spacetimecontinuum

My absolute favourite accent in all the world is the Geordie accent. This accent is found in Newcastle England, it's located extreme North, next stop after Newcastle and you're in Scotland.For an example of this accent, think of Brian Johnson, the lead singer of AC/DC.

Well I really can't stand the sound of Arabic, Hebrew(Yiddish), German, all of it sounds really phlegm-y and harsh. I also have a big dislike of Afrikaans(sp?), it makes my skin crawl. Mandarin and Cantonese I could do without also, because it's so tonal and to my ears extremely shrill. The languages I enjoy hearing are Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Celtic and some of the African click languages.

I write in English: Patois, Ebonics, Cockney, Spanglish, Celtic, Received Pronunciation, it's amazing how many variations there are in the English language. I avail myself of all of these.

Well obviously I think Mandarin is the most important language to learn, one must be able to ingratiate themselves to the new slave-master after all . Twas Napolean who said "China is a sleeping giant", well that giant has most decidedly woken up!...and the sun has most definitely set on the British Empire. So in order of importance for this planet: Mandarin, Spanish, English...then Swahili so that all the continents are represented.

This is a very interesting question, I'm sure there are lots of countries who have their equivalent of say: A Picture Paints a Thousand Words, or Action Speaks Louder Than Words, or Between A Rock and a Hard Place, or even Long in the Tooth. Certain countries may have verbatim translations of these idioms or a variation on them. After all, we're all human and we've all had experiences which would merit use of those expressions. Wouldn'tcha think? By the way, I consider myself a polyglot as a I read and write in about 6 different types of English.

No problem, English is the only language I speak, so it's the only one I'm in a position to correct, lol.

The headline for this part of the forum reads "how should X language be teached?", should that not read "taught"? With respect, I realize the forum is probably run by polyglots so these mistakes can happen. :kiss:

It should be mandatory, at that age, as our synaptic junctions are on fire, we can absorb so much, heck I would even argue to start teaching kids other languages, in utero, ha! Come on ladies, get those microphones out and place them on your your tummies. But seriously, the earlier the better I feel. I had a real knack for French and Spanish when I was younger, my teachers told me so, both said I spoke the languages with no accent, as if native, sadly I let my language learning fall by the wayside. I can still converse on an emergency level in both tongues, but let's just say I couldn't have a deep discussion about Proust or Gabriel Garcia Marquez in their respective languages.

Because it's embarrassing travelling around Europe and everyone speaks English, as well as their native tongue. I would like to communicate in theirs as well. I know it's not my fault that English is the dominant language on the planet...well maybe after Mandarin, I just don't want to remain the lazy English speaking person for the rest of my life. Plus learning another language is good for your brain.

I'm here because I would like to improve my understanding of quite a few languages. I only speak English fluently but can comprehend bits and pieces of the "romance languages". As much as I would love to be fluent in a second language, I am mostly interested in etymology, the cross-over of "foreign" words into English, the roots of words etc, etc. If I were to become fluent just by osmosis, that would be marvelous!