Baburra

Aside from forgetting majority of it having not used it for a while, I don't really recall having much difficulty in learning it. By this I mean the Chinese alphabet. I think it's relatively easy to learn and memorize, and the best thing about it is that once you know it then you can pretty much learn any Chinese word you want by yourself given that the book you have has alphabets beside the words.

I just take any opportunity I can to use it. For example, I'm learning Japanese and there are a handful of Japanese people in my city so I just try and use it whenever I'm around them and they are always eager to teach me more or correct me when I'm wrong. I've talked to a lot of restaurant and store owners by doing this and what I love about it is that I get to befriend them at the same time.

I love my native language - Filipino, but I have to admit, it's awfully difficult to use to write. Without going too much into the specifics, let's just say that most English words consisting of one or two syllables would usually translate into 4 or 5 syllables when using the Filipino word counterpart. For example "Farmer" would translate as "Magsasaka". Growing up, I've also heard a lot of my classmates in school iterate that reading in Filipino is very hard for them too for the same reasons. Granted, if it's a casual conversation then there is more leeway to use simpler words, but even then it's still hard to construct complete sentences without at least incorporating one or two English words in there somewhere. When writing in English, however, I can be as specific as I can be when expressing my thoughts without much compromise. I guess it's because I / we grew up reading in English more even if we always spoke in our native language, or perhaps it's just really a lot more suitable for writing. How about you guys, do you write in your native language just as easily as you speak it, or are you more comfortable using English when it comes to writing like me?

I definitely use my native language more, as I'm still a lot more comfortable with it even if I am relatively fluent in English. I think it's because I don't really have that much of a reason to use English in my daily life other than when I'm online posting on forums and comment sections and on writing some of my articles. Otherwise, when I speak to people around me, even the ones who prefer to speak English, as long as I know they can understand me in our native language I'd still just use that instead.

Very interesting topic! I rarely pick up or browse newspapers so I rarely notice this happening to me, but I have to admit it's probably happened for me once or twice while browsing magazines or at least browsing articles online. I'm on the same boat as LauraM on this one, I'm very much a sucker for lists so I'm always drawn to those types of titles too.

To see something through means to finish something you have started. I've gotten so used to these idioms that I never really took notice of their structure and composition, and now that I have, I'd have to say that the choice to use "see" in these is kind of poetic.

One of the games I enjoyed most as a kid, a time that there was no internet and tablets yet, was playing word games like find the word - which is the one I found most enjoyable. I still do enjoy word games today because of it, and my friends and I still even like to talk about and share brain teasers with each other and a few of them are language/word related because it's one of the more accessible topics. One that I found very memorable was when I was asked to cite examples of words that don't have vowels, which I have to admit stumped me for a good few minutes until I realized that words like "gym" exist. I enjoy these types of challenges because I feel my brain getting stimulated each time. Do you guys have any favorite language based games, both old or new?

Pronunciation often frustrates me. I want to be as accurate as possible when speaking a foreign language and on some languages closer to my mother tongue, I can mostly pull it off. However, when it comes to languages that are very far from my own, namely French, it's hard to correct my own tongue and even with lots of practice it's hard to get right.

I don't really have much of a routine or strict goals I adhere to, I pretty much just try to learn something new everyday even if I just spend a few minutes or hours on it. Knowing myself, if I force too much in a short amount of time, I'll just end up getting overwhelmed or forgetting everything if not both.

Not at the moment, but I'd definitely consider getting one if and when I do start getting a little bit more serious with my learning. For now, however, I prefer to take a bit more of a casual pace instead since I already have a bit too much pressure from other aspects of my life as it is, but when I do get some more time and luxury to learn I imagine it would be the next best thing to going to the country itself.

I was terribly confused with the expression "have your cake and eat it too" until I looked it up recently and after that 20 years of mystery just disintegrated which I'd say felt pretty good. Another one that always kind of confused me is the expression "sweating like a pig". I wonder why it became widely used when pigs don't really even sweat at all if I'm not mistaken.

