petrushka

My main weakness when learning a language is speaking/pronunciation. There are just sounds I don't know how to create and even when I tried learning about the creation of phonetics, if it's new to me it takes a REALLY long time to remember. Can you share your methods when you're practicing the speaking part of a new language? I'm asking specifically for French and Mandarin (because these two are next on my list and I don't have much of a problem with Spanish and Japanese) but any language will also be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

It doesn't give a wrong twist to the meaning. BOOM PANIS can be translated as BOOM ROTTEN, which is a direct translation. The receiver is ROTTEN and BOOM is because it was created by gamers and BOOM has its own etymology already. It is the local way of saying, "OWNED" or "BURN". Basically, it's saying, "Ready your burn cream cause you got wrecked." The only positive meaning it entails is for the person saying it because BOOM PANIS usually means the receiver was resoundingly defeated by the one saying it. It has evolved to have many uses different from the initial usage - and it's fading anyway - but it originally meant, "I won, you lost. Badly."

I think Jejemon is just an evolution of how to spell an already existing language rather than a coded one. You can see similar things on the internet, wherein different groups create their own "writing styles" and you can pretty much tell where they're from if you're familiar with the style they're talking in. Similar to things like "text-speak" or "chat-speak". Jejemon is like that. It builds on the existing language - whether it be Tagalog, Tagalog/English hybrid, another language indigenous to the Philippines - and those who speak it don't add any new words, don't evolve the language or use the existing language differently. They just spell it in a way that would make it incomprehensible to other people who aren't familiar with it. It's a stylistic choice rather than a coded one and even people not well-versed in it can determine what it says if they know that all you need to do is take out superfluous letters and symbols in it. Becky Speak - the language of the Gay community here - is more of a coded language than Jejemon because it's an actually spoken language that people wouldn't figure out unless they already know what the words mean (or if they figure it out based on the context of the conversation). Jejemon is more just spelling differences.

Everyday is indeed an adjective. It's synonymous to ordinary, common, or normal - something that occurs daily so it's something you might encounter every single day. This means that the word "everyday" can't really stand alone since it needs to be followed by a noun to describe. Every day is an adjetive + noun phrase wherein the word "every" is describing the noun "day". It means something that you do daily. A simple way to determine if you need to use "every day" is if the sentence still make sense when it is replaced with "each day" or, like I did in the first sentence, put a "single" between every and day and see if it still makes sense. I commute to work every day. My everyday commute is rather long. In the first sentence, you'll still understand the sentence even if you change "every day" to "each day" or putting a "single" between: I commute to work each day. I commute to work every single day. But the second wouldn't make sense like that: My each day commute is rather long. My every single day commute is rather long.

I agree with nikolic933. From what I remember, you use, "You/[Name] and I" every time the phrase is a subject and "you and me" every time the phrase is an object. You can figure it out by taking out the "you and" part and saying the sentence out loud to see if it makes sense. Using nikolic's sentences, you get: [You and] I are[am] going to the bar tomorrow. What if [you and] I don't make it on time? It won't make sense if you use the "me" in this situations would it? [You and] me are[is] going to the bar tomorrow. What if [you and] me don't make it on time? In comparison: He gave the money to me [and you]. She said that she will kill me [and you]. Similarly, using "I" here would make the sentence wrong: He gave the money to [you and] I. She said that she will kill [you and] I. I and me are easy to distinguish so just take our the conjunction and it will be easier to determine which to use.

I'm not a native English speaker but as someone who had to learn English and is currently learning Spanish, English is soooo much harder to learn. Maybe I'll change my mind when I encounter the hard verb tenses in Spanish that was mentioned but the gendered way Spanish is structured (starting from a language that doesn't denote the gender of a lot of things that even English does, even third person pronouns for example) isn't nearly as hard to me as the sometimes contradictory grammatical rules that permeate the English language. Not to mention all the borrowed words. The homonyms and the nearly identical words that have vastly different meanings. And then of course, there are those blasted contronyms. I understand that the English were conquered by -- and then themselves conquered -- a lot of countries but could they have possibly made their language more easily structured, maybe? Compared to English, I find Romance languages easier though my problem with them is usually pronunciation. Even taking into consideration that English is closer to the way my native language construct our sentences, there's so many superfluous-seeming rules that it was a task to learn it.

