brookie

I definitely get what you mean. When I was a child I used to think in Portuguese and translate, but now it's the other way round. So when you're thinking in English and translating, sometimes you forget words, especially conjunction words, etc. But being around native people always sharpens your language

I think it's a great thing for your son to learn a second language at a young age. Children learn languages so much faster. They also forget them very fast too, lol. So as long as he keeps speaking both English and Spanish, then he'll be good at both. It's harder for teenagers and adults to learn a second language, so I think you're doing the right thing.

I think love is a huge motivation when it comes to learning a language. My partner is the reason I had to learn a third language, lol. As if two languages isn't had enough. I just had to get a partner from another country, lol. But it's surprising how quick you learn a language when love is the motivation.

Learning a language without learning how to read and write it is going the long way round! It would probably take you longer to learn that way. But just focus on the simple things first, the alphabet, common words, etc. But a language is always easier to learn is you can "see" what you're saying

My first stop would be YouTube. Because there's almost everything there! So I'd check that out first. Studying on your own is good too. But you really want someone to teach you the pronunciations right. Because you could be saying a word right, but pronouncing it wrong could make it mean something totally different!

I've never heard of tongue exercises before. But, I'm guessing that it would be the same logic as vocal exercises for singers. Would it be different exercises for different languages or one exercise for all?

Yeah I have noticed that when you are in a country you learn the language faster. The more I'm in England, the worse my Portuguese gets. But when I'm in Portugal or surrounded by a lot of Portuguese speaking individuals, then I learn faster and better.

Honestly speaking, how long would it take you to learn a language from zero to fluently speaking? But not just speaking, we should include reading and writing to this post. Is it a 1 year or 2 year project or plus, to really immerse yourself and understand a language fully?

I think I'm a good listener...when I want to be, lol. If something is really interesting I could listen and repeat every word back to you word for word. But if it's not interesting, it will go in one ear and out the other. But, with everything I have a concentration span. I can't just sit and listen for an hour + without getting up or doing something.

I've found this to be true. I have a bunch of friends that speak Portuguese, they speak it way better than me. So, I'm focused on learning how to read and write it so I can improve. So when I show them my books and notes and try to get them to read Portuguese, they really struggle. It even happens with the English language, there are people who speak English amazingly well, but can't read it too good. You have to read it as frequent as you speak it to put the spelling of the word together with how it sounds.

I think it is possible, but mostly you lose the accent before you actually lose the language. If you speak your mother tongue at a young age, your family and relatives should encourage it. I originally from Portugal, but I don't look Portuguese. I got my Dad's genes so I just look British white, so my family and relatives only speak to me in English but speak to everyone else in Portuguese. So when I went to Portugal a couple years back, my accent sounded so wrong, I literally had to learn the language from scratch.

I live in London, England. And here we speak...English, lol. but there's a difference is the 'quality' of English. They do teach French in Secondary school, it's compulsory for the first 3 years of secondary school. But, I'm originally from Portugal. So in Portugal there is Portuguese and Mirandese. I can only speak Portuguese, writing it is hard!