Sness

This one is my favorite joke of all times: Un ladron entra a un banco y le grita a la gente: ¡Arriba las manos o aprieto el gatillo! . . . . *miau*

Uh, that is strange thing to say because, for what I know, writing in present tense is hard (you mix up tenses by accident and such) and is mainly used just in script writing (where everything has to be in present tense). When I was in college and had to do scripts, it was a royal pain in the ass, I always had to re-read the whole script about 3 times to find all the errors of tenses. :bored:

Hedgehog. I cant say hedge and I cant say hog, but not both one after the other, I have to pause a little to say it completely. The main reason of this is that we don't deal with that kind of phonemes in Spanish, so my tongue is not trained, its like when an English speaker tries to pronounce anything with ñ.

I posted this in another thread: So, the use of vosotros is not the same as the voseo used in Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, etc. The "vos" used in Argentina is a replace of the pronoun tú, but it has a different conjugation. Here in Chile we use a verbal voseo, is very informal and its use in writing language is not OK. We use the pronoun tú instead of vos but we maintain (sort of) the conjugation of the voseo. We also use "vo" as a somewhat derogatory way of tú. Vosotros - Plural, informal. Used in Spain | Vosotros teneís que aprender Vosotros - Plural, formal. Scarcely used in some parts of Latin America in writing. Ustedes - Plural, formal. Used in Spain. | Ustedes tienen que aprender Ustedes - Plural, informal and formal. Used in Latin America. Vos - Singular, informal and formal. Used in Argentina. | Vos tenés que aprender Vo - Singular, informal. Used in Chile. Derogative form of tú. | Voh/tú tení que aprender

Because it is! The only connection with Spanish is that both are spoken within the territory of Spain, but other than that, Basque doesn't resemble in anything to Spanish, that is why you are having a hard time understanding it. It seems that lots of non-native Spanish speakers put Basque and Catalan in the same basket with Spanish.

It is! Haha, I'm from Chile, and I've always heard that we speak really fast, but I find that in Peru they speak even faster than us! Maybe Chilean is hard to understand because we use A LOT of idioms. And, like Trellum, I find Argentinian Spanish the hardest to understand because the accent is so different from the other countries of Latin America, the 'voseo' can easily confuse you if you aren't aware of its conjugations rules. (In Cordoba, AR. they use lots of idioms too and have a different type of accent, so the Cordobés has to be the hardest for me. o.o)

I believe that when learning a new language know other aspects of the culture of where it's used helps to understand better the usage of words, the formalities of the language, etc. For simple example of this is, if you are studying Japanese, you should know that people from Japan are very polite to each other, and the usage of KEIGO is a must-know. A more near example (for me); In Latin America, we all (most of us) speak Spanish, but no country has the same accent or usage of words, and I guess it is all because of the different native people of each territory. I can tell you that in my country, Chile, we use lots of words derived from the Mapudungun, the Mapuche language, which is one of the few, and more numerous, indigenous people that weren't completely erased by the Spaniards in the territory of Chile. So, the Mapuche culture could still be maintain through time, and with the trade that went between Chileans and Mapuches, it could be passed through to the non-indigenous people. All the history of a country influences in the language, from the very start to the pop culture, so when I'm learning a language the first thing I do, even before start learning it, is go to Wikipedia and I start from the (main) country and go through its history, I watch videos about more actual things, etc. So, it's important to you know about the surrounding culture of a language? Do you do a research before/after learning a new language?

I have never ever heard that one before, and I think I'm in love! It sounds so stupidly cute. tiquismiquistiquismiquistiquismiquis And all my favorite words are related to cute or soft stuff, not just how they sound but what they imply too: pelusa (fluff) - Tiny, light and warm <3 esponjoso (spongy) - I love how de ponjo sounds in this word and it reminds me of something puffy, something you would want to squish. bufanda (scarf) - I like how the bu sounds strong and then is like a release ...bu-fanda

Here in Chile, and I guess in most of the countries that speaks Spanish, kids are taught first cursive and then, what we call, imprenta (print/block letter). Calligraphy is a big part of the whole primary education and the children are encouraged to use cursive over print. So here most of the people use cursive or a mix of cursive and print. It's funny because I was taught that print was for English and math

When speaking English I care more than when I speak my native language. I try to use well out of respect to something that is not from my culture, and maybe should be the same way to Spanish, but I can't stand la gente siútica from my country who treat people like they were less than dirt for not having a good education. So, every time I'm near of fancy people or the like, I butch my language like is no tomorrow to piss them off.

