Denis Hard

Some more:

Change hands - be given to someone else be it via a formal of transaction or otherwise.

Catch someone red-handed - to catch someone [by chance] doing something wrong.

. . .empty-handed - without anything.

Firsthand - experience something yourself.

Hand in hand - hold hands.

At a time when I was very much interested in the history of Russia, I figured that to actually learn more about the Russian culture I would have to learn the language. But the moment I discovered that they used a totally different script/alphabet. . .I lost interest.

It depends on the purpose of learning the language. If you don't intend to do any reading or writing in the language you're learning then it would be best to actually, if you can, move to a place where the language is spoken and learn it directly from the native speakers. That IMO is the easiest way to learn a language.

It's easy. When kids learn to speak, when they see something they don't know, naturally, they'll ask you:  what is that/what do you call that, etc.

So, shouldn't the same apply for the language student. Instead of learning fancy grammar rules, etc, etc, wouldn't one learn a language faster just by knowing how to ask the question:

"How do you say. . .[in your language]?

e.g Someone learning English would ask me in their native language:

Comment ça se dit en anglais? [correct me if my French sucks].

and I'd answer

How do you say that in English?

Arabic would be great to learn. There are lot's of jobs that pay quite well in Arab-speaking countries. . .but you need to know Arabic to be eligible.

When I volunteered to work for an aid agency for half a year and had to travel abroad to work amongst people who didn't speak English, I just had to learn the local language or at least, enough to enable me to communicate. Having learned firsthand therefore that learning a new language was not as hard as techers made it to be in school, I chose to try learning a few more. . .

Guys, we have a French section. The thread is best suited here: http://linguaholic.com/new-board-66/. That, I suppose, is the best place to get the right answers to all matters related to studying French.

There's a website that can help you build you vocabulary fast.

http://www.vocabulary.com

Vocabulary.com helps you learn new words, play games that improve your

vocabulary, and explore language.

IMO, this is the best way because you not only get to see the words you're learning used in a number of different sentences but since you see the words you're learning frequently, it's hard not to remember them.

How English sounds to someone who doesn't speak is how the language that person speaks will be sound to you. Strange.

p.s That fake English sounded so freaking real!

One of the most unlikely words to be used in an idiom but well. . .take a look:

Scream blue murder - yell loudly [as though you're getting killed].

. . .murder on something - very bad for something.

Unfortunately I know only those two. . .so guys, any more of them?                                   

I would think it would be easier for a child to learn more than one language at one time but the capacity to learn a language fast decreases as one ages. So for younger language students, it's possible to learn two languages at one time [without any complications arising]  but for older language students it would be better to learn them one at a time.

I hardly ever write in my second langauge unless necessity demands that I do. Even then, I write whatever it is that must be written in English first then translate it. It takes time, but at least that way, I'm able to express myself as succintly as I can.

I don't think we'll have a universal language any time soon. You see, it's more of a nationalistic issue. No one would willing to replace their native tongue with a foreign one. It would imply that the language is better than yours and as everyone thinks they're superior to the OTHER. . .it's not going to happen.

But that a new language will appear is quite obvious. Wouldn't you consider the language used in chat rooms, new?

I'd pity such a person because they don't know what they're missing. Some of best movies are Hollywood produced. . .so they don't get to enjoy these movies without the aid of sub-titles which take the fun out of watching a movie.

Reading helps with learning how the language is actually used without the constraints of rules and other few technical facets of learning a language that make it seem difficult. Exposure to written material that observes the rules without sign posts [that tell you the learner] that some grammar rules has been broken etc, makes you be more "natural" because in real life, no one bothers about grammar as long as you get your point across.

Yeah, reading definitely does help you learn a language faster. 

Outside in my garden. When I'm close to mother nature, I find it easier to actually enjoy anything I'm doing. Different places work for different people.

Grammar has never been my strong point but well. . .

I'd say the first statement is correct because. . .heck it sounds correct. Documents can be numbered. So if they are many, quite obviously you need to balance the equation.

Hundreds of documents.

Millions of stars.

Thousands of dollars.

Flocks of sheep.

Like I said my explanation could be lame. . .

That sounds great. That means you could make a list of 1,000 most common words in your native language, use some app to find the words in the target language you want to study, and just match the words from the source language to the target language. . .

boy - garcon

girl  - fille

friend - amei

It would even be much easier learning language this way. . .

Langauges obviously have more than a million words. In English for example, it's believed that most speakers on average use only 3,000 of the most common words.

So I'm wondering, if this [theory is] true for all the other languages would someone who concentrated on learning and mastering only the 1,000-3,000 common words used in every day conversation be fluent in the language they're studying?

I was once asked to deliver a speech in a foreign language.

I just froze up. The words could not even get in my mind and I to apologize and tell them those in the room I couldn't do it. It's definitely something that could happen to anyone. . .

I am a very religious person so when I heard tales that the bible had been doctored by Catholics and other translators, I decided that there was no point in relying on fancy translations if I wanted to learn only the truth. That's why I decided to start learning some Hebrew. Yeah I know I have to learn Greek later but well. . .it's a sacrifice I am willing to  make.

Even without language people would improvise a means of communication.But that aside I read somewhere that in South Africa there are bushmen [actual bush men who live primarily by hunting and gathering] who communicate by means of clicks and whistling.

If they use that, other people would develop a way to "talk" to each other.

Some Ethiopians I hear are descendants of a Jewish King named Solomon. Whether it's true or false no one knows but the oddest thing about their writing system is that like Hebrew it's written from left to write. So along with it, here are other languages also written from left to right:

Ethiopic.

Bengali.

Telugu.

p.s Does Chinese qualify?

I use to be the sort of person who would literally put pen to paper first before transferring my thoughts to a word processor. It helped with avoiding a lot of editing once you were done writing because I'd write and re-write several times before deciding what I was working on was 'good to go.' However when I stopped writing plays, I didn't see a need to put my thoughts on paper first before getting them on my computer. The transition was difficult and I always felt I wasn't writing as well as I could when I wrote traditional style with a pen and a  paper.

Have any of you had such an experience?

Since the Heberw script is much different from what we use, for me, reading the bible in it's original language is still something I'll have to do in the future. But I've tried reading some bible verses in French. It wasn't easy. . .