Kate

There's no single particular reason for me. I love learning and it doesn't matter what it is (well, except math ) but some learning is more fun than other learning. I consider tackling a new language to be one of the "fun" ones!

I had 100%... your #6 question is one of my biggest pet peeves. I see so much misuse of your/you're and they're/there/their.

I got through the first two of these without much of a problem, but that last one had my tongue getting wrapped around my eyeteeth until I couldn't see. :grin:

This may sound like an odd answer, but one of the reasons I enjoy languages so much is looking for similarities in words... patterns that are found in one language to the next. It's always amazing to discover very similar base words even in very different languages.

That's more like it! Knowing what Rosetta Stone charges for their language courses, I just couldn't see them giving an app away free unless it somehow needed to be connected to one of their courses. Thank you for correcting this... now I won't need to go find it to figure it out! :grin:

If it were a possibility, I'd definitely choose a private tutor. I'm thinking that while a course may teach a language perfectly well, it's so much more meaningful to have someone there telling you if you're getting it right... if all the sounds are the way they should be, etc. A video course would let you know how it's supposed to sound, but there would be no feedback about how you're imitating it. And if you meant a written course, I wouldn't choose that because again, no feedback.

I think I'd have to say that I like French most... it's so beautiful when spoken and not guttural like some languages are. Least... hmmm.... I think I'd say Chinese because learning to write in a way that doesn't use actual letters would be so very difficult for me.

The very best way I've found (although it's very rarely possible) is to know a native speaker of the language you want to learn... someone who will be able to help you with how it's supposed to sound, etc. I haven't been able to do so well with books alone... there's no way to tell if I'm truly saying the words the way they should be said. Book in combination with Internet course or even a YouTube with a native speaker may work for me, though. Now that's for spoken language... when it comes to just needing to read/write a language, then books work great for me when speaking isn't involved.

There was a time when I planned to learn sign language and was very excited about it. I learned a few basic things with it but then moved on to spoken languages before I finished. I'm not sure why that happened... sign language fascinates me when I see it, but I guess the bottom line for me is that I'd never get to use it like I could spoken (or maybe more accurate, *written*) language. With the 'Net, I wouldn't even have to know anyone to physically speak with, it could all be done on social media and email, etc. In the past, to use a language, you needed to know someone to speak with... isn't the Internet amazing?! :amazed:

I've never tried to learn a fictional language that someone else developed, *but* I did try to create a language with some friends when I was a teen. I wish we had stayed with it longer than we did... it was very interesting, kept our minds sharp, and so much fun to speak in a language no one else could understand. There was so much potential if we'd kept at it! Now that I'm thinking about this again, I think I'm going to suggest trying it to my daughter. She's very much a "word person" and loves languages, too, and I think she'd enjoy giving it a try.

I don't know if there's an "official" way to describe it or not. I've always been inclined to say that a table stands on the floor. Yes, standing is something that humans do on two legs, but can't animals also stand on their four legs?

Oh yes! That woodchuck thing had me so mad when I was a kid that I was determined to learn it and learn it right. I worked on it for a while and I really did get it. I've never forgotten either. I guess it was kind of nasty of me to turn around and laugh at kids who *couldn't* say it when I finally could, but... well childhood is tough!

This one is probably the shortest tongue twister we'll see in this thread, but it's one of the hardest I have come across. I don't think I've ever heard anyone be able to say it ten times fast without having his or her tongue twisted totally out of shape. :amazed: The tongue twister is: Unique New York If anyone can say that 10 times fast without tripping over your tongue while hearing "you nork" come out of your mouth, please share the secret with the rest of us!

Hello everyone! I can't believe I forgot to do an intro post when I first arrived at the forum. But I'm very glad to be here and talk about the subject of languages with all of you! :angel: I'm Kate and from the east coast of the U.S. Anything concerning "words" or "language" has been a passion of mine ever since 8th grade. I had an excellent teacher who sparked that interest in me and it never left me.

For me it's always been speaking that's the most difficult. I never found a problem in reading or writing... but I'm somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to anything to do with linguistics, and that causes me a problem. Why? Because no matter how we try, we never sound like native speakers when we're learning a new language... and to an obsessive perfectionist, that is *totally* difficult!