Dame6089

Hola! I wrote my thesis on Venezuela. It is a fascinating country. I'm curious, what video game consoles do you have there?

I think that is an awesome idea. I would love to be able to learn from playing a game. Are there any flash games based on language already out there?

You are correct. Although Microsoft and Nickleback consist of more than one person, they are viewed as a singular object. With sports teams though, you should use plural because their names are plural (Steelers, Yankees, etc.).

I really enjoyed Love Hina. It is a really funny series that can take a serious tone on occasion. Depends if you enjoy the harem genre or not though.

Welcome! I can't lie, I'm jealous that you are fluent in so many languages. Is there a reason you know so many languages? Is it for work or is it just your passion?

I know it's considered a "classic", but I have to say I did not enjoy "The Scarlet Letter". It was so dry. i could never get into it. I never want to pick up that book again.

I'm not a book reader. I generally only read articles because I find it hard to commit to an entire book. With that said, I read a lot of great books in highschool. One book that stuck out was "The Stranger" by Albert Camus.

To not give away the plot, I will just say that I have never read a book that created that kind of feeling. The main character's apathy made the severity of the situation in the book seem comical. It is hard to explain. You just have to read it.

I think the biggest issue with English is not the number of rules, but the amount of times that the language breaks its own rules. I guess people do consider the rule breaking to be exceptions or rules though. I am just glad that I didn't have to learn English as a second language. It must be so frustrating.

I don't think I have seen this error before. At least not often enough that I have noticed a problem. I can see how an English learner could mess it up. If native speakers are making this mistake, however, that is pretty embarrassing.

The basic rule is to use an for words beginning with a vowel. An hour is an exception since the "h" is pronounced silently. We use "a" for words beginning with a consonant.

I honestly never knew there was a rule. I kind of just felt my way through it my whole life. As a native english speaker, you can usually tell what sounds right and what sounds wrong. That is just me though. Thanks for the info!

I had a professor in college who was a linguist. To get to that level, you really just have to be focused on learning the languages every day. Take college courses, visit other countries, and just try to implement languages as much as you can into everyday life.

Regardless of what language you are writing in, you need to have the basic structure. You want to have a defined introduction, body, and conclusion. It doesn't matter how good your grammar is if your essay is sloppy and incohesive.

There are definitely times when the subtitles don't match the same feeling as the original words. Ideas don't always transition perfectly between languages. Most big budget movies have solid subtitles though.

I watch dubs and subs equally, but I have to agree. US voice actors struggle to capture the same feeling as the Japanese actors. It seems like they are just trying to recreate an over the top japanese stereotype.

I was laughing at a scottish accent on a commercial last night and began thinking about what my accent sounds like. I would love to be able to hear the typical american accent from an outside perspective. I will probably never be able to experience though because I am too used to how it sounds.

If you really want to learn the language, you need to speak and read in it often. I would suggest finding a course that is based in conversation. Most of my college Spanish courses focused around a book discussion in class. I improved tenfold thanks to these classes.

Who are some of the most famous Japanese authors? I would like to look into Japanese literature, but I have no clue who is who when it comes to authors. If anybody knows some good Japanese authors, that would be a great place for me to start.

I did not realize this until yesterday but my pet peeve is when someone says "I could care less". This is saying that you are not at the minimum level of caring, therefor you care about the subject. You should be saying "I could not care less" which states that you are at the minimum level of caring.

Oh this is a good one that I forgot. I used to say this until someone called me out on it. "I could care less" really doesn't make any sense at all, but tons of people still use it.

"Tiger" and "Pumpkin" are two words that I always say wrong. My girlfriend called me out on it one day because I say "tagger" for "tiger" and "Punkin" for "Pumpkin".

I have no problem with it. As far as I know, Oxford always denotes words like this as slang. It's not as if they are permitting these words in formal language.

I really enjoy Rocky and Anchorman. They are on opposite ends of the spectrum, but both great. Rocky is inspirational and Anchorman is laugh out loud funny.

It is hard to say. As a native speaker, I obviously think that it is easy to speak. Still, I could see how speakers of other languages could find it difficult.

Take a language like Japanese for example where there are no plurals. In Japanese, they use context to understand if you are talking about "one apple" or "many apples". I could see how a Japanese speaker would think that English over complicates it.

This happens to me all of the time. It is usually with really basic words too. I will forget how to make a basic sentence in English. It usually comes back in a few minutes though.

I am always hesitant to speak Spanish with native speakers. I have trouble keeping up when they speak quickly. I think this is natural. The only way to get used to it is by frequent use. That was you get better and feel more confident in your ability.

This is something I struggle with. If you can't talk to people in the language, consider watching tv or movies in the language. At least that way you will still be exposed to the language and how it is used in a conversational sense.