BWL

I notice there is some similarity with American English in this respect. The two "T" sounds in "seat" and "seater' are pronounced very differently in American English.In "seat" it sounds like what the dictionaries say an English "T" should sound like while the "T" in "seater" sounds more like a "D". When a "T" is at the beginning or ending of a syllable, it stays the same but when it is flanked by two vowels, one in front and one behind, it softens into a "D" sound.

In Tagalog, it is the "D" that softens into an "R" between two vowels.

I learned Hindi because I lived in a country with a very large ethnic Indian population. Although many of the Indians are of Southern origin and speak languages like Tamil and Malayalam, Hindi music and films were easy to come by and were incredibly popular with just about everybody. I learned Hindi a lot faster than I learned Tamil simply because spoken and written Hindi are much closer to each other than spoken and written Tamil. Spoken Tamil is like French - there is a lot of slurring and ellision of sounds, making it difficult to identify words that I'd learned from a dictionary. Hindi came to me a lot more easily.

According to a friend of mine, usually speakers of Irish and Scots Gaelic can understand each other with some practice. Generally people who speak the Ulster dialect of Irish Gaelic have an easier time understanding Scots Gaelic. The other dialects tend to be more different. Manx is closer to Scots Gaelic (and has a lot of Scandinavian loanwords absent from Irish Gaelic) but the spelling and orthography is based on English and written Manx would thus be difficult for speakers of the other 2 varieties to comprehend.

That's very nice of you, I've always wanted to improve my Turkish but I really do not have the time at the moment. I've learned the basics from my Turkish colleague (we're professional translators so we're used to working in a multilingual environment), but I could use more practice! :-)

I totally agree! When I was learning Hindi, I had no choice but to refer to CM Naim's "Introductory Urdu" for the finer points of Hindi and Urdu grammar. The reading lessons are very good as well, although being for Urdu, you'll be learning the Nasta'liq style of Arabic script rather than the Devanagari script.

http://dsal.uchicago.edu/digbooks/dig_toc.html?BOOKID=PK1983.N2_1999_V1

I've never found a satisfactory grammar for Hindi so far, they're all either large dictionaries or simple phrasebooks.

Brian

Yes! It's "Quand on parle du loup (on en voit la queue)", or "When we talk about the wolf (we see its tail)".

People always ask me "what is the most beautiful word in French" ?

For me, one of the most beautiful words in French is the word « aéroport » which means airport. I like the word « aéroport », because airports are places where you can meet people of different countries and different cultures. In 2013, the biggest airport in France, « Aéroport Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle » has hosted 62 millions of passengers.

For you, what is the most beautiful word in French ?

My most favourite French words are "chuchoter" and "murmurer" meaning "to whisper" and "to murmur". I like the way the sounds glide over your tongue.!

Another cool word is "phénomène" meaning "phenomenon"!

BWL - Considering that they are both Semitic languages and they are all close in region, it would make sense for them to parallel a lot of their language structures/words. With all that you speak (your signature), it's great that you show a lot of interest in Hebrew/Arabic!

Denis Hard - As time progresses, I'll be sure create some pages and post some links that help with learning. I'm currently learning as of now through song and from my boyfriend who speaks Hebrew fluently. I'll be sure to share with you my experience and help you out along the way!

Thanks! Bloomsie! I really like Semitic languages and how they all (with a few exceptions) like scripts that depict the consonants correctly but drop the short vowels. When I read and Arabic text I usually take longer than reading one in English or French as I have to use the time to decipher the missing vowels! Also in Arabic, usually the sign for double consonants (its called "shadda" in Arabic) are not written (unless to avoid ambiguity) so it takes me some time to decide if the word I'm reading is, for example, "darasa" (he studied) or "darrasa" (he taught).

In my experience, African French is rather easy to understand. Some people roll their r's, but I think that might be a regional thing. French is spoken widely in Africa so I think that it might be different depending which country specifically the speaker is from.

