Trellum

I really didn't think too much about it, because I knew I was quite good at it and I also knew I'd not need to study for the test either. I finished most of my education in an open system, so I really enjoyed my English tests, because I knew I'd be able to ace them. Yeah, back then I had a lot confidence in myself, it was wonderful! I wish I could have some of that back! Those tests were really important to me, because I had to pass them in the first 3 tries! Or else I had to wait a bit try again.

Well, I really think it's all on the internet and texting in general, because the internet and texting has changed the way we communicate. Actually before I started using the internet I never thought of using shortcut words or anything like that. When I first heard about that I thought you needed to be incredibly lazy in order to attempt to save few secs by writing a message with word shortcuts. It sounded so crazy! Well, long story short, I ended up doing the same, but I'm happy to say that didn't last too long! I came back to my senses and started communicating properly online and while texting; no shortcuts for me!

Yeah, it's really hard is you are a really self-conscious person, just like I am. That's why I'm so susceptible to negative comments and remarks. When I started speaking English I felt so shy, but after a while i got used to it. I guess the same will happen with dutch, I can only hope! Speaking the language in public will be so hard, I guess this happens to everyone no matter how easy the language you are learning is.

TV shows and movies in English never helped me to learn English, not even one bit. In my opinion they are great support resources, but only good for learning new words and that's it, because this ''method'' is way too passive. Of course it might have worked great for some, like my boyfriend who learn most of his English thanks to the subtitled movies and TV shows he watched as a kid. He swears that helped him a lot and I believe him, but his spelling is really bad!

Never. When you start learning language you can't just stop learning it and using it... odds are everyday (if you live in the country where the language you learnt is spoken you will learn something new nearly everyday the first few years. For me learning a new language is like losing weigh; once you lose the weight you intended to lose you can't just go back and eat everything you like! You need to keep watching what you eat in order to keep that weight off. Same with a language; you need to practice and use it as often as you can in order to keep the knowledge fresh in you mind.

I only regret having wasted my time in old Norse and Norwegian. In the end learning Norwegian did nothing for me really. Sadly I didn't get to use the little Norwegian I learnt back then, because I ended up going back home, because after that I had no use for it and couldn't practice it anymore. Now I'm stuck learning another language I will surely use a lot, I know back then I had no idea I'd need to learn dutch in the future, but I wish I had invested that time on improving my English pronunciation and listening skills, as well as my orthography!

Have you heard a Singaporean person speaking English? I'm not saying it's funny or anything, I actually think it sounds sooooo cute! But it's incredibly hard to understand for me sometimes. There are times I need to ask them to speak more slowly to me, because I just couldn't get the last word they used. I think their English is really good and nice Not my favorite accent, but I still think it's a really nice one

I love learning languages, even tho I don't really have that much time to learn a new language anymore. I still like the idea of learning languages, specially languages i really need to learn, like for example dutch. But there is one thing I really dread about learning a new languages: speaking it in public and then have the natives laugh at my accent or make fun of me in any other way. I know a lot people will make fun of me when I try to speak it in public, they might do it in front of me or behind my back. I don't mind the latter actually I know my boyfriend will make jokes about it, even if he means it in a playful way... It will still hurt my confidence. So what about you? What's the one thing (or maybe things) you dread the most when learning a new language?

I actually taught English when I was younger, I did well with my lessons, actually the tricky part is controlling the class. The hardest classes were with young children and teenagers. It was so hard! There was a teenaged girl who gave me so much trouble, I planned my classes ahead, I once planned an ctivity in which my students had to expose a topic in front of another class. Well, the girl said she'd not do it. Gosh, I had such a hard time with that class. Sadly I didn't earn their respect since the start, you actually need so careful when you first walk into a classroom. If they sense any kind of weakness in you... I guarantee you will have such a hard time with that class!

Using it! Remember that popular phrase... how it goes... ''if you don't use it you lose it''. Well, it turns out that's very truth when it comes to languages. The reason you are starting to forget the language is because you no longer use it. You have to start using it again, if you don't feel like using on a very active way, then at least try to watch more TV shows in Spanish and read more things in that language. That's a nice start.

I hear ya! I met a girl who had been living in Norway since she was 13 years old, so she was usually at a loss of words whenever we spoke. Poor girl, she tried to do her best, but she couldn't keep up with me; a girl who had been speaking Spanish her whole life every single day. Needless to say we didn't talk that much. We had a lot awkward silences... eeek!

Hahaha, yeah, I know what you mean. I actually feel blessed when I started speaking English because for some reason the word order wasn't so troublesome to me. Sadly now I really need to learn dutch, but the word order in dutch is truly troublesome for me! I guess it's the same thing for people trying to learn Spanish, because our word order might not make sense to you, the word order in dutch doesn't make any sense to me either. As you said there are no exact translations, and Spanish is a language with a lot colloquial slang and so on. So you really learn those by memory if you want to be fluent in it.

