Baburra

English is practically standard here, so it would be almost impossible not to teach my kids the language when the time comes. I think I'd still make an effort though, if we were living in another country where English wasn't taught, not really for any particular reason other than I'm already so used to it and it would feel like the natural thing to do.

I have a lot of these little nuances and pet peeves when I read it on articles or especially when I hear it spoken by narrators, in which I mean a use of a word I don't like will just turn me off to whatever I'm hearing or reading, not completely though, I'd of course still continue on. For example, I prefer the use of the word soup and dislike it when the word broth is used when stating or describing what I am about to intake. It just sounds a lot less appetizing to me that way. Do you guys have any words you'd prefer to hear or read over another when it comes to particular topics you like?

I think most people who participate in forums like these that aren't from English speaking countries will turn out to be bilingual because English is necessary for majority of the communication that happens here. That said, I am one of those people and yes I'm bilingual, and I'm hoping to be multilingual very soon.

I voted yes, but I wouldn't say I've totally given up on it. I'm planning to learn French, but at the time I started, I really didn't know what my motivation was to begin with anyway. It wasn't like I was planning on utilizing it at the time. I still retained a lot of useful words and phrases from my lesson too, so it wasn't a complete loss. In the near future, I hope to spend a good amount of time in France, so hopefully, I can get some practice in before that time comes, and until then, I just put my French lessons on hold and I try to focus on the languages I think I might be able to utilize sooner.

French is totally foreign and outside the realm of pronunciations I have grew up with, so even though I would like to learn it badly, it's been really difficult to pronounce and even remember the words. I don't have as much trouble with learning Japanese and Chinese, because they are similar to my own native language to some degree. I have to say I've had the most difficult time with French, even though some other languages might prove to be even more difficult.

I don't, it makes me uncomfortable and it feels unnatural to me. I only resort to using another language when I can't come up with the word for the one I'm using at the moment.

I heard of a few gray areas in English grammar way back when I was in elementary, and I've forgotten most of it at this point. I always remembered one of them, though, and I still notice it until today whenever I see it being used. I'm pertaining to the use of collective nouns (not sure if this is the correct term, but see example below). My elementary teacher pointed out that this was still a gray area at the time, and I think it might still be one until now. For example: How would you go about this? I personally prefer considering the nouns as singular just because when we use them in this context, they are considered as one unit, but I see the opposite (above example) a lot more. I would personally do it this way: What are your thoughts on this? Do you have any other examples of gray areas in the rules? I'd love to remember the ones I've forgotten about.

People in my country are usually taught English from a very young age, so fortunately, I never really had to struggle that much with learning the language since I practically grew up with it. The first English books I ever read were text books, but the first "real" book I read was The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe back in high school. Up until that point, I honestly never got what made people love books so much, but I had to read a book for a book report, and after I picked up the book I couldn't stop myself from reading it. Suffice to say I enjoyed reading that immensely, although, I never read many fantasy books after that, and I usually just picked up and read business books from then on.

I took Chinese classes for most of my childhood, and I learned the language that way. I'm slowly forgetting more bits and pieces of it by the day now, though, since I rarely ever use it, but the basic knowledge is still intact. I think it's alright to learn by songs and movies, but to really get the whole essence of it and to learn the proper structures (i.e. taking it more seriously), it might be best to learn through taking a class. It's a lot more fun and a lot easier when you have classmates to practice and learn with.

I have a hard time saying "theater" and "truth". I think it's because I rarely hear these words spoken in my native accent, and emulating the usual English speaking accent to say it just feels too unnatural. I'm still finding the sweet spot in between the two to this day.

I've always been mindful of usage, so I probably rarely make this mistake, if at all. I don't mind it when I see other people make this mistake, though, since I fully accept that not everyone had as much education of English as I have. Most of the time, when I see this mistake being made online, I just assume that the person speaking is from a non-English speaking country and I just leave it at that.

I have a Japanese friend living in our country and he barely speaks English or our local language, yet because we share a lot of common interests, we hang out a lot together and we communicate mostly by his extremely broken English, and my extreme patience with deciphering them. That, and of course, a lot of hand gestures. I'm doubtful he will ever learn more than he already knows when it comes to language, since he doesn't really seem that interested, and yet I think it adds a great deal of charm to our relationship. Any of you out there ever had a close friend like this? Care to share your stories?

