Cookiesandcream

Yes! I totally forgot about writing because my dad used to always lecture me on how bad it is to write on your skin so i've actually stopped it for quite a while now. I used to write it all the time. And yes, exam time (sometimes). Good times!

Nice article, thanks for posting. Very informative too. It is quite sad. I don't think people appreciate different types of languages enough. And the media is to be blamed for a lot of it.

My favourite is from The Virgin Suicides when Cecelia says to the doctor "Obviously Doctor, you've never been a 13 year old girl". It was awesome when she said that. Great movie too!

Thank you @Meera and @Linguetronix. Thank you for clarifying my doubt. Cheers!

I would recommend reading: The Giver, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, Divergent Trilogy, Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, The Fault in Our Stars, Memoirs of a Geisha and The Time Traveller's Wife. I enjoyed all these books.

I think it really helped for me. I've been watching a lot of Bollywood movies lately and I can sort of understand what they're saying. Plus they're entertaining to watch. Especially all their catchy songs. I've learnt some of the lyrics with the help of subtitles.

Yes, all the time. I'm majoring in Philosophy and these philosophers use really long and tough words that i've never even heard of in my life. In class, the dictionary is my best friend.

Yes, it was mandatory till I graduated out of high school. So i've been learning English all my life basically. I took IB English and that was a great experience. Read a lot of books and improved on a lot of things.

Hey, thanks for the useful tips! I do use association a lot. Sometimes i also make up a song or a code to make things easier. Wonderful post!

For the app, I use wordweb because I find it easy and simple. But I have a hard copy of the Oxford dictionary which I rely more on. Plus I like to physically hold a dictionary because it makes me feel more important.

Not a book necessarily but any essay by Nietzsche is extremely complicated and difficult. Specifically, his "On the Genealogy of Morality". It is so complex and long winded, it's a miracle I made it through. Similarly, any work by Heidigger, such as "The Thing". I had to read single sentences over and over just to get them to make any sense.

I agree! He's really hard to comprehend. I'm read his texts in my philosophy class last semester and I had to read it about 10 times to really understand it.

I think you have the entire keyboard, you should use it. I personally don't like shortening words or phrases and i'm not used to them either. My friends and I are the same in this case so it's not really a big problem for me.

I have trouble with words that have a lot of double letter in them like double 's'. Even words like cigarette, it always confuses me where the double needs to be at. Some other examples are "necessary" and "disappointment".

Thanks for the link. I'm teaching my Korean friend English and I think this would be a great website.

Hello everyone,

For those of you who have taken both SAT and ACT, which one did you find easier? I personally found ACT easier, especially the English section and Science section. SAT math really killed me and I didn't get a very good score.

Hey there, I took the SATs a year ago and the first time I took it I got about 1500/2400. I was pretty disappointed because it was below average. The main thing i've learnt about these aptitude tests is that there is no short cut so you just have to keep practicing no matter what. I worked on it for about 1.5 hours a day and I found it relatively easier during my senior year. Although the questions won't be the same, there were a lot of similar questions so that made it easier. Another tip I would give to you would be learning how to eliminate the answers and slowly work your way to the answers. Always go with your instinct too because that's usually correct. I got about 1980 at the end. But it still wasn't good enough for the colleges I wanted to go to and ended up applying to SAT optional colleges. You might want to check that out as well because there are a lot of colleges that don't necessarily require the SAT.

I actually think subtitling is a fun way to learn a language. Translating a language while watching shows you love really helps to sharpen one's language skills.

I agree. I love watching movies and tv shows and what better way to learn a language by doing something that you already like. I watched a lot of Spanish movies and it was really fun.

Most definitely. Even if the people in non-english speaking countries can't speak fluently, I noticed that they can still understand you and still answer you in 'broken' english. I think it's the influence that the media has on people. Especially movies/tv shows and the music industries have made a big mark. But this is only some countries. When I went to Korea I found it extremely difficult to communicate with the people. But there were a lot of hand gestures between us and we could still understand it without getting too lost

I learnt Spanish with my classmates who also opted it. There were about 40 of us but we were again divided into 2 sections so 20 people in each class. But I'm learning Hindi on my own.

Yes there are very good writers but I'm not completely sure what you mean by "equivalent" because literature now and then have progressed and I wouldn't say for the better or for the worse. The style of writing is very different if we were to compare it. Even the styles of Shakespeare and Emily Bronte are different. But one of my favourite contemporary writers today is Haruki Murakami who is a Japanese author. Some of my favourite works of his are Kafka on the Shore, Norwegian Wood and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle.

I've read the trilogy as well and I agree with @Kimerah it's VERY good. I was reluctant to read it at first because they do compare it a lot to "The Hunger Games". But the story line is very different from Hunger Games except that they're both set in a dystopian society. It's got a lot more action than Hunger Games and such great twists to the story. Really, my fingers weren't turning the pages fast enough. I was so hooked that I missed a whole day of college just reading it.

But i'm already disappointed from what I saw of the trailers. They're deciding to exclude some characters from the book and the actress playing "Tris" who is the main character of the books look nothing alike from the description. Hopefully the rest will be good though.

I didn't really have a choice. I had to take a second language for my credits and needed to pass. But I don't regret the school giving me that little push because at the end of the day, it helped me converse especially when I went to Spain for my summer break. Now, I'm trying to learn Hindi because I think it's beautiful and love the script.

My first word was "vroom" even though it's more of a sound actually. But my first real word was "cat" because I used to love my pet cat and one time I almost killed him because I was hugging him too tight. So, its no wonder that it was my first word. Surprisingly, I dislike cats now. For some reason I'm just scared of them.

My favourite word is serendipity. I love saying it out loud cause I think it's got a nice ring to it. It sounds really light and full at the same time. It just gives me good vibes

What is the hardest language that you have tried to learn? Why was it hard for you?