lizbeth19hph

I love the melody of Korean love songs and although I cannot understand some words and phrases, I do get to enjoy the rhythm of the songs. I believe it's not just the lyrics of the song that can endear you to it but the music itself and the sound of the voice of the one singing.

I remembered before, I tried to learn Arabic and even bought an Arabic-English dictionary so I can familiarize myself with the different phrases and terms but after some time, I got bored and finally stopped studying it as I lose interest for unlike the English language, I don't get to use often the Arabic language. I also tried learning French but my schedule became hectic overtime that I didn't have time to continue learning it, plus I can't practice the language everyday.

In both my jobs as an English teacher and a freelance writer, I get to learn and practice my English skills a lot everyday. I am very thankful for that since I don't have to force myself to study during a particular time. Talking to students, learning some new vocabulary words with them is in itself a daily learning experience. In my writing job, the more I get to learn about many topics as I do research first before drafting articles.

I don't have an American nor British accent but mine is a neutralized accent which is easily understood by foreigners. I have worked in 2 call centers before where we had this accent training to neutralize our accents and I'm currently teaching English to Koreans online.

Reading out loud texts help the learner know his pronunciation errors. While some simply cannot understand what they have read in this way, some can comprehend even through this. Reading comprehension is what's important not the way texts are read by either reading out loud or on his own or silent reading.

We do advise our students who are studying the English language to listen to English songs to familiarize themselves with words and expressions. I believe it does help to get exposed to the foreign language especially if you regularly hear the English songs.

I don't usually keep track of how large my vocabulary is though I write a lot but through constant reading and using the words that I learned, I know that my vocabulary widens each passing time. Although in writing, at times we need not use highfalutin words to convey the message to the readers but it pays to know more of the synonyms of words as to avoid redundancy.

What sparked an interest in me to learn other languages is the willingness to learn a different language other than my native tongue which also means exploring their cultures which is also quite interesting. Sometimes it's the beauty of the language and how it is spoken with style and sophistication lures one to study a particular language.

I am a writer by profession so most of the time, I am not engaged in public speaking and too much vocals. So, I would consider speaking as the most difficult skill to develop when learning English or any other language.Though when we decide to learn a foreign language, all of these areas should be worked on, all skills must be learned and improved.

I am not a native speaker myself so my grammar is not that perfect, even the native speakers do have lapses in grammar but in both professions I am engaged in having good to excellent grammatical skills is indispensable. I teach English to Koreans which means I also need to correct their grammar along with their pronunciation and I am also a freelance writer in English. As a writer though not just of articles but as well as creative writing and considering myself as a modernist writer and poet, I sometimes defy the rules.

There are some people who really have low reading comprehension levels, they can't understand what they have read the first time even if they only read by themselves or read silently. They need to read again the texts before they can finally grasp what it is about. People with poor vocabulary skills may find it hard to comprehend the meanings of some terms used and/or they are not quite familiar with the expressions.

A lot of changes and improvements in people's lives have been continuously experienced as the advances in technology progresses. Whether we admit it or not, it has brought a tremendous impact in our daily living and will continue to do so as years pass us by.

English would really sound strange to non-native speakers especially the accent and way of pronunciation. The language would sound "alien" to them if they have not learned about it properly and not used to it yet.Once we begin learning and improving our language skills, we quite "acquire" the accent and will know the correct pronunciation as well as the correct grammar.

From childhood, I am used to American English and I just became aware of the British English when I get to be exposed with foreigner friends and got to read more books as a writer. :grin: It is also quite interesting to know a different set of word spellings. The differences in spellings though confuses some.

We can still commit some grammatical errors even if we just write short sentences. And it is quite inevitable to just write short ones since at times when we need to expound more about what we are saying, we can create mile long or compound-complex sentences like what I am doing now. :grin: What can really help is that we must keep on developing our grammatical skills even if one is a native English speaker. Nobody is perfect and anyone can commit errors.

I am a Published International Poet myself and yes, I do believe poetry is an art. Like any other fields where we create things, poetry is an age-old art which does not only express the personal emotions of the poet but as well as how he perceives things surrounding him for that matter. Perfect poetry is an art itself for it a creative expression. Poetry exposes more creativity than you think it is. There maybe some readers who don't appreciate poetry but do read novels or short stories. Poetry does have its own story to tell but in a more higher level.

Standard letter writing uses "Sincerely yours", "Faithfully yours" not the other way around but we use "Yours truly" for they are grammatically correct to be used in closing remarks. Using "Yours sincerely" or Yours faithfully" is not usual.

American English idiomatic expressions are fairly different from British English expressions. There are also words as well which have the same meaning in both American and British but of different spellings. Examples: colors-colours, organize-organise, etc. British spelling of some words use "s" instead of the usual "z" in American.

Words that entice me to read a certain article, blog or story are mystery, science fiction, love, relationships, poetry, etc. Certain words do play a role in catching someone's attention that's why writers use a bunch of adjectives to describe things or those phrases and words that may attract their readers to stay glued to their works whether on the Internet or printed books or materials.

Yes, I do believe and know about this ancient story of the Tower of Babel that has to do with people building a tower so they could reach the heavens and then God destroyed the tower with the people falling from it after which they started speaking in different languages. That's the origin of the different languages different nations have now and also the disparity and misunderstandings of people.

Well, I believe one's pace in talking whether he/she speaks slow like a turtle or fast like a bullet train doesn't necessary say much about one's personality or if the person is dishonest or what. It's just their manner of speaking. Some talk moderately but they spit out bad words, some do talk fast but they are good people. So don't generalize things. Just a thought.

I think I am one of those fast talkers :grin: But in my English teaching profession, speed is our worst enemy as our trainor and quality assurance manager tells us teachers. Others can cope up with one who talks fast but there are also some who get confused and cannot fully understand what one is saying because of the fast pace. I can hear native English speakers speak fast with an accent which makes it more difficult for some to understand them but for me, I don't have a problem with that.

Could be that some people are not that patient and persistent to learn a new language or two that's why they can't seem to grasp things. When one puts his mind to it, he can be good at something. I have a lot of students who tell me they are just being forced by their parents to study the English language and they were left with no choice but to obey. It's also for their own good since it's the universal language and they can have opportunities once they have learned it well.

In our country the Philippines, Filipino or Tagalog is our mother tongue but we have different dialects in every region within the 3 big islands, our archipelago consists of. The difference is that language is on a national scale while the dialect are locally used in a certain region. The two though are used by the same people who live in a certain country.

I have never heard nor have I tried this alcohol-induced language fluency thingy. I think it's not also proper to recommend this to my students who are learning English. What I know is that based on my observations, if students are drunk, they feel lazier to study and may commit more mistakes if they took alcohol. Maybe it worked for you but that could be a psychological one since you could have made yourself believe that your language fluency could be very well be attributed with the alcohol you drank.