Trellum

I've seen that happening a lot with Mexican and latino families in the US. I think it's a shame the kids weren't exposed to the Spanish language enough in order to retain most of the language at least. It's truly a shame and I believe it's caused by the lack of interest and effort in the parents! I'll actually teach my language to my kids even if I move to Holland, because I know how important is is for my kids to be able to communicate with grandma in her native language

Yeah, I think it's kinda rude they are trying to ''save'' time this way by just using some shortcut words, as if that made so much sense. Plus you can't really think that person has such a great grammar and orthography after seeing that, actually seeing that makes me think they failed many of their English tests back when they were going to the school.

I love doing that as well, I actually found a really nice English web site that allows you to watch videos in English with all and subtitles. Plus allows you to pronounce the words in the video and allows you compare your pronunciation to the teacher's pronunciation. Sadly this site isn't free and very expensive! I used the first 10 lessons and had to leave.

I used to go to school with people who used sign language daily. They were referred as ''special'' students'. I knew some of them well, but there was a language barrier between us. I never felt inclined to learn that language tho, because I didn't think I'd ever use it again! I learned a few words in sign language, but mostly swear words! That's all I learnt in that classroom, lol. I don't think I will ever learn sign language, since it's of no use for me!

Hehehe, the last one basically means that you should do everything you want, because you really don't know when your last day will be. That's why you should live each day as the last one i take that saying with a lot, err, reservations. I really try not to worry and live stress free, because I know that the present is a gift, but the tomorrow is still iffy I learnt this the hard way, some years ago I got a really bad diagnosis that changed my life, ever since that I see life differently.

I believe some of those ''sayings'' can be considered idioms: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. You might not have read, but I referred to those phrases as SAYINGS and IDIOMS. Because some of them are INDEED considered IDIOMS.

There is a song that reminds me of my current situation, its sung by a mexican singer named ''Julieta Venegas''. My favorite bit is this one: ''Me voy, que lastima, pero adios! Me despido de ti y me voy!'' Yup, I might actually do what the song says very soon. Another singer I really like is named ''Ely Guerra''. She has many beautiful songs. One of my favs is ''Suavemente''. I'm not a big fan of music in Spanish, but for some reason I really digged that song: ''¿Porque tendría que llorar por ti? Total, si el pasado vuelve Lo dejare ir suavemente Que algunas veces hiere. ¿Porque tendría que sufrir por ti? Total, yo de la nada quise Darte mi amor suavemente Un poco de mi tienes. Para bien, para mal Para la eternidad Para irte de mí ''

*Sigh* There is a thing my mom kept repeating when she found out I was in a long distance relationship: ''amor de lejos es amor de pendejos''. Hehehe, needless to say I got so upset when I heard her say that. Thankfully she stopped after a while. In my opinion that phrase was really rude But she was right tho, it had to take me a few years in order to realize that. Ah well, there is another proverb my mom used to say often and I still remember whenever I dread the thinking of waking up early to complete all my tasks: ''El que madruga dios lo ayuda''.

Actually gilipollas has a more vulgar meaning, at least it does in Spain, where this slang hails from. I don't dare to tell you guys what this word mean, but let's say gilli is a verb... and pollas is, erm... a word used to refer to the male organ. So technically it can be used as a very version of ''culero'', but with a waaaaay more vulgar connotation.

There are many apps you can easily download and use on your tablet, but I'm afraid you will need something better if you want to use Adobe Reader! I'd recommend you buy a normal tablet, most tablets support Adobe Reader. There are some tablets that even have Windows 8.1 as their OS. So why not investing on a good tablet instead? That would be much nicer, don't you think? I received a phablet as a gift and I'm quite happy with it

Back when I was going to junior highs cool I met a lot deaf people, I actually tried to communicate the best I could with them. I learnt some words in sign language as well, but mostly bad words because that's all they taught me I was actually amazed to see how rich sign language they can be, those folks might seem different to us, but they are just like us. I could see it, since we were all teenagers and had very same interests

One of my closest friend is Egyptian, he speaks very good English tho, so it's very easy to have conversations with him. His account is funny, so sometimes I have a hard time trying to understand certain words he says, specially words with ''p'', he seems to confuse that sound with ''b''. So it can be a bit confusing at first if you aren't familiar with his English, but we have handled it well I also tried to talk with a Hebrew speaker a while ago, his English wasn't very good either... actually it was awful, lol. He was an Israeli Palestinian, meaning he is Palestinian but has an Israeli passport.

It would be wonderful, I'm sure there would be far less misunderstandings. I'm sure of that. I'm not saying this would cause world peace to happen, but it would surely help to prevent so many misunderstandings. Plus, if we spoke only one language all around the world, then we'd not need to learn more languages. That would solve so many issues for me, since I need to learn Dutch pretty quick. One thing is for sure... international affairs would be easier! Too bad for the people who works in the translation field tho...

