lupitabaires

Music is one of the ways to immerse yourself in the language that you're learning. I find it extremely helpful for me. I listen to music everywhere I go, so I might as well listen to music of the language I'm learning. It's a great way to hear pronunciation as well as sing along and practice pronunciation. Furthermore it's helpful in learning common phrases. There is also a lot of vocabulary you can get out of listening to music.

Personally the hardest part is listening comprehension and speaking. Reading and writing kind of come naturally for me because in order to learn words, it is best for me to see it written down. When I'm talking to native speakers though, I wish they were close-captioned so I can see what they're saying. The trickiest part is understanding native speakers who speak with a lot of slang or speak very quickly. Getting to a level where I'm confident with comprehension and speaking is the most difficult for me. Also because I'm very shy about speaking. I get nervous and I think my accent is horrible, so nobody understands me anyway. It's really frustrating, but we all just have to keep practicing.

It's possible to forget some parts of your language definitely. I lived in another country for a long time, and I found that the language I was learning started to take over much more and that my native language started to transform in weird ways. I would sometimes mix up words, or my pronunciation was a bit off. It can happen, but I don't think you could ever lose your native language so long as you use it frequently.

It is pretty important to me. On the other hand, I also sometimes let it go especially if the locals are speaking their own way. Obviously even native speakers make mistakes in grammar. I try to stick with good grammar most of the time. I also try to speak correctly in English, so it only makes sense to continue in any other language. I try not to stress out about it too much, but it is a big topic for me when I'm learning a language.

It depends on how hard I work. It also matters significantly where I'm living. If I'm living in a place where the dominant language is the language I'm learning, obviously that helps me way more to absorb as much as possible. I also spend a lot of time building vocabulary lists and memorization cards, etc. to make the words stick. I try to listen to music in that particular language as well. Reading a lot, even if you're starting with children's books in the beginning, will help you also. If you really work at it, I think you could be fluent in about a year, but that's pretty difficult.

I'm in Quebec, Canada, so French and English are spoken. I'm learning French right now. While the majority of the people do speak a bit of English and it's hard to find someone who doesn't speak English, French is definitely the dominant language in Quebec. English does tend to take over though, and the Quebecois are fighting that. It's really interesting to live in such a bilingual place. It's kind of like Hong Kong, where they speak Cantonese and English.

My language goal for 2014 is definitely to conquer French, at least conversationally. I just started, so it's a bit daunting, but since I live in a French-speaking area, it should be a lot better. I'm just so shy about talking to people, like at the cash register, it makes me so nervous! So I'd like to get over that shyness so I can really make some improvements. I know if I can get over making mistakes, I'll learn that much faster. I'm just so embarrassed about my lack of vocabulary and my horrible accent!

Well, I just recently moved to Quebec, so I'm trying to learn French. It was always the next language for me anyway because I love the way it sounds. I also speak Spanish, so it was a nature move for me to make to stay with the Romantic languages. Quebecois French is so different though! I also love French literature, so reading books in its original French would me amazing. It's a long way to go though since I just started, but I'm excited.