I'd say it depends for me. If the topic is something I like, then I'll listen and remember even the smallest of details, but if I am bored or disinterested with the topic or the speaker then I'll almost definitely always just drift off as I do tend to daydream a lot. My friends know this about me and they have learned to anticipate it, by which I mean they understand when they see I'm drifting off again because it's not like I'm doing it on purpose.

I prefer slower paced speaking when it comes to talking to people, but I don't mind listening to fast talkers as well and I can still keep up whether it's in English or my native language. I might have a bit more of a problem understanding if their accent is one I'm not familiar with, but otherwise I think I can keep up just fine.

I think it helps a lot but it shouldn't be entirely necessary. Personally, I think knowing the language well enough should do the trick. What I'd consider more important would be the tone when using another language, since different cultures will tend to use tone in communication differently and if the other person is not used to your particular tone he or she might misconstrue your message.

I always think in my native language even if I am fairly comfortable with using English daily. I've always preferred using my native language, so it's only natural for me to use it when thinking as well. I do sometimes use English in my head, but that happens rarely especially nowadays that I appreciate my own language even more.

I think both have their own benefits. Extroverts, as you've mentioned, will have the advantage of getting to practice speaking with other people. However, introverts on the other hand, would probably have more time getting the technicalities of the language down since they will have the sort of environment that will make it comfortable for them to focus on the small details that someone who can't stay put may miss.

My favorite has always been "You can't judge a book by its cover". I learned it early on in life and it's stuck with me ever since. First off, I consider myself very observant, so I learned early on that the things I observe and perceive are only temporary and eventually I might be proven wrong so it's best to hold off on judgement. Furthermore, I'm also often misjudged by other people's first impressions as well so I surely know how that feels like so I try not to do it to others as much as possible.

I love hearing accents, and I mostly love hearing about it when used for comedy. I think it's a great way to learn or even get other people interested in other cultures they/we would probably never have paid attention to had we not seen a lighthearted and entertaining depiction of them.

I've been taught English as a second language from as far back as I remember, so I wouldn't say that I learned it as an investment, but I do agree that it certainly does feel like it was now that I think about it. As for the other languages I'm currently trying to learn, they are definitely to be considered an investment, but I am only really learning it for enrichment and not much else although it would be great to see it unexpectedly pay off someday.

I always hear people saying "shepherd" with an "F" sound instead of keeping the "H" silent and rightfully pronouncing it as "sheh-perd". I find it understandable since the H is there and almost screams to be used and mentioned. I've probably noticed a lot of these instances throughout my lifetime, but somehow this is just the one word that really stood out to me enough for me. Anyone else have any other notable examples of commonly mispronounced words? I'd love to be reminded of them.

I think it would be a good skill to pick up, yes. I'm sure there are a lot of people out there who have learned sign language just for enrichment purposes, so I don't see why the same can't be applied for braille. Furthermore, it can even lead to future job prospects as I'm sure that being a non-blind person who knows braille would be a welcome credit to any school for the blind.

I only would use big or deeper words if there was a need to be more specific, otherwise, I usually just stick with more casual words unless it starts to sound tacky. A good balance of both is often the best for me, and I also dislike it when I see sentences like the example you have provided. I think it comes off as desperate.

I'm surprised myself at how some of these big companies sometimes allow their grammar to go unchecked, but most of the time I just assume that they are making it part of their charm. For example, one of our channels here utilizes the phrase "playing exclusive on ____" which of course is wrong because the correct structure would be "Playing exclusively". Still, I consider it to be minor and I don't think it makes or break the station. I'd probably be a little more harsh if the channel or subject matter of the show were a little more serious.

Yes, I think it helps sometimes, or at least the effect helps. If you are somehow able to duplicate the fluidity of not having to over think every word or sentence and just speak freely as you would your first language, then it would have the same effect on your fluency I'd assume.

The standard here is to learn English as early as possible in life, besides the native language, so I'd say there are two major languages spoken here. Although, there are a good number of Chinese residents here as well, and the Chinese culture has already mixed in with ours by now, although it's still only mostly Chinese people that make an effort to learn and speak Chinese.