Trellum

I never assume someone can't speak english based on their looks, if I ever do that they'd then assume I'm a somewhat racist person, and to be honest I'd not blame them.  I never assume someone can't speak english unless they give me a clear sign they can't.  I'd never do that because they'd surely feel like I really disrespected them.

A lot hispanic can speak english, not because they're ''hispanic'' (by the way, that's a very wrong term) it means they can only speak spanish.  It'd be like assuming an asian looking guy only speaks chinese.

I am, and no, it's NOT silly at all, since sometimes you might need to move out to another country without even planning it.  In my case I happened to meet a nice dutch man, we fell in love, we got in a relationship and now we are thinking of spending the rest of our lives together.  If you had asked me one year ago what my plans were, I'm sure as hell I'd not be saying something like: ''I'll move to the Netherlands''.

This just happened and didn't plan it at all.  We're going to travel to meet his parents in the Netherlands soon, and after a bit we might move there for good   Some things just happen!  I'm still struggling with the language, but I'll not start worrying about it until I move there

I think most people learning Dutch have a good reason to learn it, other might be learning it for fun or just to reconnect with their ancestral roots!  My reason to learn Dutch is quite simple: I might be moving there very soon (maybe next year). 

I'm going to be traveling there on january next year, I'll stay for just one month tho.  I haven't learn a lot Dutch other than: ''Ik spreek geen netherlands!''.  LOL, yep it's pretty bad, but I'm not very worried since I'll not be staying over there too long this time   So not worried about that exactly! 

I'd love to know why you decided to start learning Dutch Please share your story with us!

I might be moving to the Netherlands soon, so I really need to learn this language like it or not (I don't!), and my biggest issue with this language so far is the pronunciation and the excessive number of consonants you can find in some words (all together).  This makes pronuncing some words almost impossible for me, I dread the fact I'll have to learn this in order to be able to stay in the Netherlands for good   I do this for my boyfriend, by the way.

I'm at a loss right now, hoping the best, because I have no idea how I'll learn this language or if I'll ever be fluent in it

No, in my case music alone doesn't help me to learn japanese... because I'm a highly visual and auditive person, so I need both of those requisites to be met in order for me to learn something efficiently   Listening music lacks the visual part, so that's why I just can't learn that way   I wish I could, and I really don't doubt some people can actually learn this way; I believe some can!  Sadly I'm not in that group of people

I'm a big fan of anime   I actually follow a lot anime series right now, I love the ones that come with subs; I completely dislike the dubbed ones!  Believe it or not, I've been able to learn A LOT japanese words thanks to watching anime regularly (at least the pronunciation - and that's a good start!).  And even if you don't learn a lot japanese thanks to anime, at least you had a good time watching it (I do every time!).

What do you guys think?  Do you think watching anime is a good way to learn some japanese words? Do you ever watch anime?

I'm not a very fast reader, but I'm not a slow one either. I know how to read properly tho   A while ago I read a full book on increasing your reading speed.  It was written by Tony Buzan, who is supposed to be a total expert on this topic, he also created the mind mapping method. 

In this books he mentions you will never be able to have a good reading speed if you keep reading words aloud. I totally agree with that, because as he mentioned in this book... most of us started reading words aloud, but if you continue doing this as an adult... then you haven't really progressed the way you should have. This book is great, by the way!  It comes with a lot useful exercises and tests that help you monitor your progress

I think of language as a painting, and slang as the finishing touches of said painting.  Those little things can give a lot life to a language, as well as making it more colorful   I personally don't mind slang that much, I actually like it (in english only). 

I think slang makes the english language really colorful, but I'm not a big fan of the use of slang in spanish... mostly because the people who use it are making a really bad use of the spanish language. Here slang is misused really badly, to the point people write some words wrong on purpose (the use of slang and need to appear ''cool'' requires you to do this!.  So I think in some languages this is totally harmless, but in others isn't.

