Trellum

To be honest with you... this is the very first time I hear about this, hehehehe! Well, I've alas pronounced nuclear the way it should, not surprised the president Bush mispronounce it... it must have something to do with the fact he is Texan (their accent makes some words sound so different from others). To me that pronunciation will never be correct, and I suppose they will never make that pronunciation official... ever! Mispronouncing a word can't make it right or official... I sure hope that! It could happen tho, you never know... we are seeing some really crazy stuff nowadays.

Hahahaha, not good! Not going good, so far this is what I've learnt: Hoi! Hoe gaat het met u? gaat het goed! pardon, mvrow...? Sprekt u nederlands? U sprekt heel goed engels! Lol, sorry, not sure if I wrote most of those right. How I wish there was a section in this sub forum for practicing some small talk in dutch. It would be awesome! So the native dutch speakers could correct my awful dutch, lol. Btw, I have the reading booklet you were talking about, but isn't useful at all... it doesn't come with the course's transcriptions.

Hi Jay! Thanks a lot for the help offer! I read the reply you posted in one of my threads in this section, sent you a message with my Skype id over there, I hope you got it! From what part of the Netherlands are you from? I ask because I've so many questions about the north of Holland and the life over there. I'm currently trying to learn dutch, because I might be moving there soon. Not easy to learn this language at all. The pronunciation and the spelling are really problematic to say the least

You sound so much like me when I was younger and had a lot spare time But seriously, I'm happy for you, because you obviously want to improve yourself and want to be able to communicate in other languages with a lot people around the world. Do you travel a lot? If I had the time I'd probably do the same! Best of luck with everything. I hope you manage to master both Spanish and Chinese, I've heard Chinese poses such a challenge for all its learners, no matter what their mother language is.

Sarah, if your group is conformed by adults or young adults, then there isn't much to worry about. A tip the guy who was training me told me is to never use the word ''whatever'', he told me I should never use it in front of the students, because they that would give them a very wrong impression and might not take me seriously anymore. So... try to be as serious as it can get! Try to show your students you are a serious teacher and they should listen to you. I made the mistake of not being so serious since the start, one of my teen students wouldn't do what I asked her to during class. Needless to say she almost runs my group's dynamics...

I haven't tried the Chinese version of Rosetta Stone, but I've tried learning other languages using the Rosetta Stone method. This method is fairly good, but the price is too high! If you want to learn the language, then try finding other resources to learn it online, so if after that you're not completely satisfied then you can go for it and buy the Rosetta Stone Chinese course. What I like about this method is how engaging an interactive it is. Sadly it's too expensive! If you are ready to pay for that then go for it!

I always gave classes in which he student had to participate actively, a lot fun activities for ESL teachers out there! I always planned mine ahead, I planned my classes with exact timing, I had one of those sheets where I wrote my class plans and so on. I used a lot games and engaging activities to teach and practice English, this was super useful with classes that had young students mostly. Since young kids and teens are such a challenge sometimes! Do something wrong and they'll never fail to remind you that by not obeying you or paying attention.

I love the Pimsleur method, I'm currently using the dutch audio course and so far so good! I'd like it even more if it came with a booklet with a transcription of all the conversations we practiced with in each level. Other than that I have no complaints. As for Rosetta... no complaints there either, if you have the time to invest in learning using one of the Rosetta Stone's courses, then great for you! I like the fact Rosetta's courses are so interactive and make learning a language way easier and entertaining, but they're quite expensive compared to the Pimsleur ones.

I'm not sure, because the price varies from country to country and the language you are learning. I believe that over here learning English is way cheaper that learning dutch or German, because not many schools over here are offering courses to learn those languages. So I don't think there is a fixed rate for learning a language over here, but I do know that having an online teacher is cheaper than having an offline one. Sometimes online is much better than offline.

Awesome list! Do you mind me asking why you want to learn french and Swedish! Specifically Swedish? I'm just curios When I was younger I was so fascinated with Scandinavian countries, their culture, languages and mythology... I wanted to learn Norwegian, danish and Swedish so badly! At one point I even thought of learning Icelandic, sadly that never happened A lot thing got in the way (life) no longer had time for that hobby and had to fill my time with other things.

Well, right now I only have to learn dutch But if I had to pick 5 languages to learn, then the list would go like this: 1) Dutch (Duh!). 2) English (I need to improve my English even more!). 3) Hebrew. 4) French 5) ????? <---- Sorry, no idea what to put here, since I don't feel any kind of interest in learning any other language. I'd be happy if I could at least learn dutch to an acceptable level. If in 6 months I can't speak basic dutch, well, I'll be in trouble. I'd like to speak french because a lot people around the world speak it.

Wow, awesome! I had never heard about linguee before This software sounds like a really interesting, since most translators out there seem to have a lot trouble with idiomatic phrases. Which is a total let down, because most if us are interested in that aspect of the language (most people use that kind of phrases nowadays and it's good to know the proper use of those just in case).

Hahaha, same here, Amalia! Over here most subtitles aren't accurate. Most of the time the translator just does what she or he pleases, they completely let out the cultural references of the country or origin of the film and replace it for our own! Which is awful, because if you don't speak English there is no way you'll never know and might not get the movie and the characters the way it was intended to be.

