Denis Hard

It depends on a lot of factors. If for example you live in a place where English is spoken. You work there and don't intend to ever go abroad either on vacation or business then it would pointless to learn a new language. However, if your line of work would require interaction with people who're not native speakers then you should try to learn the language your clients or the people you'll meet speak. That in my opinion would be the only advantage of learning multiple languages.

We have to take into account that American English is a derivative of British English so the 'old' language has to be better than the new one. However the differences are not that great. For twenty years all I could speak and write was British English. Then I had to take a screenwriting course and had to learn American English. From experience I'd say British English is harder to spell than American English.

The tutorials come in many versions. The video tutorials which I've used before to learn other things other than languages feel pretty much like sitting in a class and listening to a teacher teach. I found out written tutorials harder to follow because some writers are rather verbose and make you lose interest long before they make their point. However it's my opinion that the efficacy of online tutorials depends entirely on attitude. If you start off with the right attitude, you'll find yourself seeking for more information where you don't understand something. And what do you get from that? More knowledge. So I guess online tutorials are effective because they at least get you hunting for more information about what you learning.

For a foreign film, then to follow the story because that's what's of primary interest to me, I'll have to watch with sub-titles. The difficulty however is trying to follow the action and at the same time read. There are times, there could be just one sub-title for a whole minute of dialog, makes me doubt the veracity of some of these sub-titles.

Having tried my hand at writing, I can from experience say that writing is the most difficult of all. I'm not just talking about any form of writing, I'm talking about writing that achieves the primary purpose for which it's intended. It could be a letter or a resume but it takes a lot of skill to craft a piece of writing which attains that goal. I guess that's why there so many ghostwriters. . .

I am currently learning Spanish but much as I'm still trying to grasp the basics, I understand that to communicate effectively, one must have some command of commonly used words and their synonyms so in case you're abroad and someone uses a word you're not familiar you won't have to flounder trying to make head or tail of what they are saying.

Care to share tips how one can build vocabulary in any language fast?

Where I live because people of different ethnicities live together, it's not uncommon to find that most kids grow up speaking at least three different languages. And I'm not just talking about basic knowledge. It's fluency we're talking about. I for one, speak three different languages fluently. 

I have the intention of traveling to China and staying there for sometime. Since most of the Chinese speak Chinese and my purpose for going to China is to study their culture I realize it's obligatory for me, to at least learn the language. I understand there are many Chinese dialects so which of them would you say is spoken by most people [in China]?

It's possible for people to forget their native language entirely if they don't speak regularly. This could be because one consciously decides that they don't want to be identified as natives of a place for some reason [maybe war and such]. This pretense in the end pays off because you can believe something to such an extent that it becomes a reality.

I know of software created by http://www.gingersoftware.com/solutions/english_writing.html which is specifically created for correction of mistakes made while writing but I believe it can be useful tool for everyone [not just those learning English] because we all make mistakes when writing.

It's worth checking out.

I tried learning an African language because I had applied for a job with an Aid Agency and it was a prerequisite that you had to learn some Swahili. It's my firm belief that the grammar and sentence structure rules [of Swahili] are weirder than the ones that apply in English.

Most people who are learning English as a second language can write well enough but you'll notice that they tend to use words which native speakers do not commonly use. They seek the help of a thesaurus because they believe all that nonsense about using the vocabulary they've learned.

So guys, would you prefer simple writing that achieves the purpose for which it is intended or high-brow writing that is pain to read but emblazoned with fancy words you don't normally hear in everyday conversation?

I learned French when I was a kid but not enough to enable me converse with anybody in French.

However, I, at one time, distinctly remember dreaming that I was residing in a French-speaking part of Canada. We were at war with some enemy [i can't recall whom it was exactly] but the strange thing is that I could speak French fluently and I could understand everything that was said [in French].

p.s Maybe Reincarnation is not just a belief from the East. . .

The most recent theory [i've come across] about learning languages asserts that since babies learn a language by hearing it spoken often, anyone can through the same means learn a new language. The writer recommended listening to foreign music, watching foreign movies or just tuning in to a foreign radio station and leaving it on all day so that as you heard the words, with time they'd become more familiar and finally you'd just know what they meant.

I tried watching a number of French films but after some time realized that this didn't work. Or maybe I did it wrong?

So let me pose this open question: can you learn a language through passive listening?