Baburra

I like the British English accent the best, the fancy one. With that accent, even the dirtiest words and sayings sound sophisticated. Of course, I do realize that everyone with a fancy British accent won't turn out to be sophisticated, but it sure helps out with the image.

Is there anything about an accent you dislike when you hear people speaking? I personally think Canada and its people are pretty cool, and I don't mind their accent as a whole, but I strongly dislike hearing them say the word "about". I also heard somewhere that people in France generally dislike hearing the Quebec accent speaking the French language. I wonder why we are naturally drawn to dislike particular accents or parts of them, but on the flipside, I generally find it amusing when I hear other languages being spoken with an American accent. Do you have any pet peeves when it comes to accents?

I don't think many translations, especially in movies, can truly be fully accurate. Usually, in movies or TV shows, they are forced to shorten or condense an idea to keep up with the pace of the show, and often the humor, idioms, and other figures of speech tend to get lost between the cracks, but they are often substituted with the American version and I suppose it's the best option rather than having no translation at all.

Yes, I think it's so easy to forget that not all languages, and even culture for that matter, are structured according to what we've gotten so used to. I only got that as I grew older and learned from people from different countries as well, although I'm remissed that I'd never really fully understand the difference in each one without learning the whole language first, which is probably too much of a feat for me at least for now.

I was taught a second and third language as early as I could remember, and I never really had much trouble learning it, probably because I started off so young. The only advice I'd give for this is to make sure that the other languages are constantly put to use at home, since it's too easy to forget without practice, even with decades of training.

I never plan to, but I've always found it fascinating to see first off, that it is indeed possible to create your own language, and secondly, that people actually learn it. I watched a documentary about Trekkies (Star Trek fans), and saw a lot of them totally immersing themselves in the culture by having themed weddings and even using Klingon as the language used. I personally would prefer to learn other "real world" languages, but I'm glad that this level of creativity not only exists, but is also being supported.

If it were a language completely unrelated to my own, I'd give myself about a year just to be realistic, but if it were somehow related, I could probably pick it up in half that time. Still, it would take years to become fluent at any language, I think, and to be able to use it as naturally as your native language. This is probably especially true if you aren't forced to use it on a daily basis.

Yes, I do think you could learn this, but it takes some interactivity. If you just listen to it constantly, then you might never get the context clues, but if you use them even sparingly to communicate, then you will learn it, but even with just your subconscious, I believe it's possible to pick up even just a few words, especially the simplest ones.

I recently had a conversation online with an Italian acquaintance, and we were talking about the Spanish language. She mentioned that Spanish is actually related to Italian, which honestly surprised me at first, but as I thought about it some more, a few of the words are actually similar such as "verde", and even the whole word and sentence structure began to look similar to me, especially for food names. Anyone here who is more knowledgeable with history care to shed some light as to how this came about?

I feel this way towards my knowledge of Mandarin. I studied it for years, and even got pretty fluent at it at some point, and I even was able to write essays in Chinese effortlessly because of learning it for so long. After a while of not being able to practice either speaking or writing it, however, I've come to realize that I've forgotten so many of the words already and can't even manage to complete one sentence of Chinese today without having to think hard on it. I could still probably pick it up relatively easily, though, if I took a refresher course, so I'm not too beat up about it.

I grew up in a Spanish country, and I used to love hearing the grown ups calling the kids "hijo" or "hija". Something about it just sounded royal to me. Also, I've heard the word "pendejo" spoken in a few movies, and I absolutely loved the word right away. I don't really use it myself, but it amuses me whenever I see it utilized in a show or a movie.

I'm guessing love stories and dramas are probably a lot easier to translate than comedy, since for some reason, we all can understand what makes us cry more than what makes us laugh. I've been meaning to introduce a Japanese friend of mine to some American comedy shows, but since he does not understand English that much, I'm thinking of showing him dubbed versions, but honestly, I'm not too optimistic that the jokes and tones will translate well, and since I don't really understand Japanese, I'm afraid I'll never know if it does indeed translate well or not. Although, I think it might also just depend on the type of show, as I've also watched a few shows dubbed into my own native language, and even though I don't think they're entirely accurate, they still manage to translate and adapt some of the comedic scripts. Do you agree that comedic dialogue and script is the most difficult thing to translate? Do you appreciate foreign comedy shows, and if so, did you see a dubbed version or a subtitled version?