Oh boy, there are so many! I don't want to sound like a complete hypocrite tho, because I have used some of them now and in the past. Mostly because everyone does it, so why not!? Some of those words are: LOL, WTF, OMG, TTYL, IMO, IC, etc. The one that gets in my nerves is IMO, ugh, for some reason I cant stand that one. LOL is ok, as long as the person doesn't use it too much and during the wrong moment.

Omg! I thought this didn't happen to a lot people!!!! Thank you..!!! This very same thing happens to me a lot! Some people here don't get it and think I'm just being an idiot who wants to show off she can speak English, lol. Its just I can't help it! Because for some reason I'm unable to find certain words in my native language (sometimes) and it seems a coincidence but the word for that thing I've in my mind can only be found in English at the moment.

It can be really useful, Denis! Specially for an advanced English student. I know because I've had several language partners from all around the world, they spoke English well and we got to speak about a lot interesting things. Everything was going smoothly because we both were perceiving the benefits of practicing this language online. This is why I believe doing this with a native is never a good idea, because odds are the native speaker will lose interest after a while, unless he wants you to help him practice your mother language from time to time. If you are lucky to find a native interested in practicing your language... then that is great, but not so likely.

I have heard almost everything already! I've heard of people learning a language because they think that will open a lot doors, like for example finding a better paying job or because they want to move abroad and start working there. Others have or are learning a new language for love (me included), others do it because they love the culture of the country where said language is spoken. Others just enjoy learning new languages and think of it as a really entertaining hobby! If I was asked this very same question I'd say the biggest motivator (at least for me) is to know that I'm learning a language I'll be using on a daily basis very soon. A language that will actually be useful for me and really necessary to learn That makes me feel good about investing my time in learning said language. What about you?

Yeah, they do most of the time. The funniest thing is I used to think that I had no accent in English, since that's the case in Spanish, but I do! I heard myself speaking in a recording a while ago, to be more exact a few weeks ago and wow... I was surprised! Kinda shocked since I thought my accent was so good, err it isn't! I sound like a french person trying to speak English, lol. Sometimes I sound like a Spaniard. I've been told I have a very European accent, which to me translates to a heavy accent, thus not good if I want to teach English abroad

Weeelll.... I honestly think that degree is useless, specially here. But for her? Who cares! She is a famous actress, so she won't ever have to worry about getting a real job (if she is smart enough). It's nice she wanted to go to college tho, not many people in her field even care about getting an education, even a degree as useless as English literature (please not that by useless I meant useless if you mean to find a job with that degree alone, since it seems that lately not even a PhD will do...). I say kudos to her! She might never use it, but oh well... she got her degree Now she can say she went to college!

I love reading comics! I think graphics novels is an art, I really admire the writers and the people who are in charge to illustrate the comic book. I think I have mentioned it before, but just in case I haven't... I love the walking dead comic book, I started to read it since the very beginning and up until now I still read it. That's how I started to feel interested in the TV show. I know some people don't consider comics to be a form of writing, but let me tell you that it requires a lot skill to create write a comic story and develop it even further. I find admirable the work comic book authors do, they have to be in close contact with the people who illustrates the comic to make sure he is interpreting each scene right and so on. I actually admire the illustrator even more!

Ugh, the same thing happened to me! Isn't that sad? You're trying to help their kids to do something good that will surely help them get ahead in life, but they just see this as some way to get rid of them for a few hours! Completely frustrating. I often talked with my student's parents, but eventually I stopped, because I know it was like talking to a wall. I often complained about some kids waning to use Spanish during the class or not obeying my orders. There was this one teenage girl who wouldn't do what I told her. It's a tough profession to be an independent teacher... no doubt about it!

I've experience teaching English in Mexico. Not easy at all, specially when the students are aware you speak Spanish as well. Because then they'll want you to speak English to them, even if that's bad for their learning experience. That was such a hard thing to do, because every day we had as a goal not to use Spanish at all, in an attempt to actually try to immerse the students in the language even more. This was my main goal, sadly when you started with a new group you had to try to fix said group, because some teachers didn't care at all about using Spanish in class! So I had to try to fix that, which is super hard if you are teaching teens or kids...

I'm fine with feel-good books, at least they're less cheesy than feel-good movies, ugh! Don't get me wrong, I do like feel-good flicks, but in moderation, because too much of that isn't good. I like to watch feel-good movies whenever I'm in the dire need to watch a comfort movie, but I just can't watch the comfort movie of my choice, so I pick a generic one and it works just fine. Same with feel-good books! I love chicken soup for the soul series, because those stories never fail to make me feel better, and it seems there is a chicken soup for the soul for everyone! There is even a chicken soup for the soul book for the single mom or the mom-in-law or the lawyer, lol.

Yeah, but I don't take it too seriously. Sadly Facebook and internet in general is making this kind of things easier, it seems now ignorance can be spread so easily! You'd not believe how many wrongly attributed quotes I have seen online, specially on FB. Lol, most of the times the quotes aren't even complete or there is no proof x author said that! Frustrating o say the least, but impossible to stop. Some people love spreading ignorance.

OMG, yeah!!! I love practicing languages in Skype My dutch isn't that good right now, but once it gets better I'd love practicing with you I plan to take a course after a few months, hopefully I will be more fluent, so we can help each other. I'd love to help you with your Spanish, show you how the ''Mexican Spanish'' sounds like I think you will like it, my accent is so neutral in Spanish; thus easy to understand. I will send you a PM after writing this with my Skye id By the way, where in the Netherlands do you live? North or south? I heard dutch sounds different in the south!