Aishe

I grew up speaking two languages - Thai and English, though in schooling life I was exposed to Maori from a very young age (probably since the start), and after that I took French and German for a couple of years starting from when I was thirteen. I haven't retained much of that knowledge though, so it probably wasn't very effective.

I think it is a useful tool but shouldn't be depended upon. I wouldn't personally use it to write an essay or translate huge chunks of text, but for individual words or syntaxes that I would need to double check it is a godsend.

Hehe I think you might be taking this a bit too literally. I think it's really funny!

I try to keep it simple, when I speak I'm trying to convey a message so the most effective way of getting my point across clearly as well as possible would be to keep it simple. Though there are times where complicated words or terminology is required to properly explain or elaborate and in those situations I try to make sure that whomever I am talking to still understand.

I think it depends on the form of writing, though generally I personally prefer staying succinct and concise - it's okay to use "fancy" words as long as you get straight to the point and don't fluff.

As the other posters have pointed out, language is the general most well-known form whereas dialects are almost like accents and slang typically isolated in areas. They can evolve so much that speakers of the language might not necessarily understand or be able to speak a dialect.

I tried Memrise initially whilst learning how to read Korean and it really is quite good as a way to help you remember characters and such. One thing I found lacking was they didn't really have many writing exercises - though this may be due to the sets I was using. Must give it another go.

Hey Shamz, welcome to linguaholic and hope you enjoy your time here. Does Arabic differ much from Urdu and Punjabi? I don't know very much about any of those languages.

Thanks everyone for all the replies! As for why I haven't been reading so much .. I've gotten deeply into gaming and on top of work and studies, I don't really have the time to just sit and read. I think perhaps it's something mental like I think I'm being unproductive as there isn't a tangible way to measure progress or to see that I'm actually accomplishing something. I have tried to get into audiobooks and podcasts too, but it's the same. Both put me straight to sleep. I will keep trying though! It's nice to have your support.

It depends on the language for me. For Chinese it's definitely writing because I never remember how to write a character despite knowing what it sounds like. It's also more difficult than reading - I can read something perfectly fine but if you ask me to write it 5 seconds later I'm going to really struggle. As for speaking, I usually don't find it as hard. I know how it should sound in my head and I try to mimic that out loud but sometimes that doesn't really work out well either as I physically can't make the sound (rolling an r for example).

I used to a lot! I always feel like over text I sound a lot more stern or harsh than I mean to and a "lol" or "haha" breaks it up. I don't really like it anymore though, trying to wean myself off the habit.

Wow Thai, that's something I've never heard before. If you ever want to practise, shoot me a message. I think for me it'd have to be conversational Korean. I've got the reading down but it's not really worth much if I don't know what I'm reading!

Hmm, in cases like that I guess you'd (or I'd) go for the gender neutral pronouns, for example fisher rather than associating a suffix with it. I don't think I've ever felt like a specific word is more suitable for guys or girls to say though.

Yeah that sounds great! I think it's going to be a while until I could potentially do it, I can barely hold a conversation as of yet.

I like this idea, I think I agree. It's sort of like how there's a word for something in one language, but not in another. And you find in multi-lingual people they often find it hard to express themselves or describe things because they end up mixing their languages. Some things are easier to explain in one language and others in another.

I would say I'm a slightly-faster-than-average reader? I read at the same pace I would speak the words, and I guess I speak pretty fast. Though the brain can process the words and it's possible to read faster than the pace of your thoughts, I can't seem to manage it properly and end up getting confused whenever I try to speed up.

I could've sworn swag meant "stuff" years ago. For example, "check out how much swag this guy's got" or "be in the draw to win some swag". I can see how it could've developed into it's current UrbanDictionary definition from there though, intertwining with swagger as well. It is completely overused in the media these days and despite myself I find it slipping out of my mouth sometimes! Ironically, of course.

Ahh true! I've never thought of it this way and I can see now how useful it would be. I'd still probably learn them in small batches though, wouldn't want to overwhelm yourself with over two hundred characters right off the bat!

Ahh I loved reading though Used to be that whenever I got really stuck in nothing could pry it out of my hands until I'd finished. Perhaps I just need to look for something new to be interested in... A change couldn't hurt. Ahh, I think there are some books on my shelves I haven't read in a while. I'll see if any of them potentially strike my interest again. Thanks for the suggestion!

Forgot this was an option, I used to really be into German programs and just through reading the subs I began to pick up bits and bobs! Though in reading literature, I wouldn't be doing it to advance my grasp of English, just for fun. Thanks! I'll check them out. Hmm, I've never been a huge non-fiction reader. Might give it a go!

I've never forced myself to think in a certain language or other, mostly my thoughts are English. But there are times when I find myself thinking in a mixture of languages? And it turns into a sort-of Pigeon English where every second or third word or phrase is in either Thai or Chinese. I think it depends on what I'm thinking about and the environment I'm in though, if I'm thinking about something Thai of course there are going to be a lot more Thai words in my head. I don't know if forcing yourself to think in a particular language or other works or not. It sounds difficult though, as generally your thoughts are just subconscious and the way you naturally think will come through anyway - it's not as if your thoughts are just one track.

I've been trying to learn the alphabet just so I can formulate and sound out words even without knowing what it means. It'll be really useful to be able to read road signs when I'm there over Christmas period!

It was, and still is, awful for me! I'm familiar with most of the mid-tone consonants and all of the vowels, but the rest I can never really seem to grasp. What makes it worse is that many of the characters sound similar and some characters can be combined to form something else completely, for example, there are a bunch of "s" sounds in Thai already, but the ท (a t type sound) and the ร (almost equivalent to an r) make another s sound!

Recently, or for the past year, I've been finding it really difficult to get into any book or written work deeply enough for me to enjoy it. There are required pieces of texts that were compulsory for me to read, but I never really enjoyed it despite having been an avid reader in the past. Are there any favourite books of yours or such that you would recommend to get me out of this rut?

It's happening! ... Slowly. I've only learnt about a few general topics and such, but I've been surprised to see that I can catch snippets of conversations between native speakers, a few words here and there, and the same when I come across Chinese writing online. Was having trouble with tones initially, I found it really difficult to differentiate between the second and third tones so that really affects my speech.