Then again, I'm a learner of Quebecois French so my view of what constitutes a "difficult" may be a bit skewed. The Quebecois accent is really difficult sometimes, especially when the accent is very strong. It doesn't even sound like French sometimes!

The Québécois accent can be very difficult to understand, depending on whether the speaker is from an urban area or a rural one, or an educated versus an uneducated background. I really like some of their old vocabulary like "char" for car and even "magasiner" for shopping! For English speakers it a bit like going to a strange English-speaking country where people still say "Wherefore art thou?" instead of "Where are you?", just like during Shakespeare's time!

I find ateji to be fascinating (and fiendishly irregular) like 寿司 for "sushi". I think most people write "sushi" in hiragana these days.

I definitely have had friends with this problem. They usually find hiragana easier to learn than katakana due to the more uniform blocky shapes of katakana as opposed to the more slender and curvy hiragana.

Well the other two Goidelic languages (Gaidhlig and Manx or Gaelg) are definitely the closest to Gaeilge. I heard from Gaelic-speaking Irish friends that reading Scots Gaelic is not too difficult and Manx with its English-like orthography becomes easier when you pretend that you're basically reading Gaelic written by an English hand.

Spoken Scots Gaelic is harder to understand and there are some interesting changes in accent and phonology that initially make the language hard to follow for Irish Gaelic speakers.

For some reason I really like the movie "Devdas" with Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai (she's from the South and from a traditionally Hindi-speaking family). The songs are very poetic and the range of vocabulary (inspired by Urdu ghazals) is quite refined.

This one is very beautiful to watch and listen to! It's the staff and students (together with a cover band with members who are themselves teachers in the school) of a Gaelic language summer school who created a music video (several, actually) of popular hit songs sung in Gaelic. Their version of Avicii's "Wake Me Up" is particularly stunning.

What an ingenious way to encourage language learning!

Yes most Japanese will say that the "-tai" forms are too direct and personal to be used to refer to second and third persons. They say that "-tagaru" and its "masu" forms are much more polite especially when talking about others apart from yourself.

In written French, "personne" must be followed by "ne" so it's: "Personne ne peut savoir". It is also a mark of formal spoken French but is usually dropped in casual speech. "Personne peut savoir".

Don't forget "kusina" for "kitchen"! Even Spanish numbers are commonly used for counting. I believe used for telling the time and to count money.

Actually this little game could be used to learn food and restaurant vocabulary in just about any language! Just change the language and the menu and voila! It's an interesting idea.

There are no two ways about it, if you want to learn German and speak it fluently, you have no choice but to learn every new word with its gender. You can't say "I speak English perfectly except that I don't know how to use the past tense". It's the same with genders in German, they're an integral part of the grammar.

This is an interesting topic. However, my answer is "no" because I believe your upbringing which can be determined by your society, social status, level of education and culture, is far more definitive as a determiner of your ability to make and save money.

My country officially recognises 4 languages; Malay, English, Chinese and Tamil. The scenario is much more complex though, with numerous Chinese dialects and Indian languages spoken all over the country as well as with several Native languages spoken in Borneo and in the interior regions of Peninsular Malaysia. Many Malaysians speak 3-4 languages and have no trouble code-switching back and forth between the various languages.

It's amazing what some people can achieve when they dedicate themselves to their cause. It is extremely impressive that there are people who would dedicate themselves to preserving these ancient languages and cultures. it makes me want to learn at least one moribund language to continue the struggle to preserve our ancient world heritage!

Je viens de Malaisie. C'est marrant parce que j'ai une copine qui confond toujours la Malaisie avec la Somalie! Et souvent ses amis me posent la même question, "tu n'es pas africain?"

Je suis allé aux magasins. Les week-ends je fais des courses, comme d'habitude. J'ai cuisiné aussi, un plat chinois avec beaucoup d'épices.

Well, Chinese is my native language so I guess I have that advantage. i do notice that almost all Chinese language learners I know struggle with the tones and the writing system, which although time-consuming and requiring a lot of effort to learn, is not really that difficult to master.