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Linguaholic

NATASHA

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Everything posted by NATASHA

  1. They say that languages are best learnt when you are young as it is easier to pick it up. I believe that you should teach a child a language from little so that when they are older they are fluent. It is harder for adults to learn a language!
  2. wow there are some interesting ones here and how strange some of them are. Bakers dozen is regular one and if people knew the origin they would think twice about using it.
  3. When writing in English it is very important to be able to use the correct grammar, spelling and vocabulary. For a writer the text can only be excitingto the reader if they use descriptive words so much so that the reader can imagine the scene that the writer is talking about. Are there any writers here and how do you go about writing good English to engage the reader?
  4. I always get confused with adverbs, verbs and pronouns. Thank you for this because it helps with understanding the difference between them all and I now understand what an adverb is.
  5. My husband is Dutch and I find that I can say the words but I cant always understand them. I often speak to him in Afrikaans and he does understand many of the sentences but when he speaks to me, I just dont get it. My point is thank you for these, I can learn them and show him what I know.
  6. I am not sure if this falls into English literature but it is a good book and vey complicated for some. Have you read the book and what did you think of it?
  7. When you greet or meat someone for the first time, it is important to be pronounced and casual at the same time. Greetings for strangers are different to greetings with friends and there is a big difference when it comes to colleagues at work. Pleased to meet you" Good afternoon Sir, Madam These are formal greetings. Casual ones would be "Hi" Hello, and in South african "Howsit!" Which one do you use for slang in your country?
  8. Although I do like cover art I am not too perturbed if they do not have some on the book. I love those books that have the plain brown leather look with a great font and if I am buying a book that has a picture on it, it must have something to do with the story. Harry potter for example is one of those but if I had to buy a book it is certainly for the author and no other reason.
  9. I have read the study guide for certain things but I think when reading a book it is always best to try and understand and interpret in your own way. Sometimes it does not help to read the study guide when you want to get something from the story in the book.
  10. Has anyone learned enough of a language to get them by in a foreign country? Just enough to ask for directions, order food and pay for things without having to have learned the entire language?
  11. Sawubona! great to see this here and I think I might have to refresh my memory because I have forgotten so much. I know what comes next but to spell it is another story altogether. Xhosa I would never learn because it sounds difficult and I grew up with Zulus so it is familiar.
  12. We have some strange lingo here in South Africa but slang words are all I can think of. Lekker means good and I cant seem to think of any others off hand but I will get back to you on this as I have friends that have no idea what I mean sometimes because of our "Dialect"
  13. Why would they ask you to translate something so big with words that would mean completely different things if you translate directly? Shame it is so hard and complicated to translate those big things but it helps with learning and understanding the meanings of sentences.
  14. It is raining cats and dogs is one of my favourites because I have never understood what it actually means but it sounds good and it seems to work. Another one would be there are plenty of fish in the sea. A good one for heartbreak.
  15. I love classics and a good read would be ones by Charles Dickens and Fitzpatrick. Great reading and they are so interesting, inspiring and in this day and age really lighthearted. You will finishthe book with a message and feel satisfied for reading it.
  16. An online resource called memorise can apparently help with learning languages and other subjects. Have you tried it and has it worked for you?
  17. Great advice here and it will definitely work this way. It is easy to learn step by step rather than learning many things at once.
  18. We have translators for whichever language the court requires them to be. They translate everyones language to the language of the court and then we have someone writing down every single word but nothing more than that. The lawyers and judges mumbo jumbo in Latin is just used as terminology when referencing.
  19. Maybe the books that you are getting are a little too much to take in at this time. Find something light to read so that it gets you back into the interest of reading. I find a book that you cannot put down has not come into my home lately but I have read "The gift" by Danielle Steel and I am reading books by Cecilia Ahern at the moment. I have found that the beginning did not motivate me to read and as you get through the second chapter it changs your mind and you want to read to the end. Another one to read is Wilbur Smith, it is adventure and very easy to imagine the scene. Also Tom Clancy for crime and mystery, any of his books are good too.
  20. I personally think that they are theories like a scientist would have theories. I don't know if they should go into the non fiction section as some conspiracy theories have ended up being true. Stories on fictional characters that do not exist and are used in conspiracy theories could be in the fiction section, however there are great number that have been identified as true and evidentual facts, which could go into the non fiction section. Perhaps it should go into an educational section or research section.
  21. This is an interesting question. I think that each culture understands their own culture better but if you are a good writer you do your research and spend time with the people that you are writing about. I dont think that it matters unless you are going into great detail about a culture that you do not fully understand, however, when writing to relate to a certain group, it would help if the readers could relate to you and in some ways it would only be relatible if you write about what you know.
  22. I think it is a good idea to make those kind of books into movies because not many people would take the time to read a classic and the movie is a great for telling the story. I do however find that the movie is never as good as the book because when you read it gives you room to use yor own imagination whilst picturing the scene and after reading a very good book and watching the movie adaptation, it sometimes is a let down.
  23. Learn to crawl before you walk Hit below the belt Chase your tail whole bag of tricks Idiomatic expressions add colour to language and make it more interesting for the learner.
  24. Hello and welcome! Mauritius is beautiful, why not learn French there? Is that the language that they speak there and if not what is their common language?
  25. I know of many languages that use this and they are very similar. I am bored to death, I am so hungry I could eat a horse, I could name a few and in every language that I am aware of, they do use drammatic tones to express a situation.
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