back and say thanks to people, events and ideas that have made this year a really good one. And where else to start if not here? I don't know about you but for me, this forum has been an awesome find. 1. It has helped me to be more motivated. When I see so many people who are really serious about language learning, and very enthusiastic, well, it's contagious! I want to learn too! And that's why I have finally started to learn all of my languages on a regular basis - something that I've struggled with before. 2. I've learnt new things here that were really interesting. Not only about teaching and learning methods (although there's been that too, and a lot of good links to youtube and other sites), but also about other countries and cultures. I have to admit there are countries I didn't know anything about But now I do, and it's all thanks to people from linguaholic. You have opened up my eyes to the fact that there's a whole world out there - something you tend to forget when the media always concentrates on the U.S., E.U and China. 3. Most important thing of all, I've "met" amazing people here! Seeing your posts always lifts up my mood, and that has an overall positive impact on my life I wish so much we could all meet for real one day. We could throw a big international linguaholic party or something What about you? Was there anything new or useful for you around here on linguaholic.com?

Don't worry means literally "no te preocupes" in Spanish. Spanish speaking people may say someone; "No te preocupes, todo va a salir bien" (Don't worry, everything is going to be okay") and this is the grammatically correct way to use the term.

That is for sure, lol. But in all earnest, it is really fascinating for me to learn these kind of things from a culture I am totally unfamiliar with. And I think I am not alone here, because I think only about 10 % of European people ever get to visit a country like Botswana, much less learn about their traditions, names and culture.

Jesus. The way this guy speaks is rather annoying......:(

In America, Christmas tradition varies from household to household, and depending on religion (or lack thereof). Growing up, we didn't have money for presents. We would usually cook some kind of meal (whatever we could afford) and decorate the two foot tall plastic tree with popcorn strings and ornaments that we had been acquiring for years. Now that I'm an adult, we celebrate with a ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, biscuits (the American kind that are a bread-like product, not cookies) and whatever we want as a dessert. The first think I do when I wake up is wish Jesus a Happy Birthday. I'm a Christian. I don't want to make anyone uncomfortable. I know there are a lot of religions out there and I want to make it clear that just because I believe in God, I do not, in any way, think anything negative about any other religion (or lack thereof). It's just how I celebrate. Anyway, some households open presents Christmas morning. We wait until after Christmas supper. We use the time in between supper and dessert to open the presents. New Year's Eve is pretty much the same around the country. We party and kiss each other when the ball drops. Some holiday words are: Christmas Mistletoe Holly Yule Yuletide Carols Eggnog Candy Canes Around this time of year there are also two other holidays that I know of: Channukah and Kwanzaa. I don't really know that much about either, just little tidbits that I picked up here and there, but everyone talks so much about Christmas and New Year that these two tend to be forgotten.

Here in Bulgaria all womens names will end with a 'ya' or an 'a'. It's easy to define who you are talking too I'd say the common ones are: Georgi - ( shortened to ) Gosho Alexandar - Sasho Mariya Irena Ludmila Rumen It's a strange concept as original names aren't really used here - names by tradition are given and passed down through the generations so it repeats itself a lot and 99% of the time half of your friends have the same name as you.

