Kektheman

Yes, I have friends in my country that are fluent in German, French, Russian, Spanish and probably more languages that I'm not aware of. Apart from the close friends in Slovenia, I have a lot of backpacking buddies on Facebook from all around the world, so if I ever want to learn Luxembourgish, Danish, Swedish, Romanian or Indian, I can practice the language with them

I've tried pronouncing all of the English tongue twisters and I could read out loud most of them, which is awesome. We had to practice pronunciation reading The Chaos, so I had zero problems with that one. I even know the first few lines by heart.

Here is one for the learners that have problems pronouncing the English "th" sounds:

Something in a thirty-acre thermal thicket of thorns and thistles thumped and thundered threatening the three-D thoughts of Matthew the thug - although, theatrically, it was only the thirteen-thousand thistles and thorns through the underneath of his thigh that the thirty year old thug thought of that morning.

Here are some Slovene ones:

Pešec prečka cestišče

Pedestrian crosses the road

pikčasta ptička v pikčasti kletki (this is funny because ptička means little bird and pička means vagina. Oh well.

a spotted bird in a spotted cage

Pešci sčistite cestišče

Pedestrians clean the road

So, did anyone try out the Rosetta course app? Is it made by Rosetta Stone? I don't know about the Rosetta Stone course, but most of you don't seem to like them. Should I try out the Rosetta Course app out or not? If you tried the app out, is it completely free? Does it come on android? How is it different from Duolingo, is it better?

Sorry for all the questions, I would just like to know if the app is worth the wile. Thanks

Welcome to the forums, Ricardo!

Fluent in three languages, that's not bad at all! Does that mean that you are fluent in Portuguese, English and French, or is there another language that you are fluent in and you don't cosnider yourself fluent in French? I couldn't figure it out.

Anyways, hope you enjoy the forums, welcome!

Thank you for the helpful list! I will give the link to the chart whenever someone makes a silly mistake like that. I've thankfully managed to learn to avoid them. I sometimes struggle with "its" and "it's" but figure out which one to use after a second or two.

The "fewer/less" mistake is SO common even with native speakers! Most of the supermarkets have the quick cashier with the sign "5 items or less". So annoying!

I hear people commonly misuse the words literally and figuratively. Literally is defined as "exactly" or "actually" whereas figuratively is defined as "metaphorically". Many times, I hear individuals say literally when they really mean figuratively.

An alternative way of looking at it is that these same individuals are using the word literally in a figurative sense. However so far of today, I haven't arrived to a conclusion of agreement or disagreement to that statement.

Exactly! So many people use the term "literally" wrong. I literally bang my head against the wall when I see it used incorrectly. 

I mean sure they work but what I mean really is if they do really help a lot in learning the language. I'm trying to learn French in preparation for my move and I don't want to carry around a dictionary or a translator with me at all time. So, how much success rate do you think these softwares and applications offer?

I think they will help you get the hang of the language. If you put enough time into it, apps like that should help you immensely. Once you are familiar with the language, try reading and listening to stories for children. Using the language you want to become fluent in is the best way to achieve your goal.

I'd never really considered it like that. I mean, the internet, at least the most popular sites on the web in general, are English based, so there's going to be a lot of people like yourself, who speak English as a second language, but spend more of their time speaking it than they do their own mother tongue!

Exactly! I find it next to impossible to talk about certain topics in my mother tongue. I've learned all my pick up lines and such compliments online. When I try to translate them, they sound plain weird. Even the ones that are used in my language sound foreign to me!

Thanks man! First time I've heard of the International Phonetics Alphabet. I'll have to look into this and start practicing.

No problem! The IPA is huge, so focus on either BP (British Pronunciation) or GA (General American), depending on which type you wish to speak. Best of luck!

Like the other user, I also remember these questions were the easiest for me to answer. But most, if not all, of my classmates hated reading comprehension. I don't know if that's because they were just lazy to read or if such questions are really more difficult in general. As for me, I love reading. And it's a skill that everyone should have.

I don't think ti has anything to do with laziness. Reading comprehension focuses on understanding, hence the name. If you are having a hard time even understanding the text, you can't possibly do well on such tasks. Reading comprehension usually involves idioms and advanced things like that, and those are even harder if you haven't yet mastered the language.

My all time favourite childhood storybook has to be The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle. That book is amazing and so funny!

