Gregor
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Everything posted by Gregor
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Did you have a pen pal in your foreign language class?
Gregor replied to sayitwell's topic in Language Learning
Pen pal = someone you correspond with by letter from another country. I had one from Italy and one from S Korea, but it was all very contrived and didn't produce very much. -
Should colleges for their students to take a foreign language?
Gregor replied to sayitwell's topic in Language Learning
Studying a foreign language should certainly be very strongly encouraged and incentivised in some way, but to make it compulsory I think is going too far. -
How long have you gone without verbal communication?
Gregor replied to sayitwell's topic in Language Learning
I've never really thought about that before. A few days maybe, and having worked with a lot of homeless people who are also friendless I know that they resort to asking people what time it is just to be able to talk to someone. -
Your Favorite Movies with Languages or Language Barriers as a Theme?
Gregor replied to LauraM's topic in Language Learning
I am a sucker for Bollywood movies. I watched a lot of them when I lived in Paris in the 1980s and there was an art house movie theatre that showed 3 Indian films a day for 3 months. Hadn't a clue what most of them were about but that didn't matter. Loved everything with Amitabh Bachchan in it. -
Hey! Do you notice a big difference between American Spanish and Spanish Spanish? Is it as big a difference as between the two versions of English?
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Hi Netra. Obviously you speak English - any other languages?
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Subforum to speak in the language?
Gregor replied to tulosai's topic in Forum Suggestions / Requests
That would be cool having a subforum where I could "speak" French. I wonder though how valuable it would be if there were no native and generally competent French speakers to keep a check on things. -
Languages which have more than 100 million native speakers
Gregor replied to linguaholic's topic in Language Learning
And I'm sure that Charles de Gaulle will be truning in his grave in Colombay les Deux Eglises when he sees that French doesn't feature at all. -
Hey Ariel! Do u get much opportunity to use Japanese, Chinese where u are?
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Hi Kate! Hope it all works out for you. Are u learning at university, by yourself or what?
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I'm curious to know why you chose to learn Romanian. Do you travel there a lot? Do you family or friends there?
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My father asked in a shop for a book on African before we went to live in Africa. That was the 60s when Europeans thought they still ruled the world.
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Novels of JP Manchette are shortish and managable. Since he writes noir fiction his sentences are short, terse and tight with no great flourishes of description. The action is non-stop and fast. Try "La position du tireur couché".
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"C'etait une nuit extraordinaire" opening line in Giono's Que ma joie demeure. Devastating line when you go re-read the novel.
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Linguisitically Speaking, Are Americans Arrogant?
Gregor replied to cinderr's topic in Language Learning
Americans may well be guilty, but they caught it of course from the British who as colonists just walked into countries and demanded that the inhabitants start to speak English. The French did it too of course, and the Spanish ..... maybe this arrogance is linked to something deeper. -
Anyone else want to learn a language but...
Gregor replied to wannalurnspanish's topic in Language Learning
I get that way all the time. When I have the opportunity to speak French I dry up and just let the other person struggle on with their halting English. It's a personality thing I think. It takes a lot for some of us to put ourselves out there but we have to try. -
Is It Possible, in Middle Age, To Become Proficient in a Language?
Gregor replied to cinderr's topic in Language Learning
It had better be because I'm about to spend money on learning Italian and I'mm 55. I think experience can help learning, and at 55 I'm a lot more motivated than at 25. Things can only get better and as they say, youth is wasted on the young. -
What is Hardest- Reading, Writing, or Speaking?
Gregor replied to tulosai's topic in Language Learning
Oh speaking without a doubt. I read French quite fluently but plonk me down in France and it'll take me a few days before I feel at home speaking. -
Well Italian of course. Anything sounds romantic in Italian even if you're being insulted, so long as you don't understand it. Girls can give you the brush of so romantically in Italian.
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Why Spanish is a Language worth learning?
Gregor replied to betita03's topic in Spanish Language | Discussion
I think it's worth learning because I want to be able to read Spanish literature without it being effected by translation. I also want to keep up with my daughter though she considers it to be akin to stalking! -
Is there a language you just don't like the sound of?
Gregor replied to A0130's topic in Language Learning
Now I feel I'm being lead into dangerous territory here because I don't want to offend! However I often feel that German in difficult to listen to - I just can't even estimate where one word ends and the next begins. I used to dislike the sound of Portuguese but I got over that and quite like it now, but the one I have most difficulty with is the Scottish way of speaking English. Maybe it's just negative memories I have about certain Scottish people! -
I just love mastering new scripts - Arabic, Hebrew, Greek and Hindi I have dabbled in just because they all look so beautiful. Only once I feel confident in the script is it possible to move forward.
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If someone says thankyou to you in French you can repl "De rien".
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My Brazilian friend learned French just through watching daytime TV - he became a great cook at the same time!