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fredkawig

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Posts posted by fredkawig

  1. English is spoken as a native language in so many countries -- including the UK, the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand among others -- and so it's inevitable that there are some wide variances in the language and its usage. 

    We find that vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and even grammar have evolved differently not just country by country but even within regions.  In the UK think of the sound of the accent of someone in Dublin and the accent of someone in London.  Or in the U.S. a native New Yorker and a Texan.  Quite different.

    That's part of what makes English so fascinating to me as a native speaker.  I enjoy hearing the nuances of accents and vocabulary.

    Yes. English really becomes fascinating due to instances like this. It's really unpredictable and surprising how the English language is used, presented, and spoken by people whether of the same region, country and origin. Here in our country, every region and place speak English differently, and most of them have different accents depending on their native tongue. Some can pronounce it well and others don't so it really is fascinating to hear people speak English.

  2. Have you ever heard people speak English but differently? I mean Koreans speak English and most of them cannot utter the correct pronunciation and syllabication but it is still English, so it's like Korean English. For the English people literally from England they have another accent for how they pronounce English which is again different with American English and further more Australian English. So in reality each country or people have their kind of English based on how they pronounce words and use them.

  3. Yes. I know four. English, Tagalog/Filipino, Ilocano, Ifontok. The 2 latter languages are languages and not just dialects. Living in the Philippines is a blessing because we are culturally diverse and are usually multilingual because of the vast number of languages spoken throughout the country specially where I live  here in Baguio because a lot of people of various ethnicities and cultures come to experience the excellent weather.

  4. It used to happen before the Tower of Babel incident when God diversified languages. I think this globalization thing is a cause for humanity to be judged finally. If we all understand each other, there would be a lot more conflict and dissension at least that's what I think. We are coming to a point where there is a universal language and it could be English.

  5. Practicing the language daily and applying it in real life has helped me understand foreign and local languages. The use of words being heard constantly and in turn trying to reciprocate through conversing in the same language has helped me a lot. It is very good to practice a lot of languages as you are better equipped in understanding people who come from different regions and places in the world or even in your own country. You will also find out how to mingle with them by knowing their language and how they speak it as well as their practices.

  6. We have indigenous songs that teach a lot of literature to our fellow Filipinos and they are effective for College students. Some songs are very good and are thus preserved in our literature and others which though cannot be understood because of the language used are likewise good in the composition, tone, rhythm and other musical properties.

  7. I have never encountered registeration in my life. I have encountered other bizarre misspellings though which I can understand since most of these people are poor in English. A lot of foreigners in our country can't speak English the way we can and I'm not sure if it's something to be proud of but I still am. People flock our country because we teach English in the kindest most pleasant way for foreigners to enjoy while natives are not given the same special treatment which is just wrong.

  8. Online tutorials are very effective, I myself am willing to tutor those people who want to learn English and the basics of grammar for a few bucks. There are lots of people without jobs specially in my country where they resort to these online tutorials of foreigners. And mind you most of us are professionals already, the only reason why there are no jobs is because of the Government's corruption thus the resurt of lack of infrastructure.

  9. There is not one certain answer. Everyone of us has their own fair share and experience with the English language being the international language or the language which is known to almost everyone. There are some people who can understand it just by a few years of exposure either through media or people and there are those who no matter how long they've been hearing it cannot really grasp the English language per se yet.

  10. I take holidays as a time not to do anything. I don't like studying and giving myself a head ache during times allotted for rest. Though there are those people who truly devote their time for studying at any given time, I'm afraid I am not one of them. I also usually just goof around during holidays and enjoy the time to myself rather than stressing over studies.

  11. I think we are getting dumber by each innovation that is aimed at reducing human work. We don't have to remember things anymore. Before I had a cellphone I had a good memory of my friends' phone numbers and their birthdays. Now I don't remember any. I can get all the information at the press of a button. I used to study new words using a dictionary. Nowadays I don't do it anymore. I can look it up on my mobile dictionary if I encounter a new word. I think we are setting a bad example for the younger generations.

    You do have a point there, this is true specially for people who are yet to learn things, elementary years and others. Books are very important for this age group and I guess I also got side tracked when I was in my elementary and high school years because of computer games. But still like every other thing, the internet, technology and media have both positive and negative impacts and it is up to the person which one he/she chooses.

