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Linguaholic

Traveler

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Everything posted by Traveler

  1. Me gusta la musica de Shakira. (¿Es obvio desde mi avatar, no? Jajaja.) Me ayuda apprender Español. Tambien, me gusta el clásico ¨La Bamba.¨ Yo Puedo cantar el canción. Me gusta ¨Me gustas tu¨ de Manu Chau. Es muy divertido. Jaja. Yo no se muy mas canciónes en Español.
  2. Me gusta leer, escribir, y caminar. Escribo 2000 palabras por mis novelas en un dia. Me gusta leer libros viejo. Me gusta caminando todo las dias. Mi actividad favorito es escribiendo.
  3. I mentioned it in another thread, but this one is from the American South. (And as far as I know, a small area of it at that.) I like it the most because it is so unique: The devil is beating his wife. That means it is raining. Haha.
  4. I'm also from the American South, so I hear these fairly frequently. Not so much in my family, but around. Although the South doesn't fit the stereotype so often attributed to it, there are indeed a lot of hicks. And I like it because they are interesting, colorful, and fun to listen to and talk to. My favorite one is my favorite because it is unique: outside a certain area, you will never hear it. ¨The devil is beating his wife.¨ This is a very unique colloquialism for saying that it is raining. And I always hear it only from older people. I don't use many of the Southernisms, although I do say ¨ya'll¨ while at home. I travel, so I've learned to sound more neutral. I drop the ya'll when I'm traveling of course.
  5. You would put a comma before the ¨then.¨ But that should be it. Some people would pause after saying ¨first,¨ but some wouldn't. So a comma could realistically go there but it is not needed. Since it is writing, it is better to keep out superfluous commas. First talk to Mr. Johnson, then see the supervisor for the next morning. First, talk to Mr. Johnson, then see the supervisor for the next morning. Also, First, talk to Mr. Johnson. Then see the supervisor for the next morning. Lots of ways to do it.
  6. I've used it many times. It usually does the job if you write things simply, but it rarely gives good translations. Usually, though, I'm using it to supplement my basic conversations - usually individual words here and there, and sometimes phrases. It seems to be better with Spanish than anything else. It can't do Mandarin at all.
  7. In Spanish: Buenas dias. Como estas?/Que pasa? Como se llama? Me llamo Ray./Mi nombre es Ray.
  8. It is definitely ideal. If I have kids in the future, I want them to learn languages while they are young. Much better to grow up with it. Even though an adult's brain is actually better for studying languages than a child's, children have an edge when they are acquiring their first languages/native languages. When you are a child, your brain is primed for learning at least one language. The simple trick is to have them learn more than one as their native languages.
  9. Hi there. I'm a native English speaker from the U.S. As my name says, I am a traveler. I've been to eight countries, mostly in Asia. I taught English in China for a year and developed a ¨base¨ in Mandarin. I think living there helped a lot. My Chinese is awful, but I lost my fear of trying to learn. I even discovered some pleasant things, like how easy the pronouns in Mandarin are. I plan to return sometime in the future, to teach again, and to improve my Chinese. My other linguistic interest is Spanish. Being from the U.S. it is a no-brainer, but I do have an actual interest in it besides its utility. I think both of these languages sound pleasant, Mandarin for its sing-songy tones and Spanish for how well it sounds like the words of it flow together harmonically. Some languages sound ¨bad¨ to me, but I'm not trying to judge. For all I know, English sounds horrible to lots of people around the world. Other than those, I once learned a few words and phrases in Irish and Latin. I never continued with those despite my interest because there wouldn't be many ways to use them. I'm not bilingual, but one of my dreams in life is to be. Hopefully I'll master Spanish and Mandarin, but I don't have much confidence in becoming truly fluent in Mandarin, though I have no doubt I can increase my skill level. I'm sure the conversations here will be great. I look forward to learning and to offering any help I am able to.
  10. I'm not nearly fluent in it. I'm still a novice. And so far I haven't applied myself intentionally to a regimen or process for learning Spanish. But here is what I've done so far: I took several classes (6-8) and this helped me get a ¨base¨ in Spanish. Once I got to a certain level, I didn't lose it. Last year I started keeping a language notebook. This was primarily for conjugations of the verbs. It helped a lot for my writing. I didn't do this last one much, but occasionally I would watch Spanish language shows/news on TV. I need to start doing this again because my listening is terrible, whereas I can speak and write Spanish fairly well for my level.
  11. Technology marches on. Losing cursive is a tradition being lost to the rise of the iPhone and keyboard. People are typing more than ever and most people have ugly cursive, so I suppose many in charge of things don't see the use of it anymore. I know I will miss it. I love cursive and write that way frequently. Several people have also told me I have beautiful cursive. I will teach my children cursive one day. It is not strictly needed, but I would rather have it than not have it.
