gmckee1985

Has anyone had a situation where someone tried to take advantage of them on an overseas trip? Like, the locals tried to steal from you or put you into a bad situation? But you were able to avoid it because you were familiar with the language. I imagine that happens pretty regularly. Criminals in particular probably look for naive and ignorant foreigners to take advantage of.

That's odd, starshine. I can do it even when I'm writing in Spanish. Granted, it has to be a word I recognize, but for the most part I can tell when I'm misspelling a word in Spanish. Obviously, it's more pronounced in English since that is my native language. Must be some kind of psychological tick most of us seem to have

Yes, I have a similar feeling when I'm spelling words. There have been very few times when I've spelled a word wrong when I've been right, and vice versa. Usually I can tell when I have misspelled a word because it just doesn't look or "feel" right to me. Nine times out of ten I can figure out the correct spelling on my own, but other times I will have to look it up. That's rarely though.

I'm sure they are related somehow, starshinesis. Since similar parts of the brain are used to process language and music. That's why we all relate so well to music. And it's easy for us to remember. Picking up a new language is kind of going through a similar process. For some reason, it's easy for us to pick up things when activate a certain part of our brains. Using music to learn a language is just taking advantage of that biological tick in our brains.

I definitely buy into this theory. As a southerner, I don't think my mouth is structured to speak a lot of different languages. My mouth is "lazy", if a mouth can be such a thing. What I mean by that is that I speak rather slowly, so at times it's hard for me to speak at the speed necessary to correctly speak some words in Spanish and other languages. It's a daily process that I am slowly improving at and working on.

Both can be effective. It really just comes down to what your learning style is. Personally, and this is just me, I would prefer to have a real live teacher helping me along. Though apps can definitely help, nothing beats that face to face interaction and feedback that you can get from a teacher.

Welcome to Linguaholic, Asaase. We have members from all of the world here. Awesome to have someone posting all the way from Ghana. I admire your commitment to learning a new language. You certainly speak more languages than I am capable of. Good luck on your quest! You'll find many helpful posters here!

I'm not sure why America doesn't teach our students other languages properly. Heck, we can barely teach English. Our school system is badly broken and in need of serious reform. Other school systems throughout the world put ours to shame. That's unfortunate, because I think our kids are just as capable of learning.

How hard is it to pick up Latin? Seems like it might a bit easier than some languages become it is so derivative. Is this true? Or am I wrong on this? Have you actually been able to use the language, or is it just a thing you find intellectually stimulating?

I'm going to try and give this a shot. I like Spanish music so I might as well attempt to improve my understanding of the language through music. Anyone have any good musical recommendations, or websites?

There are a myriad of ways one can go about learning a new language. I think the use of flash cards is helpful. Definitely invest in some audio books and or Dvd's to help you pick things up quicker as well. It helps to hear the language you are trying to learn actually be spoken properly. Also, if you can afford it, invest in a tutor to help you learn the language.

I think it obviously takes a long time to pick up a language entirely. I would have to say around five years. Obviously you can learn the basics of a language in a much shorter length of time. But to really understand a language and to pick up all the nuisances can really take a lot of practice and a lot of time. I'm not sure you can put an exact time table on it .

Obviously I write mainly in English. I'm very fluent and a good writer in my native language. Used to want to be a professional writer. I can also write pretty well in Spanish, though I'm still learning all the ins and outs of that language at this point. Hopefully I will continue to improve.

I haven't done it up to this point, but it sounds like it may be worth a shot. I believe we watched some of these in Spanish class in high school, but I'm not sure. I'm open to any tactic that can help me learn the language as fast as possible, and as well as possible.

I have a lot of different weaknesses when it comes to the Spanish language. I'm working day by day to improve them. I have problems with pronunciation, have trouble rolling my r's and just getting the language to sound right in general. I'm making improvements, though. I'm hardly a natural at picking up new languages, it appears.

Great post, Saholy. Glad to see that learning a new language was beneficial to you! I think that's the goal that most of us have here. To have our time be rewarded by being able to use our new language skills in every day life. Hopefully I can have the same type of experience.

I don't really have any interest in learning Latin. I don't see what use it would be to me in my day to day life. I would rather stick to learning languages that interest me as well as those that will be of use to me every day. So I'll have to pass on learning Latin, for now.

They are definitely interchangeable. I don't think it matters which one you use, regardless of the situation. It's really down to personal preference. Usually I use "although". No real reason, it just comes more naturally to me. So don't feel any pressure. Just use which words suit you best.

Very nice! That's a genius idea. I really think with all of the people out there who are interested in learning Spanish you could really expect a lot of visitors on your blog. I've been looking around for a similar site and haven't had much like finding anything that is actually useful. Looking forward to seeing your work! I'm not good enough to volunteer at this point, but hopefully you are able to find some capable individuals.

Didn't know that there were a lot of similarities between French and Spanish. Thought they would be pretty different in terms of the phrasing and accent you put on the words. But that's a relief to hear. Maybe it'll make it easier for me to pick up on the two languages over time. Focusing on Spanish for now, but definitely open to learning French in due time.

What language do you feel sounds the most sophisticated and classy when people speak it? Personally I think British English is the most appealing to my ears. It certainly sounds more sophisticated than the English spoken in many parts of America. Especially the south, where I'm from. I could listen to the British speak all day.

In America, I think it's most valuable to learn Spanish. I think it's going to become more and more important in the future as we have more and more of our citizens be of hispanic descent. It will really open up your job opportunities and allow you to communicate with these immigrants. It's one of the reasons I'm learning Spanish right now.

What is a good Spanish audiobook? I haven't been able to find many of those either. I need it to be a of a reasonable price as well, as I don't have a lot of extra income to throw around at this time. Thanks for your help in advance.

I haven't noticed anyone using the word "onwards" in quite some time. It's not a phrase you hear very often in America. I can't even remember the last time I heard someone say it, or that I have said it for that matter. In my understanding, onwards can be used in relation to any age. I don't think there's any specific age to use it after.

Yes, I'm definitely open to going back to school to learn a language. I don't think it's a necessity but I'm sure it couldn't hurt at this point. I learn pretty well on my own. But it's always nice to have the perspective and help of an expert that can point out the nuances of a certain language that more novice people won't notice or know of.