takibari

I attribute this to fear. With regards to writing, it's just you and the written word. There's no one to judge you (at least not immediately) when you write. As you have a visual image of your idea, you can readily edit it when you find something is off. Unlike when you're speaking, the moment you say something, there's no going back on your word. If you've mispronounced or said something grammatically wrong, then it's readily out there. That's where the fear of judgment kicks in. You immediately fear that the people who've heard you might say something negative because you've said something in blunder. Performance anxiety?

Forest Gump is one of those movies that I can vividly call an excellent movie right after watching it. But since I've watched it a very long time ago, I can no longer recall why this movie still comes to mind when asked about favorite movies. My penultimate favorite, however, will always be Robin William's The Dead Poet's Society. This movie popularized the term "carpe diem."

I've always associated 'council' with people (as in a special group of people) while 'counsel' with action (as in the act of giving advice) allowed vs. aloud nay vs neigh witch vs which cite vs sight census vs senses

Yeah, there's no exact synonym to the word professionalism. But as you are asking for associations, the few things that come to mind when I hear the word 'professionalism' are the words integrity, code of ethics, punctuality, objective, fair and just, competent. The words I've given are not direct synonyms, but they're some of the attributes I associate with when thinking about it. That is, what actions translate to professionalism (Ex. not coming in late (punctuality), objective thinking (not prone to subjectivity).

I don't know the exact terminologies, but MilleBille's reply generally gives you a perfect idea. I guess, taken as a simple sentence, {Ex. I was alone last night.}, the rule on subject-verb agreement applies. But if used as a subjunctive, the rule on agreement is ditched and ALWAYS use 'were' regardless of subject. Ex. If I were you, I would study. NEVER, If was you, I would study.

Hope you don't mind me hijacking your post, takibari! I just wanted to clarify that Cebuano is a Philippine language rather than a dialect. The Bisaya language has a lot of dialects - the major of which are these four: Boholano and Southern Kana, Northern Kana, Mindanao Cebuano, and Davaoeño - just like Tagalog has Batangas Tagalog (Batangeño), Bulacan Tagalog, etc.

I just found this one: http://www.gingersoftware.com/features It's for free download. It appears pretty decent. It supposedly corrects as you write and offers suggestions for better phrasing.

This one's a bit mean, but I find it really funny. In a classroom: Teacher: Today's we're going to talk about 'tenses'. Now, if I say "I am beautiful." What tense is it? Students: Obviously, it's a past tense. This one's a bit lame, but still funny: Q: How do you comfort a grammar nazi? A: Their, there, they're. LOL on this one, but it seriously says something about perspective: A teacher writes on a chalkboard the sentence: A woman without her man is nothing The teacher then asks the boys to punctuate it properly, and they all write: A woman, without her man, is nothing The teacher asks the girls to punctuate it and they write: "A woman: without her, man is nothing"

Agree, agree A lot do indeed think that they are interchangeable. But they really aren't as they function differently. People think they are interchangeable because of the assumption that they function the same way. It is for this reason that this entry is often included in lists for common errors.

Wow, that must have been an experience! The last time I visited a library was when I was a student in the university. Sadly, public libraries aren't a big thing where I am. But you're right, as long as there are people who will still support paper back novels, then they're here to stay. Unfortunately, some publishing companies have slowly embraced digital publications.

I love the smell of paper myself. While I prefer paperbacks to e-books, I recognize that technology will soon take over and paperbacks will become things of the past. I, however, don't think it will happen in my lifetime. But who knows..

Much like the others in the thread, I don't carry a paper dictionary anymore. It was also in high school that I carried one because it's a requirement. These days, with apps and the Internet, there's really no need to carry a paper dictionary (unless of course, you're the traditional type who loves the smell of paper). These days, Collins dictionary icon is on my desktop.

In some other sections in this forum, it has been mentioned that immersion is one of the effective ways in learning a language. Following that point of view, the best advice I could give to practice listening is to engage yourself more in situations that require you to speak the target language (that is, if you have that opportunity). Interacting with native speakers will allow you to be more familiar with their tones and accents. While watching movies are great ideas, I believe you will need to have reached a specific language level to fully understand its contents. Others, especially new language learners, end up frustrated watching movies especially if they can't keep up with the speed of the language exchange.

In preparing for this type of questions, it would be helpful to review on transitional words or phrases. More often than not, they are the key to connecting the paragraphs. That is, they provide the hints to the paragraph's order.

just visited your site. as the other members mentioned having a blog to chart your language learning experience or progress is a great idea. with regards to Words of the Day feature, it would be great if you add how to say the word, (especially for the korean and chinese parts). to add variation on the WoTD feature, what about featuring a single word and how it's said in the other languages. in any case, great work on starting a blog.