  12. Supposedly the human brain is most primed in the morning. Personally, I almost always studied things in the late morning or early afternoon. I've been a night-owl my entire life, so early morning never worked for me. Morning makes sense generally, while late night studying is generally a bad idea. For learning, you want a fresh mind. So studying within a few hours of waking would be more ideal than studying while sleepy or after a long day. But ultimately, you could test out different times and record learning results. Then you'll have your personalized answer.
  13. I don't have a degree in linguistics, but I want to go for a Master's in it some day. I'm in teaching, both at home and abroad. So it would be helpful for my career direction. I'm interested in languages besides, and one of my dreams is to at least become bilingual by the time I'm 30. Outside of teaching and academics, I'm not sure what the applications for it would be. If you can become multilingual with the degree also, I imagine that would open some doors. There are a lot of bilingual people who don't really understand the languages they speak; they just speak them. If you can speak multiple languages with a deep understanding of languages, you've got skills you could make a career into, or so I would think.
  14. I'm a native English speaker, but I will try not to be so biased in my response. There are tons of materials and media to use studying English, so in this regard it is easiest. It is practically impossible to not be exposed to it. Add to that that many public schools around the world include English classes and then it may seem really easy. For Europeans, it certainly seems to be very easy, since other European languages share many cognates with English. And because of the proximity to the U.K. But just based on the language itself, is it is easy? First of all, there is such thing as being objective about this. Whether or not another language is easy to learn depends on many factors. No one starts in the same place as anyone else. Give me a German and a Chinese person and I'll bet on the German learning English better and easier every time. European cultures tend to have histories of being multilingual; they aren't shy about learning and using second languages. I was an English teacher in China. The students tend to be very shy and don't like to speak for fear of appearing stupid. This is cultural, and it affects quite a lot in the process. I think the grammar is of medium difficulty. The conjugations are manageable and since they are based on tense, I think that makes them easier. Again, no one starts from the same place. A native Spanish speaker will at least understand conjugations. All he has to do is understand how they are different in English and adapt to that. A Chinese speaker isn't used to conjugations at all and has to learn that completely from scratch. I can only imagine how crazy it must seem to conjugate something if your native language has no such idea. Many people complain about English phonetics; I completely agree. They aren't consistent and don't make sense. The only thing you can really say is, ¨You say it this way when you do, and you don't when you don't." Ditto for articles and prepositions. So is it easy? The short version is that it entirely depends on many factors.
  15. I'm not fluent in anything other than English yet, so yes, I do fear that. I don't study well and dread doing it even though it also excites me. I actually fear that I won't motivate myself sufficiently, but also I fear that I won't ¨take to it¨ and actually get the knowledge into my brain. I don't know which ones I fear more. It is impossible not to make some progress, but even studying a lot is no guarantee of fluency.
  16. There are only two essential motivators I have found. First, economics. This is why there are so many English schools around the world. Studying the international language of your time grants you status, a valuable skill, and (the parents of the students hope) the possibility of studying at a foreign university and getting a good job. Second, interest. I don't think anyone becomes highly skilled in a language without this. If you don't care about it, you won't study as much and won't make much of an effort. Not to say you can't learn if you don't care - I have seen that. But it doesn't go well unless someone cares.
  17. I like Spanish because its words seem to link together well to my ears. I also like Chinese (Mandarin) too because it sounds sing-songy because of the tones and that makes it fairly pleasant. Those are two foreign languages I like the most. And I want to learn to speak them well. I don't like Cantonese or German; or I should amend that and say I don't like how they sound. They sound angry, harsh, and displeasing. Some say Japanese is like that too, but I don't think so as much. I wish I had better perspective on how English sounds. I guess everyone will assume their native tongue sounds either pleasant or neutral. I think of English as sounding neutral, but I have no basis for this.
  18. I worked as an English teacher in China. Yes, English is my native language but it is a foreign language in China, so doesn't that count? Haha. Other than that, no. But in the future, if I can get good at Spanish I will apply to some jobs that require it in the U.S. or Latin America.
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