Portuguese is so similar to Spanish that you guys tend to write a lot words in Spanish the way you would in Portuguese. I know what you mean I've seen that happening quite a lot in the past, but don't worry, it also happens to Spanish speakers trying to write in Portuguese. It's kinda funny! Our languages are so similar that we think we already know them perfectly, but we have the orthographic and grammatical barrier. I understand most of what I read in Portuguese, but I'd not be able to form my own sentences. Tricky, isn't it?

Same here with dutch. I really want to learn the darn language, but for some reason I tend to put it off for later, then in the end another week has just passed and haven't learnt anything new! Jeez! Most of the time motivation is the main issue when learning a new language. Have you thought very well why you are trying to learn Spanish? Sometimes thinking of that helps! I try to think about my reason to learn dutch, I feel a bit guilty, but at the same time I feel a bit more pressed to get to work and do it. I might start studying it again once I get enough time.

Yeah, many times, both in English and Spanish. It's amazing people who work in that field make mistakes like that. Mistakes that seem very simple and easy to avoid, but for some reason people just keep on making them. I must admit I still make mistakes, big ones sometimes, and I can't avoid but to feel really ashamed! Yes, even if it's just in written form! Can't imagine how ashamed I'd feel if I did that on national TV...! I no longer care that much about mistakes done in private, but if I did that at work... whoooops!

I used to care about what the others thought about me, I still care at a lesser degree, but I can happily say I don't care about that as much as before. I still worry about having a good pronunciation and grammar, but only on a laboral setting, when I'm with family or friend or in any other non laboral setting I'm completely fine! Since I don't have any rule or quality exigence to comply outside the work setting, nope, I don't care if my English pronunciation isn't always right.

I like religious songs in Hebrew mostly, because I already recognize several words, but I also like to listen to modern Hebrew music. I like singers like Ishtar & Sarit Hadad. I still listen to them even tho I'm no longer studying Hebrew as actively as I did before (studying dutch right now). I like listening to music in Hebrew, I still recognize some words when I hear them in the songs, songs in Hebrew are a great supporting material to learn the language. I'd do the same with dutch, but that language is so hard to understand and pronounce! I'd rather have to learn Hebrew instead of dutch, but it is like it is.

Yeah, pronunciation seems to be the hardest part for most people learning Spanish, specially Spanish! Fortunately we don't mind that much about it, as long as the word yo are trying to pronounce sounds very similar to the way we pronounce it, so we can understand you! We don't look down on people who pronounces Spanish funny, unlike they do in some English speaking countries I have visited. Sorry to hear your Spanish speaker wasn't a native! I have never understood why school allow people teach a language that isn't even the person's mother tongue.

Hi there! I know what you mean! Sometimes you seem to have all the right words, at least enough to form a sentence, but for some reason you just can't find the right order. I never felt this way about English, but I definitely feel this way with dutch... I just can't seem to figure out the word order of this language! So for an English speaker must also be hard to do this in Spanish.

I think speech issues can surely make it harder for the person who suffer them to actually learn a language, but mostly to be understood by others, that can take a toll on the learner's self-esteem and as a cause learning that language will become harder. My little niece also has speech issues, and let me tell you that she barely wants to talk now because kids make fun of her. My sister will take her to speech therapy, but the damage is already done... her self-esteem has been destroyed by those mean kids! I don't think she'll ever be a fan of learning languages, I bet you.

When people whose mother language use ''then'' instead of ''than''. How can they mix those two so easily? How can smart people whose mother language is English make a mistake like this one? It's not hard at all! It always amuses me when people make a mistake like that. It might sound wrong, but I start seeing the person who makes that kind of mistake differently; I start to think they are not as smart as I once thought!

To me freedom of speech entitles to voice your opinion, not even mattering if your opinion differs from the other's. To me that's freedom of speech, that and being able to say what you really think and feel without any kind of censorship. This concept can be a bit hard to understand nowadays, since we live in a very politically correct society, in which you need to constantly censor yourself, otherwise the media and other groups will come get you!

I have heard about this game a lot times before, but have never given it a try. I think this feature can be really useful! Not sure it can be so useful to learn or practice English or any other language, but I'm quite sure this feature can be quite useful. It'd be cool if we could do that with more games

Yes, actually something very weird is happening to me lately. Lately I am at a loss of words, I'm having a normal conversation, then I just forget the word I want to use in my mother language. Oddly enough I can remember the word in English, but not in my mother language. I can struggle a lot trying to find the word I need in my own language sometimes, actually I will be going to see a neurologist very soon because I'm having awful headaches and a lot other neurological issues, one of those issues is this one I just described. I'm unwell right now... not sure what I have, but I'm quite sure is not good at all.

I doubt it. As a native Spanish speaker I can tell you that you will need more than that in order to be fluent in Spanish. I'd recommend you to take a complete conversational course, after that you might have gained some fluency and be able to communicate in Spanish. You just need to put more time and effort into this if you want t gain fluency.