Yeah, there are always variations in the spelling of certain words both in american and british english, one of those words is the past tense of ''learn''. I personally like to use ''Learnt'', because in my head is the version that makes more sense and it sounds way better than ''learned''. I know those two are right, but for some reason ''learnt'' sounds and loo more right to me. Other words that are spelled different: Centre = Center Colour = Color Favour = Favor There are many more My grammar correction software points those words as ''wrong'', but I know they aren't, it can be so confusing for those who have no idea about this.

''The Kite Runner''. I liked that movie, it was a bit depressing, specially some bits, but I loved the morale of the story in the end. I liked it a lot, even tho it touched some taboo topics that surely made a lot people feel upset, specially all those who come from that area and come from a very religious family. I loved the fact it talked about friendship and loyalty, some bits of the story brought me to tears. This movie is based on the novel with the same name, it was written by an afghan man, who is now living in the US. I liked how he played with the different human emotions... such a rich story. The movie was very good.

To be honest i feel a bit more comfortable writing in English, a bit more than writing in Spanish. As many of you might or might not know... my mother language is Spanish, but I use English on a daily basis. I guess I'm starting t get used to writing in English more and more, given the fact i really need to do that every single day. As for my mother language, I'm sad to say I actually need to practice writing it more, because I'm starting to forget ho to write certain words. I really need to work on that!

For me it's quite simple, mostly my 3 magic ingredients to learn a new language are: 1 - Time. 2 - Motivation (I have a huge motivation because I know I will be using Dutch in the future a lot). 3 - Good learning materials (This is basic, because I actually like to learn languages on my own). I have motivation and very soon I will get good learning materials, but sadly the only thing I'm missing right now is ''time''. The only thing I need right now is time, that's the only thing that I'm missing. If I only had more time I would be able to learn this language faster.

Same here, specially with math and languages. I actually need to see several examples and practice on my own, so I can learn and memorize the new information. That's the only way for me to actually learn something new, otherwise there might not be a chance I can do it. That's why I could never learn English at school, apart from the fact our teacher was awful, but she tried her best since she couldn't speak English herself, lol. She just taught the lesson that was in the book and that it...

Eh, are you sure you don't suffer from ADD? I do suffer from ADD and have the same issue trying to focus on only one thing, I actually like to multi task, because that gives me two tasks to do at the same time, thus not getting bored. That's why kinesthetic is the best way for me to learn, since I can't read too long without distracting, let alone learn a language with a book!

Well, I've always wondered how languages like Russian and Hebrew first appeared, mostly because their writing systems are not very common, not as common as our writing system at least. It really puzzles me why some human groups decided to use this kind of writing systems... how they could link one of those signs to a sound and so on? Thinking of that puzzles me even more. I heard that before Hebrew the inhabitants of that area in the world spoke Aramaic. Actually Jesus spoke tat language! Those two written system look so different, just take a look at the Aramaic script:

Hahaha, you are right! But... I really think most Brits aren't direct at all! They actually seem to be the opposite of direct, isn't it? I say it because the boyfriend of my boyfriend's sister is a Brit and at first he was shocked to see how direct dutch people were, lol. His family felt the same way when they met his now wife! They were shocked and felt she was extremely direct and rude. I didn't find them as direct as I thought they'd be tho The mother talked about things I'd rather she had kept to herself, but it wasn't as bad as most foreigners make it sound All in all I think it was a good experience, and not as scary and terrifying as I thought it would surely be, hehehe!

Yeah, some dutch people speak dutch too fast But it's funny to hear how similar some dutch words are (to their English counterparts), like for example when they say a word that sounds a lot like (sorry), that they say when they bump into you or something like that. I was capable to catch some words when I was there, like ''train'' and ''nose''. But I believe this similarity can be dangerous, because just like happens in Spanish with the false friends, the same thing happens with dutch, because there are several words that are spelled the exact same way as some English words, but their meaning bin dutch is completely different to their meaning in English! Quite dangerous if you ask me!

It's of my understanding that German speakers have it very easy when learning dutch, because many of the words that are used in dutch are also used in German. The only huge difference is how differently most words are spelled in dutch, that can be confusing to German speakers, I believe. The pronunciation of most words is very similar to the pronunciation in German tho. So in that aspect I think German native speakers have it easier. English speakers have it a bit less easier than Germans do tho. But knowing English is definitely a an advantage. It's better than trying to learn dutch without knowing any word of English. My own boyfriend has said it several times.

Yeah, he is actually dutch He has a very funny accent, so not sure if that will help me learn dutch, but G-d knows I'm doing my best to learn the language. I'm expected to do a lot things in my own right now (in terms of learning the language), so next time I go to the Netherlands I must already know the basics of the language, which is hard enough because I barely have any time left for myself... let alone to study dutch!

Thanks a lot for the recommendation! I was in the Netherlands for a while, but to be honest I never read a newspaper over there, so I had no idea what to look for until you mentioned ''De Telegraf''! I found an online version over here: http://www.telegraaf.nl/ I can totally see what you mean, I have already spotted several words and phrases I can already recognize and will surely write them down in a notebook, so I can review them later I think I will focus on the Dutch learning podcasts that can be found on ''TuneIn'' (for android phones). They seem quite useful, wish I could find a transcription of the whole lessons online! I'd surely pay for that!