Litnax

Airplane! (1980 movie) Ted Striker: Surely you can't be serious. Rumack: I am serious... and don't call me Shirley.

There's this old song by Teresa Teng that I absolutely love - Tian Mi Mi :grin:

Great post. Sadly this is becoming a bigger problem everyday. :emo: Losing one's mother tongue is like losing a part of one's identity.

I've tried the Ginger app (Chrome extension). At first, I found it useful but only for catching simple spelling and grammar mistakes. To be frank, I haven't find any spell or grammar checker apps that I really like, although at the moment I'm using GrammarBase.

Other than the 'eh' and the way they say 'out' or 'about' I can't really tell any other differences between a Canadian accent and American accent.

During my school days, the challenging part was learning from a qualified teacher. My English teacher in high school was a local/non-native speaker. I remembered when she questioned me about the word 'played' in my essay. "There's no such thing as 'played'. We don't put 'ed' for this word." I had to take out my dictionary and actually explained to her about past tense and past participle for the word 'play'. :nerd:

I was in New Zealand for two years (student exchange programs) and I didn't even realize that I had a Kiwi accent until my friends teased me about it! :grin:

When it comes to movies, I always prefer Cantonese spoken ones (HK movies) - maybe because I'm so used to watch them since I was a kid. When it comes to songs though, Mandarin does sound better, maybe because its a bit smoother when sung.

Guilty as charge - I never use correct English when chatting with friends, especially my own Malaysian friends. I do strive to use correct English when I chat with my penpals online though.

"Cruising" :grin: I use this word every time I see a slow driver in front of me. I would turn to my sister and said, "Cruising driver ahead!"

Hmm... I don't think I ever over use LOL. Sometimes I use 'Haha' or 'Hehe'. I'm guilty of using too much emoticons though Over use of not, if some people don't mind you using it all the time, then there's no problem right?

It depends on the book/reading materials - Interesting? Slow and steady as I don't want the reading to end quickly. Boring? Fast as in skimming

Simple word like tomorrow - I would always pause before typing/writing and say to myself "Two m's or r's?" :confused:

Thanks guys, these really helps. This also reminds me of a documentary about people in China (mainly Beijing, Shanghai). I remember a senior citizen's complaint about the government urging the people to use Mandarin as the main language. "Why should I use Mandarin? This is not my native language!" (Subtitled of course) If I'm not mistaken, the old man was a native of Shanghai.

Shuttlecock - I'm an avid badminton player and after all these years, this word still gets me :grin: And most people won't say 'shuttlecock' anymore. They shorten it to 'shuttle'.

Usually in English, we say Chinese dialects as Mandarin, Cantonese, Hakka, Hokkien, etc. I would like to know if Chinese native speakers has other names for these dialects? Or are they the same? I remember a native speaker said the word 'Cantonese' differently but I couldn't recall what it was. Anyone?

I love American English for its clarity, British - the Queen's English to be specific - for reminding me of Victorian era (I love British period films) and the Irish accent for its beautiful lilt.

English is part of Malaysia's education system since pre-school. Here, English is everywhere basically; TV, internet, newspaper and not forgetting about the people's own Manglish (Malaysian-English). There are some who are not able to speak conversationally in English, but almost all would understand if a lost tourist asks for direction or whatnot. It's just a matter of answering back... confidently

This happens to me too. Due to my habit of mixing English phrases with my own mother tongue, I sometimes struggle to speak entirely in Malay in situations where I needed to. A bit ashamed of myself really :shy:

It's actually beneficial if you're fluent in English (or any other languages) but I understand why some countries tend to be xenophobic about this. As long as one's native language is prioritize equally in the education system, there's no point of worrying about it. That being said, if a person thinks it's more 'cool' and sophisticated to speak in English/other languages than in his/her own mother tongue, being English-friendly is not a problem here. :nerd:

:love: "Labor/labour of love" Doing something (project/task) for the sake of pleasure or interest rather than the reward/payment. :kiss: Raining cats and dogs Of course, everyone knows this one.

It started back in my Uni days. I needed an extra credit for the semester; it was either Japanese or German. Being an anime lover, the choice was obvious - Japanese. I had a great, fun sensei for the 1st semester, but the second sensei was a bit of a 'textbook' kind of person. My ultimate goal is to be able to watch Japanese anime or drama shows without the subs, although this is quite farfetched at this moment. Learning any new languages without being able to apply them in conversation or whatnot is not practical at all for me.

Definitely subbed. Dubbed animes (or any foreign movies, dramas, shows in general) always sound awkward and does nothing to the brain to learn foreign languages. I remember when the local network show my favorite Fullmetal Alchemist episodes on TV and dubbed it, it literally took the fun out of it. But dubbing is useful for kids who yet to learn to read subtitles. :angel:

I'm a Malaysian native, striving to learn Japanese (anime being my biggest motivation) and expand my Chinese dialects' vocabulary (Mandarin, Cantonese or whatnot). Happy to be here!