sidney

I'm assuming most people in here are studying other languages on their own. If yes, are you already content on studying on you own, or do you plan to hire a tutor to help you? Or you hired one already?

I'm in favor regarding Spanglish, because over here, Taglish is very much prevalent, and it's not really unpleasant to hear the mixture of 2 languages. And if the person isn't fluent in 1 language, then Spanglish or Taglish would be perfect for him to be able to communicate effectively.

I'm in favor regarding Spanglish, because over here, Taglish is very much prevalent, and it's not really unpleasant to hear the mixture of 2 languages. And if the person isn't fluent in 1 language, then Spanglish or Taglish would be perfect for him to be able to communicate effectively.

Over here in the Philippines, most companies interview you in English, and answering in English is a must, but you can speak Tagalog in the workplace. But if you work in a call center, then you are required to speak English all throughout the interview and in the office if you get accepted.

I would also have to agree that English tops the list, since English is the "universal language" and the language of choice between people from foreign countries. Next would be Spanish.

That's a good observation, I didn't realize until now that I don't really understand the things that I read aloud as compared to when I'm reading it silently. I don't even put much thought as I speak aloud, like for example, when I was praying the rosary aloud with my family. It all seems just mindless speaking.

I think these researchers need to focus their studies on other more pressing or useful matters, lol. I mean, they seem to want to find a common ground or similarity to prove that doing this or that affects this or that, but sometimes their studies seem irrelevant. In my opinion, I also think that the language we speak has no impact on how much money we can make, spend or save.

Well according to Wikipedia, there are 120 to 175 languages spoken in the Philippines, although I only know the major one which is Tagalog. The provincial dialects I don't understand at all.

I think animals do have their own language, but they are limited to sounds and grunts like "meow" or "arf". I think they mainly communicate and understand each other by the variation of their tone when they say "meow" or "arf", so they are tone-dependent rather than word-dependent when they communicate with each other.

I have heard of breathing exercises to be able to sing better, but breathing exercises to be able to improve your speech is unheard of in my book until I read your post. I haven't tried it out yet and I think it would be a bit weird if I did, lol.

My 2nd language is English, and here in the Philippines, it is widely used and spoken, so I never get that shocked look whenever I speak English. Maybe when I finally get to travel to the US, then I might get that shocked look when I finally speak English, who knows, right?

I think that 2 to 3 years would be the ideal time to learn a new language, but I think that it only covers fluently speaking the basic words and fluently forming sentences and writing them, especially if you're living in your native country because there's no immersion for you.

I was told that when I was young, I couldn't pronounce words with the letter "R" right. I was told that I have a "wide tongue" by my relatives, whatever that means. But as I grew older, I have actually learned how to pronounce the words with letter "R" right, so maybe that tongue exercise method can really help people, not that I actually tried it myself, but in theory I think that it can help.

No, not really, I don't really judge people based on their accent, but I judge people based on their attitude. I think that it would be unfair if you judge people by their accent, at the most if you have negative opinions about it or if you think that it's funny then you should just keep your thoughts to yourself.

I've heard about Babelfish since last year, but I'm only fluent in Tagalog, so I can't really gauge the accuracy of Babelfish because they still don't offer my language until now. But I tried a few English to Spanish translations, and they seem to do a pretty decent job.

As long as I don't get bored listening to what that person has to say, then for the most part I'm a good listener. Because my mind tends to drift apart when the conversation starts to get boring, so I can't say that I'm a 100% good listener. But I try to make it look that I'm interested in what that person is saying.

I think given the proper learning and immersion to a specific language, the person's brain can learn as many languages as he would like as long as he has practiced them enough to become fluent in speaking it. He would become less fluent if he started to study one language after another but not studying it enough to perfection. So to retain the knowledge learned, after making sure that he is already fluent enough to speak and understand a certain language, then that's the only time that he can move on to learning another language.

I think the Lord disapproved of the people's plan to build a tower that would reach up to the heavens that's why He made the people not understand each other by giving them different languages. It's hard to determine what language was spoken though before that happened.

I agree with Kotro, if you have moved out at a very young age from your homeland, then for sure you will tend to forget your native language and you will replace it with the language of the country that you migrated to.

I think it all depends upon the person if they're the type that gets nervous and anxious easily. And since it's her boss she's talking to, that behavior would be quite understandable. As for me, I haven't experienced being tense when a foreigner speaks to me, because I'm quite fluent in English anyway.

I get frustrated with learning how to pronounce certain words and how to properly form a correct and fluent sentence, because those things are best learned with a tutor or a person who speaks that foreign language fluently.

I don't really have a weird or funny accent, so I have never been conscious of the way I speak. And if ever someone criticizes how I speak, then it will not bother me because I don't really care about how others think about my way of speaking.

I see, so I think you made a typo when you said that, "because they aren't even pronounced the same" when you really meant was they don't MEAN the same, right?

I love watching movies, and I would have to say that the more eccentric and funny the movie is, the better. With that said I would say that my favorite movies are Bruno and Borat.

Isn't English the world's number 1 language already? Even in beauty pageants the contestants must know how to speak English or else they will be needing an interpreter. English is already the main language used for communication between foreign countries unless they speak the same languages like Spanish, and I think that it will be the world's main language for years to come.