cefmac

Je suis allée au apartement de ma copine, et nous avons regardé 'Sherlock' sur la télé. Puis, nous avons joué un jeu de cartes. Je n'ai couché pas jusqu'à 0230!

Quelle bonne idée! Je n'étudie plus le français mais c'est très utile pour des étudiants actuels. Salut, je m'appelle Christie et je vais d'Ecosse. J'étudie la musique à l'université. J'ai parlé le français pendant environ neuf ans et je crois que je sois assez bien. Maintenant, bien que je ne parle pas le français souvent, j'aime chanter les chansons de Fauré!

Agreed! The only Almodovar film I've seen in Volver, but it is excellent - I would highly recommend it. Pan's Labyrinth is also good, as is The Orphanage (El Orfanato)...if you can handle creepiness!

I wasn't really confused by any figures of speech as a kid, as I didn't really pay attention to them. The only one I can think of (and I know it's not quite the same) is that my mum used to call me "speedy Gonzales" if I was being particularly slow, and it wasn't until many years later that I realised she wasn't saying "speedykins Alice".

Cool quiz! It told me I should learn Spanish, but I already speak Spanish. However, I scored equally for Spanish, Latin and Chinese, so I guess any of those three could be my result. I'd quite like to learn both Latin and Chinese!

Well, I must confess: I am Scottish and I have never heard of "tartle"...perhaps it's a regional thing! I really like "wabi-sabi". There are a few more which I really like which aren't on the list, like the Greek "sophrosyne", meaning "a healthy state of mind, characterised by moderation, self-control and a deep awareness of one's true self, resulting in true happiness", and the German "vorfreude", meaning "joy experienced when imagining future pleasures".

I don't think there's such a think as speaking too many languages - for me, the importance of learning a language lies not in how often you'll use it but the processes involved in learning it. It teaches you so many important skills, and you need to be dedicated, passionate and diligent. The real debate should be whether it's better to know a few languages very well, or many languages at a more basic level - I'm still undecided. Knowing a language well takes a lot more dedication, which is admirable, but at the same time, knowing a few phrases in many languages is probably more practical.

I like Amelie and Paris, Je T'aime. I guess I just like quirky, optimistic, romantic films. On the flip side, I also really enjoyed La Pianiste (a French/Austrian film), which is very dark and intense. It was an eye-opener, but not really one that bears repeated viewing.

Sorry to be a total pedant, but being Scottish, British and, obviously, a native English speaker I have a few things to point out. "English (Welsh)" is an oxymoron - Wales isn't in England, therefore their accent isn't English. I'm assuming what you mean is "British", in which case Scottish shouldn't be separate either. Wales is no more English than Scotland is - they're all in Britain but separate countries. Sorry, as a linguist, a Scot and a proud unionist, it irks me when people confuse England and Britain, and make out that Scotland has nothing to do with either. Also, there is no such thing as "standard" British accent. What people mean when they claim to love a classic British accent is actually Queen's English, which is only spoken in a tiny, tiny area of the country by a tiny, tiny amount of people and is in no way standard. Anyway, back to the question...I guess I like Canadian accents, Ontario accents particularly. I also like the sound of Scandinavians speaking English.

For a while, I went through a phase of being obsessed with learning a Scandinavian language (I would still like to learn but it's not high on my priorities list). I started off with Swedish, learnt a few words, got bored, then moved onto Danish. I tried to learn conversational Danish using podcasts but it was still quite tricky - each phrase needed a lot of repetition before I could get my tongue (and brain) around it!

I speak four languages - my native English, then French, Spanish and Italian. I'm not particularly fluent in Spanish or Italian, but my French is pretty good. Learning one romance language definitely made the others easier. I'd say it's not that difficult to learn many languages, especially if they're from the same language family and therefore have a lot in common.

I always wanted a penpal in another country, as I loved writing and receiving letters. I signed up for numerous penpal websites but never really got anywhere. I made contact with a few people via private messages on the sites, but it never went any further than that. The next language I'd like to learn is German, so it might be pretty cool to have a penpal in Germany to help me.

I can't think of any particularly beautiful French words off the top of my head, but one of my favourite French words in general is "pamplemousse", which means grapefruit. I just think it sounds cute!

Advise vs Advice Czarownica is correct. "Advise" is the verb, whereas "advice" is a noun. For example, you could say "I'd advise you to give him some advice". A similar one which sometimes cause problems is "practise" vs. "practice". "Practise" is the verb e.g. "I'm going to practise the piano", but "practice is a noun e.g. "I'm going to choir practice". "Price" and "prize" are both nouns but mean totally different things: "price" is how much something costs, and "prize" is an award you would get for winning a competition.

I would agree with you that figurative language is fun - it adds a lot of colour to a language. I use a lot of cooking metaphors. For example, if it's a hot day (like in your example!) I'd say it was, or I was, "roasting", whereas if it were particularly cold I'd say "freezing". I can't think of any other ones I use a lot...although I do often use verbal irony.