SpiralArchitect

Cheers. I actually found them using google search only.

Not really. It refers to someone who has taken up more work than he can handle. A alternative would be having feet in two boats.

Bad movie with annoying songs. Sadly, I am a minority as far as the dislike of the movie's music is concerned. Good thing everyone realised what a bad movie it was though.

The language in itself is not very difficult but mastering the cases and gender can be pretty tricky. Most of my friends from South India ended up learning rudimentary Hindi very quickly though. So, if you are around Hindi speakers it won't take a lot of time. Mastering the language though is a different matter.

Elvish and even the language of Ents from Lord of the Rings interested me a lot as a kid. But as someone who struggles with learning actual language, the idea of learning a fictional one never crossed my mind. It would be pretty cool to be able to speak a fictional language though.

English is the obvious choice here. The way things are changing in the world, in a few years time English will become indispensable in a way it is not right now. People seem to be mentioning Chinese because of their fast growing economy. But Germany is a country which continues growing in the face of the economic crisis and I think German is also a language one would do well to learn.

True. Don't dislike it as such but some French speakers can be quite annoying. There's a local Indian language called Telugu which sounds so crass and uncouth to my ears that I can't help but dislike it. It doesn't help that a lot of people in my college speak it and I cringe every time I hear it.

I've read the Clergyman's Daughter and its nowhere as good as 1984 or Animal Farm. I don't think Orwell truly found his voice until the Spanish Civil War had ended. 1984 and Animal Farm are pretty much the only fiction of his that I would suggest to someone.

Classic Poe. I've always liked this story and the fact that it rarely shows up in collections of best Poe stories is absolutely baffling. (Another one is System of Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether, the story has a song after!! Print it more often.) Poe has always been the 'let them think' kind of a writer who occasionally doesn't tell the complete story to elevate them. This one with its ending is one of those stories.

Welcome Anastasios. Nice to have a Greek speaker on the forum. Incidentally, what does Pandos mean?

For some reason, people here in India never seem to get the word monotonous right. Even my English teacher in school pronounced it as mono - tonas instead of in a flow as monotonous. Admittedly, its a difficult word for non-natives, still pretty annoying.

I've personally never used Hindi for filling forms but I've seen people filling forms in Hindi in the bank near my college. So, its not entirely uncommon, at least here in Rajasthan.

I think they can be used interchangeably even though they aren't literal translations of each other.

Well as far as Bush goes, it was probably because of the Southern tinge in his accent. He's from Texas after all.

Would be weird if it did. Picking up the phone and saying 'if if' will pretty much confuse anyone on the other side. :grin:

Which it isn't and never was. Hindi is the most spoken language in the country but from a constitutional point of view, it is merely one of 18 state languages. Sure it is one of the two national official languages but that doesn't mean it can be imposed on people in all states. Frankly speaking, we shouldn't have it any other way. Perhaps making it necessary to have bilingual circulars in the northern states can be a viable way.

Kabhi nahi se der bhali is the literal translation while the former is a hindi saying which incidentally has the same meaning as the English one. "देर आयद दुरुस्त आयद" is thus in no way connected to "Better late than never" from a historical point of view but conveys the same meaning. So, "kabhi nahi se der bhali" is the correct translation.

Actually, the word is in pretty common use in schools in colleges here. Its not like you hear it every day but once in a while someone will use it at an important function while calling someone to the 'dais'.

Welcome Preya. Agreed with what you're saying. Greetings and good byes are the first step towards learning a language. Another word that should be learned is of course, thank you. EDIT- I always thought ciao was used only for goodbye and not for both hello and bye. Ah well, you learn something new everyday.

Is that really a thing because I've never been told something like that? Now, that I think of it there are probably more words which have e before an i. Reign, feign etc.

How about these... 1. have bigger fish to fry - have other, more important, things to do. 2. fishing for compliments - trying to get others to compliment him/her

The level of fluency depends on the region though. In Hindi speaking areas, I don't think there are many students who are fluent in English before they are 15-16. Even then the level of fluency is questionable. Southern India is for some reason a lot more conducive to English for some reason.

Here are a few more... 1. hold your horses - wait and be patient 2. kill two birds with one stone - accomplish two things at once 3. let the cat out of the bag - reveal a secret

In case your Hindi is not that good and you're interested in English translations, go here... http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/arvindgupta/premchand11.pdf 11 Stories Written by Munshi Prem Chand in English

Don't have an accent when I speak Hindi (being from a predominantly Hindi speaking belt of Northern India and having lived in Hindi speaking regions all my life). Because I am from India I do have a relatively strong accent when speaking in English. Its not as bad as most Indian accents are and is definitely better thn the way the stereotypical Indian accent is supposed to be, but its still pretty noticeable.