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Linguaholic

Verba

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Everything posted by Verba

  1. Well, for me during the times I had studied Spanish, it was because it was included in the courses offered. I had no choice but to take it. Lol! Then I took French just because. Obviously, I did not learn a lot because I really did not have a sound reason for learning it. It was free so why not take it? Lastly, I tried learning Arabic just for fun. It was also free. :-) I learned some words, but not enough to carry on a decent conversation. Personally, I think there must really be a valid reason for me to take a language course, like it's needed in a job I would like to get into.
  2. It is reading for me because I can easily pronounce a lot of Spanish words since our language has been greatly influenced by the Spanish language. In fact, our alphabet used to have some of their letters. Speaking the language is next in line as we have borrowed words from them. But listening to them talk is quite difficult because they talk really fast. If they talk slowly just like how my Uni Spanish teacher spoke, even though she spoke Spanish all throughout the course, I would somehow understand. However, their spellings for some words are different from ours so writing is a bit difficult for me.
  3. It is not hard for me because it is the medium of instruction in our school. I remember being fluent in it even in lower primary. Our alphabet now even follows the American alphabet so it is quite easy for us. I have a friend who's a Japanese who said that she found it hard to learn it. She went to UK and that's where she learned it. She's married to a British and there were times during their first years together that she would just cry in frustration when she couldn't communicate what she wanted to tell him. That's especially true when they fought.
  4. I am not aware how fast I understand what I read. I just know that I accurately comprehend what I read. When I just browse a letter for instance and I'm engrossed with something else, I get the gist but I forget what it is about. Then when somebody reminds me, I remember that it's how I also understood it. So in terms of accuracy level, I know I can understand 100% but as to how quick or slow, I don't know.
  5. I like saying a lot of non-English words like Hola!, Insha'Allah, rapido, Bonjour!. There are still other words but I do not know how to spell them correctly here. I just know how to say them.
  6. Oh yes and I found out that happens to other nationalities as well. My workplace employs different nationalities and when we talk to people from other countries, we of course talk in English. But at times, we shift right away to our language when we see our countrymen. It happens that when we go back talking to others, we use our language. And so do they. We all make fun of it sometimes. For instance, the other person will answer in her own language or will pretend that she understands what's being said. It is fun to be in a multi-cultural workplace!
  7. I forgot my next line? Lol! I was so nervous and jittery because there were more people than I expected. But the good thing was I made the situation light by telling the audience that I forgot my next line then they all laughed. That calmed me down. So I remembered what to say next. :grin: I read somewhere that admitting to your audience that you are nervous actually makes you feel at ease. When I get positive response from my audience, I get more confident to speak. In fact, as I talk on, I start to relax.
  8. Lol! I don't find it irritating either. It's amusing for me actually. It is gay talk in the Philippines, right? I just find them so creative to come up with those words and they are even evolving! Like the beki word 'chaka' has now evolved to 'chuckie', 'chapter' which means ugly. Lol! But some words are really just coined from the same sounding word such as 'bigalou' for big. Or some words are made out of common sense like 'oblation' which they refer to as naked or 'walang saplot'. This idea obviously came from the U.P. oblation. Lol!
  9. Yeah, it depends on how it's used in a sentence. So it has a loose translation if that's how you can call it. Like in the sentence - "Basta ite-text kita," 'basta' can be translated as just. So the whole translation is "I'll just text you." Another Filipino word with no direct English translation is balat-kayo or balat kayo. It is translated in Google Translate as skin you. Lol! It means fake or pretentious.
  10. I agree with you. However, I must say that it all depends on the type of learner. Say, if you learn by immersion, then that would be a good way to do it with this type. And there are people who have the knack for learning new languages. I don't so I must be like you. My Spanish teacher also did not speak a single English in class. Though, she was speaking slowly for us, I wasn't really able to learn the language well enough for me to engage in a simple Spanish conversation.
  11. After you quoted my answer and asked, that was when I realized Romance languages do exist. I searched it up in Google and no, German language is not in the list. So I'm not teaching you something new. Lol! You taught me instead which is good. Thanks for that and sorry for the confusion. :-)
  12. My Spanish teacher in college never spoke in English. She just taught everything in Spanish. The good thing was she was at least considerate enough to speak slowly for us. I learnt she really spoke her language fast when I heard her and another Spanish teacher speaking their language. I did not catch a word they said. Now, I want to re-learn that language especially because our language has great Spanish influence. And a Spanish colleague recently told me that we have the most flexible tongue to learn and speak their language fast. That motivated me so! :-)
