wander_n_wonder

I get frustrated when I'm trying to learn a new language and when I try to speak up using it, people laugh.  That's really frustrating because I can feel that people are not supportive of my initiative to learn.  I also find that rather rude.

I do not have a formal language coach but I do have friends who speak the local language who are always willing to practise with me.  I think it's really important if you have a chance to actually speak the language.  That's the best way you can ever learn.

I prefer to study in a way that it is spread out through the day.  However, I make sure as well that I allocate at least an hour before I sleep purely for studying.  I believe it is the most effective time to really absorb something because you will process everything as you sleep.

I think one of the advantages of learning a new language is that you can say almost anything you want in front of that other person, and that person will not understand what you are saying. Like you can speak your secrets aloud. For example, you can say how annoyed you are at this person to your friend that can understand the language that you speak, and the person you are annoyed at will never know what you said. Are you guilty of doing this?

I worked overseas a lot and yeah, I'm totally guilty of doing this sometimes. However, I know for a fact that it's also not polite to do so, so I try to limit myself from doing this.  I also feel that it's not nice when you do it in front of colleagues, as they automatically would think that you are saying something behind their back.

Yep. How lazy can one get. Is it really going to take that match time to write you instead of u?

The worst offenders are xxxs using words like 'mah'. People, 'my' is actually a letter shorter than that travesty.

I agree with you!  Some of the shortcuts are not really shortcuts and it's really annoying whenever I see that.  I don't know if people are just trying hard to be cute by doing that.  But it's really not cute at all.  Sometimes, I cannot even understand a text completely because of these kinds of words.

I feel more articulate when my body language matches what I say.  I feel more liberated because it makes me feel that I express whatever I want. 

With this, I make sure that I am careful with certain body languages that might give off a negative impression. 

For me, it was "dadada" and I kind of think this is a very common things for kids to say first.  Maybe because it only requires you to open your mouth to be able to produce these words.  It does not require much complicated tongue movements as well. 

I am a fast talker myself and sometimes you just really don't notice it.  I think it really depends on how fast the thought comes into your head.  I would normally look at fast talkers as very outgoing people, mainly because they sound livelier when they speak fast.  They are not boring.  Also, when someone is talking fast, I feel that I pay more attention by initiative. 

Yes, I do this sometimes, although my tongue gets tied each time I do so.  It's really hard to transition from a local word to a foreign word.  I prefer speaking straight English and then straight local language instead of mixing both.  I also feel it is not very professional and formal to do so. 

I do remember studying a fictional language with my playmates when I was very young, based on our favorite local television show.  At that time, it was very easy to learn it (it's really true that kids remember more).  We even learned how to write certain words because of the fictional alphabet that they were using.  Right now, though, I don't remember any of it anymore. 

I was readin a book and came across this phrase: "Get a load of this".

What does it mean? In the conversation in the book it came from a person who was about to reveal how much something cost.

It prepares the audience that you are going to say something really interesting or important and that the other person has to pay full attention and get full load about this.  It's an emphasis on how important your story is going to be.

Especially for non-native speakers (though all opinions are welcome) what are your favorite books to read in English? Are you comfortable reading in English and is it something that you enjoy?

I love reading the latest books because it's contemporary and it shows me how English is currently used.  I love reading classics as well, but sometimes, they are too conventional that they make me fall asleep.  Bestsellers are modern and it makes me more excited to keep on reading.

I already linked to that page in the OP. If you try to watch those videos, you will see that several episodes in the playlist are no longer available. You will have to search for them yourself.

But if you're interested in English language, it'll be worth it

Yes, this is worth watching, especially if you really want to understand the English language and its history.  Sometimes, that's also important to be able to use the language in a more logical way.  You need to know certain roots and it will be easier to understand why words come together that way.

I was wondering if I could enhance my reading speed as I am not at all satisfied with the current reading speed  :cry:, some of the way I tried is reading aloud, reading almost anything but all proved to be useless.

I don't know what exactly the problem is, I think I can write even faster but not reading. One thing I would like to mention that once I am into reading for longer than five minutes, then its normal and I can read very fluent.

Sometimes, it depends also on how much you practice.  A lot of my previous English teachers advised me to read the newspaper everyday, because it somehow trains your eyes to move down a page by just looking at the middle part of a column.  Since newspapers have very small columns, it will be a good start to train your eyes and then your visual scope will widen until you are able to read a whole page.

The word irregardless ... it just makes my skin crawl! The other night I heard it from a very popular anchor on cable news and wanted to throw my remote at my TV. It is not a good word, yet people use it so often thinking they are grammatically correct. Seriously folks?

I love the quote from Urban Dictionary: "Irregardless Used by people who ignorantly mean to say regardless. According to webster, it is a word, but since the prefix "ir" and the suffx "less" both mean "not or with" they cancel each other out, so what you end up with is regard. When you use this to try to say you don't care about something, you end up saying that you do. Of course everyone knows what you mean to say and only a pompous,rude asshole will correct you."

Go ahead, call me the pompous, rude whatever that wants to correct you!

Anyone else have a word people use too much that makes you want to throw something?

Yeah, I'm also pissed hearing that so often.  And even worse, I would see it even in official newspapers!  I think it has become too common that some people, even journalists, think it's actually a correct word.  It's good to review the dictionary from time to time.

I watched Switched at Birth and it was my first experience watching entire conversations in sign language, aside from interpreters.

I was surprised at the amount of emotions they could convey through hand gestures without using their voice.

It was also pretty fascinating to learn there was a whole, fleshed-out culture for the Deaf.

Does anyone know sign language?

