RealSugar

I took the TOEIC for work once and got 970 out of 990 (why not 1000?!), and for another job, we did the whole preparation course for the TOEFL, but they never made us take the test. In the end, I moved to the US and nobody ever asked me to take any kind of English test to hire me! So yeah, what test you need depends on who is asking for it.

If you find you are struggling with certain sounds more than others, this is a website that explains each sound individually, with video, audio and diagrams http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/spanish/spanish.html I don't have much experience learning Spanish with this website, but the English equivalent helped me a lot.

I took five years of French in school, but I can't hold a conversation even if my life depended on it. Oddly enough, I am able to understand a lot of it if I'm just reading it. But the words simply do not come to me when I'm trying to talk. Not sure what to do about it, since I haven't been able to find anything that will hold my interest in French

I was already fluent in English when I met my (now) husband, but if he had been speaking any other language, I have no doubt I would have been able to learn it right away. Though my husband took the easy way and even though he speaks a little Spanish, he doesn't seem concerned about mastering it.

It really depends on what your native tongue is! Learning Portuguese was the easiest for me because my native language is Spanish. But for people with other native languages, Portuguese can be really difficult to master.

I used to belong to a similar website many years ago, Shelfari, but I only signed up for it, added all the books I had ever read, and completely forgot about it afterwards. I like Goodreads better because it automatically adds my facebook friends (thought some may think of it as an annoyance), and I'm usually better at updating it with every book I read, since it's an app on my phone.

Nothing good ever comes out of Google Translate. It gives you an awkward word-by-word translation that means nothing to someone who speaks the intended language. I recommend, when in doubt, ask someone who knows.

Find out what his interests are, and subscribe him to different mailing lists in English. If he likes a certain TV show, have him watch it in English with subtitles, and after repeated viewings take the subtitles off. He should be able to follow what's going on from memory.

I've tried Pimsleur and didn't like it. I need to "see" the words in my mind as I hear them, and I can't do that if they refuse to teach you how to spell things. Rosetta Stone has better written lessons, but I still feel like it's only tricking me into "thinking" I know the language, instead of teaching me a language. I mean, if you give me a conversation based on everything I learned so far, I am a master of the language. If you let me wonder into a website or TV show, I realized I know nothing at all.

I don't understand it either. I'm from Argentina, and writing in print was simply not allowed in school. Now I live in the US, and my stepson was taught how to write in cursive, and he was forced to write in cursive at some points during 2nd and 3rd grade, and then he was free to switch back to print. Why would you want kids to write SLOWER?

If you can handle Argentinian movies, I recommend you watch "9 Reinas". Of course, not to be confused with the English version remake that we all pretend doesn't exist (don't worry, it has a completely different name)

I'm fluent in English, but I'm not very happy with the whole "things are not spelled out the way they sound" aspect of it. It's so... random! Sometimes I have to help my (American) stepson with his spelling exercises and I have to give up saying "I don't know any way that will help you learn this!". On the other hand, I begrudgingly had to take Portuguese lessons for work reasons, and I ended up loving. Something about that language that makes you think every one you talk to is your lifelong friend.

Keep in mind that the Rs are one of the last sounds a native kid will learn to pronounce correct. Takes A LOT of practice. I've actually know a case of someone trying to learn English who kept rolling their Rs instead of using the English R (which involves awkwardly folding your tongue backwards). I believe after a lot of practice and some sort of bet involved, he was able to master the sound after a few weeks. If you're learning Spanish, this phrase is for you: "Erre con erre, guitarra. Erre con erre, barril. Erre con erre que ruedan las ruedas del ferrocarril!"

When studying English, my teachers were very insisting on having us learn the phonetic alphabet (IPA). At first it's frustrating because it's just a bunch of strange symbols, but visually seeing the name of "the sound" for each word helps me identify how I should be pronouncing it, and it's less likely for me to substitute them for one of the sounds from my native language instead. Check out this website and practice along with the different sounds: http://www.uiowa.edu/~acadtech/phonetics/english/english.html

I see people write it as "defiantly" a lot. It makes me wonder, what are they defying? Here's a funny comic about English words that are commonly misspelled (including definitely) http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

Argentinian slang is so specific, that I'm always afraid to talk to people from other Spanish-speaking countries! Won't even know something is slang until they start looking at me funny. I think everyone who tries to learn Spanish should pick one country and stick with it. It's not possible to learn a "neutral" Spanish at all!

It's not only English Subtitles. If you watch, for example, The Simpson dubbed into Latin American Spanish, you'll see they flat out replace a joke with a different joke, because they believe Latin American people will not get the original reference. For example, in one episode they replace Homer talking about "Urkel" for "Alf", which was way more popular with Latin American audiences.

When my husband (American) chats with me in Spanish, I instantly know if he knew what words to use or if he just entered something in English on Google Translate and is copy-pasting the results back to me. Usually, it's impossible to understand. I have to mentally translate back to English and sometimes that gives me an idea of what his original sentence was.

Bonjour! Comment allez-vous? Comment vous appelez-vous? Je m'appelle Alex.

I think it's a matter of demand and supply. If it's a popular language like, say, Spanish, they would rather hire someone with a University degree in language translation. If it's a language that not many people speak, then people would be more willing to hire someone that is just fluent in both languages. If you find something worthwhile, let us know!

Agreed with everyone else. Telling a Spanish student to read Don Quixote is like telling an English Student to read Shakespeare. It it unnecessarily complicated. You'd probably want to find some 20th or 21st century books first.

I got a job at an American company in Argentina because I could speak English. Half my team was in the US. I'd guess it'd be more difficult if English is your first language, to find a job that requires something other than English. Either way, a second and third language will make your resume look cool for any job.

Not quite. I was already fluent in English when I met my husband. I can say that now I am more fluent in Pittsburghese now. My husband is trying to lean Spanish to communicate with my family and when we're visiting over there, but I can tell he's not 100% percent invested in it.

They are different, but similar languages. That's why any "Spanish"-speaking person you meet will tell you they speak "Castellano". There are many languages originating in Spain. Castillian just happened to be the one that caught on.

News is slow spanish is only okay if you're interested in learning Spanish from Spain. My husband listened to it for a while, but it was confusing for him since he is trying to learn Argentinian Spanish instead (I'm from Argentina). Also, they have a section with "popular sayings," most of which I hadn't heard in my life. Again, their Spanish is very regional. Didn't they make the podcast paid, though? It used to be free to listen, and only the supporting activities were paid.