KimErikson

No this is not good English! The only time I would use it, would be in a sentence such as this: But for the goodness of the stranger, we would all have suffered. And again: But, this isn't a good example of good English.

sarcasm has nothing to do with English or any language and more to do with personality.

Coming from South Africa, I love the well-spoken British English South African accent. There are so many official languages in South Africa and so many accents, coming from the Afrikaans and the African languages, but I love the British colonial English spoken there. The South African accent is apparently the hardest accent to copy for actors and no-one has ever managed to do it authentically. Leonardo Di Caprio did quite a good job of it in Blood Diamond, but as a South African, you can tell its not genuine.

No, I never use it. I hate it and also hate abbreviations and texting shortcuts.

"Make hay while the sun shines". Very old fashioned quote, but too true, same as "Sieze the day". "Just do it" - Nike! "No time like the present". I live by all of those quotes.

We all have that unforgettable book, one you just can´t wait to get back to, and when it´s finished we feel lost! Mine, although I have a few, has to be `Shantaram`, by Gregory David Roberts. It is set in the Bombay underworld in the 80´s and goes from one unbelievable event to the next. The whole time you are reading it, it feels like it is the true, detailed story of the author´s life, and I think it IS largely based on events that took place, but some are just so hectic and crazy that you just can´t believe it. The author has become somewhat of an icon and ended up marrying a princess. He made Leopold´s cafe in Bombay world famous too, and no trip to the city is complete without curiosity getting the better of you to have a glimpse into the place where it all took place. Have you read Shantaram or any other unforgettable book?

I hate to admit it, but I actually read the 50 Shades of Grey trilogy. Yes, um, well, it WAS quite raunchy, but not any more so than a lot of other well written books. The story line reminded me of those tacky Mills and Boon books we all used to read when we were at school, the gorgeous millionaire with a balck past who steals the heart of a beautiful young woman and messes with her head until he sorts himself out and then they ride away happily into the sunset, forever after.

My favorite Shakespeare play is `A midsummer night´s dream`. I just love it. It is romantic, funny and just beautiful. The characters are amazing. My favorites are Puck and Titania. The play represents the dark side of love and was written in the late 1500´s. Very daring and progressive for it´s time!

Germans definitely have it easier when learning Dutch. Dutch is actually derived from German and is a Germanic language. My German friends in Holland only had to do a conversion course, not start from scratch. The hardest part apparently, is trying to block out your German so that you are not constantly using it instead of Dutch, as it is so similar, for instance using `ich`, instead of `ik`!

The best place to start learning Spanish is in Spain or a country where Spanish is spoken. Spaniards are generally not very good in speaking English, which actually makes it easier for you to learn, as you are forced to! My husband learned Spanish fluently in 6 months in Madrid. If you can´t go to a country, get some language CD´s and listen to them constantly. It´s all about repetition.

Spanish is the second most widely spoken language in the world. The whole of South America speaks Spanish and it is spoken in Mexico and many parts in the south of the United States. of course it is also spoken in Spain too. There are many different dialets of Spanish, so depending on where you learn it, that will be the dialect you learn, although written Spanish is all the same.

Yes, this often hapopens to me! Not sure if it's age or what it is. One gets used to referring to things in a new language, especially when speaking to kids. often when speaking English to my little son, I will use a Dutch word for something as the English word just dosen't come to mind. He is bilingual, so he understands what I mean, but it's not a good habit.

For me, the hardest part of learning a new language is the writing. Speaking and reading are pretty easy and you can get by if you make mistakes when speaking. Writing is difficult, especially if you need to use the language for business purposes. Writing a short email to a friend is one thing, but writing a business letter or something more important requuires a lot more time, and usually there will still be mistakes!

I would like to learn Italian. I love the Italians, their lifestyle, food and country and to be honest, I would love to live there someday!

Oh my goodness...! I am glad you brought this up! My experience with it is pretty bad. I would recommend avoid trying to use it, especially when trying to translate something for a letter or something important, as it could lead to trouble. The sentances don't come out as they should and it will be obvious to the reader that you used Google translate. It is quite good when I am trying to find an ingredient for a recipe, such as a spice and I don't know the Dutch name. I will then type in "turmeric" for instance, and get "kurkuma" and then I know what to look for on the supermarket shelves!

My one problem - which I seem to overcome is that I also speak Afrikaans and I learnt German at school, which can be confusing when trying to learn Dutch. In Afrikaans the grammar is totally different, as well as the pronounciation. A lot of words are the same, but some mean different things. I found that a lot of Dutch words would be totally rude when speaking Afrikaans! I had to get used to that too.

I am learning - still learning Dutch, as I live in the Netherlands and I married a Dutchman! I started learning Dutch before I moved here as I wanted to,. but it is also a requirement to be able to speak the language if you stay in the Netherlands. If you have an EU passport, it is not officially required, but recommended. If you have a non-EU passport, then you are required to learn the language and sit the Staatsexamen, which consists of 4 separate parts - reading, speaking, writing and listening.

Hi there, Just joined and hope that I can add and gain some value from your site. Looking forward to it!