I haven't seen a single Filipino-produced film in my life. Can you recommend something? So, who is the main present-giver? Babbo Natale or Befana? Or both? If both, whose presents are bigger? Thanks a lot for the songs and the recipe. Nougat is rare in Poland. I saw only several places where they sell it, it's usually French or Italian made, and also pretty good. However, I'm trying to lose some fat around my waist right now, so I've forbidden myself to eat anything with sugar. But holidays don't count of course About Cristian de Sica - I checked it on Wikipedia, he has SO many films! Which one should I start with? Here are two most famous Russian songs - I forgot to give the links last time: Five Minutes The Christmas Tree Born in the Forest As for the traditional dishes, there are two salads that are quite often present on the New Year's table. In case you want to try them out, here are the recipes. They come from my family. Herring under the Coat This one is made from boiled vegetables and salted herring (you normally buy it ready-made in shops). I'm a vegetarian so I used marinated or fried muschrooms instead. You need: - 2-3 beetroots - 3-4 large carrots - 5-6 middle-sized potatoes - 250ml jar of mayonnaise - 250g of salty herring / or 500g of raw mushrooms All the vegetables should be appoximately the same amount. They must be boiled with skin, then peeled and then cut into small square pieces. Herring should also be cut to small pieces. If you go with mushrooms, you should fry them in your favourite oil (and yes, also cut them beforehand - in small pieces of course). Then you take a big glass bowl and put the ingredients in layers: first a layer of herring or mushrooms, then spread some mayonnaise on it, then put a layer of potatoes, then again some mayonnaise on it, then go carrots, mayonnaise again, and finally beetroots, and mayonnaise on top. The salad is usually decorated with some greenery - parsley, green onion and such. Very calorie-rich but tasty. If you don't want to weigh 3 kgs more, just make mayonnaise layers very thin and you'll be fine Olivier Supposedly this one originated from a French chef but now it's the most popular Russian salad ever Here's my family's traditional recipe (it differs from house to house): - 3-4 carrots - 5-6 potatoes - one tin of green peas - 300-400g of mortadela-type sausage (I use smoked tofu cheese for veggie version) - a jar (about 200g) of pickled cucumbers - 5-6 eggs - 300ml mayonnaise - spring onion As usual, the quantites are approximate - there should be about the same amount of each ingredient, except for mayonnaise and cucumbers, so it all depends on how big a portion you want to make. Carrots, potatoes and eggs are boiled, peeled and cut into small cube pieces, and then put into a big glass bowl. Green peas are taken from a tin or cooked from frozen, and then added to the bowl. Sausage or ham is cut into cubes and goes to the bowl as well. Then the same thing happens to pickles (they are the only ingredient that you can add a bit less of, as they are quite strong in taste). Finally, you add mayonnaise to taste and add as much of spring onions (finely chopped) as you wish. Mix well and you are ready to go

What's interesting about this idiomatic expression is that although it might sound like it's cursing, it's actually not. There's also a great deal of intensity attached to it. It has a no-care tone, as if daring the world to turn the tides. And at the end of the day, you (the speaker who uses this idiom) will still persevere. For example: I will love him come hell or high.Come hell or high water, I will graduate with honors.This idiom simply means doing whatever it takes to reach a goal or make something possible.

Manchu is also one of my top 10 favourite scripts! I am also a fan of the Nastaliq version of Arabic script, especially when used to write Urdu or Persian.

I wish I could travel in time, but I leave that to HG Wells. I travel extensively, and improving my languages is often one of my main goals. I rarely spend less than a month in a country, so all that immersion really helps. For example, 3 years ago I took a vacation around the world. I was in Kiev for a month where I studied Russian, Taipei for a month where I studied Mandarin, the Philippines for 3 weeks but didn't study Tagalog, Vietnam for 3 weeks but didn't study Vietnamese, and finally Thailand for 3 months where I studied Thai. I've done 4 or 5 of these big trips, and dozens of smaller ones.

I often hear people saying that Duolingo makes them write dumb things. However, as long as a sentence or phrase is grammatically correct, I still see some use in it because it will help you to master the grammar of a language nonetheless. Sometimes stupid/weird sentences are probably even better than regular ones, because weird/stupid sentences are more likely to stick than just a boring example/sentence.

If you want, you can instead do a Japanese course on Memrise. It's for free too, plus it's made up by native speakers unlike on Duolingo and it uses mnemonics to memorise words (also made up by the community). The biggest difference may be that Duolingo puts more focus on your habit, while Memrise puts more focus on your memory.

So I just tried it and I have to say that it's rather horrible. The words and translations aren't natural and some doesn't even make any sense - what does 'raining cats and dogs' even mean? I'm having a dreadful time on the website so far as I keep failing my tests because of these mistakes. They also keep using super formal and rare words that nobody uses anymore. Oh and some guy (presumably American or British judging from the username) tried to argue with me about my own language in the discussion section when I complained about one of the translations. I'm rather offended by this website. At least now I know that I wasn't exactly wrong for being pessimistic towards this website.

I do not live in the US, but I'm sure that those who do will definitely grab the opportunity to avail of this offer. Aside from that, I think a simple thank you card would be enough to warm their heart.