SpringBreeze

Learning a different dialect should definitely be done after you have gained proficiency in the language. But once you've gained proficiency, you can devote your time to accent transition. And I don't think it is difficult. It just takes a lot of immersion. I do that for fun with my own language. I like listening to the British speak and then I repeat some of their words. So, I can now put on a bit of British accent when I want. The easiest way to do this is to move to the area of the accent you desire. In this case, it won't even be about learning. You'll just automatically pick it up after a few months since it's kind of a way of life.

I've never really been able to get into them. If I'm reading a book for fun, I want to read it the old-fashioned way. This includes reading with a traditional flip-the-page book versus a tablet. But if I were officially studying a language in school or something, I would do it. I think it's one of those tools that could help you learn faster. It would also be perfect for learning pronunciation, diction, and understanding spoken word.

Interesting! I always thought catsup was the old-european way of pronouncing and spelling ketchup. It reminds me of the spelling differences we have in English -- American English vs British English. For example, Americans write: "color". The British for what I understand write: "colour" The same "ou" difference can be found in many words like honor/honour, favorite/favourite...

Yes, this is so true. I took ancient Greek in college and remember almost nothing right now. Eeks Another interesting thing is, I studied French for several semesters in college. I only studied Spanish for 1 or 2. I never did anything with the French I learned when I graduated. But when I moved to Florida a few years after college and started salsa dancing, I started to use the little bit of Spanish I knew. And now a few years later, my Spanish is much stronger than my French. So, it really is all about how much you use it.

Online translation jobs that are legit and that actually pay you a decent wage are rare. I looked into a few years ago, and came up with nothing. My mom also looked into it and got nothing. One time a friend of hers recommended a site. I forgot the name. My mom signed up but didn't receive any good offers for the work required. So, she left the site. And her friend eventually went on to do something else.

Hi Livvypoo! When it comes to language, nothing is impossible. I obviously wasn't trying to communicate in it. But when I was learning it, it did help to try to speak it out loud. It kind of reminded me of when I was studying ancient Greek. Making sense of Greek letters was so difficult for me. So when I was able to pronounce just one word using the Greek alphabet, I was ecstatic. It didn't matter if I was pronouncing it the way ancient Greeks did. All that I cared about was being to figure it out the sounds. It was the same with Sumerian. Except Sumerian was much harder. So I didn't go far. It was one of my impulsive self-challenges. Here's some more info... "By about 2,800 BC some of the Sumerian glyphs were being used to represent sounds using the rebus principle. For example, the symbol for arrow, pronounced 'ti', was used to represent the word for life (til). There were also many glyphs which were pronounced the same but represented different words. Later a system of determinatives, which gave you a hint at the category a word belonged to, and of phonetic components, which indiciated how to pronounce a word, developed, and helped disambiguate the meanings of glyphs." http://www.omniglot.com/writing/sumerian.htm

I have several Spanish friends. And because there are so many Hispanics in Florida, I don't have to befriend any just to hear some Spanish. I don't speak much Spanish with them. When we meet, we usually are talking about important stuff. And all the "uh"s I would be making would ruin our meetings. But when I go to a Latin party, I do make sure to listen to them speak. All the different Latin accents here are confusing. If they spend a moment trying to help me with my Spanish, I will make the effort to speak in Spanish, since they've obviously agreed to it.

I can't do this. I just don't have enough patience. When I am seeing a movie I want to be able to understand at least 85% of what's going on. I'm watching telenovelas right now in Spanish. But the only reason why I do it is because I've already learned enough Spanish to keep the telenovelas entertaining for me. With all that said, I'd also like to add that my mom is right now learning Hindi through movies. And she's find not being able to understand everything going on. But the one trick she has is before she watches the movie, she reads the detailed synopsis on wikipedia. That way she can at least have a basic understanding of what's going on and put 2-and-2 together while she's watching. It seems to work for her.

I've never heard of the IPA. Very interesting! I'm going to have to look that up. As for my advice... I'd say: watch soap operas in that language. The actors tend to speak the language better and slower. You can also watch commercials. They are fun, short, and most importantly [they] usually use proper pronunciation and diction. I'm learning Spanish. So, when I watch Spanish commercials, I repeat words and phrases after they are said. This is best done with commercials because you don't have to keep track of what is being said in the commercial. When I am alone, I also like to read a few lines in books, magazines, ads, and etc out loud and slowly. Speaking carefully and slowly helps a lot.

I love all English accents. But I especially like the British accent. The Scottish accent puzzles me and it's very strong. Sometimes, I feel like they are speaking an entirely different language. I like the way the French speak English. They can make English sound so sexy.

I have so many. My mom used to love reading to us. And then she got this set that came with cassette tapes that had sing-along music. We used to love it. So some of my favorites were... 1. Books by Dr Seuss 2. Little Red Riding Hood 3. Cinderella 4. Pinocchio

No, I don't speak a rare language. But I did try to study Sumerian a few years ago. It's an ancient dead language from the land of Sumer. I also have been exposed to Creole by friends. I've even picked up a few words. Creole is a language spoken in Haiti. It used to be a slang language but now it's been converted to one of the official languages of Haiti.