I totally and absolutely hate dubbing!  I went to the movies the other day to watch ''Insidious 2'',  sadly it was dubbed and there wasn't a version with subtitles.  The dubbing totally killed the horror element... I know this movie would have really scared me if I hadn't watched the dubbed version... the spanish version was a horrible joke!  Dubbed versions can really ruin your experience   Sadly more and more movies are being dubbed, before they did it only with children's movies... but not they even do it with adult's movies.

Subtitles hurt no one! I guess the dub artists in my country are really happy tho, now they have more work than ever...

Now that I think about it... yeah, I've learnt a couple of words thanks to video games, but sometimes vidoe games can do more harm than good.  Like when I played COC... man, so many misspelled words (I  had subtitles on), they were misspelled on purpose, plus a lot local (and outdated) slang words were used.  If I had been someone who was just starting to learn english, then this video game would have confussed me even more.  I hate it when the developers do that!  Use proper english folks! 

That wasn't the case with other games tho   I actually learnt a lot playing ''American McGee's Alice''.  So many words I didn't even know, if I'm not mistaken ''Myriad'' was one of them  :grin:

I spend so much time writing in english nowadys, and yeah, I've noticed my inner voice has a way better pronunciation  But... my inner voice seems to have some toruble processing words that I find hard to pronunce for real!  Could that be coincidence?  '

There are some words I still have a lot trouble trying to pronounce, like for example ''teeth''.  There is something about that ''th'' sounds I still can't grasp! I heard this is a comon problem among native spanish speakers.  I believe that's true!  I've observed that most spanish speakers pronounce certain words in english very badly. 

Thanks for sharing such an useful link!  I had never heard about it... is it free or you have to pay for it monthly?  Hehehe, I'm browsing this web site, it's so amazing to see there is an asian version of most of the TV shows we have in the west (similar or identical concept in most cases - lots doctor/hospital dramas).  VERY interesting web site!!! 

Accents, people don't seem to know where to put those, lol.  It's something really annoying, because if you fail to place the accents in the right place, your message could be totally missunderstood. Like for example... it's not the same when I say: ''Cheque lo que me mando!'' to ''Chequé lo que me mandó''.  It depends on the context, but the first one can be taken like an order for the receptor to follow inmediately, but the latter can be clearly taken as an activity that took place in the past.  HUGE difference! 

Esperanto.  Since Esperanto is just an invented language, I think it'd offer equal oportunities to all the speakers to learn it and become fluent. Plus this language is supposed to be really easy to learn, it's also influenced by a lot existing languages. So most people around the world could learn it easily, not sure about chinese, japanese, israeli or russian people tho.

A big part of it does, but you should always be careful with your body language when you're in a foreign country.  Because there are things you normally do here... you go there to find out that thing you always do with your hand when you like something means a totally different thing over there!  I was reading an article the other day about body language, I read that in some arab countries when a man touches his mustache, that has a really strong sexual meaning... specially if it's done in front of a woman   Not sure how true is that!

I only speak two languages fluently: English and Spanish.  I'd be happy if I could learn Dutch soon, I might be moving to the Netherlands next year, so this decision isn't based on a personal choice (learning Dutch).  This language is really hard to learn! If I move there and I learn the language... I'll be happy with that!  I'll just work on improving my hebrew more and more and maybe one day be fluent in colloquial hebrew (I can read religious text very easily, but that's it).  So, I guess the short answer would be: Dutch & Hebrew

I'm ashamed to admit I've done that plenty of times, this isn't so odd tho, since I've been interested in learning new languages since I was 16.  At first I had a lot plans, and I wanted to learn as many languages as posible, sadly I fell short.  I only managed to speak english and spanish fluently.  So yeah, I gave up on learning a lot languages!  One of them is Finnish and Norwegian.  I actually wanted to learn swedish and icelandic as well    I never really tried learning finnish tho, I even bought a book, but my attention was always on Norwegian mostly.  That's history now; water under the bridge.

Italian.  I really like the sound of that language in particular, portuguese has a nice sound as well.  Both of those languages sound quite sexy to me!  I'd love to learn them, but I'm too busy trying to learn a language I truly need to learn: Dutch!

