Litnax

Fancy reading "Henry Darrow: Lightning in the Bottle"? Enrique Tomás Delgado or better known as Henry Darrow is a Puerto Rican-American actor of stage and film, best remembered for his role as Manolito Montoya on the 1960s television series The High Chaparral. He is greatly instrumental in helping Latino actors land non-stereotyped parts.

I didn't read Twilight but saw the movie, so NO. As for 50 Shades of Grey, it's not for me :nerd: Give me Tolkien, Hemingway or Anne Rice anytime.

I love Archie comics, and Jughead is still my favorite character. He actually have ways with words compared to the others.

Okay, here's mine :grin: Jazz something up If you jazz something up, you add something to try to improve it or make it more stylish. "The dress needs a scarf or a necklace to jazz it up."

As a jazz lover, I really love this one! :love:

That figures. I'm more inclined to use 'learned' so I think I'll better stick to that.

I would like to be able to read ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics - if that counts.

Sounds pretty much like an immersion technique to me. And yes, this definitely works. That's how I learnt English and how I acquired 'an ear' for Japanese.

If a poem is bound too much to grammatical rules, it would be less appealing as a poem to me. I say break the rules. I see poets do it all the time.

I agree with your brother. Japanese is straightforward when it comes to pronunciation so I really think you should give it a try.

When it comes to appearance or clothing wise, I would use 'smart' as in dress sharply and 'elegant' as in beautifully dressed.

Phoenix and Skye definitely!

Desuetude, nemesis, offing, opulent and elixir - mainly because of the way one pronounce these words. I just like the way they sound to my ears.

I always stick with Oxford, either hard copy or as online reference. I don't think I will switch to any other anytime soon.

That all Americans are New Yorkers, or all British are Londoners. :grin:

Appreciate if English British native speakers could shed some light to this: what is and when do you actually use the word 'ruddy' as an expletive (if this word is expletive at all)?

I know several people from my country that went to France to study had bad experience with the locals. They were teased (quite rudely) when they try to converse in French. Now, I don't want to paint the same picture to all French people, but everyone that I knew who went there as a student or an expat had to face similar situation.

Have someone to practice with you but I definitely recommend books.

English - it is part of my country's education so no choice really But I loved it. When I finally able to read my Archie comics without a dictionary, that was when I fully realized the benefit of being knowledgeable in a foreign language. My next target is Japanese by the way.

I would like to see my Japanese learning go well this year

I find this one quite funny Golf widow - a wife who is left alone most of the time because her husband is playing golf. No offence to any golf lovers...

I used to be confused about this one :grin: Face like thunder - someone who is clearly very angry or upset about something. And I LOVE this idiom :love: Shoot the breeze - chat in a relaxed way.

:grin: Dead right - absolutely correct. Dead wrong - absolutely incorrect.

I heard 'sells like hot cakes' before but not 'hot bread'. Something new to learn

I used these often