If you're a romantic, you'll probably enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's A Long Walk to Forever. I love the simplicity of the narration against the impact of the story's message. It's the first Vonnegut I read, which made me curious about his other works. Very interesting author.

---HUGS!!!--- I truly feel your passion for Literature from the previous post. I wasn't exposed to literature until I entered high school. It was through my beloved teachers who managed to explain in super details the books in our reading list that Literature somehow grew on me. Discussing about Shakespeare made me thought about taking up English Lit in college, too. Unfortunately, practicality got the better of me. No - scratch that. It wasn't practicality because I eventually took up Psychology, which to many was not also 'practical'. In our country, you'll normally end up an HR Practioner if you have this degree. Psych is also considered one of the 'easy' degrees in our school - at least to the outsiders. But like what you just described, we had SO MANY books to read, not to mention published journals. So, I'm very WITH you in saying that there's NO college degree that's ever worthless, English Literature included. I hope you'll get your inspiration to read back after your much needed 'no reading phase'.

Like many of the others here, there are so many books that had a great impact on me. So, it's quite difficult to pinpoint an ultimate favorite. To mention a few; as a high school student; it would have to be The Little Prince Antoine de Saint Exupery (incidentally there's a 3D movie coming up in October 2015. Trailer has just been released) and Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach as an adult, books such as The Art of War by Sun Tzu, Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson, The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran, Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke and so many others.

You said it right! I'm still scrambling my memory on this, but I do remember this topic was one of the topics that caught my interest way back in college. From what I can recall from lectures of long ago, one can picture a tree for this. Our brain has this several branches representing the different languages, but because of exposure (as you said, the language constantly used around the little human), a particular branch [the language branch that was tapped] becomes sturdier and sturdier because it's what's been constantly fed through the surrounding conversations, music, TV, etc.. In essence, we don't know how things started out - except that things have always been there (we never had to study those things; we just know them innately).

I'm no American, but with the world becoming smaller because of the Internet, I believe there is a reason to hope. With your observation that younger people are more eager to learn another language, the likelihood that the issue will be moot is high. For one, the Internet has paved the way for the younger people to interact with people miles away and whose backgrounds are completely different from theirs. With the awareness that there are worlds different from their own, these young people will be more open and as quoted earlier more accepting of one another.

While English is widely spoken in my country, and I believe I have fair grasp of the language, I ,however, feel small when speaking to a native speaker. I often tell people, I have no problem with the language. My comprehension level is excellent, FOR SO LONG as we are talking about the WRITTEN word. I don't know why my speaking skill shrinks when talking to Americans or any other English-speaking foreign national. I can keep up with what the American is saying, I just lose the ability to respond, haha!!

A friend introduced me to Rilke back in college. One of my favorite works turned out to be Letters to a Young Poet. It's one of those books that had a great impact on me. Anyone here have read it? What are your thoughts on the book?

Shakespeare was mostly required reading for me, back when I was still in school. While I did enjoy his works, the sonnets, most especially, I, however, didn't progress to reading Shakespeare for pleasure. Anyhow, my favorite among his works is Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds Admit impediments. Love is not love Which alters when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove: O no; it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken. Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come; Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom. If this be error and upon me proved, I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

OMG!!! I've had this discussion in class. My mind is now scrambling because I had this lecture sometime in 1997, as a college sophomore. (Haha, that's soooo long ago!!!) If my memory serves me, this is the reason why kids are thought to have the capacity to learn 'any' language when exposed to it prior to age 5. Generally, each baby's brain is wired with 'different' languages. By virtue of exposure, (being born to a specific country), babies get to 'tap' and 'activate' the language of that country. In essence, as babies we really don't have to learn everything from scratch, because like you mentioned, the pattern of language is inborn

Proximity can be a big factor. However, it can only do so much if there is 'actual' interaction involved. No matter how close you are to a neighbor, if you don't interact with them, you will never really learn anything from them absent interaction. So, the same goes for language. Even if your country borders on another, you will still find it difficult to acquire the other's language, if you don't engage. Like in my case, I've worked with Koreans for more than 10 years. Because I made the mistake of following my boss' instructions NOT to engage the Korean staff in Korean, I still have difficulty learning Korean. I primarily interact with them only in English. Their English have improved because of our interaction, but my Korean didn't prosper because we rarely interact in Korean.