Kektheman

Cram is awesome! I never had the chance to try out the flashcards from the database, but I used it to create my own! I had to memorize a lot of irregular verbs for my Verb classes, and it proved to be really useful! I will have to check out the database too!

I have never tried that. Is it effective? Does anyone know of any studies that either proved or disproved the theory that you can learn new things while asleep? It sounds a bit fishy to me, to put it mildly. Having said that, I'm also interested in first hand experiences, if anyone here tried the method.

As PixelBaeBee already told you, there are at least two threads about Duolingo on this forum already. There really is no need for a third one. Duolingo definitely is a good resource for learning a new language, but the vast majority of linguaholics already know about it.

I never had a dictionary for English. I never felt the need to carry one around, to be honest. But when I studied Italian, my teacher made us carry dictionaries. It did help a bit, but I didn't benefit a whole lot from having one, honestly. Nowadays, I wouldn't even consider buying one. There are apps for that that are much quicker and easier to use.

It is important to learn both written and spoken at the same time. I think Duolingo is really helpful in teaching the basics. After that, you should have enough knowledge to be able to read a simple children's book. Try to read those to improve your knowledge! Remember, if you don't use it, you lose it! Having a friend that is fluent in the language you want to learn can help immensely, if they are ready to practice dialogues with you.

I mostly write in Slovene too, since I have a richer vocabulary, and am more certain about the grammatical rules and whatnot. I've tried writing in English, but it is not as easy as I thought it would be! You have to pay attention to a lot of things, and having a good vocabulary is SO important! The paragraphs can turn out extremely dull if you fail to spice things up.

Thank goodness for spell-checker 

I see / read the word 'definately' so many times on a daily basis, even in some legal documents.

Oh, is it really that bad? I'm not a native speaker, so I wouldn't know, but I would think that the English in  legal documents would be of a higher quality. That's honestly quite sad, if you ask me.

Some people speak of a "Mid-Atlantic" accent, which blends British and American accents, as it could be heard in some old Hollywood films by actors like Cary Grant. I really like that accent. A more recent example is geographer David Harvey who is British but has lived in the U.S. for a long time and now both accents are mixed.

In general, I think I really like the Southern England accent as long as it doesn't sound too posh. However, I like to hear the "r"s pronounced, and this is something I really miss in Southern England accents. In that sense, I like the Boston pronunciation of "r"s.

Are you talking about the pronunciation of "r" like the one in American English? I honestly don't like that much, but I really like the linking "r"s and intrusive "r"s in RP. Would you like both of them mixed together?

Hey Kangoo!

Welcome to Linguaholic . How many languages do you speak? I would guess you are fluent in both French and English, correct? Do you know any others or are perhaps interested in learning a new language?

Hope you like it here!

My favourite song that isn't sung in English or my mother tongue would be Je Veux by Zaz! If you've never heard of her, you HAVE to check her music out! I can't understand one bit, but it sounds amazing.

I have a profile on Goodreads, but I rarely use it. I really like the interface, it makes it easy for you to track your books. You can rate the books and write reviews as well, which is an added benefit. I mainly use it to keep track of all the books I've read during the years.

This sounds amazing! But I fear it won't work as great as advertised. Being able to translate a voice input is no small task, so Skype will probably have some problems doing it. If you look at google translate, for example, it can only translate words, sentence structure gives it a bit of a headache, since it's so different across different languages. I can't wait to put it to the test!

Cursive writing is still taught to every school kid here in Slovenia, but it turns out later on in their lives that it is a rather pointless skill to have. It's not just the fact that sooner or later every kid learns hot to type and proceeds to write out most of their assignments with the assist of a keyboard, even in situations when one is forced to write by hand, people here often resort to normal handwriting.

I never use cursive because my handwriting is almost illegible, even if use normal handwriting. I can't read after myself when I use cursive, so I've dropped it completely.

That's interesting! I always write in cursive! I'm extremely slow if I try to write "normally". While it is more legible, it simply takes too long, and I can't keep up with the pace, so I am stuck with my ugly cursive writing.

Welcome to the forums, Serenity Fay. I'm sure the forums will prove to be useful for your studies. Hope you will like it here!

This one is from the beginning of Douglas Adams's book called The restaurant at the end of the Universe:

"If human beings don't stop exercising their lips, their brain starts working!"

Douglas Adams has an awesome sense of humour!

I sometimes have similar problems. I spend a lot of my free time browsing English websites. I read a lot about certain topics, but don't discuss them with my friends. When I try to tell them about something that I read online, I sometimes have problems coming up with proper words in my own language, since I'm used to thinking about it in English. It feels extremely weird, but quite funny at the same time.

I don't know much about the different dialects, to be honest, since I'm not a native speaker. But I love the Scottish dialect a ton! As Dostava pointed out before, it just sounds raw and down to Earth. Unlike other English accents that can come off as extremely posh.

You can actually learn 8 different languages with Duolingo! English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Danish, Dutch and Irish. They are currently developing Hungarian, Turkish, Swedish, Russian, Polish and Romanian.

This is more than enough to make you a polyglot if you go through all of the available courses!

I have a brand new smartphone, and I'm definitely checking the app out! I am fairly confident about my vocabulary, let's put it to a test!

I've never gotten in trouble for speaking a foreign language. My English is good enough that I don't make silly mistakes like that, and I don't usually speak in Italian, so I haven't had the chance to mess something up just yet.

Not exactly what you asked for, but still. I used to think for a really long time that "hash browns" were hashish brownies. I was really surprised when I figured out it was just potatoes. Ooops.

We had written assignments to write when I was in highschool. Only for English though, which wasn't a problem for me. It was more a pain in the behind to write two paragraphs about a certain topic. I was just too lazy to do it, so I complained about it.

It sounds like a great idea though, but has some flaws. Some students can't, for the life of them, figure out what they want to write about. If you simply provide them a topic, they can do it. But not if they have to come up with the title themselves.

My guess would be

First talk to Mr. Johnson, then see the supervisor for the next meeting.

There is no comma after "First". I guess there would be one if you had an adverb "firstly" there instead, but that just sounds plain weird.

A metaphor is a word or phrase that means one thing and is used for referring to another thing in order to emphasize their similar qualities. For example broken heart. When you say broken heart, you don't mean it in the literal sense. You don't want to say that your heart is literally in pieces, but that someone doesn't love you, etc.

An extended metaphor isn't just a couple of words, but usually an entire work. For instance a poem. The author exploits that single metaphor in great detail. The metaphor is used in different ways throughout the work.

For instance this poem by Margaret Atwood titled Habitation:

Marriage is not

a house or even a tent

it is before that, and colder:

The edge of the forest, the edge

of the desert

the unpainted stairs

at the back where we squat

outside, eating popcorn

where painfully and with wonder

at having survived even

this far

we are learning to make fire.

As you can see, the author is using the metaphor of habitation to portray what marriage is like.

Hope this helps!

I've never had a job because I spoke a foreign language before. But I have friends that work as museum guides, and they need to know English + another foreign language to work there. You could look into that, but you would have to get certified as a guide. I don't think it takes much time though.

I'm a student from Slovenia, studying English and Sociology. If someone here wants to learn Slovene or needs help with any of their excersises, please ask away, I will be happy to help you out!

There is probably no-one on this forum that is interested in learning Slovene, but I'm still here if someone stumbles upon the forum by chance.