sidney

I think English is the easiest to learn among them all. Then next would be Spanish, French, German, and Tagalog. I don't think I can name up to 7 since I only study a few languages.

I think that way too. I won't bother learning a language that has some foreign characters because it's like interpreting a symbol, it would entail more effort in studying. I know German has some weird fonts, but nothing major, just some weird lines on top of the letters.

I have a dictionary that's smaller and thinner than a notebook, and it's an English-Spanish dictionary. I think it can be handy when you are travelling and you have no internet access. But I also would prefer the digital version or just google the word or sentence when the need arises.

Yes I do struggle with learning my chosen language like most people. But what I do is allot an hour or 2 every weekend before going to sleep to study and practice my chosen language so that I will learn bit by bit.

Yes, I remember that when I first heard the songs of the band Rammstein, it got me interested to know what their song titles meant in English, so I googled it at first. Then eventually I find myself pasting the whole lyrics of their songs on Google Translate.

I'm just a casual language learner, so I "give up" pretty often, since I'm not really serious and it's just for fun. I think if learning a language eventually becomes overwhelming then it's not a bad thing to give up. We should not force ourselves to do something if we don't want to.

23 hours ago, Baburra said:

I like that there are different accents for English, because it's the international language and I think it adds to the charm. I am a lot more worried about pronunciation most of the time though rather than accent because some languages are far off from the native pronunciations so it's difficult sometimes to speak words with a bit more accuracy. French, for example, I find very difficult to pronounce a lot of the words and I think it's a difficulty for a lot of other people too because the way they speak is so unique to them. 

True, that's why I was never drawn to study the French language. It seems really complicated for me and you will have a small target people for that, since only France and Canada are the only countries that speak French.

That's fine, just look at Penelope Cruz, she has a thick accent, yet she still was able to become a successful Hollywood actress. I think that as long as you can speak and understand the language fluently then you have all that you need to "get by" in a foreign country. In India, call centers are quite popular there even if the people there have thick Indian accent while they speak English.

On 9/12/2016 at 8:02 PM, Sahar said:

Thank you, would you please tell me where are you from? and is that sentence the first full sentence you`ve learnt? because that`s really hard for first grade primary school!

I'm from the Philippines. Actually no, they made us learn our names first and how to properly introduce ourselves.  Then the teachers started to teach us those nursery rhymes. 

On 9/12/2016 at 8:19 PM, Baburra said:

Me too. Even when you have a lot of resources nowadays to hear it straight from native speakers it doesn't mean you could duplicate it easily. I think it really is one of the hardest parts to nail down as I have heard many foreigners who eventually learn to speak fluently but never quite pick up how to exactly pronounce or accurately speak in the native accent since most likely their tongue has gotten way used to speaking their own local way and it's not easy to adapt that into another way of speaking. 

I agree. Just look at the Indians, even if they speak fluent English, their accent is still very thick and noticeable. Also the Chinese. They have a thick accent. Luckily, us Filipinos have a neutral accent and it's very trainable to adapt to the US accent.

Definitely English. I mean, it's the "international language" that we consider now, right? Aside from English, I also think Spanish is one of the common language in the world. Lots of countries, like a whole continent speaks it, right? 

I would also agree to what has been suggested, you should just go along with Spanish, because lots of countries speak it, so it would be more useful than Italian or French, which is spoken by a lesser number of people compared to Spanish.

Usually they come in the form of nursery rhymes, like "Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water", etc, but it's taught bit by bit so as not to overwhelm the student.

Pronunciation has always been my weakest point in learning a new language. You really have no idea how a foreign word is pronounced, so you also have to observe and research how it is pronounced by going to Youtube and listening to pronunciation videos.

Aramaic would be nice to learn, because that's the language that Jesus spoke. I'm a Roman Catholic, so naturally I would be curious to see for myself what kind of language the people in Jesus' era were speaking that time.

In my case, we never had any foreign language learning subject aside from English in the schools that I went to, and since English is our 2nd main language, I never really had any difficulties learning it.

Isn't that already happening in the form of English as the preferred "international language"? It would be hard to go back to the biblical times wherein people only spoke one language before God changed things, but at least English is the closest that we have to having a universal language.

Of course it's always better to learn formally by taking foreign language classes, although they can pose as an extra expensive expense, so most people will just try to self-study until such a time that they can afford to enroll in such a course.

Good idea! I would have never thought of that until you mentioned it here! I only know of Spanish numbers language, but the rest not yet, so thanks for the tip.

I think interest counts more than intelligence when it comes to learning a new language, because even if you're intelligent, if you're not interested, then you won't learn anything. Of course, you also have to be determined and persistent to be able to be fluent in the language of your choice, aside from being interested in it.

I actually talk to myself loudly at home, so that would be no problem for me. Just make sure no one else sees you, or no person who isn't used to your quirks sees you and you're good to go. Practicing by talking to yourself helps improve your memory, you know?

Have you tried buying a pocket dictionary that translates 2 languages vice versa? I have an English-Spanish dictionary and it's one way to learn individual words quite quickly.

Well for me, the fact that they are not 100% identical in use and meaning means that it's technically a different language, but with the same origins, never mind if the language is similar in many ways. The differences make it technically a different language.

I think first and foremost, you should always go with what your heart tells you. Which language are you particularly interested in? Then when you have made your decision, then stick with it. For me though,  the country that you're about to or plan to visit should be one of the considerations in learning a new language.

As for me, my favorite authors are Sidney Sheldon, Rick Warren, and Linda Goodman. All three of them write about different genres. Sidney writes romantic novels, Rick Warren is more of an inspirational author, and Linda is into astrology.