Yes, actually! Just recently, I started looking into alternative forms of income. I came to the realization that I do have skills, such as being bilingual, a fast typer, and being pretty good at grammar. This brought me to searching for jobs like transcription and proofreading. I am now a subcontractor for a company that does German transcription, and a proofreader for another online-based company. Being bilingual is a goldmine! Especially if you enjoy working from home.

It indeed is   I feel so glad when I read success stories just like yours, it makes me feel so inspired to improve my language levels and work harder!  Who said that learning a second or third language can't be profitable?!  I actually have had access to oportunities that my peers haven't had access to because they're not bilingual!  A lot people underestimate the value of being bilingual, but you and I know how helpful and profitable it can be to know 2 or more languages  

That's nice!  That's a chance you'd not have been able to get if you had never learnt english   That's a huge adventage!  Plus you got your internship as well, paid or not paid; you got it thanks to the fact you speak english and that in my opinion is quite an accomplishment  

I actually hope to get a better job once I learn Dutch, I'll be living in the Netherlands soon (I hope) so I'll really need to learn the language.  I guess once I know it I'll have more chances to find a good job... I'd love to find a translating job... working at a hospital or something like that.  I'm quite excited  

Best of luck with everything!  I hope your dream comes true!

Uhm, I think even the cavemen had some sort of primitive language, not as advanced as ours, but they surely had a way to communicate among them.  Specially when they had to go hunting...  they needed a way to organize themselves in order to work as a team, most of their hunting trips worked that way.  So I guess a life without the modern languages could work... it would be hard, but we'd still be able to sustain life.  Not the way it is now, but we wouldn't go extinct. 

I'm not sure I'd like to live in a world like that tho... I'm having a hard time already trying to express how I really feel sometimes, so if I couldn't use modern language to communicate... I'd be a very frustrated person.  I can't imagine not being able to surf the web or not being able to read a book either   If our language was based only on sounds... and not in letters and signs!

Right now I really wish my mother language was Dutch   Because to be honest I have no idea how the heck I'm going to learn to speak it!  The worse part is the fact I'll have no choice, but learning it... I might be moving to the Netherlands next year, and I'll have to learn Dutch really fast.  I can do well with just english, but I plan to get a job and stay there for good, so I'll really need to learn to speak this language fluently!  So, yeah, I wish my mother language was Dutch 

Ah well, I'll have to put a lot effort into this   Sadly I can't change my mother language... at least I can speak english; dutch and enlgish are related... I hope that helps!

No, but soon I'll have to immerse myslef in the Dutch culture and language!  It will be a bit difficult at first, but I'll have to get used to it, because I might be moving there for good next year

I think immersion is a great way to learn and practice a language, not everyone has the chance to travel to the country where they speak the language one is interested in learning, so that's why I think  a second language school is a good idea   Immersion will always be the most natural way to go 

Just curious guys!  I'd really like to know how many of you have been able to get a job thanks to all the effort and time you have invested in learning a new language (proving you're fluent in said language or were at the moment you got that job). 

I was actually able to get my first writing job thanks to the fact I'm bilingual, if it wasn't because of that, I'd not have been able to get that job.  Sadly I couldn't continue working because my boss didn't take a no for an answer (if you know what I mean), and things started to get really ugly, to the point it was personal in the end.  I had to quit, because it was quite obvious he just wanted to make my work and life harder! 

I've found other good oportunities tho and I'm still working online... again; thanks to the fact I speak a second language.  Soon I might speak 3!

What about you?  Have you been able to get a job thanks to the fact you speak a second or maybe a third language?

I'm sure something very similar will happen to me when/if I move to the Netherlands and stay there for the rest in my life.  I'm sure my english and spanish will not be as good as they both are now   I guess nothing can be done about this, unless I get a translation job and I get to use the 3 languages daily. But that's not a really realistic goal to be honest; life always gets in the way. 

Life as an adult is really stressing already, so being fluent in several languages becomes a really minor priority.  Because there are far bigger priorities in life as an adult, specially as one living in a foreign country. Oh well, we will see   But I'm sure this is a very common thing...