Melee

I don't know about in other countries, but in the US it would definitely be Spanish, like you said.  The next language to learn in the US, or in any country for that matter, might be Chinese.

This is my first time hearing about it, I'll have to check it out.  Anything that I can use to help me learn languages is always welcome.

I think that learning certain expressions in a culture can be really challenging, especially since sometimes one has to understand that culture in order to understand the saying.  In order to understand cultural expressions, I think one has to immerse themselves more than just a little bit in the culture. 

On the other hand, if the expression is just something that can be used for all people, like the "pot calling the kettle black", those kinds of sayings are easy to understand in other languages.

I think it depends on the individual.  For me, I find leaning Chinese characters a bit taxing, my son, on the other hand, is learning Chinese and breezes through it, but he finds saying certain Spanish words difficult.  I find that a lot of people find learning Russian a bit challenging,  I'm not fluent by any means but I find that speaking Russian words is relatively easy for me. All languages can be challenging in their own way.

I like an Irish accent, kind of fascinated with the idea of the Irish brogue.  I rarely hear anyone with an Irish accent though, but I love it just the same.

I don't know of any apps, but I would suggest some kind of thesaurus app.  Of course, a good, old-fashioned regular thesaurus in book form is great too, one small enough to put in your purse.

I bought Rosetta Stone to study Japanese, and I think it's a good product, if you use it consistently. My problem is that I use it for maybe a couple of days in a row, then put it to the side for about a week. I think all language programs will work, but you have to be willing to put the time in daily.

I use duolingo to help me to study Spanish.  As soon as I go through the Spanish lessons, I'll decide whether to go through it again just to do a review of what I learned, or go on to another language.

I'm just on Spanish on Duolingo, so the languages that they have there now are fine with me.  It's going to take me awhile to just get through the language that I'm currently studying.

My son and I were just talking about this today, because we were getting some food,  and he saw a package labeled "Catsup" and was wondering about it as opposed to the word Ketchup.  I've seen the two words used interchangeably for years so I accept them both, as long as the product inside the bottle is good.

"You had me at Hello"  from Jerry McGuire.

And I don't know the exact quote, but in "Dear John" when Amanda S's character says to Tatum's character that she doesn't want him to get into any more trouble

and he says something like, "Yeah, it's already a little too late for that."

I watch telenovelas because I like to watch "soap operas" of all kinds, if I happen to pick up some Spansih then that is a bonus.  I watch English, Korean, Spanish, Hindi, and Chinese stories, even though I'm only fluent in English .

Next to English soaps, I've been watching Spanish telenovelas the longest.  My favorite so far is Sortilegio starring William Levy :sweating: :kiss:. 

Recently I've been watching "La Gata" and "Mi corazon es tuyo".

So far my favorite manga is Bakuman, it is beautifully drawn and beautifully written.  I've only seen it in English.  My son is really into manga so I started reading some of the books that he has.  He has quite a collection of manga, out of all of them, I like Bakuman the best.

Mistakes do happen, even by the brightest and best of us. I have written things and edited and long after when I go back and look at it there are errors so even native English speakers aren't perfect with English.

Lol, I do that too, I'll write something that I think is perfectly written, and after some time I'll go back and read it and find all sorts of errors. I might do this 2 or 3 times on the same piece of writing and find mistakes every time.

This is probably true of many people.  Of course not all, but a lot of people probably find it easier to learn from someone who has had to learn in the same way that they did, ie studying all the particulars of language in a classroom, as opposed to fluently learning it from birth.

If a person is learning a language, then one would assume that they want to learn how to speak the language correctly, otherwise, what's the point?  A good teacher has to correct a student, even if that student is a friend.

You just have to be tell your friend that you care about how he is learning languages, and that you want to make sure that he is speaking correctly when speaking to someone.  He should be open to being corrected.

I started studying languages because I think that language is beautiful.  I love words. I like to listen to them and read them and write them.  I find the differences in languages fascinating, but on the other hand I like the similarities in different languages.

I wouldn't mind learning Latin.  I would like to learn every language that I can, Latin being only one of them.  That being said, I have at least one Latin learning language book in my home library.  I haven't looked at it in awhile, I might dust it off and go through it. I had kind of forgotten that I even have a Latin language book.

Although I'm not yet fluent in any languages other than English, I watch a lot of foreign movies and soap operas.  I think it's a good idea to look at movies in the language that you are trying to learn.  A friend of mine from Puerto Rico told me that she learned English by watching TV and game shows in English. 

I learn quite a few words in other languages when watching foreign movies and shows, and I learn pronunciation as well.

Yes, I've fallen for someone who spoke a foreign language.  He was from Turkmenistan and only spoke Russian, I only spoke English, but have a passion for languages.

I had taken language courses before (although not fluent in anything), and about a week before meeting this man I had just signed up at a community college to learn a few languages, one of them being Russian. 

When he first tried to talk to me using his Russian to English dictionary, I was patient about it.  Our first real conversation took us 3 hours to get through just a few sentences.  After about a month of getting to know each other, we ended up a relationship for awhile. 

All the languages I've studied I can't speak fluently. I'm not much of a speaker to start off with and I'm even more quiet when I have to interact in a foreign language. So, consequently I'm better in reading and listening -- that same goes for English :grin:

Now, I have studied 2 languages (for several months) that I absolutely cannot speak. They are Hindi and Ancient Greek.

Ironically, I spent more years studying French in school but speak and understand Spanish better. That's the power of telenovelas and latin music. 

Fellow telenovela watcher!  Even though I don't speak Spanish fluently, I love watching telenovelas. 

I've been watching them for years.  I adore Korean soap operas too, they thrill me.

Hindi and Greek...Ancient Greek!  Interesting combination.  I had a boss who spoke English and Hindi, and on my lunch break she got me interested in watching Hindi soap operas.

I've studied French and Spanish in school (not yet fluent in either ) and Italian on my own, and in my opinion I can see if one knows Spanish it could help with Italian, but helping with learning French? 

Not in my particular case. 

I suppose if I became fluent in either Spanish or Italian and then tried to become fluent in French, I might notice a difference.  The French language has certain words that my tongue struggles to pronounce, much more trouble with the French tongue than I have with Spanish or Italian.

Well, I have not yet mastered a second language, but I will chime in here and say what a friend of mine told me, of course keeping in mind that everyone's ability, and desire, to learn is different.

A friend of mine who speaks at least 3 languages speaks Spanish.  She married an Italian man and had to learn his language.  She told me that it was relatively easy for her to pick up Italian because, to her, it was very similar to Spanish.