MyDigitalpoint

First time I heard that someone hit the nail on the head I had to figure out first what is a nail's head and how painful could be!  :grin:

While I actually know the meaning of this idiom, I was just wondering what do you think of this particular phrase?

Autodidact learning help us to choose from learning random words, phrases or sentences, but most of the times one start learning a second, third or fourth language at schools that usually begin the course with basic words and verbs.

Eventually one can implement their own learning techniques memorizing whole phrases but I may dare to say that all language learning starts with lose words.

Yes! I love cooking and same way I collected books from different cuisines around the world, once that I start learning a language I like to read those same recipes in their original language and cook the dishes to see if they taste the same.

Many times a foreign recipe is translated based on a local setting, substituting not just measures (in example metrical system, celsius degrees. etc.) but also products that are not available as local food, but as importations.

Hence try the original recipe in the original language is away challenging and yet rewarding

While I love digital books and I feel tempted to own a Kindle when it was first released, the sole price of this device makes me think that Amazon Kindle books is not worth.

Many books available in kindle format can also be found in PDF format elsewhere and read on any handheld device, computer or laptop.

As for booksellers of paper books, well I know is their business, but for me paper books is not longer the idea to have a book library at home as I used to have one in the past.

At first, I don't really pay attention of the background unless I expressly choose a language for the background of a country that seduces me.

However as long as I begin to fall in love with a new language, there is a point in the learning process when I start to look into the origin of such language and the culture and folklore of the places where such language is spoken.

Personally this is the first time I heard or read about "selfie" so I definitely wouldn't chose such a word.

I have heard more often "thingie" and this would be my word of choice

From my standpoint, I call bilingual to anyone who speaks two languages regardless the country you are in and what your mother tongue is, and what is your second language.

Never thought of this, but certainly seems to be a great way to improve your Spanish vocabulary.

I would suggest asking those kids to bring up more items that they would like to learn the English meaning, even if only portrayed in a magazine, as in example cars, furniture and so on.

This will surely contribute that you learn more Spanish words.

I dislike to read stats for statistics, prep for preparation, congrats for congratulations, invites rather than invitations, sync instead of synchronization, and so on.

It could be fine in a colloquial conversation, but I don't see the reason to see this abbreviations in articles, as in example.

Oh! That's the main problem with most apps because most of them look pretty useful, but does not work without an Internet connection.

Hence an app is not really a software you can use offline  :shy:

Yes, this is really a good exercise not just to test your actual command of English, but also to know what will be the dynamic of your TOEFL exam.

How hard would you rate learning a new language? In my opinion learning a new language is pretty difficult.

Many times learning a language can be easier based on your enthusiasm.

When one is crazy about a given language, no matter how hard the language is, one find some charming trying to learn it, doing whatever possible to succeed in the less time.

At least I have found that motivation plays an important rule when it comes to lean myself a language.

This is interesting, because I was never aware of extinct languages. This is something that most people would never even know about, nor would they question it.

So true, there are countless civilizations we ignore what their languages were and there are still many other extinct languages we rarely (or never) think about until someone brings them to our attention, just like in this interesting reading.

One good way to test your English and start preparing for the TOEFL exam is the following quiz that you can take for free:

TOEFL Grammar Quiz

This TOEFL grammar quiz focuses on grammar typically found on the TOEFL tests. Choose the correct grammar structure to complete the sentence. Each question has only one correct answer. When you are finished click on the "Next Question" button. There are 33 questions to this quiz. Try to use only 1 minute per question. At the end of the quiz, you will receive quiz feedback.

Link to the quiz is this, http://esl.about.com/library/quiz/bl_toefl1.htm

Some lyrics are truly great poems but certainly not all lyrics are poetry.

Definitely poetry is the expression of English at its best!

Besides brain capacity, I believe that learning languages involves people's willingness plus available time to do it.

A children who starts learning different languages since early age will be more likely inclined to learn more as he grows up.

For mature people, there are living concerns that may constrain the time to study another language, and independently of their intellectual ability are every-day issues what may limit them.