I don't know if you are looking for spaniard radios but I can link you some radios of my country which only play music in Spanish. First one, my favorite, Radio Uno. This radio only plays music from chilean artists which are mostly rock, pop, folk, hiphop, cumbia. Radio USACH is a college radio that plays traditional music of Chile. Cuecas, folk artists and the like Other one is FMDOS that only plays romantic music. I also would like to know other radios like these, but from other countries!

There is another game which is very played in the classrooms across all Latin America, called Tutti Frutti (in my country we call it Bachillerato) and you can play it with just paper and pen too. And again, I don't know if this games is known in other countries outside Latin America. This one is more childish but is equally entertaining: All players make a grid like this one *clickclick* and then write the categories on the top row. You can use whatever categories you like. These are the ones that are used in my country: L | Name | Country or city | Fruit or vegetable | Color or object | Brand or TV | TOTAL (L is letter and the name can be first or last, total is to put the score of the round) (When playing with my family, we often add at then end "Book or movie" and "Band or singer", and sometimes we even add "Historical figure" or "Politician".) When the categories are set is time to chose the first letter, this can be done by writing down all the letters in individual papers pick one at random or one player can go through the alphabet in their mind and other player says 'stop' whenever they want. When the letter is chosen everyone start to fill the categories fastest as they can with things that start with the chosen letter. Example: [table] [tr] [td]L[/td][td]Name[/td][td]Country or city[/td][td]Fruit or vegetable[/td][td]Color or object[/td][td]Brand or TV[/td] [/tr][tr] [td]b[/td][td]Barbara[/td][td]Barbados[/td][td]Beet[/td][td]Blue[/td][td]Bing[/td][/tr] [/table] First to finish all categories says "stop!" and everyone should stop writing. Then the player who said stop goes category by category asking what everyone wrote down and the scores are put: 100 points if you wrote a word no one has 50 points if you have the same word with someone and 200 (plus 100 points if the players are more than 3) if you are the only one that wrote in a category Rinse and repeat until you are out of letters or you want to finish the game!

I have a numerous family, and when we get together for birthdays or holidays, we usually play tabletop games, being my favorite one the Dictionary game. This game is great to expand your vocabulary, I still remember weird words because I laughed so hard at the made up definitions (and sometimes at the real definition as well). I don't know how popular or known is this game in other countries so I'll explain how you play it: You need a sheet of paper (preferably identical) and something to write with for each person playing, and of course a dictionary. My grandmother has this huge old dictionary (Diccionario de la Real Academia Española, 1925) where you can find words that no one use in these times. The bigger the dictionary the better! The first player picks a word from the dictionary and says it out loud, if other player knows the meaning of the word the first player must search another one, until no one knows it. When the word has been chosen, the player who picked it writes the real definition and the other players do the same but with a made up definition. When everyone is ready, all sheet of papers go to the one who picked the word, who will shuffle them (to avoid give away the real one) and then proceed to read out loud all the definitions. Then the players vote for the one they think is the real one. The scoring may vary depending on who you play with, but this is how my family does it: 1 point if someone votes for your definition 1 point if you vote for the correct definition 3 points if you are the picker and no one votes for the correct definition and 5 points if you manage to write the correct, or almost correct, definition Here are some tips for playing Try to pick words or words with definitions that sound unreal or plain stupid When writing your own definitions use terms like the dictionary would The person reading the definitions should read them to himself first, and if there is any word he can't understand ask the person who wrote it. Mistakes and laugh while reading the definitions can give away the fake ones. Be creative! I was thinking that if you can gather people that is learning the same language as you, you could play Dictionary to improve your vocabulary. We could even play it here on the forum, but it will be hard to tell if someone is cheating So, anyone play Dictionary with family or friends ?

There are some differences listed in Wikipedia, but it hasn't been translated to English, so I'm going to explain the most relevant to you (I excluded the ones that talk about Argentina, Central America, specific places of Spain and the like). Link to the original here. There are two sounds in Spain, /s/ y /θ/, the first one correspond to the graphy "s" and the second one to "c" and "z", but in Latin America both correspond to one sound, /s/. This is called seseo. Here is a video about the different types of pronunciation (I cut it where they guy pronounce the differences): Distinción, seseo and ceceo. And this one is just about the seseo, which is the one we use here in Latin America: The pronominal system for second person plural. In Spain theres is "vosotros" (familiarity, informal) and "ustedes" (respect, formal), but in Latin America there is only "ustedes", even when there is a formal (usted) and informal (tú) way for the second person singular. The diminutives -illo, -ete and -ín are used only in Spain. (There can be exceptions) In Latin America is more common the use of "ir a (go to) + infinitive", and in Spain is the conjugation of the verb. Example: Voy a ir a comer (LA) / Comeré (Spain) These are the more significant differences. The others differences are basically just words or words meaning (sailor talk, Americanism, Anglicism, etc). Here is a list of Amercanims. I'm no expert in Spanish (nor English) so any correction is welcome.

