Eudora13

Do you know of any words that are no longer used in the English vocabulary? I remember reading words like "twattle" in classic novels, meaning "to gossip", or "beef-witted" meaning "stupid or imbecile". I quite liked these words and feel they should never have gone out of use. Are there any such words in your mind that you wish were still there?

I learnt French about six months back. But I lost my fluency due to lack of practice. Are there any sites that can help me get back on track? I don't have any French speaking person around with whom to converse and learn. I've forgotten all the grammatical rules that I had so painfully learnt! Any help?

I like classics better than modern light reads. Wuthering Heights is one of my all time favorites too. I love the works of Austen and Charlotte Bronte, Dickens and Tolstoy as well. Amongst modern writers, I enjoy reading Camus, Khaled Hosseini, to some extent, Paolo Coelho. I really enjoyed Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden.

I hadn't thought about this before but now that I saw this thread, and read some of everyone's views, I just realized that even I feel very weird and stupid saying the word "probably" There are just too many 'b's and I feel my mouth getting fat and falling trying to say it. Also there's a word "remuneration" that I keep calling "renumeration". Oh and amongst animals, I wish I never had to say the word "hippopotamus". What a god awful name for a poor animal!

It isn't about whether or not the world will benefit from learning English. English is arguably the most spoken language today because, like someone said, the economically leading country in the world happens to use English nationally, and money makes the world go, we all know. But if it was Spanish or even Urdu in its place, then the world would have equally benefited. It is always better to know the language that the world speaks in.

Absolutely correct. You could not have explained it better.

I agree with you Tulosai, even I find French very pleasing to the ears. I like listening to Arabic too. It sounds almost like music, their vowels are so long drawn out it makes the edges of words soft. The same can be said of my mother tongue: Bengali. English is rather hard on the ears, unless its spoken like they did in Wordsworth's times. Lol But Cinderr, you're so right there!

I had to read a few original Hebrew works as part of my literature course. I found it absolutely, well Hebrew! But the hardest languages for me are those that do not follow the Roman alphabets - Chinese and Japanese in particular, I cannot make out the subtleties in their dots and strokes. But to be honest, any and all language will seem hard if I don't practice, which I don't.

Ok, this is me. I had learnt French and I had become quite good at it. But after my teacher left I had no one to freely speak with, I never spoke to my other French class friends in French. Cause I didn't want to make a fool of myself! I wish I was bold enough to not care! Darn. :bored:

Of course it is possible! Middle age is hardly late enough to inhibit language learning. All you need is someone to converse in that particular language with everyday. You're never to old for anything, until you mentally feel it, or physically can't take it any longer.

I've never heard of this used before. But seriously it kind of negates the point they are trying to make! How ignorant of people.. What irritates me to boiling point is the utterly insane use of the word "like"... I, like, went to my friend's house and she was like, you know, why don't you like ever call before you come, like she ever does, i mean like.. What the heck is that?! Like means to simple appreciate or have a positive predisposition to something...or when it's used to compare one with another! I feel like throwing something at people every time that word drops out of their mouths! UGGHH!!

I learnt because I was put into a school where they only spoke English. I didn't even know it was a different language until I was about 5 or so. Looking back it almost saddens me that I know a foreign language better than my mother tongue. Practically speaking though, this is one language you need to know simple because it's the world's 'national language', if you get what I mean...

There are some words which have polar opposite meanings... I don't know why but the word "gay" popped into my head when I read this thread. Once upon a time 'gay' meant being happy and jovial, now it means, well you know what it means. Then there are these words - bitch, vixen, fowl, ass. I wonder what these poor animals ever did to have their name linked with such negative meanings! The word 'fish' has many meanings: the animal, to fish out or to draw out, 'oh fish!' - a swear word, fishy or something not quite right....

Oui!!!! cela aidera! (I don't know if I said it right, I meant "yes, that would really help!") I'm not in touch with my French teacher anymore and I've lost all fluency in the language. Have you been learning or are you a beginner like me too? If this thread actually works I might just pick up the pieces of my 5 month effort!

I've come across this site before but found it too easy to be valid enough. Will this level of english do for Toefl? I'm planning to take this exam along with GRE next year so I'll have to sit with my books sooner or later. If a full score on this site means I'm covered for at least one of the exams, it'll be a HUGE relief!

I've been wanting to learn French and Spanish since I was in Junior school. I bought books, looked up the net and even tried to learn the grammar and stuff, but somehow it never happened. It wasn't until I took French lessons from an actual French guy that I managed to go anywhere near uttering sensible French sentences. Sadly, now that he's gone and I have no one to converse with in French, my fluency (or whatever little of it there was) is going down. So personally, I feel the best way to learn a language is to speak it and hear others speak it. I mean what's the point of knowing the grammar if you don't know how to apply it? I'd say, learn to speak it and then follow up with the rules.

I feel embarrassed to say that I know no other language properly besides English, Hindi and my mother tongue. I took French classes for a few months. I managed to learnt it somewhat, but as the course got over so did my practice stop. Now I'm back to square one. If I can keep my determination on, I'd like to learn Spanish and Arabic next, and German too. I admire people who can speak in several languages at once!

When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, 'I used everything you gave me'. ~Erma Bombeck "When in hell, keep going. " ~Churchill These are my favorites ones simply because they keep pushing me forward no matter what.