English feels natural to me, even though it's my second language. I spend a lot of time on the internet, 99% of the time reading or listening to English, not my mother tongue.

I find myself thinking in English quite often. When I'm out with my friends talking about current affairs, I might even have problems coming up with the right Slovene term, so I use the English one instead. It's quite frightening.

My advice would be the focus about half of your attention on speaking. It's important to get students talking with each other, early on, in conversation-scenario situations. Reading an essay in front of class isn't good enough. It doesn't have that back-and-forth spontaneity lesson that students need. And most students really need it. I think speaking in foreign languages is the hardest part.

Excellent piece of advice. My Italian teacher in high school forced us to have simple conversations like that. I learned a lot from them, even though I didn't exactly like them.

I liked having reading comprehension tasks. Those were always the easiest for me and worth a lot of points. But many of my classmates hated those. if you are struggling with English, reading comprehension tasks can be a pain in the behind.

My mother tongue is Slovene, spoken by about 2 million people. Is that rare enough?

Did you know that there are more students studying Slovene in Poland than there are in Slovenia?

Try to learn the International Phonetics Alphabet (IPA). It's not that hard and it will help you immensely. After you have done that, practice reading the phonetic transcriptions out loud. There are many resources online that offer phonetic transcriptions, one of the good ones being the sond "The Chaos". Google it.

This might turn out to be a great idea! But I'm not sure it is the cheapest. Watching tutorials on Youtube is free, you only have to play for the internet connection and the electricity. There are many other tutorials online that you can choose from. If using the computer isn't your forte, go to the local library instead!

Many of us use Duolingo to learn new languages! I am currently practicing French with the mobile app! If you want to meet more people that use the app and discuss it's features, you shold check this forum thread: http://linguaholic.com/language-study-apps/duolingo-2971/

Kektheman, could you guys live it at... ''everyone is entitled to their own opinion and no one is right or wrong''.  In my opinion this is a very subjective topic, to you french might sound great, but to this guy German does and that's fine, because he has all the right to like what he likes, just like you have the same right.

Saying one language sounds better than another is going too far tho, because I'm sure there are people out there who like German more and hate french, or people who like Norwegian even more.  To YOU french sounds better, but to others DOESN'T.  So let's not get polemic and accept everyone has different tastes   That makes the world a wonderful place, in my opinion at least  :grin:

Are you constantly strengthening your skills? If I recall correctly, DuoLingo uses a Spaced Repetition System, so practicing on a regular basis will definitely solidify the words into your brain. If you have the time/motivation, you should try to strengthen previous skills on a daily basis in order to help you remember the vocabulary better.

It definitely does use the Spaced Repetition System, at least from what I've seen practicing my French. Basic words like man, woman, girl boy, have, like and such repeat all the time, along with the brand new words you are learning. It definitely helps a lot!

I think Duolingo can be a good start, just to get the feel of the language. It would be of course better to speak with native speakers, but not everyone has that option. For the introverted llinguaphiles, having an app that teaches them without the need of unnecessary interactions might be a better choice.

Recently I moved to Spain where there are plenty of jobs available teaching English and German. I am thinking of doing a course to get the teaching certificate that I need. I have no previous experience with this type of work but would like to try it. Have you got any advice for me?

When assigning homework, make them do word studies! They have to pick 3-5 new words from the article you read in the class. The students have to look up the part of speech, the pronunciation and the definition of the word, as well as use it in a sentence. If you wish, you can make them translate the sentence with the new word to Spanish.

Oh yes, the word definitely is a bit problematic until you master it. If you are irritated by the ones that constantly misspell it, send them a link to this website: http://www.d-e-f-i-n-i-t-e-l-y.com/

The difference between the first example and the other two is in the part of speech. In the first example your provided, "written records", the word "written" is an adjective, pre-modifying the noun "records". In the other two, the word "written" functions as a verb, the past participle of write.

The first example is the only correct one, in my opinion, since you probably wanted to talk about the historical period before humanity learned to write, so before written records.

You could try out either Fiverr or Odesk so you'd at least have the advantage of seeing feedback and ratings for employers, but for this type of job, I imagine there is tons of competition though I'm sure it's very possible to work your way in and build up a reputation.

Websites like this are probably your best bet, but it's incredibly hard to start earning money. Many translators are perfectly fine with selling their services for a few dollars. With the reputation and rating they have, the customers have no intention of "risking" and paying someone without a rating to do the job.