I agree that reading is probably one of the best ways to learn vocabulary, particularly, comic books. I think it's better to see characters interacting as opposed to just whole walls of text, since with character conversations and interactions, you get to know context a lot more and the examples you get from it are closer to practical usage.

I think language is only easy if you grew up with it. To anyone trying to learn a completely different and foreign language, it will always be a difficult endeavor. That said, I do think English has a certain simplicity to it, so I might agree to some degree that English might be one of the easier languages to pick up, although it's still highly subjective, I think.

They are definitely effective, although I think they should just be treated more as an introduction to the language so you don't get too overwhelmed when speaking with and learning from another person, which I think comprises the bulk of the weight when it comes to learning the language in terms of conversational use. Like most other skills, reading about it and practicing by yourself is fine and it can work, but it usually takes exchanging ideas with other people that makes you better.

When it comes to essays, regardless of the language used, I'd usually just focus most on the structure and try to make it flow as well as I can and put in as much detail and information as I can. When I talk of structure, I'm pertaining to the parts namely: introduction, body, and conclusion. Keeping this in mind made me really efficient with writing essays, and even though I don't really get the top score for it, I usually get above average.

I've always been fascinated with slang, particularly ones in my own native language, but recently, I've been noticing and finding humor in American slang a lot more. The one term I find most humorous is the word "cankles", and for those who are unfamiliar, it's a combination of calf and ankles, pertaining to when a person has wide enough ankles that it's hard to differentiate from the calf. I don't know what it is about this term, it seems too easy to invent, but I find it so creative and humorous. Do you guys have any American/English slang that you find funny and think would be worth noting?

The people I hang out with here all speak English, so they usually just utilize the new English slang words like epic and various other ones that came with the online culture. They don't use it often, though, thankfully, as I dislike hearing online speak in real life, but I never say so just so they don't feel like they have to fix the way they speak. I don't mind it that much, anyway.

I agree. I think words are relatively easy to translate, in general, but the idea behind some words and phrases just don't carry over well when transferred onto a different language, particularly ones that lie in between cultural differences. A particular example, would be idioms and other sayings, as what sounds good in English will not always sound natural when translated into another language literally.

Glad you think so! I was pertaining more to just changing the spelling and pronunciation, but more or less retaining the exact word, because translating the whole term literally would sound too silly. For example, translating both "cup" and "cake" would sound a bit too off, so a native language would just adapt the word as a whole and translate it into a more familiar spelling. Hope that made sense.

I definitely have an accent, but I can correct it if I concentrate hard enough. It takes way too much effort, though, so I wouldn't do it in normal conversations. I'd prefer being more natural to having the correct accent.

I've always found it fascinating when some English words just can't be translated and they end up just being adapted. I often wonder why they even change the spelling and pronunciation to begin with, but I suppose it's just part of the rules of every individual country with their language. For example, I know that in Filipino, some English words like cupcake will be translated into "Kupkeyk" because a literal translation would just sound even sillier, and when it comes to Japan, they adapt so many English terms and words all the time especially for new terminologies such as "Let's Play" type of videos for video games, and if I'm not mistaken they call it "Retsu-preyu", among many other things. Any notable adaptations in your own language, and do you use it often? I personally find it unnecessary and would rather just state the American spelling, but of course, I don't speak for the whole land. Your thoughts?

Some of those sound forced, but I trust they will decide on the right thing when the time comes as they have always done. I think it's their job to look at everything no matter how ludicrous they are, and as long as they don't tarnish their name with forced words that are obviously just fads then I'm fine with it.

I learned English very early on in my life, now 20 years later, I'm still finding interesting things about the language. How each word is constructed and very specific to each thing, for example, when you really watch it closely and look at what kind of root words are being used and what prefixes and suffixes are being combined with them and how accurately they describe the thing they are named for. I find it very fascinating, still, and I don't think I'll ever get sick of it.

I like Zoolander. I usually prefer to watch comedies because I like to laugh and forget about my problems when I watch movies. This movie was very dialogue heavy, as is what most of the other comedy movies in this generation were, but this one in particular had a very quirky way of putting sentences together and the way Zoolander speaks them was just so funny in my opinion.