g2narat

I have different reasons for the languages I'm trying to learn. Sometimes it's out of necessity because I'm in a place where I don't know the local dialect or language. I think it's much more convenient to learn the language than to have to find someone to translate for me all the time. Sometimes I learn just because I find the language interesting though.

I think there are two things that can make learning a new language much, much easier. The first one is to have a study buddy. If there's two of you learning, acquiring a new language can be much, much faster. The second one is to find a topic that interests you and try using the language you want to learn for that topic. It's much more motivating to learn a new language that way, and therefore also easier.

For me, it depends on my current state of mind. If I'm a bit distracted, or not feeling well, either emotionally or physically, I tend to have a hard time focusing on what I'm reading. When that happens, I have to read something over and over before the message sticks. When I'm able to concentrate though, I can focus pretty easily and can grasp things pretty quickly.

I have a situation that I find frustrating. It can also get pretty awkward at times. I hate it when I don't understand what someone says, even after they've repeated it several times.

What do you do when that happens to you? Do you just smile and walk away? Do you ask someone else to translate it for you? Do you just say "I'm sorry, I really just can't understand you"?

Some call it Bekimon, but I think that makes it easy to confuse with Jejemon. Anyway, how do you feel about the "Beki" way of talking? I guess people like Vice Ganda and Filipinos on YouTube have made it popular. I think it's a fun twist on our language actually. I don't think it should be taught, but I don't find it irritating either. What do you think?

Etymology is the study of the origins of words. I've noticed that language classes that have more time to teach include this in their lessons. Those that have less time tend to skip it and just go directly to translating things. I think it makes studying a new language easier though. For me, knowing the origin of a word makes it easier to remember and much more interesting to learn. Do you feel the same way too or do you think it's a waste of time?

This one is a little tricky to remember because it is one of the weird English rules. Everyone knows that for possession you add the apostrophe S to the object. For example, "That was Jamie's cat."

You would think adding the apostrophe S would work for the object "it," but for it's a different story.

"Its" is the correct form to use for possession.

    For example, "The dog was angry. Its food was taken away." Meaning the dog got his food taken away.

"It's" is the contraction for "it is."

    For example, "The food was there. It's now gone." = "The food was there. It is now gone."

Try to remember the difference between the two. 

Thank you! I do find this one tricky. As a non-native English speaker, this is one of the most confusing things for me. It's weird because I don't have a problem with their/they're and your/you're but when it comes to it's/its I'm not sure I always use the correct term. Oh and I noticed that I used "it's" in this post and I hope I used it properly.  :wacky:

Wow! There are some really nice quotes here! Here's a few I'll add here:

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. - Henry James

Darkness cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate: only love can do that - Martin Luther King Jr.

If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart. - Nelson Mandela

My favorite quote is from a children's book actually. Le Petit Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupéry. I think I've mentioned several times that it's my favorite children's book. Anyway, I just love the lessons I got from that book. Especially this one:

Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu'avec le cœur. L'essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.

Well, I lived in France for a couple of years. I was pretty fluent then. I didn't practice it when I left though. I've forgotten a lot of words and I don't think I could carry a conversation in French now. So mostly, I'm relearning the language because I feel it's a shame to forget it when I used to be so fluent at it.

Before buying a book, do you read the summaries or synopsis printed on the back covers?

I do this especially when I am buying books that are on sale. Though there are books that do not have summaries but the picture of the author, I still browse the Internet for the synopses.

I think it's a good way of getting the gist of what you're about to read. I personally don't like just picking up a book without knowing anything about it. I sometimes do that when I'm familiar with the writing style of the author but that's more the exception rather than the rule. I like to have a general idea of the story before diving into a book.

I think it depends on how he story is told really. I think the goofiest monster could be terrifying if it's done right. But for me I think psychological thrillers are far more terrifying than that off monsters. Because monsters you can fight, there's a chance that you can win but when it comes to the psyche and sick mind there's not much more you can do about it, it's just pure dread.

That is so true. There's just something about what we can't fight that is so terrifying. I enjoy feeling like it could happen to me when I'm reading a psychological thriller. As opposed to reading scary monster books where I can brush off a monster as being unrealistic.

Well I think it depends on how the book is presented. I mean if it states that it's a "theory" only then it can be in the Non Fiction section but if takes itself way too seriously and just claims everything to be hardcore fact even though there is no proof then it might be in the Fiction section.

I think that's a good way of classifying them. What's interesting though is how by being too serious, the author of a conspiracy book lessens his/her credibility. I'm sure he/she meant to have the opposing effect. It's like the saying "the more you try to convince people that you are sane, the more you convince them that you're not". Haha. It's probably those authors that push so hard to have their work placed in the non-fiction section anyway. XD

I can totally understand! Part of my work is to translate news articles and speeches from English to Filipino and vice versa. There are really some words you can't translate directly.

Ooh, interesting! How do you handle those situation? Are you allowed to change the sentence a bit so that the sentence would make more sense? Or are you forced to substitute words that are similar even though they don't really mean the same thing?

