DiesIrae

I know there are several types of Spanish languages so I'm curious what would be the most useful one to learn in the US. I'll be moving to Florida in a few to several months and although I am okay with talking in English, I think this would help me if ever I take a customer service job again.

I was going to try to learn Korean or Japanese next but since I'll be moving to the US, it might be more useful to learn Spanish. I'm sure I'll also be able to use it more there than East Asian languages.

I love novels/stories that are dark in nature, either violent or supernatural or a combination plus sexy. I used to read Laurell K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series because the protagonist was so brave, gutsy and strong. I loved the unresolved sexual tension in the earlier books and then.. and then.. Anita Blake became a sl*t. Okay, I know there were reasons in the story why she needed to have sex lots but omg Laurell Hamilton. Why did you have to make sex be the focus of her stories? I was so sad that I quit the series and am still watching out for the next great action heroine. I was very curious though why there was such a big change to Anita Blake but it turns out it may have been related to whatever was happening to her real life. So, any of you guys have authors or works you really hate?

I might live in Florida. Is Spanish used widely in that state? I'm just curious. There's also a chance I might be forced to learn the language haha, if my fiance gets me to live in Colombia. It does sound very interesting and we do share words with Spanish so maybe it would be much easier than say, French.

Funny thing is, before I learned about other languages, I didn't know how the other Asian languages sound like. We would just categorise them as Chinese, which was very lazy. When I grew up a bit, I became interested in other Asian music because of drama series and it really helped me distinguish one from the other while learning a word or two.

Aww, this topic actually makes me sad. In the Philippines, we use mostly English in our schools. It's probably nice that most of the populace understands English but the problem is most of us probably find it hard to express ourselves eloquently in our native language. I honestly don't know the Tagalog equivalents of most scientific and mathematical terms and I envy other countries which use their own language for most things.

Older people here told me Spanish was required to be learned way back. It's not mandatory these days but I think it would be fun to learn just to know how much Spanish has influenced our language. I think one of the dialects south of where I am also uses some derivative of Spanish.

My parents argue about it. It's either mama or papa, depending on who you ask. It's not even Tagalog. They both agree though that I started saying whichever word when I was 3 months old.

Nice! I like sci fi these days although I also like those that are realistic and also fantastic at the same time. Here's a reimagining of Snow White by Neil Gaiman. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow,_Glass,_Apples

It depends on the language. If I'm so used to the other language, I don't think it would be difficult as long as I use both regularly. This is very true with my experience in English and Tagalog. As for languages I learn later in life that I haven't learned much about, I guess I'd have that problem.

@mccanono: That's very interesting. I haven't really thought about the structural differences between English and Tagalog although it does come up I guess when someone tries to literally translate English. I think with our culture, it's not really hard to switch from one to another, especially those who are more exposed to English. I don't even think most people who speak in English think in Tagalog and literally do translations in their mind. It's kind of more fluid, I guess.

Thanks, @LauraM. I'm actually having problems with British? English and American English. I think we're initially more exposed to American English here in the Philippines but I'm playing a roleplaying game that mostly uses the former.

Nice link. That's also probably why English can help you learn other European language, it has similar or similar-sounding words with the other languages. I'm surprised though at the number of words derived from old French. I didn't think those had French origins.

I studied introductory French a few years back. It wasn't that good of a class although the professor was cute. Erm. I think I just appreciated the language more than learning it? He was mostly late and absent so I didn't really get my money's worth but it was fun when he was doing his job.

Thanks for the link. I love getting different sources for learning although I prefer this forums more. It's easier to learn with people who are also studying the language you're interested in. And I do like how this forums are gathering people who have different opinions. It's good to have great discussions here.

This is something I'm anticipating when I start having children. I can't really fault people who are born elsewhere, forgetting their parent/s' mother tongue, especially if they can only talk in that language with 2-3 people. My mother actually speaks another dialect originally and hasn't even tried teaching me because of the same reason and because most people where I live speak Tagalog. It would be nice if we live maybe in a community with many Filipinos although I'm not really that bothered about it.

Always an hour from what I know. As others do, I go by sound instead of the spelling itself. How about herb though? I'm using an with it because I don't pronounce the H although I've heard some people also use a herb. Not quite sure on this one.

It's just Rihanna giving the term class, I suppose. It's kind of amusing seeing/hearing people do that, combining different things to give new meanings to them, probably to make things more accessible for many.

I thought that with autocorrect, there'd be less shortcuts for chatting and texting these days. I honestly don't know why people use shortcuts still, but it's understandable for me if people without autocorrect use it. Actually, with some friends, I do use shortcuts but I avoid to overuse it. It's funny to mess with them because while I can be weird on text, I can also dish out complicated English words and sound professional :>

I like subtitled foreign language programs or films. I think it was distracting at first since you're focusing your eyes to the bottom of the screen but I got used to it and learned to enjoy foreign films/programs that way. It's fun because I wasn't even interested before about learning Japanese but I was able to pick up some foreign words because of watching with subs on.

English isn't new to me but I used to avoid talking in it because people can make such a big deal of it. So it was weird when I dreamed I was talking to it quite freely and it turns out that I was also talking while dreaming! I was so embarrassed because I can talk in it quite well but I've been pretending to fail at speaking in English.

About one's own accent, I think it's not evident at first although if you talk to people who are used to different accents, that's when you know you have one. Even my Tagalog has a different accent to those who also speak Tagalog in other areas. You just don't notice it unless you hear other people or unless someone points it out.

I'm fine with that, although I can't assure they wouldn't learn one given I'm Filipino and their father would be American. I'll probably not force it, just use it at home whenever I can. Maybe it will make my future hubby learn Tagalog too which would be useful for when we go to the Philippines.

I'm not really old but I remember "gay" used to also mean happy. I'm not exactly sure if it's being used these days to mean happy although I know it's more popularly used for "homosexual".

Let's leave text speak out of schools. It's already overused outside the school and it's not hard to do, it doesn't really restrict creativity. Oddly, for me, I get more misspellings in my touch QWERTY keyboard than when I was using the numbered keypad for texting.