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I'm sure everyone here has written a poem or a story at least once in their lives. Not necessarily an artistic masterpiece, but an emotional poem, or a little funny ditty to pass time in class, or maybe a story, etc. I want to know if people write in their native tongue or in foreign languages, and if the latter, in which?

I find that people in Slovenia often write in English. Some find it more artistic, some just find it easier to write in. I myself write (both poetry and prose) in my mother tongue, Slovene.

I can write fluently in Spanish and in English. I have written like 3 words on french also.

How old were you when you started studying a second language?

I was 14, I didn't get the opportunity to start studying a second language until High School, and then I didn't didn't get to study German until college because my high school only offered French and Spanish.  I really wish I had had the opportunity to start studying German much younger, I think I would have done much better.  I only had two years of HS French and remember very, very little from that now.

I started in fifth grade so I was ten years old. I had to move to United States so it was either learn or be an idiot who doesn't talk to anyone.

You find a person, a he or a she, and you are really attracted him/her. The only problem is that he/she speaks a foreign language. I won't specify a language, because it has to be a language that you don't speak. If there is a chance for a relationship, will you pursue it? Will you gladly learn a foreign language for your partner? Do you think you can communicate well, and have a good relationship?

I don't think you could ever fall in love with someone without at least talking to her. But I think it is possible to try and start a relationship. If you have a common language between the two. And maybe I'd be willing to learn the new language.

There are so many dialects that i think it would be near impossible to know how many languages there are in the world. You might find how many official languages there are in the world, maybe, but thats it.

If you asked me i would say hebreu.

Besides English, in your opinion, what language is most valuable to learn? What are your reasons for choosing that one?

In my opinion, Spanish is probably the most valuable language to learn because it is so common in the US now.  In fact it is difficult to find a job in some industries if you do not know some Spanish. I even found advertisements for hotel housekeepers, entirely in Spanish!!! Obviously they do not think anyone who is not hispanic would bother applying there.

Since I already know spanish, even though the housekeeping thing was a little racist. I think it would be mandarin. I think it is a very important language in the business world right after english.

I know some private schools have foreign language classes taught at younger grades, but do you think we should be teaching foreign language in all schools? And should it be started earlier than high school into primary education?

I think as the world grows smaller with technology and how much communications happens around the world, that knowing a 2nd language has become increasingly important.

I think it should. Definitely. Why? Well because it will open so many doors later in life for that person and because it is easier learning when you are a kid, or so they say. Any opportunity you have about learning a language should be taken.

Hello Linguaholic,

I have been working on an app of my own and would like some feedback on the idea.

The initial version is basically a chat app like HelloTalk. However, I found that HelloTalk really lacked some features, the main one being not knowing what to talk about. Lexly fixes that by plugging into content on the internet to use as context within a chat app. So you press a button in the chat and a piece of content appears in the window.

The initial version has 2 topic types.

1. Pictures from Reddit subs - I put 'awww' as one of the subs so you can teach each other names of cute animals, for example.

2. Questions from eslconversationquestions.com. I found these on Google and the owner of the site was kind enough to let me use them. These are also translated into French and Spanish.

I'm working on adding more content types. I think this is key, and can be really fun. I'm a believer in the approach that to learn a language you have to start using it from day one, and then keep using it and using it, and I think fun is the key to staying engaged.

There are some screenshots at: http://imgur.com/a/uTCte

The website is www.lexly.me

Any feedback is welcome!

Seems amazing cant wait to try it. Also I love reddit! Let me know when I can buy it/download it, or if I can already!

Hey guys!  Was wondering what language you like most and least!  For me the language I like the most is Norwegian, that's a language I'd be so eager to learn.  I like the way it sounds, spelling it is so easy and the grammar couldn't be easier!  I love it!  If I could chose a language to learn it would be Norwegian.

Sadly this language is only spoken in Norway, unlike English and Spanish that is spoken in so many places.  So learning it could be seen as kinda useless by many!  Useless for me as well, because I know if  I don't use it often I'll start forgetting it.

As for the language I like least I'd say I'd have a hard time between Dutch and Icelandic, lol. I don't like Dutch so much because it's so hard to know for sure what the spelling of most words are, because they sound so different!  In my language things are are written almost as closely as the way they sound, so it's confusing. 

What language do you like most and least?

Both of the languages I am fluent with which are Spanish and English I really like them both, I think Spanish might be prettier. On the other hand I hate french, it's so yucky at least to me, I dont like how it's pronounced.

Have any members ever used the audio tapes that are listened to while asleep and were they effective.

I guess if it were really possible people would use it as a normal method of learning. What I'm trying to say is it's just the same thing as when a new miracle medicine pops up that makes you lose weight, if it worked it would just be called medicine.

After years of trying to learn different languages, we have found that the most difficult thing to obtain to is humor in the new language. One of our instructors suggested we learn at least two good jokes to help 'break the ice' when we are trying to gain more experience with common language interchanges. There are many different ways which one might be able to gain more of an understanding of what is considered culturally humorous in another language. What do you think? Have you been able to grasp humor in your new language? If so, how have you done so?

Well, my new language was English, and as of right now, most of humor I read is in English and when I browse Reddit for some silly stuff every little thing is in English so yeah, I can understand humor in my new language.

I'm sure everyone here has written a poem or a story at least once in their lives. Not necessarily an artistic masterpiece, but an emotional poem, or a little funny ditty to pass time in class, or maybe a story, etc. I want to know if people write in their native tongue or in foreign languages, and if the latter, in which?

I find that people in Slovenia often write in English. Some find it more artistic, some just find it easier to write in. I myself write (both poetry and prose) in my mother tongue, Slovene.

I can write very fluently in Spanish and in English and I can write like two sentences in french. Basically English and Spanish haha.

Short ones in Spanish:

Pablito clavo un clavito en la calva de un calvito.

Tres tristes tigres comen trigo, comen trigo tres tristes tigres.

I think the British accent is very sophisticated and even though my native language is Spanish, I am now fluent in English. So maybe I could try and change my English accent but I learned English by living in the United States so now I would be very difficult to try and change my English accent. But I think the British accent is very fun.

Im not taking any courses right now but when I used to in the past even though it didn't help me one bit to learn the language I wanted, I was paying around 100 dollars a month more or less.

Melo do pirulito. It is a Brazilian song and it's in Portuguese. I used to listen to it when I was a kid, I still don't understand one bit of it even though Portuguese is very similar to Spanish. I guess one day I will start learning Portuguese and be able to finally understand the darn lyrics.

For me it was need, not desire. I had to move to America and it was either learning English or letting myself be segregated along with the other people that decided English was too hard for them to learn, so even though it was only a year in USA I learned everything I could and became extremely fluent in English.

Try going to a country that only speaks Spanish for vacation, try to avoid speaking in your native language at all costs, even if it may seem like an emergency. I'm sure that one month talking Spanish only will help you tremendously.

Title says it.

Well kind of similar, when I was younger I had to move to USA and do one year of school over there, when I went there I only knew like 50 words in English and I was pretty much lost. After around 6-8 months I was more fluent in English than most of my classmates, I guess that is the best way to learn a new language after all. The experience was so immerse that time went by flying and before I realized my thoughts were already in English.