SpringBreeze

I want to get this thread moving again. We need some extra life in the french quarter. So, here's a couple more quotes that I like... "Vivre sans aimer n’est pas proprement vivre." --Molière "C’est cela l’amour, tout donner, tout sacrifier sans espoir de retour." --Albert Camus

Like Trellum said, there is no way to calculate a fixed rate. How fast you learn a new langauge is all about variables. Having studied Latin beforehand is one such variable. So is your learning abilities, your study skills, your study habits, the language of the city you are living in... All of these variables, and more, affect how quick or how slow you learn another language. But in general, learning Latin beforehand does help you learn another Romance language easier and faster. But I have to say, studying any Romance language will make it easier to study a second.

I watched La Vie en Rose too. It was pretty good, but kind of sad. But that seems to be a common theme for movies about famous artists. Anyway, some other movies are: Paris Je t'aime L'Auberge Espagnole Amelie Jean de Florette Manon des Source La Femme Nikita Heartbreaker Some good American French movies are: French Kiss Le Divorce Taken To Catch a Thief

The first time I tried to learn the Greek alphabet, I didn't. LOL! I gave up after about 2 or 3 weeks of studying. It was my first time trying to learn a foreign script. And it was literally "all greek to me". I finally got to understand that statement after that class. A few years later, after a few more foreign language classes in college, I took a class on ancient Greek. And I have to admit, I was extremely surprised at how well I was learning the alphabet. Within a week, I had learned the alphabet. And I started getting A's on my tests. Needless to say, I was really happy and felt accomplished.

You are absolutely right. I was just generalizing there. Every thing depends on the teacher, the student, the country, and the social atmosphere. In another thread, I said the benefits of learning through social interaction also depended on who you were hanging out with. If you hang out mostly with people who speak slang and say grammatically incorrect phrases, you will learn the language poorly. It's all really about the variables. I've been in many language classes where students came out speaking as little as they first came in. That's one of the reasons why I now find classes (in general) to be very effective with written communication and reading comprehension, but ineffective for verbal communication. Someone here also talked about the necessity to have smaller learning groups or individual classes. I totally agree with that. That would definitely help. I also think teachers need to spend more time forcing students to speak to each other - not just read out loud essays and paragraphs in front of the class. Reading out loud is great for pronunciation correction but it's not great for learning communication.

Since your question has already been answered, I just want to add, it's really important you consider where you will be working and in what industry. For example, in the Northwest Territories, learning one of the Native Indian languages could prove helpful. While in other territories with a high population of Italians, learning Italian could be more useful. But really English is the #1 language to know.

Interesting. I never thought about the difference. It's one of those rules that native speakers just pick up naturally. Anyway, going through examples in my head now... whether is more often used with the word "or", basically in "whether or not" situations. Whether is more about a choice between two or more.

I'm not sure what and how you teach. So, I can't advise you on a method. But I can say that creative writing is an art form. It requires imagination and mental creativity. In the old days, before tv, computers and video games, kids used to be entertained with stories. Sometimes, they would watch their parents create a story right there and then. And sometimes, they too were encouraged to create stories to entertain their family and friends. Now, it's totally different and that has affected a lot of kids creative power. Also, not every one is artistic in that way.

It's my first time hearing of this. I wonder if it focuses on memorizing vocabulary words. I remember in school, I use to study off of cards. And that helped a lot - studying one word at a time instead of studying long sentences and etc.

I've done that before. When I moved to Italy I only had the basics. And that got me through the first couple of weeks for shopping, transportation, and restaurant ordering. When I started taking Italian classes there, it became easier. The hardest time I had was when I became sick and had to get medicine. I wasn't prepared for that. And my limited knowledge of Italian vocabulary certainly didn't cover that aspect of life.

Hier était lent et facile pour moi. J'ai regardé la télé, lis un livre, et joué avec mes cousins. Mon principal objectif était "relaxation".

Bonjour! Mon premier cours de Français était au collège. Mais je ne me souviens pas beaucoup, sauf les choses comme: bonjour, au revoir, et le chien. D'abord, j'étudié le Français parce qu'il était obligatoire à l'école. Maintenant, j'étudie le Français pour le plaisir.

Qu'aimez vous cuisiner? J'aime bien faire des spaghettis à la bolognaise ou un mix de spaghetti et légumes. J'aime aussi faire pain plat et mac n 'cheese. Et vous?

Qu'avez-vous mangé hier? Hier, j'ai mangé une salade de fruits pour le petit déjeuner, un sandwich pour le déjeuner, et la pizza pour le dîner. Et vous?

Wow, great post! My uncle introduced me to this song about a year ago. I was actually surprised how popular it was. I knew very little about k-pop back then, let alone Korean culture. So, the bit of background info you gave was very interesting. I'm going to look up the area Gangnam now so that I can get a visual and more info. Thanks.