Baburra

I think if you're already somewhat familiar with the language, or at least know a lot of the basic words, it can be helpful in the sense that it reinforces what you already know of the word via means of visual context. Apart from that, it's not really a substitute for actual studying.

The best advice I know of is to speak it at home. I think it's because we're at our most natural state when we're at home, and incorporating a language into that lifestyle will make the language flow a lot more naturally and will make it seem normal.

I think countries will just adopt the English word for it, and if a country decides it is easy enough to adapt into their own spelling or diction, then they will. I'd assume that the country of origin would dictate the standard, and it's up to the individual cultures as to how they will adapt it. If I'm not mistaken, I know Japan adapts most words into their native language/alphabet because the formula set in place makes it easy enough to do so, and because they don't really rely on English as much so it just makes more sense to translate it into their own.

I don't know because I've been out of school for a long time now and have no idea what they're teaching kids these days, but I think it would be a terrible loss if they stopped teaching this to kids. I personally think it would be best to keep kids as prepared as possible for situations wherein they don't have keyboards or the internet.

One of the misconceptions I've personally observed is that people feel the need to copy the American accent or the word usage of the British because majority of their exposure to the language is through movies and TV shows. I think English lends itself well to each country's individual accents, in that it's still perfectly understandable with thick foreign accents, and a regular way of speaking is good enough without needing to stylize it ala British speak.

I see this too, a lot of the new kids here speak English primarily instead of the native language. I think it's a loss, since I think our own language is pretty amusing, but if it's how the world evolves then so be it. I'm not one to stand in the way of progress.

When we spend time with the same people long enough, conversations tend to evolve and given enough time, inside jokes and inside languages are formed. My friends and I always use "drop" in place of putting down things, like "Where should I drop these groceries?". I don't exactly know where it originated from, we just somehow suddenly started to talk this way among the many other little differences from conventional speaking we use. Do you have any notable language inventions between you and your friends or family?

This one I've never heard before, and I have to say that's pretty freakin' funny. At least it was vague enough that I don't think kids would have picked up on it, but it must have been pretty confusing to some of the adults.

We do this too! I think it's because we're too lazy to speak properly sometimes, or our minds just couldn't come up with the proper structure fast enough. :wacky: This usually happens to us when we're tired or bored.

I prefer to use whole words just because I think it looks better, but that's pretty much as far as my reasons go. Otherwise, I'm not too avert to using shortcuts or seeing them because the character limit plays a big factor in texting.

I used to use a paid app on my smartphone which is great because I get to take it around with me and use it whenever I have downtime. It works by putting up flashcards and tests you through memory and allows you to practice, and there are even little mini-games in place for when you need a break from the seriousness. I think it's pretty good for learning the basics, but nothing will ever engrain a new language to your brain like daily conversation.

I try to start out with the most basic whenever I can, so I'd probably start with words. Although, mixing in some lessons on phrases will surely help as well, since you could at least learn how the words will be used and thus it will place them in better context for easier learning.

I got a lot better at my Chinese through writing out dozens, if not hundreds of essays throughout my school years. Although, I have learned a lot of the basics of speaking already and I did start at a very young age, so I'm not sure which one proves to be better to start out with, but I assume that writing and speaking lessons do help each other out quite a bit. Visualizing what you are intending to learn to speak definitely helps.

Not only does it make travelling easier, but it can serve as a source of good income as well. I'm sure is lots of demand out there for translators, and I don't think technology can replace this industry any time soon.

I've tried this on a site that was more of a social networking site than a language site, but it was a feature nonetheless. It was pretty amusing, but I found it a little hard to keep up. Not only is it difficult to schedule meetings due to offline responsibilities, but having to keep up with the different time zones is also challenging. It's probably a lot easier to accomplish if both people were on the same level of conviction to learn, though.

I think if you stop practicing it, you start to forget. All of our family members speak our native language at home, so it's not that hard to pick up on it when we return to the motherland. Still, it's easy to lose the accent so that part is a little hard to get used to when whenever we goo back.

No, I've skimmed through a Bible in Chinese and maybe recognized a few words here and there, but just thinking about it is giving me a headache. :speechless: So I definitely do get how proud you must have been when you reached page 5. I have a difficult enough time reading modern books with colloquial texts of a foreign language, I don't think I'd have the patience to go through multiple pages of ancient text in a foreign language.

I think it is useful, yes, especially if they are native speakers. I'd only be skeptical if the person isn't fully native, and even then I'd only be a little skeptical. I think being a native speaker is almost as good as being a teacher of that particular language.

Yes, I've tried this in the past. I came across a website that had a section with a good amount of members helping each other learn each other's language, and I participated for a while. The only hard part is setting up appointments and keeping them, because I'm a little moody especially when it comes to learning.

I tried this with Japanese as well, and came to the same conclusion. I don't know how people managed to learn languages from books before the internet existed. They are still somewhat helpful, though, don't get me wrong. I've memorized a lot of phrases from those books back then and it's easier to just learn the pronunciations later on like I'm doing now.

Wow, I had no idea that some of these words were purely foreign, especially diva, liaison, and doppelganger (this one should really have been more obvious to me though). Also, I'm learning a lot more of the ones I've missed, I always thought the well known ones like "deja vu" were it. I think "joie de vivre" and "Raison d'être" are my new favorite discoveries, I'll try to remember them for next time. Thanks a lot so far, guys, seriously, and keep them coming for anyone who still has examples please!

I do this sometimes, although, I don't really do it literally to aid in my language learning, just to help immerse me and give some extra motivation or reminder as to why I'm learning the language in the first place. Often, I'd watch Japanese shows while I eat ramen or other Japanese foods, and it definitely enhances both the meal and the show.

I picked arabic, just because the characters they use look like they would be hard to learn. At least when it comes to Chinese characters, there are some indications on how they came about because most of them originated from pictographs. When it comes to Arabic, though, I think I'd be completely lost.

Yes, it's definitely a little embarrassing, but it's not like there's much you can do about it immediately. What's good about it, though, is that it's not entirely impossible to correct. Although, even if you do end up changing your accent, often, a little of the old one will linger on, which is good enough, I guess.

I pick Spanish. The pattern seems easy enough to comprehend, and I think it's one that is easy to understand even with a few mistakes or grammatical errors. Not to mention, a lot of their words are internationally known already to begin with.