I've had to learn another dialect when all I knew was Tagalog. It was easier than learning a whole new language in the sense that some words are the same. It can get a bit confusing though as some words are the same but mean different things. I was wondering if the experience is similar for those who had to learn Tagalog from other dialects...

With Halloween approaching, I'm in the mood for some creepy books. I was just wondering if those of you who like the scary stuff prefer those with monsters with vivid descriptions or those that make you afraid of the unknown. For me I'm more scared of something that is just lurking around without knowing what it looks like... or what it even is. And that's why I get more thrill from those types of books even though I still do enjoy those with creepy monsters. What about you?

I really believe that a lot of authors of books dealing with conspiracies don't really believe them themselves. I think they're often just really passionate researchers and since people buy that kind of stuff, they just go with it. That being said, should books about conspiracies be in the non-fiction section? I think they don't quite belong in the fiction section either but they seem a bit out of place in the non-fiction category too, what do you think?

I love books by David Sedaris. I find them highly entertaining. I enjoy his kind of humor. I was wondering if anyone here could give me a few author names with similar styles. I'm not looking for someone exactly like him, but just an entertaining writer that can make usually unfunny/serious topics/experiences lighter through humor.

I don't have one specific memory. I do know I've been in an embarrassing situation regarding language problems more than once though. I've pretended to understand a word/phrase even though I didn't because I wanted the conversation to be over. Then the speaker would catch me and call me out on it. Yikes. My fault for faking it and getting caught though.  :wacky:

I have found this to be so true.  I have always loved studying languages.  I took both Latin and Spanish in high school - 4 years of Spanish and 3 of Latin.  I majored in English and Spanish in college; however I have almost completely forgotten all Spanish (I graduated in 1993).  Can someone give me some tips as to how to get my Spanish knowledge back quickly?  I was always better at reading and writing than speaking.  I'd like this to change as well.

I agree with your title. Based on my experience, not practicing a language can make you"lose it", so to speak. That's what happened with my French. I didn't practice it and now I can hardly speak the language. I guess a good way to get it back would be to listen to people talking in Spanish because it might jog your memory. 

Love the link shared here! Here it is again, just in case people don't know what I'm talking about: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/yes-you-can-learn-a-foreign-language-in-your-sleep-say-swiss-psychologists-9574112.html . Anyway, it's a nice theory. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't be effective as the ONLY method of learning, but if it can help and you don't mind the noise while sleeping, then why not right?  :wacky:

I enjoy audio books! I haven't listened to many, but the few that I have were amazing. My first audio book was The Hitchhikers Guide to The Galaxy by Douglas Adams, read by Stephen Fry. It was amazing. I couldn't believe how much I enjoyed it. It's a completely different experience. Since I use the internet too much, I can't really concentrate, so reading books for long periods of time is almost impossible for me. If you listen to audiobooks, you can multitask. You could be cleaning the apartment or jogging while still enjoying the benefits of reading a book.

Wow! You must be really good at multitasking! That's actually my main problem with audio books. I end up either getting bored or distracted. When I read, I do that alone. I just can't imagine listening to a story while doing something else.

Try to learn the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA). It's not that hard and it will help you immensely. After you have done that, practice reading the phonetic transcriptions out loud. There are many resources online that offer phonetic transcriptions, one of the good ones being the sond "The Chaos". Google it.

This is a very good advice! I haven't heard of IPA before. I checked out some sites about it and it seems like a great idea for those that want to be understood clearly. I mean, I love accents but if it's making communicating verbally difficult then you do need to improve on diction. In the end it's all about being understood when you speak. 

Wow I just had a few most annoying conversations ever in my life.

I'm a Malaysian, my husband is a Scottish, and we have one young daughter who just turned 6 months yesterday. With that said, my husband's native language is English, my native language is Dusun, but in my country, Malay is a national language.

Family members from my side keep on pushing me to speak to her in Dusun so she knows how to speak the language and family members from his side keep pushing me to speak to her in Malay so she knows how to speak the language too. But both my husband and I communicate to her in English.

I mean this is so tiring. As a mother of course I want the best for her, but planning is also important. There is no wrong to teach her the languages one by one instead of making her brain goes upside down.

I know they all care but sometimes I feel like being pushed to do what they want instead of what my husband and I want.

If you came from an inter-racial family then how do you decide which first language to teach to your baby? Or if there is another language you want your kid to master then will you teach them right away or will you wait until your kid has mastered your native?

I understand why that can be irritating. I mean, you're the mother after all, so you should be allowed to do what you think is best for the baby. That being said, I don't think there's anything wrong with teaching multiple languages either. My 1 1/2 year old kid know Filipino, Visayan and English words and he doesn't seem to get confused by them. It seems he's used to the idea that there's more than one word for each object. 

With the slogan, "By shouting out loud, you learn" Li Yang's method for learning English for Chinese has been encouraging students to shout at the school building's rooftop or in the middle of the field. Do you think this method is effective? What are your thoughts about this non-traditional method?  :amazed:

I have never heard of this method. I wonder what's the reasoning behind it. Do they claim it's more effective than traditional method? Maybe it's the absurdity of the method that makes students retain the language more? Just a guess.  :grin: