andre-nunes

I use correct grammar when texting. When I was a teenager I would write all sorts of shortcuts and leet speak but I've grown past that. :wacky:

I like straight to the point communication... that's why women are so hard on me hahaha

Body language is very important to how others perceive you. I didn't know it's effects until recently after watching a TED talk about it: I'm trying to improve my body language so I appear more confident to others, which in turn will make me more confident

I think it depends on the definition of language... are they able to communicate with each other? I think so... dogs are very smart and are able to relate human sounds to actions. Maybe they have an innate language to speak to each other, do you think dogs have different accents? :grin:

Indeed this applies to any language learning, not only to Spanish. You need to learn and practice every aspect of the language to truly master it

It's hard to tell but if we are talking about native speakers, it's obvious that Chinese has the most native speakers compared to any other language... China's a huge country! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_languages_by_number_of_native_speakers

It's helpful when you are at a pinch to find a certain word translation that you can't remember at that moment. It's been improved a lot in the last years and I think that it translates texts rather well for a computer program

Welcome and enjoy the forum! Feel free to practice your French on the appropriate sub-forum. Bonne Anné! :grin:

:grin: Google translate for the rescue: "Happy New Year Hi Eboran Cool to meet some other forum Pole (or maybe Polka?): Wacky: I hope you enjoy the site and do not disappear after this one post. As you decide on a particular language and come sit him it will not be so terribly difficult ... The worst thing is to start;)"

How do you know what language to speak in different situations? Like if you go shopping out of town? Is it by trial and error? You try speaking different languages until you get answered? That's really weird for me...

Really interesting thread! When I saw the title of the thread I was gonna talk about "saudade" but I see it's been mentioned already... I don't think that "nostalgia" truly translates that feeling but it gives an idea I guess... That's our "fado" or destiny as you can say in English

You should practice your writing too, you could be the next Camões or Fernando Pessoa! It's such a beautiful language

It's not only between Brazil and Portugal, it was agreed by every PALOP(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese-speaking_African_countries) as well. It's sad that the people, those who use the language the most were not consulted about this and that this standard was entirely done by Academics. Here's more info about the Agreement: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Language_Orthographic_Agreement_of_1990

I'm more of a listener myself, but lately I've been trying to improve communication skills, I used to think that communicating with others was boring and lame but now I know that it is an important part of our well being as a person.

As a Portuguese I think the Brazilian variant might be easier to learn but I don't think this distinction matter much because you'll be able to communicate with either variant, they are the same language, just some different vocabulary which can be easily explained with words common to both variants.

People usually say that European Portuguese is very guttural, I think that's due to our Islamic heritage and our European neighbors. Brazil was influenced by many different cultures and developed a "softer accent"...

Welcome, enjoy the forum. How do you say Happy New Year in Polish? Happy New Year

I'm Portuguese but I can tell that there's also resistance on Brazil's side, so far as I can tell there's been protests against the agreement from both sides of the Atlantic. I'm one of the few Portuguese who's not against it :grin: I think that a unified language is the way to go and the agreement improves some parts of the language that were difficult to teach and learn, like the silent consonants, if they are silent why should we write them? I know it is related to accentuation on the pronunciation of those words but it adds to the difficulty of the language.

Welcome, you must be really brave to learn those languages at the same time. They look hard to me Enjoy the forum and feel free to share your experiences learning those languages.

Hi! It's free, there's a web app and a mobile app. Try it here: http://www.duolingo.com It's really good and 100% free :grin:

I started learning English pretty soon, probably in my third or forth grade, so I was 8/9 years old. It was great that my parents put me in a language learning school because it's a very useful skill to have nowadays. I did my first certificate in English (Cambridge's FCE when I was 17)

Don't forget about Portuguese, most of the old Portuguese colonies still have it as official language, like Timor, Angola and Mozambique for example. Brazil's population is 200 million people so theres a lot of Portuguese speakers out there :grin:

They have many differences, some people think that it is like UK English and American English but that's not the case, both languages are unique. We can understand each other though so there are some similarities. :grin:

Hi, merry Christmas! :grin: I'm using Duolingo (not sure if I can link to it without going against the rules but you'll find it easily), I think it is the best app to learn languages, it has modules with reading, writing and speaking exercises. You earn points by practicing, it's really fun and it's a different way to learn a language. The last time I checked, you could learn French, Spanish, German, Italian and Portuguese there, but they were working on new languages. Try it and tell me what you think of it.

I don't think this is respectful to others, when in a social setting you should always speak in a language that everyone comprehends, speaking in other languages to conceal what you are say is just like whispering secrets to someone else in a group setting, it's not polite. At least from where I come from...