The list would be huge! The two languages are very, very alike. See for yourself: [spanish] "Lo otro no existe: tal es la fe racional, la incurable creencia de la razón humana. Identidad = realidad, como si, al fin de cuentas, todo hubiera de ser, absoluta y necesariamente, uno y lo mismo. Pero lo otro no se deja eliminar; subsiste, persiste; es el hueso duro de roer en que la razón se deja los dientes. Abel Martín, con fe poética, no menos humana que la fe racional, creía en lo otro, en “La esencial Heterogeneidad del ser”, como si dijéramos en la incurable otredad que padece lo uno" [Portuguese] "O outro não existe: tal é a fé racional, a incurável crença da razão humana. Identidade = realidade, como se, afinal de contas, tudo tivesse de ser, absoluta e necessariamente, uno e o mesmo. Porém, o outro não se deixa eliminar, subsiste, persiste; é o osso duro de roer em que a razão deixa os dentes. Abel Martín, com fé poética, não menos humana do que a fé racional, acreditava no outro, na "essencial heterogeneidade do ser", como se disséssemos, na incurável outredade que padece o uno" There is a list of differences between both languages on Wikipedia: Comparison of Portuguese and Spanish

I don't know if this one help but if you can speak Spanish Gunkan is a great site to start learning Japanese. It is an old site (2006), and the owner doesn't do custom classes anymore, but you can still access the basic course (hiragana and katakana, basic kanjis, grammar, vocabulary, etc.)

Disculpe is the formal way of disculpa, imperative mood I believe, and discúlpeme or discúlpame, is the same but with an enclitic pronoun. These are verb conjugations of disculpar. For example: (Excuse me, can I ask you something?) Disculpe ¿puedo preguntarle algo? <This one is the formal way> Disculpa ¿puedo preguntarte algo? <And this one indicates proximity with the person being asked> (Excuse me) Discúlpeme <formal> Discúlpame <casual> And yes permiso is permission. I would use permiso if you are trying to alert people that you want pass them, and con permiso if you want to, for example, get up from the table. Con permiso denotes resolution about the following action, and if you say con permiso while trying to get through the crowd, you may get some disapproving looks.

Like Alvarop said, Euskara (Basque) isn't like Spanish, in fact, it has no connection with any other language. Grammar and pronunciation are very different from Spanish and English, so you'd have to start from scratch. Maybe you could start by familiarizing yourself with the language, learn the history of it, hear some Euskadi music or watch movies in the language. (If you like Ska you can listen to Kortatu, Betagarri and Skalariak ) I found this in Wikipedia: Basque grammar, it may help you to start somewhere. I don't know how much information there is in English for learning Euskara, it may depend on that how hard will it be for you to learn it. (You should learn Spanish just so you can go through the many courses there is in this language. ) On a side note, Pamplona is a modern city and not many people know how to talk Euskara, so if you actually want to communicate with your family your best shot is Spanish.

We don't have spell competitions here in my country. There is no interest from the goverment to foment any of the humanist subjects, in fact they are reducing the pedagogical hours little by little. So schools tend to aproach the scientific side more because math olympics and scientific fairs improve the subsidy the school gets.

I spend most of my time online, where English is predominant over other languages, and when the day has end I've read, written and heard English, but never spoken it. And so, I often cought myself thinking in English rather than in my native language because I've been "speaking" it all day. But the most strange thing is that my inner voice speaks almost if like it was my first language, no latin accent and perfect pronunciation. The words that come out of my mouth don't sound at all like the ones in my head. :cry: So, has your inner voice already learnt how to speak a language while you are stuck figuring out how to move your clumsy tongue? I can't be the only one, right?

I just joined the forum and I wanted to say hello. I've always had a fascination with the different languages there are and I've tried to learn some but is dificult when you can't practice with someone. I'm self taught in English and seeking to perfect it. I hope that I can help people out with Spanish too, since is my mother languague.