caparica007

I am sorry kristina, could you please tell me what is ESL?

I have never spoken a fictional language lol, that wouldn't even be considered a language. I do play with my kids sometimes making sounds pretending we are speaking up to the moment we are all laughing, but that is hardly a language, but just having fun.

I think it's a common case that people know a language not at it's best level and are ashamed to speak it, ashamed of what other people might think or your accent or grammar. Does this happen to you or do you know cases like this?

That's a good point John, some people are ashamed of their accents or their errors and they don't speak and in that way they cannot learn. So it shouldn't mind if you're making errors as long as someone can correct you and you're learning.

I don't think prejudging is a bad thing, I think we all prejudge people with an accent, we locate them in a region or a country due to the accent. I think this is what make languages so beautiful, we all speak them at our own way.

Portuguese is equal to German and English for example, you have the numbers from 1 to 10 (dez), 11 to 15 is something atypical, but after that it's pretty common, you say dezasseis (16), dezassete (17) and so on. Vinte - twenty, vinte e um - twenty one, pretty straight forward.

How much are you willing to spend on each language that you learn?

I'm on quite a limited budget at the moment so I've only ever consider going up to around £60. With that I can usually get a good dictionary for £10, an Audio course for £15 and then spend the remainder on coursebooks, grammars and readers.

This was exactly what I did when I was studying most of my languages, I visited amazon and I bough dictionaries, book, grammar and audio tapes, I was set to go. I can't recall how much all that cost me, but it didn't reach £60. 

I think it's better to study with other people. Especially if we're talking about languages! I mean, that's the point of learning languages; so that you'll be able to communicate better.

I would like to make a difference here between the actual study and the practice. It's certain that you can't practice alone, but for studying it doesn't make that big a difference, just if you want to ask how to pronounce a word for example.

Video games, like tv or music can always be helpful. there is however, a limit to the vocabulary you may be picking up. It's obviously not going to include everything you need to learn.

This is a fact, I was a big video games addict when I was a kid and that has improved my English I am certain of it. TV shows and music do the same, not only in what concerns to the language, but also in terms of general culture. Sometimes we do learn technical or very specific stuff, but it's knowledge either cases.

I think that if cases exist in which speaking languages can determine success, in most cases that doesn't happen. Some people don't even speak well their own language, but they do have an eye for business and they achieve success.

Not to mention that the concept of success is highly subjective.

It was not my case actually, but I do have a couple of Czech friends that live in Germany that manage to speak Czech, German and Russian and they can practice it daily by switching the language. Sometimes I try to speak a little English with my wife and kids, but nothing too much.

You just got lucky Denis, look what linguaholic just offered us: http://linguaholic.com/general-discussion/new-language-exchange-forum/ 

When I was studying languages I did it all alone, except German and Russian that I took it to the next level, but this wasn't exactly learning, but more practicing.

I've done both so the main question for me is how far do you want to go? If you're not in the country and don't have contact with native locals studying on your own will only take you to a point, beyond that you need to contact with (native) speakers or have a tutor.

Luego al final del dia tengo una partida de tenis, pero antes de eso tengo de coger mis hijos en sus escuelas y hacer algunas tarefas domesticas.

Good question Kotro, as Portuguese I never really think of this as a "variant", but it's interesting. I think most people learn "Brazilian" for the reasons groselha says, it's a much bigger country.

You don't need to be ashamed of your accent lol, most people will just think you're Brazilian, we have thousands of Brazilians in Portugal, it's a pretty common situation.

Portugal and Brazil have signed an orthographic agreement that makes both written Portuguese similar. This has created some resistance here in my Portugal because people don't like changes and some of our words now look weird.

Has this happened with English or other languages that you know?

I try to speak correctly and overall I don't care, but if you talk weird of course everyone will notice and comment, that's just the way we are.

If it is a foreign language I appreciate that they do comment because that will help me to correct my mistakes and learn. 

Que si, a las mujeres le gusta las comedias romanticas, con mi mujer se pasa no mismo.  :grin:

A mi mes gustan los filmes de accion e fantasia, tipo Harry Potter, y a mis hijos también, ya somos 3 a veerlos en casa. 

Posiblement paella es mi plato favorito español. También me gusta la tortilla, pero no mucho más platos porque la comida española tiene mucha gordura y no es muy saludable en mi opinion.

Only now I saw this, I think it's a great idea, I don't know if it will be a success or not. The forums for practicing languages are not very busy and also I've exchanged a FB contact with a member here to practice Spanish at her request, but then she didn't wanted to practice much lol.

The chat would be easier maybe, let's see how it goes, good ideas! 

Depende de las personas, yo penso que la mayoria de los portugueses comen el bacalao en la vespera de Navidad, pero mi abuela hace el peru. Aparte de los platos principales tenemos muchos muchos doces e dor de barriga!  :wacky:

Hola chica de Florida! 

Yo estoy en Portugal, me gusta much la playa e jugar tennis, son mis cosas favoritas, pero la mayor parte de mi tiempo lo dedico a trabajar e a tomar conta de mis hijos y de mi casa, es a vida de los crescidos.  :karate:

Yo no quiero vivir en Espana, pero yo quiero vivir en Francais!  :grin:

Your sentence looks ok, except for the last part "pero yo quiero vivir en Francia" 

A mi me gusta vivir en Portugal, pero no tendria problemas en vivir junto al mediterraneo, deberá ser como nuestro Algarve. 

Hey there wonga, welcome to linguaholic.  :party:

I think it must be great that you start studying your "own" language, I am sure it will connect you more with your country. You'll find good support here.

I hope to see you around! 

Hier, c'était le jour de Noel! Dans le matin nous avons organiser les cadeaux d'enfants et s'est ensuite rendu à un déjeuner avec la famille, manger jusqu'à ce que vous déposez dans chaque Noël comme...!

:party: