Alfonso

Here are a couple of my favorites:

Da un beso a la botella. - Give the bottle a kiss - Take a swig

Hacer de tripas corazon - Turn your heart into guts Show some guts

When I was in my 2nd year of high school, it was mandatory for us to take foreign language class. That year, the language was Nihongo. Coming from and English / Spanish speaking house, this was very difficult for me to digest. I couldn't understand anything, it was as if the sentence structures just wouldn't register in my head. I spent a year trying to learn the language, and today I don't remember one word, sadly.

In speaking a language I've found being able to get my point across is much more important than being grammatically correct.  My experience living in foreign countries for more than 13 years is you are given respect for trying to communicate in the native language.  I internally cringe when I know I'm slaughtering verb tenses but the shining smile I receive for trying eases the cringing.

As for writing, grammar is important.  The advent of chat and texting is throwing all that right out the window even in my native English.  If I'm writing a business proposal I triple check my grammar while writing a Facebook post I'm much more lax.  Circumstances dictate more my inner grammar police than anything.

That's tricky business, you won't know if your getting your point across accurately since most people will just nod their head indicating they understand you even if they don't, or they may understand you but not in the exact way you intend them to. Good grammar will get your point across accurately without making you look funny.

Good question, I'm torn between 2, my English teacher in my sophomore year in high-school and my highschool football coach (I know hes not exactly a teacher or professor).

My English teacher was nothing short of a terror had the worst looking frown I've ever seen had the worst temper among all my past teachers. She'd blow her top for just about anything wrong in class, from students chatting , sleeping, even if you looked like you weren't listening, every student was at their best behavior during her class.

My soccer coach would make us jog around our football field for an hour, and if he caught you walking or taking a breath, he's add 15 minutes to your jogging time. He had tattoos and a beard, he would smoke even if it was prohibited and would curse with almost every sentence that came out of his mouth.

For a computer you can try this free software from Byki. I've only started using it recently and so far I'm learning a good deal. English-Spanish dictionary apps/programs are handy too.

http://www.byki.com/fls/free-spanish-software-download.html

I found a nice Spanish study software from Byki, and the best part is you can use it for free, you just have to sign up with your email. It incorporates audio, is easy to use and easy to understand. I've had it for about 4 days and my Spanish has improved quite considerably.

Download the software through the link below.

http://www.byki.com/fls/free-spanish-software-download.html

That would all depend on how much time you spend immersing yourself in the Spanish language. It's not a very hard language to learn in my opinion and how long it will take will all depend on how much time and effort you put into learning it.

The best advice I can give is to converse with your son in Spanish as much as you both can, even if its difficult at first, that way, you'll both be practicing Spanish and enhancing your vocabulary and fluency. Conversation is the best way to learn any language.

I find that movies and TV shows helps a lot with learning a language. TVE for instance helps me a lot with the little Spanish that I can speak today. Can anyone suggest any good or classic Spanish movies with subtitles por fabor?

Language barriers are definitely an issue when it comes to communication with foreigners or with locals as a foreigner. I'm sure the world would benefit if everyone knew how to speak English. As repeatedly stated in this thread, it is the universal language. Without a doubt, fluency in the universal language is a must for everyone.

Idioms are fun! Some of my favorites are "it's hot as hell", "break a leg", "knock on wood  "Another one bites the dust", "between a rock and a hard place". Daily life wouldn't be the same with out it.

This is true, I noticed its a common thing for people to think about translating their native language as a basis when trying to speak a new one. I unconsciously do this sometimes, and when I notice it, I stop it right away because its not a good habit when learning a new language. A lot of different languages have unique sentence structures, I guess you can consider it to be a specific language's unique signature.

To put it in basic terms, lo siento is used for more personal situations like a loss of a loved on or a personal fault, basically a very sincere and personal apology. Perdon can be used more informally and casually, like bumping into someone in public, a casual accident, or coughing / sneezing in public sort of situations.

I don't think any waiter in Spain will confuse your order with dog. Its very common for most languages to have words that a pronounced the same but spelled slightly different for instance in English, right-rite, weight-wait, which-witch, no-know.

I guess you'd say "Pollo pero no salsa por fabor":  :wacky:

Hello! Welcome to linguaholic!

Based on my experience, the hardest thing to to would be writing. When learning a new language, most of the time learning a new language starts with speaking or reading. Writing is more difficult because it requires an understanding or speaking and reading.

I heard a story about a Filipino elevator operator at a hotel and a Filipino hotel guest. When the Filipino guest got into the packed elevator, he greeted the operator in Filipino, he then asked him the question "Bababa ba?" and the operator quickly nodded answering "Bababa". The other people in the elevator were stunned and couldn't figure out what language they were speaking. Baba means down and ba-baba is a version of this word meaning going doing, and ba is a work used to ask a question is Filipino example, umuulan ba? is asking is in raining? in English.

Very inspiring story. It's no doubt that Tim Doner is an intelligent guy, its a big deal to know 20 languages at such a young age. Its a big advantage to live in a city that has so many different nationalities and different languages spoken, after all New York's has a very ethnically diverse population.

You naturally lose fluency in a language if you don't speak it on a regular basis. The best and easiest was to maintain it is to re-immerse yourself in Spanish. Try to first and most importantly speak Spanish with your friends or family, or watch some movies or news in Spanish, try reading a Spanish materiel every now and then and I'm sure your fluency will come back or at least improve.

I think slang has a lot to do with sub cultures and growing up. If you notice contemporary sub cultures like hip-hop, skate boarders, dread/rasta, metal heads, etc all have their own slang going on. I used to have a lot of slang in my vocabulary, I think I started to speak proper slang free English when I was 22. Now I just find it amusing and sometimes annoying.

That a pretty neat trick, thanks for sharing it. I guess using the number of Google results to verify the correctness of a statement works but it could be time consuming. Google's define feature is great too and seems like a more practical verification tool.

I would like to learn Spanish next because of the obvious advantages of learning this widely used language. I'd also like to learn German or French but I imagine having problems with pronunciation and the distinct accent when speaking French. 

I've always thought about it as a way of saying your going to endeavor on doing something until it's done. It usually relates to taking on a challenging or tedious task for example, "I'm gonna hunker down and finish my project tonight".

SO TRUE! I personally make it a point to use proper spelling and sentence construction when I communicate through computers or mobile phones. Though I can decipher some of the weird spelling I see used now a days, It's really frustrating to read, especially when it comes to texting.

I can only see two roots to this problem. Its either people don't know how to spell or people are too lazy to spell, perhaps a combination of both.

Please tell me which word is correct in the following sentence, who or whom?

Yesterday, I saw a familiar man Who/whom I thought was my old friend since at high school.

Can you tell me whether who or whom is the correct word to use here?

I would say the proper use would be who since your referring to a specific person.

As far as I know who is used for reference to specific people and whom can used used for both a specific person or a group of people.