Trellum

Kektheman, could you guys live it at... ''everyone is entitled to their own opinion and no one is right or wrong''. In my opinion this is a very subjective topic, to you french might sound great, but to this guy German does and that's fine, because he has all the right to like what he likes, just like you have the same right. Saying one language sounds better than another is going too far tho, because I'm sure there are people out there who like German more and hate french, or people who like Norwegian even more. To YOU french sounds better, but to others DOESN'T. So let's not get polemic and accept everyone has different tastes That makes the world a wonderful place, in my opinion at least :grin:

We are on the same boat, I do think french sounds ok, but I don't really understand why it's everyone's favorite. I really think it has a lot to do with the french culture and mysticism, more than the language in itself. I'm not a big fan of the culture either, so maybe that's why I don't find french that amusing, but most people I know think it sounds so romantic, but maybe because whenever they think about french they think of romance and Paris.

I'm learning a language that is very similar to German, and let me tell you that the pronunciation is very hard! I know you'd hate it for sure as well, it's dutch, lol. Well, I prefer it over German, because the way it's written is less confusing! I like how Germans use capitals for objects and so on. That's really cool and informative As for french, yeah, it sounds nice and it seem to be the favorite language of everyone here!

I once met a Vietnamese girl when I was living abroad, I also thought the way her language sounded was kinda odd. I then saw how they write it and thought forget it! Cantonese? Really? Do you plan to learn it? If you do, then let me tell you that you must be a really brave person, learning to write and read Chinese must be really hard! But good luck, I heard it's the best language to learn if you want to get ahead in the business world.

I agree with you, I actually learnt English entirely on my own that way; by just using the language. I used it daily as much as possible, I first had to pay a lot attention to what people said tho, I had to learn a few phrases and then start to use them to communicate with others. I made a lot mistakes, but it was thanks to that I could learn it.

Get him an audio course or an online one, there are several good option online that are completely free. Other than that all you can do is support him and answer all his queries. He needs to take a course tho, so at least he gets some guidance and direction.

Plan you classes ahead, there are several to do this. I had a sheet that was divided and listing things like activity name, description, time, etc. That was the core of my classes, the descriptions were sort and often used small signs or drawings as keys to remind me what the activity was all about. I did this so I could look at it really fast, without the student even noticing. I recommend you to do the same. I also recommend you to show them some authority since the start, specially if you are dealing with teens. Because if you don't, then you might have troubles trying to make them follow your instructions. Be firm, don't hesitate or show any kind of weakness, show yourself as calm and confident as possible.

I totally agree with you! Non-natives surely have a lot useful tips to share, plus they make you feel less nervous or intimidated. But I noticed having a non-native as a teacher can backfire, specially if the students and the non-native teacher speak the same language. When I was teaching the kids obviously knew what my mother language was... it was their mother language as well! So they often tried to speak in our language! That's bad, because hey weren't even trying to put the effort to communicate their ideas in English.

Spot on, Sarah! What you said really makes sense, I'm not a native English speaker myself, hence when my students asked me something regarding to certain verbs and idioms it wasn't so hard to answer, because as non native English speaker teaching English I had to think about every aspect of the language (or almost) in order to start teaching it. I still preferred to be taught by a native tho, mostly because their pronunciation was much better. There were some teachers that weren't natives, but I lied their teaching styles.

I used Duolingo for a bit, I used it to learn Dutch, but for some reason the things I learnt there didn't stay in my mind. It was like I couldn't really memorize all that. I guess I still need to type everything I learn, taking notes is very important, but with apps we often think that taking notes isn't that necessary.

My mother language isn't English, and I have read plenty of fiction in the language. My favorite comic is the walking dead comic, it wasn't the first fiction I read in my life (in English), but is the one I remember the best It didn't help me improve my English tho, the English used in that comic can actually confuse an English student.

I'm not 100% sure, but I read somewhere that there are 147 different language families. I'm not sure if we can be 100% sure of that number, but according to the site I read there are 147 language families. I guess different experts surely have different numbers.

