Trellum

Yeah, I agree with you. As a Spanish speaker there are words that are a bit difficult to spell right, specially when it comes to the genre. There are nouns that give you no clue what their actual gender is, not so long ago I thought ''Sartén'' was masculine, but in fact is feminine! My mother told me once that is: ''La sartén'' and not ''el sartén''. Spanish is a tough language to learn, getting the genre of words right is truly tough!

Really??? I knew Spanish was widely spoken in many parts of the world, but is it really the second most spoken language in the world?! I thought the second most spoken language was arabic or french, then Spanish and then English. Heh, I guess if this is true then I guess I'll have it easier when I travel :grin: I'm not sure I'd try to learn Spanish if it wasn't my mother language tho. Glad it is.

Oh my, I also love the Japanese culture! I have a friend who feels the same way, he is currently learning japanese. He said he had already learnt quite a bit thanks to the anime he watches daily I have learnt quite a bit thanks to anime as well, btw! It's amazing how things like anime can actually help us learn a language like that. I have only learnt a few words tho, there is no way I could ever dare to even try to learn how to read or write japanese... too complicated for me For now I'll be content watching anime

Uhm, I rarely stop to think the hard time most people trying to learn Spanish have when trying to roll their ''R's''! But I can imagine how hard it can be, since I have seen how funny some things they say sound if they don't roll their R's right. Because actually it's very hard to understand some of the things they say if they don't roll their R's right! I can't offer tips, since I really think rolling a R right isn't so easy at all! For me it's natural... in the end it has everything to do with how you position your tongue! Whenever I say a word with a ''RR'' sound my tongue softly leans over my palate and the R's roll like that. I don't recommend people to exaggerate it tho, the tongue must be touching the palate so softly.

I actually managed to learn English that way I love self-learning, but to be honest I don't think this is for everyone! I only encountered a problem while using this method; it's very hard to stay focused if you are not motivated enough. You need to be super motivated in order to make this work!

That's an excellent point! I actually think most of us depend too much on the internet and fail to even imagine a reality without it. You made an excellent point, having a dictionary handy is indeed helpful, I have two different dictionaries and will surely take one of them with me next time I travel abroad. I might end up needing it!

It's kinda funny to read this, because with me it's all the opposite! Most people I speak to in English think I'm french because of my strong accent that I must admit certainly sounds like french! It's funny, because I have no idea why I sound french, and it hasn't been only one person telling me this, but several! I thought my accent was neutral, until heard my voice in a video, then I realized I do sound very french. The horror! LOL. I was disappointed, I truly thought my accent was much better and neutral.

The possibility of moving to the country where the language I wanted to learn was spoken. Right now I'm no longer sure I'll be moving any time soon anymore, so I stopped this last 3 days. I will be working on improving my English and reinforcing some orthographic rules in Spanish. My reason to learn English in the begging was the liking to communicate with more people and expand my horizons! That's one of the reasons I started trying to communicate in English with other people in the begging. I made a lot mistake,s I was even laughed at, but in the end I won! People pointing out my mistakes or laughing at me was never a deterrent; I couldn't stop!

I've a lot trouble trying to stay focus, and I've had it since I was a kinder garden student. Yup, that means that the conventional teaching methods don't work well for me, and that's exactly why I could never learn English using books alone. I had to immerse myself in the language and practice it as much as possible without fearing or not caring whether I made a mistake or not. I think the real key to staying focused is motivation, sadly I lack that right now. I also lack the time to practice the language.

Yes, I know a few colloquial and slang words in my own language that can't be translated directly to English, but some approximations can be used instead, one of them is ''Caramba''. A friend of mine was asking me the other day what was the exact translation of that word, I tried to give him the closest approximation to English, since there isn't a direct translation. I can't really think of others right now, but there are several in my language, specially colloquial words and expressions.

Hahaha, Irene! Well thought! I'd definitely do the same if i had the time and could afford to invest that kind of effort on a similar enterprise Sadly I no longer have a lot time to spend, not feeling so well lately either... But in the future I do plan to get the Hebrew for dummies book And hopefully learn some colloquial Hebrew.

Well, after reading your post I can conclude two things: 1) You have never had one of those books in your hands (or maybe did but didn't take the time to thoroughly inspect it). 2) You did check a book from this series, but the course you got was poorly edited and full of mistakes or it simply wasn't of your liking. It happens. Truth is not everyone likes to use self-teaching courses, this isn't for everyone. Personally books never worked for me, no matter how easy or well organized the course seemed to be; I just couldn't focus and learn something. I have a very peculiar way to learn a new language... some think is kinda unorthodox, so do I.

