sidney

No that hasn't happened to me yet, mainly because I haven't been to another country, and the people in here mostly know how to speak English and Tagalog. But even if I couldn't speak another language, I doubt if I will be embarrassed by it, since I'm not really sensitive.

Thanks for the suggestion, I would probably try it out when I get a new Android phone. I'm already fluent in English, but I think that it would definitely benefit me regarding my observation skills.

When I was a kid and a teenager I used to read Sweet Valley Kids, Teens, and High, and also the Goosebumps series. I have read a Sidney Sheldon novel too. But now that I'm already an adult, I prefer reading self-help, inspirational and new-age books, I'm not really into fiction books anymore.

My 1st language is Tagalog and my 2nd language is English, so I really had no effort in trying to learn a new alphabet. But I'm sure if the language was Mandarin, Russian or Arabic then I would struggle in memorizing how each letter looks like.

Thank you for posting this, I'm sure this would be beneficial to people who would be visiting Russia for business or for pleasure!

I actually pay attention to what badges I get to earn as my post count gets up, and I also look at other people's badges too to see what it says when you have reached a certain number of posts, so I guess that's one way of encouraging activity to the forum, so good job admin!

Over here, the Spanish telenovelas are usually dubbed in Tagalog,so there's no chance to improve my vocabulary as long as Spanish is concerned. What I do though is I listen to Spanish songs or English songs that have Spanish lines in them, so that I can better learn and recall Spanish words.

I guess you can also take them for a walk and you will point out things to them that you want to be translated in Spanish? Like reversing it this time? I'm sure that's gonna work.

I love tacos and most Spanish viands like menudo and adobo, and being from the Philippines, those Spanish foods are really common because the Spaniards colonized us for 300 years, so even if I'm not from Spain, we inherited a lot of the Spaniard's culture.

Well if ever I would be fluent in Spanish, then I would start to "test" my knowledge by watching Spanish films and telenovelas to see if I would actually understand what they are  saying. If I never encountered anything that I do not understand, then I'd now be confident to speak the language in public.

Yeah I agree with you, Spanish is definitely worth learning, because it's widely spoken, and I live in one of the countries that the Spaniards colonized, so we already use some Spanish words as our main language, and it wouldn't hurt to learn more Spanish words.

I also had a similar experience where I was at a loss for words because I was put on the spot or I was not expecting a certain type of conversation, like conversing with my crush, lol. I think that's quite normal though since anxiety also contributes to what we call as a "mental block".

No I haven't caught someone that made a mistake on tv recently, but I'm sure before I did, I just forgot what the mistake was. On radio though, there was this voice over that was promoting a movie starring Rebecca Romijn-Stamos, and he pronounced it as "ro-mi-jin" instead of "ro-mayn".

I think it all boils down to the level of interest a person has in learning a new language. Whether he is an introvert or an extrovert, he will be able to learn any language that he wants with discipline and motivation.

Lol, maybe the original poster does not scroll down long enough to see that "Quick Reply" option towards the end of the page. Anyway, at least the problem is now resolved. And I see that you are new to the forum. Welcome!

Not really, but maybe how the language is pronounced makes it seem aggressive? Come to think of it, I love listening the Rammstein's songs, they're a German band, and the way the lead singer sings is quite aggressive sounding. I will now observe how normal German words are spoken in casual conversation to see if it really sounds aggressive.

I'm also particular with the spelling of words, especially when I'm not texting. I think that wrong spelling can only be excusable when you're texting, but when you are typing something on a computer, then proper spelling and grammar should be practiced.

I guess it's ok to break grammar rules as long as the author doesn't intend to label his poem as "formal poetry". Any type of writing is freestyle anyway, so the author can write anything he pleases.

I think it's because when you think, you are more concerned of how you might make mistakes or how you want to appear as fluent as possible, but when you're actually talking, you don't have time to be conscious about that anymore, so you just say any words that can get across what you want to say.

I actually think in both my native and English language. I also like to speak to myself aloud or silently, since I'm a bit weird, lol. But nowadays I think mostly in English and speak to myself in English.

I usually get drawn to the word "shocking" and "controversial" aside from the word "secret" when it comes to magazine and news titles. I tend to be interested in anything that's not conventional or when a circumstance or person is scandalous.

Yes I do speak in Taglish at times when the word is much easy to say and use in English as compared to using the Tagalog word for it. But I make sure to not overdo it, because constant Taglish speaking makes a person look awkward.

I think that these companies just really didn't do enough research before they started to release that brand in that certain country. Over here in my country, Pajero is quite a common car, but I didn't know that it is a naughty word in Spain? Now I'm enticed to Google what it means.

I hardly meet any blind people actually. I was just curious if Braille can be useful in some part of our life. Who knows, anything can happen and it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

It seems like you're anticipating to be blind in the future?  Anyway, I guess it won't hurt to have the added knowledge, but as for me, I don't really think that I would want to spend my time learning about something that I would not be able to use.

Nice tip, I bet this will be helpful for people who are learning the basics of English. Regarding the usage of who and whom, I never really bothered to look up how those 2 are used, but I do agree with the given example.