It has to be chinese, english and spaish. No doubt about it. I' dare to say the language coming next in the list would probably french. I speak 2 out of the 3 most spoken languages

I'm guessing you come from a Chinese family or something like that? I ask because more st people I have met with the same issue as you came from a family where both parents spoke two different languages, most of the time living in a foreign country for both of them. I doubt this will ever happen to my child, because they will speak my language st home and their dad language at school or with friends.

I was actually thinking the other day that the only way I would ever make the effort to learn sign language is if one of my kids is born deaf. Otherwise there is no way I would ever learn it, unless there were more job opportunities offered to people who could speak sign language. I wasn't this clear in the first reply.

It can definitely done if you are smart and motivated enough. A letter in her language along with a nice gift from you will surely make a great birthday surprise! Don't expect to master Greek in just 5 months tho! You can surely expect to get a general grasp of the language and be able to speak to a basic level.

The school I was going tho tried to teach us English, which was futile because they had one teacher for everything and her English was worse than us. Lol. No real learning over there to be honest. It didn't even awake my interest to learn the language either. I had better luck learning the language on my own. I did much much better actually.

It's funny you ask, I'm learning a new language because my boyfriend speaks it, so I guess that sounds If it wasn't for him I'd not be learning this awful language, I completely dislike it. It was the last in my book, even when I used to be really interested in learning languages as hobby when I was a carefree teen. Funny how ironic life can be, of yeah, it hit me on the face. So yeah, the fact he his a native speaker of that language is helpful, but not too much, since he lacks order and initiative to help, but oh well.

Yes, Dora. There definitely are people out there that no mater how much they try thy will never learn a language at all or properly. Many times isn't their fault entirely tho, since not everyone has the talent or sill to learn a language, even with all the motivation in the world. If the motivation and desire is there, but the person isn't making progress despite the person dedicates his or her time to study then is definitely not their fault. It can happen. Of course there are people who cant learn because they're just plain lazy. But that's a different story.

@PashaR, I completely agree with you. I have met a loooot Spanish speakers living and working in the house for decades and so far they haven't even a basic knowledge of the language, they can't definitely communicate with English speaking people! Some of them have learnt the basic, but many of them don't. I also blame it on their laziness, since a lot people over there speak Spanish, they can work and live that why so they probably thing... why bother then? I but they'd have better opportunities if their learnt the language.

Rosa, I know a lot families like that in the US, where some of my relatives live. The kids end up speaking English only or a mix of Spanish and English, a very broken one. But many of them end up being monolingual, it's quite common. It happens in countries like the US a lot. I guess the parents don't see the reason to teach their kids the language spoken in their country, some are actually not proud of their roots, others are, but don't see a good reason to put all that effort.

The guy I'm with is form another country and speak another language, if things go accordingly we plan to actually have a family together. We plan to teach the kids my language as well, they'll learn English at school, his language for everything else and mine at home. We do that so when we go visit my parents they can talk to the kids and understand each other. When you are in a relationship like this is important to teach them both languages.

I thought so as well when I was little, but some years ago I found out the truth I went to school with deaf kids, so I got to see how they used sign language to communicate and learn at least a few words. I guess it must be easier to learn another sign language once you already know a sign language. It's just my guess.

You are welcome, Michael I think what you are doing is very noble and those who don't offer constructive criticism shouldn't do that, since you using a big portion of your time and effort into this project. That's a really wonderful thing and I can do nothing but congratulate you and wish you the best luck ever!

My boyfriend swears that's how he learnt English, he says it was thanks to the fact everything was subbed instead of dubbed. I agree, I didn't have a close encounter with English until I was a teen. It was too late then. I'm sure I'd have been able to learn it sooner and way easier. Sadly children in our country are getting used to dubbed movies and TV shows. Yup, even when you go to the movies almost everything is dubbed. I really hate it, I prefer to watch subbed movies.