surrender2air

If you have an iPhone there is a keyboard built in for Chinese that lets you use your finger to write. You can use that in Pleco instead of paying for the upgrade.

My students in Taiwan didn't really care about learning English. I tried telling them that there's a whole world of movies, TV shows, and books that would open up to them if they were to study harder. That rarely worked.

Probably but it's a slow process. Maybe in a few hundred years English will sound a lot different. With communication becoming easier languages will start to intertwine. Either that or everyone will just learn English.

After I started learning Chinese I tried finding music in Mandarin but a lot of it is really bad. After searching harder I finally found some really good artists and it helps a lot. Having a melody behind a phrase helps it get stuck in your head. Plus, I'm always listening to music to there's always know phrases to hear. All I need to do is put a meaning behind it by translating the lyrics.

I learned Chinese and then started learning Japanese. In Japanese class I took notes in Chinese so I would have to know one to know the other.

I'll be teaching my kids Chinese from the moment they come out of the womb. Then when they're older I'll have language partners. Not only will I be speaking to them in Chinese, I'll be exposing them to Chinese movies, Tv shows, music, and stories. Maybe I'll get them a tutor as well. My girlfriend's parents speak Spanish but they waited to try teaching it to their kids instead of just using it from the start which didn't work out very well.

I might be alone in thinking this but I think the Japanese should stop using Katana and just replace it with the English alphabet, which they learn anyway. Katakana is mainly used for foreign words but we do that with our alphabet too. I get that Katakana makes foreign words easier to be pronounced but if they started just using the English alphabet would there eventually be a generation of people with better pronunciation?

The only dub I've enjoyed more than the sub is Cowboy Bebop. Other than that, subbed is the way to go. It's more natural.

China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong make students learn English. They're better at learning English than westerners are at learning Chinese. Maybe the world will become like Blade Runner and there'll be in influx of non-english speaking Chinese immigrants so people will be forced to learn Chinese just to communicate with people around town. That would be interesting.

Where would those phrases be heard? All over mainland China or mainly the north?

云南镇的很漂亮但是我没去过，只看过照片。

I gave up on Spanish after 5 years of learning. The verbs are just too hard! I've been trying to get back into it though. I started learning Korean and still study here and there but the pronunciation is really difficult to get the hang of.

The best way is to have a boyfriend/girlfriend that speaks the language you're learning. Not everyone can do that though so it's good to make sure you're around the language as much as possible. Read books and newspapers, listen to music, watch movies, and find friends (either in person or online) that you can talk to. Also, try to travel to where you can use the language as much as you can.

I see the planet as our collective home and I'd like to be able to speak with as many people as possible. If I only speak one language, I'm limited to only a certain amount of people. I've studied Chinese and am working on Spanish. Once I've mastered both I'll be able to talk to about half of the world's population which is very intriguing to me.

I taught English in Taiwan for a year and it was a great experience. You earn a living wage and get to explore new places everyday. Having said that, I wouldn't be able to be there for too long as an English teacher. The students don't appreciate you, they kind of see you as a joke. Also, your bosses see you as expendable because you can be easily replaced. Not only that, there isn't much room for upward movement. The wage you get in your 7th year won't be much than when you started. It's a great experience though and highly recommend going abroad for at least a year.

I find listening and reading to be the easiest because you can use context clues to help you. Writing and speaking are the hardest because everything is up to you. Also, nowadays everyone types more than anything so writing doesn't get much practice. As for speaking practice, it really depends on how much effort you put in.