Jrh2

I think any language that is not your own is a hard language to learn as it is all new to you. I think the hardest thing about new languages is remembering them, I often learn new words and phrases and at the time I know them but if I don't have a chance to continue practicing with them I forget them and have to start learning them again. I wish there was a way that when you learn something it stays there without practicing constantly but it doesn't work that way. Whenever I am busy and stop learning a language for a while when I return it takes a long time to get back into it and remember what it was you learnt.

I always wanted to learn french as I enjoyed it at school. When I left school I didn't really learn any more french until I found the app Duolingo. I enjoyed this app and so it made me want to learn french and hopefully stick at it this time. I would use the app to learn the language but I ended up only using it every now and then as I found if you didn't have much time you forget the bits you have learnt and are back to square one again. I recently started to learn french again, and more determined this time, as I got a new job and there is a child who is french and her parent comes in each day talking to her in that language. This is really frustrating when you cannot make out all of what they are saying so I am going to learn french and hopefully understand most of what they say to each other before the summer holidays. I am probably a bit too optimistic but I will give it a try.

I like to use the Duolingo app for a fun way to learn a language. I like how it is set out a bit like a game and if you get things wrong you lose hearts. It is good how you can now earn lingots (like points) and buy things with them to help you along with learning your new language like an extra heart or a special lesson like the Christmas one at that time. I also think it is fun to watch programmes in different languages or with subtitles up but I find it difficult finding a DVD in my DVD collection which has language and subtitles in French which is my preferred language to learn. Typically, all the programmes I have watched so many times I nearly know word for word in English don't have an option in French.

I think everyone has an accent but no one believes that them themselves have an accent as we are used to hearing us and those around us speaking constantly so we don't notice an accent. I have always wondered what my accent would sound like as you can't hear it yourself. People always say they don't have an accent even when they clearly do. It is interesting how there are so many different accents across the world and they all sound so different, it is strange as there are different accents even if you speak the same language.

I think, if you have the ability to speak well enough in another language to teach a child, you should begin as soon as possible. If you start as early as possible the child should pick it up quicker as the child hasn't not known the language if the child is brought up with it. I think the older you get, the harder it is to learn another language as we start to reason with why things are a certain way and doubt ourselves. I work with children and there are a few children that are not originally English but as they were brought to live here young they are fluent in both languages and they get used to talking to their family in their language and everyone else in English. I am always trying to get the French child to speak french but she usually speaks too quick for me and I can't keep up enough to understand it all.