For all those who like to learn English with the aid of video material, I would like to share this link:

English Central provides sentence-by-sentence access to video clips on popular culture, movies, news, and more. Each video is viewable one sentence or so at a time, with a script of that line.

The script is cleaned up, unfortunately, and is missing linguistic features such as false starts, repetitions, and filler words. Each of these "lines" can also be played at a slower speed.

Users can record themselves saying each line, and are scored according to a software program's measure of the accuracy of each sound in each word. Linking, rhythm and intonation appear to NOT be measured, and so this system may give some surprising results.

Unclear words are highlighted visually in the script of the line. 

View all available videos here, http://www.englishcentral.com/videos#!/index/all/all/easiest/0

I look to visit the Merriam Webster site when I need to verify a word or writing reference, but I usually access to it via web browse whether on my computer, smartphone or tablet.

Yeah, it's amazing how many of use I and me interchangeably. I have been using them this way for long, long years without anyone correcting me about the proper use.

In fact I ignored what the difference could be, so your must is truly much appreciated and indeed easy to memorize

I also don't understand why Americans refer to toilet as 'restroom'. You don't rest there. You just do your business. I thought 'restroom' would be a place where you have your break or something.

True! I was also taught that the bathroom is the bathroom, so the first time I saw a "restroom" sign in a door, I keep seeking where the toilet was.

Many of those Americanisms are annoying because you need always to figure out what they mean by this or that, so when I heard that the son of a friend of mine was smoking pot, I was wondering how the "potty" could be connected with smoking 

I try to understand the words of all what I hear, but also try to memorize new words -- or words that are complex to me -- by association with some stuff that I have around, so I can remember them with ease.

One of the languages that really fascinate me is German, and this is probably the next language I will learn when I have some spare time to start with it.

In the meantime I like to browse the Beilstein English to German / German to English Dictionary to start building my vocabulary,

The Beilstein Dictionary (German/English) has been compiled by the scientific staff of the Beilstein Institute to facilitate the use of Basic Series and Supplementary Series I to IV by those Handbook users whose native language is not German. With a total of about 2,100 entries, it contains most German words occurring in the Beilstein Handbook, as well as common abbreviations, alphabetically listed with their English equivalents.

An appended supplement (page 59 onwards) lists a series of “standard formulations” frequently used in Beilstein, together with their English translations.

This is a free online dictionary that you can find here, http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/swain/beilstein/bedict1.html

I don't understand a word of Chinese, but I came across with the following site which Google description says to have a compilation of Chinese idioms, but you or someone who can read Chinese may tell if it's true or not. Possible it is based on the above link, but his has not advetising,

http://www.usc.edu/dept/ealc/chinese/Reading/chengyu.htm

Another I can read because comes with English explanation is here, http://people.wku.edu/haiwang.yuan/China/proverbs/y.html

Understanding what are some of the grammar differences between Japanese and English is easy to learn the language. In example,

The Japanese writing system is complex. It uses three main scripts: Kanji (characters of Chinese origin), Hiragana (a syllabary*) and Katakana (a syllabary). Modern Japanese also uses the Latin script in advertising, or for company names and neologisms such as DVD.

Traditionally, Japanese is written and printed in columns from top to bottom and from right to left. Books start 'at the back'. Modern Japanese is written or printed in the same order of words on the page as English.

Despite these differences, Japanese learners of English rarely have particular difficulties with English writing. Latin script (and English in particular) is encountered by most Japanese in their everyday life from an early age. It is also commonly used in romaji (the representation of the entire Japanese writing system in Latin script, used for example for computer keyboard input or to help non-native speakers learn the language).

Find out all the differences in this Japanese grammar guide online, http://esl.fis.edu/grammar/langdiff/japanese.htm

Well, it's never Greek to me because my father was Greek and I know when someone talks in Greek or not 

However when using English is common to say "it's Greek to me" but when you talk in Spanish it's more commonly to say "it's Chinese to me."

And certainly, I don't understand a word of Chinese and could not identify it from Japanese or Korean, as in example.