extrafancyganza

I've seen Les visiteurs too, both the first and second movie. But I was about eight or nine and probably didn't even realise they were speaking French. I don't remember I paid it any attention, anyway. Apart from that, from what I can remember off the top of my head I've pretty much only seen Amélie - I love that movie! So charming, and very French.

While it isn't as friendly as Russian sometimes is I wouldn't call German aggressive or even rather rough. In my experience it is a strong language, but it is also a lovely language... like metal work. Metal is not soft, but it can be fine and bent into something lovely.

That's a lovely comparison. I agree, I don't think German is aggressive either.

'Defiantly' instead of 'definitely' grinds my gears! And 'quiet' instead of 'quite'.

Tiquismiquis, meaning picky. It sounds so funny and cute.

That'd be lovely, great both for improving the language and your writing if you get me. I'll see if I can find the time between my homework.

A young child's brain is geared for learning language. Just speak to them and they will learn, no special props needed. I know a few people who had learned a language fluently when they were small, only to forget it when they got older from not using the language anymore.

Exactly. Babies' brains are amazing. Just let it come naturally.

I do this ALL of the time; I'm 17 years old and me and my friends all spend a lot of time online where we speak in English, and of course it slips into our daily speaking too. It's a new internet culture, really. What's a girl to do if she forgets her own language sometimes?

I've heard people talking about Rosetta Stone like it's the eighth wonder of the world, but I don't know. I haven't tried it. Judging from what people have written above it might not be worth the money, though. You'll probably find better free programs online.

Danish and Norwegian are pretty similar to Swedish so yes, I understand those languages but I can't speak them apart from a few words. Speaking Spanish also helps to understand French and Portuguese but I can't speak those languages either.

I'm a very fast reader and always have been. When reading aloud in class and such, I try to slow down. I was always told I read too fast when I read aloud but I think I've gotten better at it.

In Russian I read very slowly though, because of the Cyrillic alphabet which I'm not that used to.

I tried to teach myself Quenya. It's one of the Elvish languages Tolkien invented and sounds a bit like Finnish, actually. I gave up on it though when I got busy with school.

Yes. But I think you'll have to live where that accent is spoken so that you'll hear it constantly, or be really, really persistent in teaching yourself.

I've got a whole list of my first words somewhere, but the only ones I can remember right at the top off my head are 'ss-shh' for shower, 'gacker' for shoes (which sounds nothing like the actual word 'skor') and 'bua-gacker' for rubber boots, which makes sense as 'bua' meant cow and you wore them when you went to see the cows (I grew up on a farm).

These are not actual words, of course. I think my first real word was probably 'mamma', not very interesting.

I definitely think writing is the most difficult. When writing, you can stop and think about what you're gonna write and you don't have to worry about pronunciation.

I began learning Spanish through listening to Shakira. Of course I became nowhere near fluent, but it really helped once I started taking classes because I could recognise a lot of words, and I knew how to pronounce them.

Probably the best way to teach yourself though, I think, is to translate. I've translated a couple of books into Swedish from English a few years back and it helped my knowledge immensely. But I guess it's individual - whatever works for you.

Haha, I spend so much time online writing and reading English that I've begun thinking in it and speaking to myself in it. Now that I'm getting better at Spanish I sometimes think in that language, too. But I'd say it's mostly when I'm alone at home; when I'm in school with friends I'm too "caught up" to think in another language, if that makes sense.

I really, really love standard English, the kind of English you're likely to hear on BBC shows and in period dramas. Call it posh if you like but I have a very romanticised view of it, haha. I'm trying to learn how to speak like that (which isn't at all weird for a 17 year old Swedish girl in 2014, right...) but it's so difficult to make it sound authentic. The more casual standard English is lovely, too. There's a British actress called Lenora Crichlow who's from London, she's got exactly the accent I'd like to have.

My own accent - Swedish - is just terrible! It sounds so awkward to my ears.

I'm from Sweden, and learning English is mandatory here. We start learning it in year 2 or 3 (it varies a bit depending on where you live), which equals age 9-10, and then we study it throughout school. Once you reach university, almost all the course material is in English and I think a lot of the times you're supposed to hand in both Swedish and English versions of essays you write.

Apart from that, you hear English all the time on the radio and telly. We don't dub tv-shows & movies, like they do in a lot of European countries, and I think that might be a contributing factor as to why Swedes are known for being rather good at English.

Ugh, yes. Unfortunately I do use it and it makes me cringe so much! I started saying it and it stuck, both when writing and speaking. I don't even think about it until I've said it out loud.

I mostly use it ironically - if something isn't really THAT funny, I'll just write 'lol'. If it actually is funny I'll write it with capital letters.

I'm currently teaching myself French and Russian which might take...a while...but I think I'd go for German because it would be quite useful.