I honestly think that's exactly what he meant to create I think he might not be able to explain why one would choose to use his site instead of a flashcard program, don't use it if you think your flashcard system is better Some people actually like to practice online, because they find it more practical, after all not many so us like to install things on our PC. Actually if you think about it... the latter is a plus.

I really liked the site, don't listen to what that user has to say... if they don't like it not your problem In my opinion your site seems to be super useful, I like the design and the UI. I like flash cards, been thinking of using those to learn new vocabulary, I think using images and text is a great idea to memorize new words. Back in the day I made my own flash cards with images I found online, I was delighted to take the time to search for those images online actually. It was so fun, it was back then when Microsoft had a big clip art gallery.

Oh my...!!! You like Rammstein as well!? I never thought you liked that kind of bands as well, that's completely awesome, girl! I remember doing the exact same thing you described in this post when I was 13 years old and I had just started listening to that bad. Up until today I'm still a fan of their music. Amazing how things like this can make us learn a few new words in a different language, huh! I actually did the same thing with English bands.

I like to use online dictionaries, but I also have an app that helps me find words on my mobile. It's way more useful than the PC or an electronic dictionary, because I can check several sources at the same time. Quite handy. I was given a paperback dictionary, but I rarely use it to be honest. I just don't feel like picking it up and using it. If i need to find a word and I'm at home I just do it online. That's simple

i might have to spend a few euros very soon in a course I really need, but that's it. I don't plan to spend more on learning this language. Simply because there are plenty of free resources online, so why bother? Right. With this awful economy it'd be silly not to take advantage of the free resources online. There are some really great choices if you are willing to spend some cash on learning a language. I checked several great online courses online, they were all interactive and very cool.

I was in the past, after all learnt English all on my own. It was easier than I ever thought t would be (I've told the story several times already, but oh well, lol). I was 16 when I started learning English online, all I used was yahoo chats and the e-mail. I wasn't really motivated to learn anything, I mean, I didn't even plan it; it just happened. I know it sounds weird, but I just followed the flow. Right now I have to learn dutch on my own and to be honest I'm not feeling so motivated I really want to and need to learn it, but I barely have anytime and if I do I feel so tired and don't feel like sitting thru 30 full minutes of the course + plus the time it takes me to take notes.

You sound so much like me when I was younger and very eager to learn a new language just for fun. Back then I used to tell myself that all my effort would pay off sooner or later, because if I learnt to speak that language well then more doors would open for me and I'd get o meet a lot interesting people and interact with them in their own language. Funny how things change! Barely have any time to learn a new language nowadays, but have to learn dutch because I really need to! Hehehe! No plans to learn a new language for fun in the near future tho.

Back in the day i loved to create my own material I still love it, but I no longer have a printer, if I ever get one I'll surely do it. I loved to create cards full of new words and drawings, finding the images online was my favorite activity actually. I searched the in the official MS web site, back when they offered free clip art. Sadly I think MS no longer offers clip art, at least doesn't seem to have a big gallery.

For me it was learning the language on my own. I tried with books and even classes, but I just couldn't learn that way. At one pint I thought I'd never be able to speak English, actually I thought I'd only be able to speak my mother language for the rest of my life, lol. I know that way I learnt isn't very usual, but it did work for me. Books and grammatical rules don't work for everyone, so that's why knowing what works for you is the best way to find a good method to learn a language.

It really depends on so many things, so many factors to take into account actually! One of the most important factors is what language we are talking about and how good is the person in question to learn a language. As well as the method to learn the language and so on. Some people can take years to truly master a language, but there are others who take much less. So I'd say it really varies from person to person. There isn't a very clear answer to this, this is a very subjective question after all!

No, I think you need to buy the book, as far as I know online courses aren't offered. But you can easily find those language courses online, amazon has them all, I believe. So if you are looking for a title in particular, then that's the place to go.

Hey there! Same here! When I was going to school I could never learn English, because I could never learn so well using books and following grammatical rules. I finally learnt English by studying on my own. I know my English is still deficient, but I'm still working on improving. Sometimes people learn better at home At their own pace.

Last time I studied Dutch was maybe one month ago. I know, quite disappointing, but I swear I barely have any time to do so. I have to work a lot.... A language school is out of the question! At least right now, I barely make enough to pay the basic stuff. But in the future I might go to a language school.