Trellum

Thanks I'll be at it once again, I'm kinda scared, but also excited. This time I'll know more dutch! Going to at least get to lesson 15 of the course. So after that Ill surely be able to understand at least a bit more Btw, you know what would be awesome?? If you could create posts with some basic vocabulary, the kind of words people like me (who are just starting) surely need help with, like for example the body parts, house and food vocab, etc. It's just a suggestion, in my opinion it would be awesome!

Hi there! Yeah, I will try. I started studying the course again, I found another one, but it's kinda old, it seems to be a good one tho. I might give it a try right after I'm done with this one tho. I really need to finish this course soon, I can say I have already learnt to say quite a few things, but the spelling is still an issue. My vocab is still very limited tho :shy:

You did! Hehehe, btw, I tried to learn the actual old English when I was younger, it kinda reminded me of Old Norse... kinda! But yeah, the English Shakespeare used was magnificent. I wish I could express myself with the same elegance! To have the same level of eloquence...

I think both have their cons and pros, but a one on one class would definitely be the best option f you have the money to pay for it. I know because when I was younger I was having trouble with a specific school subject, so my mom paid a private tutor for me for one on one study sessions! I learnt a lot thanks to that, it wouldn't have been the same in a group class, because the teacher is so close to you and is explaining ONLY to you, if you have any doubt you can just ask him to explain something again and show you examples. The only downside of one on one study sessions I can think of right now is the price, nothing else.

You are right! Hence why some people seem to forget a bit about their mother language after having spend a while abroad. It actually happened to me, it's more common than we think. I guess I'll keep on practicing my Spanish if I ever move out from here, at least read things in Spanish, watch videos and if possible speak it.

That's an interesting way to put it! But yeah, if you don't use it, you lose it... in this case. Learning a language is a never ending experience, that's why you need to keep on practicing it. I recommend you to find pen pals online to practice Spanish with via Skype, that would surely help you tons. Also try watching and reading materials in Spanish.

It really isn't, but wouldn't it be wonderful if it really was? Sadly I used to think it was universal some years ago, when I was a kid but later I learnt that every country had a different sign language. I thought it was as confusing a us with our spoken languages and all that diversity!

Yeah, comprehension has never been my thing, I didn't do so well with it to be honest. Sadly comprehension questions are most of the time present in the most important exams, I know it is for a reason, but they really give me the hardest time ever.

My point exactly! I have heard a lot people say silly things like ''Oh I will teach my kid speak Spanish first'' instead of focusing on, let's say ''English'', even tho they live in the US. No point in that. It has always been of my understanding that teaching your kid the language that is spoken in the country where one is currently living in is a must.

Woah, really? Not sure if ''ain't'' should have made it to that dictionary to be honest, I don't think that weird slang conjugation shouldn't even be added, but oh well, maybe they want to modernize the content of this dictionary as much as possible.

Wow, you are lucky! When I'm worried or just thinking about something else it's hella hard to focus on learning something, isn't cool. I actually need to have a mind free of worries and other distractions in order to learn, because i I don't then those things will surely get on my way.

I'd communicate with my kids in the language that is spoken in the country we are currently living. Then we'd try to teach her the language of the other parent too, just so he or she can communicate with her grandparents when they see them. If you don't want to teach her malay you shouldn't, after all it's your life and your baby.

I think morning is the best time, as you said. Specially if the students had a good breakfast, they seem to learn better this way. In the morning most people feel full or energy and on their prime time to do everything they got to do, this is why I always workout in the morning, because that's when I am full of energy. Studying in the evening was something I did for a while because I had to. Didn't workout so well, I wasn't as inspired as I usually was in the morning.

True to meaning, true to word would not be used at all in my country, after all we are always try to rush things up in court. I know because a relative of mine works as a lawyer. I guess not many court in the world use true to word, not even in the translation of birth certificates.

That's right, Sora. But I have noticed some languages seem to be prone to deliver back some mistaken phrases or words, others not so much. I found this to be very true with Hebrew and arabic. I rather not use Google translate for long and complicated phrases in any other language tho, but I still believe this is better than nothing!

I'm using Google translate along with the Pimsleur course and so far it has worked great, not like I have had to study and guess really hard words and phrases, but so far so good. Hopefully it will keep on being helpful, luckily I have the boyfriend around to help me out in everything he can Google Translate might not e perfect, but it's better than nothing

Great tips, but isn't so easy to find a native speaker willing to do this for free just like that, specially if we are talking about a lengthy document that needs to be perfectly translated. Sadly I think the best and only way to get an accurate translation is paying. I have checked a few sites that offer a really good and accurate translation services for a fair price! I'd honestly never mind to pay cash for that, specially if I really needed the translation and had spare money to pay.

Legit online translation jobs are rare, and when they are there they don't pay so well most of the time. I'm trying to get an online translation job as well, found a legit place, but it's hard to get it! They don't have vacancies open, so it's better to find other places. I don't know many tho, not many that are legit atleast, but the net is plagued with a lot scams. Best of luck!

Sadly I have seen many, here are some of my fav ones: Just when you thought they couldn't make it worse

Best of luck, Crystal, the very same thing happened to my mom when she was growing up. She took English classes, but she never retained a lot of the info, maybe nothing at all actually. Just a few phrases like ''good morning'' and ''how are you''. So I believe it's a myth what they say about kids always learning a language well just for the sake of being kids.

LOL, woah! It sounds like a really bad situation, I mean, our teacher wasn't the official English teacher or anything like that, just a normal teacher trying to multitask. It's a pity Russian students have teachers like that! No wonder most of the Russian people I have met don't have such a good English, those awful teachers are definitely to blame. It must have been so frustrating for you to deal with that.

Yeah, if you think about it, immersion is a really good method because you can definitely feel more motivated, because it's nice to actually feel the need to learn a language in order to communicate with others, specially if they don't speak your language and you are living in their country. I think this might be the main reason immersion is the best way to learn

Uhm, I guess Norwegian is kinda rare, lol. I speak some, and understand a lot of it. I guess you could say Norwegian is kinda rare, since officially speaking this language is spoken only in Norway. Needless to say I love the language and the culture, when I think of Norway I have the fondest memories ever, I get the same when I hear the language :love:

English didn't supposed to feel truly natural (most of the cases) if it's not your mother language, when it's a second language is common for a language not to feel natural. So don't worry about it. If the language you speak most of the time at home isn't English, then is normal this happens. Don't worry, most of us feel this way, some people just never get to feel so natural speaking English, even me after all those years!

I'm afraid it can happen and there isn't much you can do. I used to use English words while speaking Spanish with my family after my trip, but that's because I used the language for a long period of time nearly 24 hours. But when you are learning Spanish this shouldn't happen so often or be such a big problem, so if this happens take it calmly and try to laugh it off, once you learn more and more of each language you might stop doing that so often.