  13. Rapido - Quick silla - chair the numbers 1 - 10 in spanish - uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco, seis, siete, ocho, nieve, diez and I can count on and on... My daughter who's taking Spanish now was amazed when I recited the numbers to her up to 100 in Spanish. Lol! I told her it's because our some of our words have been influenced by the Spanish language. The spellings may be different but they mean the same.
  14. A Spanish teacher once told me that the best way to learn the diction is to practise it with a Spanish friend. Immersion is the key she said. But listening to Spanish songs, dialogue and the like will also help. Or a learner can watch anything Spanish - movies, commercial clips, etc. She also suggested talking to yourself in Spanish, maybe, like a question and answer kind of conversation. Personally, I easily learn when I listen to audio or watch video in Spanish. However, I guess I have to repeatedly replay the clip to better catch the diction and for me to comprehend what's being said.
  15. That's a brilliant idea, SpanishLinguist! I understand about the income-generating part that of course you'd like to have. The idea of doing so will not only benefit you, but also a lot of people who would like to learn Spanish, considering it's free of charge! As to the punctuations especially the proper use of semi-colons, I cannot remember anymore the rules about it. But do check or search for its proper use in Google or any search engine. It will be of great help. I will check out your website when I find the time. Good luck with it!
  16. If given the chance, why not? I just get intimidated because it seems so difficult to listen to as was the case when I was still in Uni. Catholic priests sometimes said some parts of the mass in Latin and the language seemed too tricky for me. So that made me think it must be so difficult to learn. Nevertheless, if I would learn it, I should have the time and a really good reason for doing so. Otherwise, I might not get the extra push to learn it.
  17. Lol! I didn't realize romance languages as existing. As such, I viewed it as per message sent across. Pardon my ignorance. But come to think of it, I said French would be nice to learn which I found out is included in the Romance languages.
  18. Yes I did. I was better at memorizing but I find this to be true to me when I was younger. Now, it is much easier for me if the language makes perfect sense. Like I can connect the word to its meaning. Or I can perhaps memorize it if I could connect it to something I know or I'm familiar with.
  19. Romance is romance so whatever language you use as long as it sends across a romantic and lovely message, then it's the sweetest thing ever to the ears of the beloved. However, I do love to learn French. So the idea of speaking French in a romantic way will just be so captivating. I wish I could. I tried to learn it from my daughters who took French language in school. It was difficult for me probably because I wasn't really focused.
  20. I do notice that I change a bit even when I don't intentionally do it. I work in a British company so I tend to get the accent, but I try not to because I feel a bit awkward about the whole thing. So when I become aware I repeat what I said or ask in a way that's normal for me. Not that I have anything against the accent, it just doesn't sound natural to me to speak like them.
  21. It depends on the person I am talking too. If I'm comfortable with him/her, I'll say straight up that I don't understand the word s/he's saying then apologize or joke about it with that person. But if I'm not close to that person, then I'd simply be honest that I don't get what s/he's telling me and I would apologize. I think it is better that way rather than assume because it would put me in an embarrassing situation and him/her in an awkward place.
  22. Tagalog is a dialect and not what the national language of the Philippines is called. Technically, it is appropriate to call it Filipino as the national language of the Filipinos, the people of the Philippines. Anyway, one more consideration in using Filipino instead of Tagalog is that the latter also has different terms in certain provinces that use that as their dialect. You know, just like the Bicol dialect is to Bicolanos. Each Bicol province in the Bicol region has different terms for words that mean the same.
  23. I do think it depends on what type of learner a person is. I personally would go for books because I can relate more with text that I read. I can easily go back to a text I'm having a hard time understanding without having to pause and rewind. Watching for me is all right but it will take some time for me to process what is being communicated. Audio, especially when the language used is unfamiliar or still strange to me, will not be too understandable. But this comes a second best to me in learning a language.
  24. This is really a brilliant idea since my colleagues and I who are from different countries agreed that for one to effectively learn a language, practice is very important. We think that talking to a native speaker of a certain language will hone one's speaking and comprehension ability. It will speed up the learning process. So a language exchange buddy will serve this objective.
  25. This will be a good way to learn languages, interacting with native speakers of the language one is learning. This is especially effective to secondary students who are learning foreign languages or neophytes who would like to speak with local speakers. I will mention this site to my friends and acquaintances.
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