Korsakoff

Yo quero soy a playa tomo el sol y relajo. "The person above me has no clue how to translate properly." :shy:

Please don't try to learn this language by listening to people talking, especially not if you don't bring any experience. It's almost impossible to adapt this language just by listening. Spanish people are talking way too fast and there are several accents, which means depending on whom you listening to they pronounce the same words in a different way. I studied Spanish for three years and even after knowing the basics I wasn't able to comprehend a conversation.

I'm sorry to interrupt this conversation, but I have a question that links up to this topic. I know the difference between who and who's, I know in what occasions you use it, that's not a big deal for me. But I do have my problems with the word "whom". When can I use it, when am I pretty much obligated to use it and what does it exactly mean?

German is my native language, English was my secondary language. Here in Germany there are Kindergarten that offer to raise a child bilingual, but as far as I know such bilingual Kindergarten are very expensive and are too stressful for the children in my opinion anyway. English becomes a mandatory subject in the first or second grade in primary school, you could say we have no choice but to learn it.

I'm almost getting jealous reading the replies here in this topic, I wish I had such inspiring teachers when I was still going to school. Unfortunately all my teachers were straight forward and only bared the necessities. A thing that inspired me was perhaps my English book, because I wanted to understand every word in there as soon as possible, so I was always ahead of my classmates.

There is an ancient tribe in Africa that is allegedly supposed to be still connected to the origin of the human race, the tribe is known as the San tribe. They still use click consonants to communicate with each other - but does this count as a language? If yes, then it is probably the oldest language in the world.

Thank you for your replies so far, your explanations definitively helped me. So to sum it up, you basically use the word must if you refer to something that is mandatory - e.g. you must wear protection if you want to skateboard - and the word need in all other occasions? You see, this is giving me a hard time.

In Goa hatten meine Familie und ich eine Unterkunft nur wenige Meter vom Strand entfernt. Besonders lustig war es immer, wenn früh Morgens die Kühe an unserer Unterkunft vorbei zum Strand marschiert sind und sich es sich dort bequem gemacht haben. Kühe sind nämlich in Indien heilig und können sich somit alles erlauben, auch wenn dadurch der Straßenbetrieb kurzzeitig pausieren muss.

Here in Germany we do not celebrate thanksvgiving, however some families celebrate a holiday quite similar to thanksgiving which is called erntedankfest. So you could roughly translate happy thanksgiving to "fröhliches erntedankfest". Since my second language is in fact English the answer should be obvious. :-)

Welcome to the forums. Whatever language it is you want to learn, look no further, you came to the right place.

Heisenberg pointed out the most funny words for me already. I never knew about the word to abseil before, this is for sure the most funny word I can think of at the moment. Especially if you consider that the German word can also be used to describe doing one's business.

I think I have a good written knowledge of the English language. If I stumble upon a new word I will immediately adapt it to my vocabulary and use it as often as possible, I'm able to start conversations and keep the conversation alive even for a longer time, I find it very easy to understand, comprehend and reproduce texts. Unfortunately I'm not a very good speaker because of my thick German accent. It is kind of hard to pronounce every word in the right way.

Even though I'm speaking English now for more than ten years, there are sometimes still a few things that bother me because I'm never sure how to use them. I would like to know the difference between the two words need and must, plus I would really appreciate if someone could teach me in what occasion I have to use must and in what occasions I should rather use the word need. There is a very similar word to must in the German language and I always end up being very confused. Thanks for your replies in advance.

That is indeed a very interesting fact you came up with. As you already mentioned, the words for mother and father are mutter and vater in German, but you have to diversify the use, you call your mother mama and your father papa, but you wouldn't call someone else parents like that. If you don't know the person you stick to mutter and vater.

I used to learn Spanish back when I was still in school, even though I had to learn it for about three years I never actually learned something useful that I could use outside of school. If I could choose whatever I want to be the next language I will successfully learn, I would want to learn Spanish again. Not because now I already have some knowledge of it and could have a head start, but also because the language itself always fascinated me. It has so many cool-sounding words and it could come in handy on vacation.

Finally a phrase I'm able to translate. I would go with "I've had it with these thiefs". I wasn't really sure how to translate the word Betrüger, if it is about internet crimes I would probably go with scammers or cheaters instead of thiefs. "Fussball ist unser Leben, denn König Fussball regiert die Welt"

"The clock is running. Make the most of today. Time waits for no man. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it is called the present."

I think there are two different aspects you should take a look at. First, it is true that relaxing music might help us learn faster and makes it easier for some to impress things but that depends on a) the one who listens to the music and on the type of music as not every music genre will have the same affect on the brain. Second, listening to foreign music to learn pronunciation or how to use certain words in a sentence doesn't work for me personally because there are so many slangs and accents and songs don't always are grammatically right.

I try to use chat speak as little as possible, no matter whom I'm speaking to. But of course sometimes some acronyms slip out, I noticed that I use e.g. acronyms like lol more as a filler than to express my laughter. If something really brought a tear to my eyes I will use an emotion, if something doesn't appear funny to me I use lol to not act impolite.

Wow, that's a hard one. I have not the slightest idea how to translate that phrase.

You should check out "Grimms Märchen" which is a collection of hundreds of tales that were then written down by the famous "Gebrüder Grimm". It has tales in it like "Sterntaler" (The Star Money), "Dornröschen" (Rosebud), "Schneewittchen" (Snow Drop) et cetera. There is a second book you should take a look at, unfortunately I don't remember it's name, it was a fairly thick book and it had a story for each day of the year about the "Heinzelmännchen". My mother used to read it for me before going to bed when I was still a child.

Is this word really in an official dictionary? I'm not talking about the urban dictionary but about a real dictionary that is printed and given out at schools and what not. I would find that very hard to belive. Swag was elected one of the most popular youth words here in Germany, but thank god it never made its way into a dictionary.

Hey everyone ("Hallo zusammen"), I'm Christian, 20 years old and from Germany. I know most of you are going to be pretty disappointed that I'm not the beautiful girl on my profile picture, I'm very sorry about that. I've been learning English for almost ten years now, I even tried my luck with French and Spanish but already forgot most of the things I learned about them. I would like to buff up my English skills and probably even start getting into the Spanish language again. I hope everyone will get along here just fine. Sincerely.

I'm not a native speaker as well, so please bare with me. I'm learning it now for almost ten years but there are still a few things that I don't understand. I'm never sure when to use the words must and need because the word must is so similar to the German word musst and I always end up being confused. Every help is appreciated, and if you find any mistakes don't hesitate to correct me.

I shared your Facebook link as well, it deserves more likes, plus it seems to be a good place to revive former language skills. And to be honest, some of my friends could really need a bit of help with that.