Yah, reading comprehension sucked when I was in school and being graded for it. But now that I'm older, I am grateful. Whoever thought that to get a retail job, you'd have to take a computer test that is supposed to judge your personality and work ethics but in the end really judges your english proficiency and comprehension skills. Anyway, I think reading comprehension is important. In school you were only forced to comprehend unimportant stuff. But in the real world, you need to be to understand contracts, news articles, reports, business emails, and etc. This is one subject that you will use over and over again.

My advice would be the focus about half of your attention on speaking. It's important to get students talking with each other, early on, in conversation-scenario situations. Reading an essay in front of class isn't good enough. It doesn't have that back-and-forth spontaneity lesson that students need. And most students really need it. I think speaking in foreign languages is the hardest part.

My favorite song right now is by Enrique Iglesias. He recently released a bachata with Romeo Santos called Loco. It's so beautiful! Another one that sounds really good in a club dance way is Bailando. I heard it the other day, and just had to dance to it. I really like Enrique. He's had many good songs over the years. Other Latin artists I love to listen to: Romeo Santos Pitbull Prince Royce Marc Anthony Gilberto Santa Rosa Don Omar

Bailar = to dance I learned this world quickly in Latin clubs. When the guys asked us girls to dance, they would say something like... baila? quiere bailar (do you want to dance) baila conmigo? (dance with me?)

When I was in college and high school, I used to study with them for exams. But I only used them for harder books that used a lot of deep symbolism. That stuff usually just flew over my head. I also used them for books written in old English like works by Shakespeare. But I've never used them for foreign languages. It never even occurred to me. Hahaha!!! That certainly could have helped me in French class. But I did use to go online sometimes to research harder French books and poems on sites like Wikipedia.

être (to be) To add more vocabulary words to this thread, I'm going to respond to my own word... empêcher (to prevent)

I had the same problem when I was learning. I asked a couple of Indian co-workers for help and they said they couldn't help me. They only spoke Hindi. So, they couldn't help me with the reading and stuff. Or maybe they just didn't want to have me chasing after them. Hahaha!!! Bollywood movies helped me a lot with pronunciation and colloquialism. Music videos also helped a lot because they were short and I could play them over and over again. This way I could do focus practicing/studying with them.

I started learning Hindi a few years ago because of my interest in the Indian culture. It's not a very popular language in the States. French and Spanish are much more spoken and taught. So, it was a bit hard to study. And getting someone to help me out even harder. I once asked some Indian co-workers and they said they didn't know how to read Hindi. But anyway, my love for Bollywood movies pushed me. I used to buy my movies at an Indo-Pak grocery store. And the owner told me that I should learn it so that I wouldn't miss out on so much of the movie by constantly looking at the subtitles.

Like MyDigitalpoint, I find this thread interesting. I hear and read namaste often where I live and online. I especially hear it often in the spiritual, new-age, and yoga communities. It has become the way to greet and say good-bye to people. And everyone automatically knows what it means. Which then means many more people are familiar with the word...

Meera gave an awesome list above. I've seen most of the movies she mentioned and they are really good. I'm not sure what type of movies you like. IMO, bollywood can be broken up into two major groups: 1. big bollywood where everything is big (big money, big beauty, big houses, big life) 2. reality bollywood where you get to see the reality in India - everyday social, familial, and business dilemmas. If you like blockbuster films, you'll probably like big bollywood films. If that's the case, start off by watching films with top actors like Aishwarya Rai, Sharukh Khan, Salman Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Karishma Kapoor. Some big bollywood movies I absolutely love: Umrao Jaan (with Aishwarya Rai) Devdas (with Sharukh Khan), Mohabbatein, Don 1 and 2, Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham, Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna, Jab Tak Hai Jaan, My Name is Khan, Fanaa, Dostana, and Lagaan. Like Meera said, Netflix is a great place to find them. But you can also find quite many on YouTube for free. It's a great way to start if you're just starting out.

I think cultural immersion is the best and quickest way to learn another language. And the best type of cultural immersion would be living in a country where the main language is the language you are study as well as attending some sort of educational program. Reasons why this is best... 1. You are forced to speak the language continuously in many different situations. 2. You are forced to hear the language all day. 3. Along with learning the colloquial form of the language on the streets, you will also learn the formal form in a class and practice proper grammar and sentence formation. This is necessary for writing and employment.

Hmmh... good question. It doesn't bother me that much to hear it. But at the same time, it does sound cringe-worthy weird to hear words like LOL, WTF, LMAO, and I heart you said outloud. One word that I've gotten used to in a odd sort of way is OMG. But I'd never use it myself in speech.

To be honest, I too never liked the idea of slang words being added to dictionaries, especially that dictionary. That dictionary is like gold. Why lower its quality with slang. I cringed when I first heard they were adding "ain't". I think slang words should have their own dictionary. As for the words listed above, i've used and heard of all of them, except for gamification. I have to go look that one up. I don't want to be too much behind times.