Yeah, I also enjoy watching Switched at Birth and get fascinated by the conversations in sign language.  They are really very expressive in a quiet way.

I have had an opportunity to learn a bit of sign language when I was in high school.  It was not easy and I ended up forgetting about it because I don't have much chance to practice.

I am sorry to say, I think we are. We expect the rest of the world to learn English to communicate with us and until rather recently, we did not go out of our way to learn the language of others. Now that we do business internationally, there has been a push to learn other languages, languages we do business with.

Whatever the reason, I think it's good. Personally, I have to 'walk the walk' and choose my language!

I would not really call them arrogant but just more of straightforward.  I think that's how Americans are really brought up.  They are trained to just speak their minds and that's not always necessarily equivalent to arrogance.

What inspired you?

I hate it when I'm in another place and I cannot understand what people are talking about.  I think it's really essential that you somehow know some words in the countries that you visit, so that you won't look totally ignorant.  Knowing how to converse in another language widens one's horizon.

What foreign language do you consider romantic. Romantic in a sense that by just hearing the words, you find it sweet even without understanding it and somehow you find yourself wanting to learn it.

I personally think the French language is very romantic.  It also sounds so elegant and sophisticated all the time.  It has something to do with the accent.  It's very unique and just very nice to listen to.

The so called "Pimsleur Method"

When it comes to language, there are a lot of different study methods (approach). Not so long ago I stumbled upon the so called "Pimsleur method". I did some research on this and after all, I am quite skeptical abut the success of this method. Why? Let me explain...

In my opionion, grammar (structures) are a crucial aspect in understanding a language. At some point, you will need to know the specific grammar rules about a language if you want to further improve your skills or just simply want to be able to understand why something is said or written in a certain/specific way.

The pimsleur method is widespread amongst language learners of German, French, Italian, English and Spanish. Moreover it is also used for asian languages like Japanese and Chinese.  I am studying Chinese myself (since 5 years) and especially with this kind of language I  really doubt about the success of the pimsleur method. why ? well, because in Chinese I think it is really important that you study  speaking (oral communication) and writing at the same time. The study of characters gives you a feeling about the language and lets you understand the culture and the etymology of the language  very well.  In terms of grammar, it might be ok for learners of Chinese to study it thoroughly at a later point, as it is not very complex compared to other languages’ grammar. ( for instance German ^^)

So may I ask you about your experience with the Pimsleur method ? I am curious to hear more about it. Positive or negative, it doesn’t matter. :=) Share your experience with the pimsleur method, please.

I personally like the Pimsleur method because of the repetitions that they ask you to do.  It has been effective for me so far.  I notice that even after a few weeks, it's easy to remember the things I hear in the audio.  I think the scenarios that they give are also very relevant in normal situations.

Yep. How lazy can one get. Is it really going to take that match time to write you instead of u?

The worst offenders are idiots using words like 'mah'. People, 'my' is actually a letter shorter than that travesty.

Oh my!  We get annoyed about exactly the same thing!  Sometimes, the supposedly shortcut word is actually longer, such as in your example.  It's really pointless.  When I see that, I would think that people are just trying to be cute and that's really annoying!

As a rule, I try to practice decent grammar whenever I can, yet I'm somewhat laid back with others. It's up to the individual whether or not they decide to use proper grammar, but I do believe it gives a better impression of someone when they make the effort.  However, I do get somewhat annoyed when establishments such as schools, hospitals, or government offices fail to use proper grammar, punctuation or spelling, etc. They really should know better...

When learning a new language, though, I do believe grammar should take a back seat, so to speak. If you spend all your time trying to speak perfectly, you will no doubt lose all motivation, and give up before you are fluent. Plus, once you have learnt a certain amount, it will begin to come naturally; you will know when you say something "no, that doesn't sound right", at which point you can look up the grammar and perfect it.

I think it's more important, when learning a new language, to simply make yourself understood. If your grammar is good enough that native speakers of the language can understand you, then you're doing well. There's no point boring yourself, learning every little rule, until you just don't feel like learning any more. It has to stay interesting...

Yeah, I agree that when it comes to other people, it's really up to them if they want to use proper grammar or not.  I tend not to be judgmental when it comes to that.  It depends also on how they were trained at home or in school.  Personally, I might be more particular about my own grammar, but I wouldn't apply that rule to others.

It all sounds simple, learn ten words a day but like someone above said the words need to be revelant for ME to remember for example were is the doctors or what time does the bus come?.

Yeah, exactly.  That's why, if you notice those tourist books, you would often note that they teach you the local language in a way that would apply to your situation as a tourist.  For example, asking for directions, asking for the price, saying hello, asking about basic things like where to find a good restaurant and things like these.

I guess, you are right about asking to parents about our first words, but what if they don't remember it lol? I must have uttered something like mom or dad. Can't say for sure though.

My parents would always say it was just a mumbled version of mom and dad.  But they would always tell me that they were careful not to say any bad words in front of me during that stage because they know how quickly toddlers can actually imitate what you say.

I've had English classes in high school, it is mandatory. But I've learnt much more just by using the internet and watching films and tv. However, I've really started learning it, not just words and grammar, but also speaking, when I moved to the UK. There's a lot of things you take for granted in your native language, just small ways of saying something, that you can't learn unless you actively use the language.

I totally agree with you.  Practice is indeed the key.  No matter how much you read and memorize things, if you are not really able to actually converse using that language, you won't learn it. 

I notice that even with the English language which is my second language.  I learned that in school since I was young, but when I had to live in a place where I had to purely use English in communication, I noticed that my English got better.