sgreenwood

I think reading children's books are good. That way you are starting off with the very basics, like a child, and you can gradually work your way up into the elementary, then middle school, etc..

Google Translate is ok. It really depends on what you are going to use it for.  :confused: If you are browsing through the internet and find a page in a different language and you just would like to get an overview of that very same page in another language, then google translate is great. if you are translating very easy sentences from let's say german to english or german to french, then google Translate is a very fast and quite reliable way to get things donse. However, if you would like to get an accurate translation for different language pairs (more "exotic" languages and combination of languages that are not etymologically related/connected) then you get in trouble real quick  the results in those cases are often really bad and the translation worthless.

I reckon Google translate is not bad and getting better and better...but for a proper translation you will always have to improve on the translation yourself and if you are translating exotic language combinations, Google Translate is very inaccurate (for good reasons). :ninja:

I agree. When just doing general internet browsing, or just trying to get the jist of something, it's fine. But you wouldn't want to use it for something like a business letter.

When you say "have", it implies the possession of something. So when you say " have a shower or bath", it sounds like you own a shower or bath. When you say "take", that is more of an action word. You are taking a bath or shower, rather than possessing it. On the other hand, take could also sound like you are stealing the bath or shower.... :confused:

I do use it a lot, but when normally conversing with people I find myself laughing or chuckling a lot during the conversation. So it really just seems to be an extension of how I normally would be talking in real life.

"A positive attitude isn't everything, but it should annoy enough people to make it worth the effort."

I think the natural progression of language learning is to first learn to speak it. Personally I think reading it comes next, and then writing.

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.