Mrs17716

Are you a slow or fast reader? Do you practice reading out loud?

I think of myself as a fast reader but my husband is incredibly fast.  He can finish a book, quite large, within a day.  It's crazy!

Is it exclusively for android? I mean...isn't it a little weird that an app named 'iHola' would be incompatible with the iPhone? Haha, just kind of a passing observation. :wacky:

I thought the same thing LOL You're not the only one! Never thought about searching for Spanish learning apps on my iPhone but I think I will now!

I don't know about you, but I get annoyed when people use short-cuts when chatting and texting. I don't really say anything but I really gets me. They change what to wat, you to u, great to gr8, wait to w8, good morning to G-AM. Knw wat i myn? What do you think about this 21 century trend?

HATE IT! It's like my brain gets exhausted just reading those kinds of texts and trying to decipher them! Sad that this is what our world has come to!   

What foreign language do you consider romantic. Romantic in a sense that by just hearing the words, you find it sweet even without understanding it and somehow you find yourself wanting to learn it.

I've always thought French is such a beautiful language when spoken.  But it's pretty romantic when I listen to my husband speak in Spanish

First word that comes to mind is adore...I love it's definition "To regard with deep, often rapturous love."

I do this a lot, only because I can't think of a good enough word to describe what I'm talking about...so I make up my own

"What you tell yourself every day will either lift you up or tear you down."

"And though she be but little, she is fierce." - Shakespeare

"Don't let someone dim your light simply because it's shining in their eyes."

"A good laugh and a long sleep are the two best cures for anything." - Irish proverb

and my favorite:

"I saw that." - Karma

Has anyone here watched Latin American telenovelas to learn Spanish?

Several years back, I got hooked on this telenovela called Pasion de Gavilanes. First my TV offered subtitles. And, then it stopped. I was so disappointed. But I was also so hooked that I continued to watch it. So I was forced to really try to understand Spanish. And it worked. I saw my fluency in Spanish improve big time by the end of the show. What about you?

Wow, that is so great!  I've tried watching them but in some shows, they talk SO fast, it's hard to keep up.  If I catch a word or two here and there I feel like I'm doing a good job LOL 

One of the best strategies is to create flashcards with pictures on them. That way, whenever you see the word again, your mind will recall the associated image.

Another tactic I like to use is focusing on learning the word itself, NOT the word's translation. For example, let's say I am an English speaker trying to learn German. The German word for apple is "apfel." If I were to see the word apfel in an exercise, I would try to call to mind the image of an apple without actually thinking the English word "apple." Like the first strategy I mentioned, this technique involves training your brain to associate a foreign word with an image rather than a native word.

EDIT: Just wanted to add one more suggestion that you might find useful once you become more familiar with a language. Try watching films or tv shows in the language you are trying to learn. Watch them once with subtitles, then re-watch them without subtitles. You'll be surprised how many words you can pick out based on context clues!

I like the picture flashcard idea.  And the movie idea!  I've never thought about that but I'm sure it's helpful when learning a new language...I think I'll turn on the Spanish stations and see what I can understand

It kills me too! I'm usually not one to correct people on that kind of thing, but for some reason 'irregardless' sounds so much like nails on a chalk board!

I'm also put off by people who use an acronym, then repeat a word that's part of the acronym. An example is like, 'ATM machine'. ATM already stands for 'Automatic Teller Machine,' you don't need to say machine again. That eats at my ear more than it should I guess.

LOL that bugs me too!  I think people don't even realize what they're saying when they say something like that...

LOL oh dear!   I've had this happen when my husband was speaking in Spanish to his friend, who I thought spoke only Spanish.  Um, nope!  He speaks perfect English!

Hi,

As the title says, is there any techniques to help me memorize more words?

I don't have a great memory, so memorizing the vocabulary of a language is always so difficult for me. I've read about a few memory techniques, such as mnemonics and acronym. Can these techniques be applied to language learning? If yes, are they effective?

I prefer flashcards!  I'll take five at a time, learn them front and back, back and forth, and then add five more new ones and do the same thing to them until I've went through my stack. 

For me, it's speaking.  I get so nervous, scared I'll use the wrong word, or pronunciation.  I know that's one of the best ways to learn, to speak it but I find it hard to put myself out there!  In college I took Spanish and I found it was easy for me to read/write it, but I lacked the confidence to speak it! 

My husband's dad speaks mostly Spanish, very little English.  I'd love to be able to get in on the conversation when we're visiting with him.  It's hard to keep up though :/ 

I'm guilty of this!  And a lot of the time I use LOL and I'm not even laughing HA!  I've found it's a good way to kind of end a conversation if you've run out of things to talk about...because there's not much more to say after you've said LOL unless the person responds with more!