I'd be up for the challenge, especially if it were a country I've always dreamt of going to. I think it shouldn't be too hard, as long as the people are friendly and willing to put some effort into communicating with a foreigner. I prefer learning through conversations anyway, and I'm sure I'll be able to get used to simple words and phrases I'll be needing for daily life, and soon enough with some effort, I'll hopefully gradually learn more complex phrases as I go along. I think it's a much better, and in some way a much easier way of learning a new language.

That's amazing, I wonder how he does it. Whenever I see people like these, I wonder if what they can do is possible for the common person if only he or she would devote the same amount of time on it. I'm guessing it's a little bit like drawing, though, in that some people just can do it naturally, and some people need to really work at it but never might achieve the same level as someone who was born talented. Either way, his talent is impressive.

Honestly, with today's technology, I wouldn't try learning alone anymore. I'd just find someone I could talk with online so I could learn through conversation, since memorizing phrases really doesn't work too well for me, and I suspect this is true for many other people too. I'd pay my potential language learning partner back by teaching him or her about a language that I know of, or use one of my other skills to return the favor. Lots of people are out there wanting the same thing, and we now have the technology to speak to each other for almost no cost, so I think it's best to take advantage.

I do feel awkward and shy when this happens, although I do realize I really shouldn't. It's just difficult to control it sometimes when the rest of the people around me are able to communicate a lot more effortlessly. I try not to let it affect me too much though, and instead I just try to make it a motivation to challenge myself to get acquainted with the new language much faster.

I'm much more used to using "color" as a spelling, along with other words with the same applicable rule, like "flavor and flavour". Needless to say, I prefer the spelling without the "U" a lot more, and whenever I see the other form used, it makes me feel awkward. I'm assuming the latter is more commonly used in European countries, and I'm asking our members if this is true, and if so, which spelling do you prefer?

I use learnt when I want to appear more casual and playful, as it's standard in my locality to use "learned" so they are aware that I only use it ironically. If I'm being more proper, I'd use "learned", just because it feels more natural as I've grown up using it.

I think talking with people in a language daily helps a lot with learning that particular language. You have to discipline yourself and make it a point to actually say the words though, and not get tempted to act it out or translate it into your own language. After a while of doing this regularly, you'll slowly get used to speaking and hearing the language without even noticing the effort, but of course at the start it will feel very tedious.

I started learning English as far back as I remember. When my parents read storybooks to me, they were always in English, and by the time I started school, all the subjects were in English and we only had one or two subjects focusing on our native language.

Yes, we study English, not only as a subject, but most other subjects are also taught in English rather than the native language. It's even made me a lot more adept to reading and learning in English as opposed to my own language, which at this point, only makes me dizzy when I try to read it. I speak it fine, though.

It's good enough to use for rough translations, but obviously not nearly at the level to replace the translator jobs in the world. The way Google is developing, I wouldn't be surprised if they are able to perfect it in the next few years, and until then, I'd say it's at least good enough for minor usage, which is a lot better than having no option or having to use an even lesser tool.

I attribute a lot of my knowledge of English grammar to my love of Archie comics growing up. I think it helped me a lot with sentence structures and word usage, since it was a comic that rarely used slang and was always "proper". This is why I recently bought my nephews and nieces some Archie comics of their own, and while flipping through the pages of these modern versions, I was pleasantly surprised that they still maintain the same tone and structure when it comes to the characters' dialogue. Which English comic books did you read growing up, and how much did they help you with learning English?

I've had some instances when I've dreamed other people talking to me in my second language, probably because I myself don't even really speak it that much in my daily life, and only ever hear it, so I guess it feels relatively natural even in dreams. I wasn't weirded out by it at all.

I'd make it as a requirement, but only alongside other useful skills, and not just requiring students to learn a second language as a whole. There are tons of other ways to gain advantage through skill, and learning a second language is only a part of that whole spectrum. Some people are much better at communicating when it comes to their craft or art, and we must never forget that.