  12. It varies from person to person, some people cannot concentrate when reading out loud and after reading the paragraph/sentence, they usually forget or did not understand anything from it. For some however this works because keywords are recalled when they read out loud what they are studying. Reading out loud can be good but sometimes tiring.

  13. Like it was said before, this sounds like an interesting concept, but it raises some questions too, mainly pertaining to the payment, the way study time is counted, and the like.

    For example, if I just leave one of the supported apps open, will that time count? It just sounds a little too easy to exploit for me, I guess.

    That being said, I think the added stakes might work as good motivation for some people, and the idea of a cash reward for studying even more so. Might give it a try myself.

    I agree with this, I think the payment processing and other things should be elaborated more clearly, I'll try to visit the site to gain some info. I guess the website has more information you should check it out.

  14. I still stick with the tower of Babel story, the one written in the Bible, we used to have one language to communicate but because of the chaos it created and the people thought to their hearts to build a tower to supersede God and become higher than him, God intervened and separated all the people's and confused their languages so we may not understand each other. And true enough, we are once again going back to a single language which makes us understand each other.

  15. I love dictionaries. When I was a kid I used to recreationally browse through my selection of dictionaries, simply because I was fascinated by words, especially those that have multiple meanings.

    In my house you will find quite a number of dictionaries on the book shelf. I also have a heavy Thesaurus sitting there amongst different encyclopaedias and language dictionaries.

    One of the most important feature on my phone is the google translator that I use many times a day. :)

    Wow. You remind me of the daughter of our pastor who according to her mom she used to sleep with the big book of Merriam Webster's dictionary and right now she's taking up law and is very profound at speaking in English and using hifalutin terms well specially in her law school's debate team.

  16. I consider myself to be fairly well versed in English, but every now and again, I will still come across some words that I do not know the meaning of, so I do still look up some definitions online from time to time. I also had a practice of trying to learn a new word everyday back when I was younger by means of looking up a word in the dictionary and trying to use it within the day so it sticks. I've since then stopped doing this, but I did manage to learn a lot of words during this time.

    Nice to hear that you have the practice of learning new words everyday. We had an instructor once who also made us learn and memorize, use one word every meeting and I am really seeing the value of how she tried to make us learn at least one word per day. It's very nice to do it but at times mental exhaustion gets the best of us so we don't really practice it well at least that's for me.

  17. How would you call a woman who fishes for a living? Fisher girl/ fisher chick or something? I think there are some words like Fisherman which though they can be changed to include both sexes, just can't sound right because we're used to the sound of it.

    He's a fisherman.

    She's a fisherman?

    I think the word man at the end of every word does not necessarily denote or refer to men or masculine. I think man means human and that humans are a general term for both male and female. So fisherman meaning a human who fishes, that's what I understand and maybe that's why they created such word in the first place.

  18. I agree with you. People should really carry a dictionary or thesaurus to understand and to educate themselves of new words they encounter everyday from different kinds of people. You also do not have to be a communications student to have a wide range of vocabulary. It's good that people today are aware of a lot of words that make life interesting, too bad there are the extremely poor with words which get left behind perhaps due to not paying attention during English classes.

  19. I'm glad to hear the advances in technology has enabled you to learn more and have made you smarter instead of the opposite. Though there are still those that caught the bad effects of technology mainly in our country I guess, since most of the youth are on computer shops and playing video games instead of going to school, that I guess and some more are the disadvantage of today's technology.

  20. Being a Filipino, Tagalog is the most important language and the most universal language in our country. English also competes with Tagalog so I think they are the 2 most important and used language in our country. Some people who can't figure out English words to use in their sentences substitute it for Tagalog that's why we have words that are Taglish meaning a combination of Tagalog and English. We also have other languages like Ilocano, Ifontoc, Pangasinense, Bisaya and other native languages which are used by a certain place.

  21. The internet is one of the most powerful information based tools to better one's learning. It is an archive of documents and materials that educate, teach and help people understand a lot of things. With the advancements in technology, it has lead people either too understand more and have a vast array of knowledge and other have become even more dumb. So has the internet helped you understand more things or has it limited your growth and understanding by being misused?

  22. The dictionary is one of the best books in learning the vocabulary for the English language and other languages. Do you use yours to find new words and expand your vocabulary? Do you use the dictionary when you encounter a foreign word? Or you don't want to even open the dictionary at all? I for one use the dictionary at times to look for new words and most of the time to learn the meaning of foreign words that are thrown at me, how about you?

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