sidney

I have bought some spycams from China and Hongkong from Ebay, and as you would have guessed, they are not fluently translated, and you have to use your common sense in figuring it out. The translation is not as horrendous as blaveloper's manual and it's still understandable, but you know that China has still a long way to go in being fluent in English, as compared to my country where most people can speak and understand English fluently.

Thanks for the tips. I would also like to point out that if you watch movies or tv shows or read novels that are in English, you can easily pick up a couple of idiomatic phrases there which in turn, you can imitate as you converse in everyday life.

Google Translate sucks at translating some words that have 2 different meanings, like in Tagalog, the word "mahal" can mean "love" or "expensive", so I don't think technology will be able to replace the conventional studying of a foreign language, whether that's through immersion or through studying via a tutor. Technology can make things easier and more convenient, but it can't make you really 100% fluent. Those online translators are erroneous to begin with!

I wish I was already fluent in the language that I'm trying to learn, but due to lack of time, I still am not fluent in my target language. Although I noticed that I am now better in constructing simple sentences after 2 years in the language of my choice.

Ideally no, since I'm such a talkative person and I don't think I can communicate fluidly with that person if there is a language barrier. But of course when love strikes us then for sure we will start considering how to manage that difficulty. Although I think the interest would be diminished in my case if the person isn't able to communicate well in either of the languages that I know.

I'm quite busy right now, so I don't really have time to study and practice the language that I'm learning as much as I like, but I do practice and study it at least once a week.

I'm just a casual language learner at this point, so my motivation is to just to increase my knowledge in foreign languages so that I will understand it when I get to come across those certain foreign languages in movies, music, in the internet, books, etc. Also, if I will travel to a foreign country then for sure that knowledge is most welcome.

I think it's inevitable that some languages will be obsolete, because some are not really being used anyway, so what's the point of making it "alive" so to speak, right? So no doubt that trend is gonna stay and only the active languages being used are the ones that will remain in the future.

Yes you do have a point there. Reading children's books are so simply written, you will easily understand and translate it to your native language so that you can understand it. I think you don't even have to go to your local library to find them. You can easily find them online in pdf form if you just google it.

Whenever I dream, I only dream about me talking in my native language, and not in my secondary language, which is English. I have the most weird dreams at times, but it never involved me talking in another language.

For me I think the most important would be learning about the whole language first and how to speak it fluently. The accent can come at a later time when I'm already fluent in the language.

Yes, but I didn't actively sought them out. I just stumbled upon those songs and I happened to like it. I listen particularly to this German band called Rammstein, they play rock music.

We are from the same country, so I also speak 2 languages fluently, Tagalog and English. I don't know how to speak other dialects though. Right now I'm casually learning German and Spanish, but I just can't devote more time to it because I'm quite busy.

Thank you for sharing the links, I'm sure a lot of people will find these links useful. This is such a groundbreaking service, so it's nice that they have thought of this.

While I think that learning under a tutor would be more effective and efficient. Learning by yourself is indeed inexpensive, but I doubt you will learn as fast, unless you have a language buddy with you that can aid you and expedite your learning.

Money is always a good motivator for most people. Working in customer service speaking a foreign language pays way higher than if you were to speak the usual English language, so I think the lure of earning more money is one good way to motivate someone to learn a other language.

On 7/28/2015 at 9:07 AM, booklover22 said:

I would be careful when you get those. I mean when someones says that they will give you something for free, they usually want something else from you. I never click on those things that get sent to me. I wouldn't want them to take my information or anything like that. I mean there are some trusted sites that you can use. You just have to go and look for them. There are also some apps that you can use that are pretty good.

Well, I think that as long as they're not asking personal info like credit card numbers then I guess you'll be fine, and all you have to worry about is receiving spam emails. I know some sites can have viruses and will have your computer infected by one once you visit the site, but that's more common with porn sites, lol.

We all have different reasons for wanting to learn a particular language, and I do think that it's due to varied reasons. Of course we want to learn the language that could be most beneficial for us, so it's up to us to make that choice.

Most definitely. I used to watch anime and Japanese programs, and since they're subbed, some repetitive words get stuck to my mind, so I tend to remember them. So watching subbed programs can unwittingly contribute to your language learning.

I speak 2 languages, but both are in standard ABC form, so my handwriting tends to be the same when I write in either one of them. But if you are trying to learn Mandarin or Arabic for example, then for sure you will have to change your handwriting.

I'm only fluent in 2 languages, which are Filipino and English. Filipino is my native language. I try to learn German and Spanish, so I know a bit of words and phrases of those 2 languages here and there.

I think you can only guess what's going on by the scenes and facial expressions of the movie actors, but for understanding the EXACT meaning of what they are saying, then you ought to really hear what they are saying. I have downloaded a couple of movies that are dubbed in Hindi and it overlapped the original English language, and I never had the patience to sit through it.

1 hour ago, lushlala said:

OMG @sidney, how could I forget Spanish music?! Yes, oh yes; it sounds so smooth and romantic too.Often when I hear Spanish music, I either want to dance or jump on the next plane out to some hot holiday destination LOL It has that upbeat, holiday vibe that I like. I think Spanish actually sounds so melodic and very poetic when translated into music. This is interesting to me because usually when I'm thinking of languages to learn, Spanish is never at the top of the list.  However, I just love hearing music sung in Spanish. It's like when I hear an English song sung in Spanish, for some reason, to me it always sounds more polished, more refined and more romantic. I love hearing the Spanish speak, and OMG I love hearing the American Spanish accent too. So I don't know if I'm just basically intimidated by the language and probably hold it in such high regard, I don't believe I'd do it much justice in trying to learn it or what LOL

If you like the Spanish language in general, then why don't you try listening to some Latin artists that sing English or Spanglish songs like Ricky Martin or Enrique Iglesias? I'm pretty sure you will find their songs nice and catchy.

I did hear that sign language varies from country to country, but since I'm not deaf/mute, I haven't paid much attention to it. I do see some programs offer that caption for deaf/mute viewers, so I guess you can try learning from watching their hand gestures in relation to the words being spoken.

Apart from what you have said, I also think that children really absorb information much faster than adults, that's why children are the easiest learners of a new language. If you analyze it, how come we were able to learn our native language with such ease and with no one even teaching us how to speak it? We just learned them all by ourselves, right? So I guess that's the advantage of being a kid. Immersion works for them with no teaching necessary.