I have also been told that I don't have an accent when speaking English. Except I'm not a native speaker and the people who told me so are from the same nationality as me. Accents are really interesting because we consider our own way of speaking as the "default" so anyone who speaks differently is the one with an accent. Everyone has one, though, even when speaking in their native tongue. You can hear it clearer when you're aware that the way you speak comes across as vastly different to those with their own way of saying things.

Thanks for the pointers Aureliae! And also: I know you said globalization has been influencing languages, especially those which are basically the same ones, but this is a perfect example of what I was saying, that my English is mostly American with smatterings of British English (that I didn't even know were British English until it was pointed out). Because I know apartment, pyjamas and dialogue more but spell it as plow, honor and center. I have never actually encountered dialog before, huh. But thanks again and to everybodyknows and Verba too. It's so interesting to see the different words and spellings between similar languages.

I would consider that a language, actually, since Tolkien was a linguist who knows the characteristics of languages and created an entire sprawling universe basically so that there is a world for his created language. I just think that because his constructed languages follows certain rules from names to places, etc., that it is as true a language as something that can be used and learned. @ your dialect - are you sure it's simply a dialect and not a language in itself? Dialects are the varied ways a language can be spoken/used but the overarching similarities makes them under a common language. If your dialect is different enough from the surrounding areas, it might be a language in itself, might it not?

I've never changed a game's language to anything other than English, but my brother HAS bought a Japanese original before thinking it was the English released, haha! I hadn't begun learning the language yet though so it was such a bad experience to have so much anticipation, only for you not to understand anything happening. It's a video game though so at least there are visual cues. But understanding is still better in the long run.

Never heard of that game but it sounds interesting! I might give it a try when there's finished product available to the general mass. I like that it's an interactive game because a traditional type of education makes me lose interest fast. And the addition of the game + the visual aspect, I think, will make me learn faster because I read somewhere that retention is greater when there's a combination of senses being used. This might be a useful way to take advantage of that. I hope I can use a trial so I can decide if it works for me or not, though. I've had bad experiences before where I bought something but it's not fitted to my style of learning. Thanks for bringing this up!

I didn't know there was a term for those really long metaphors either, so thanks Kektheman! I thought everything that since there were so many types of figures of speech, that anything that used a metaphor, no matter how long it may run, is simply a metaphor. I'm glad I read this thread, haha! You do indeed learn something new everyday.

I don't know if that's necessarily true, though. I mean, even if it's a language that only one country speaks, if it's a country that has 20+ million population, then that's not really rare, is it? That's still 20 million people. I think rare languages are those that a normal person wouldn't have even heard of, or a language with less than 1 million speakers. I speak a language that about 28~ million people know how to speak though so I don't think it's rare, myself.

I wasn't the one who asked but thanks for this! I was looking for some just to test how much I can understand without needing to read my notes and get my dictionary so this is perfect timing. Thanks! I'll watch it in case other people recommend some more. Thanks again!

I agree with gegegeno with regards to reasons for migrating (probably not for a "better life" but more of a career/lifestyle choice so they're better prepared) and also a smaller pool of people with similar ethnicity so the need to assimilate better because of it. I also think that one of the reasons would be that Japanese people have been migrating to the US since the Victorian Era (if I'm not mistaken). Unlike Chinese, Vietnamese and the Hispanics and Latin Americans, who are probably first or second generation immigrants who fled to North America for more opportunities and a better way of living, there are a lot of third-to-fourth generation Japanese who are most likely already fluent with the language because their family has been in the US a few generations. A census also showed that Japanese-Americans are very education driven, with a high percentage studying second degrees and being a lot being a part of Ivy Leagues both as students and faculty. So I would assume that they would work harder in general than other to be fluent in the language. It's not really comparable to English in Japan either. In Japan, English is learned early in life but retention isn't really stellar. Retention depends on constant usage and the language being around you, even outside the classroom and those aren't common. Unless someone has a knack for languages or a love for it, a common Japanese highschool student, for example, wouldn't really be fluent in it.

I don't know... maybe it can help in sharpening your listening skills? I don't think it helps much apart from that though, and maybe in widening your vocabulary with regards to the most common words and phrases. Have you ever watched anime in your native language and wondered why some of the voice actors were so exaggerated in their speaking manners? Anime is like that, because obviously, the seiyuu are acting through their voices. I think it might be more helpful to watch Japanese movies and tv shows because they're less exaggerated from what I've seen. Unless it's an obviously campy show. Then of course exaggeration is key. Subtitles are also not something that can be relied on because translation work takes into account the audience. If the audience is English speaking, sometimes English-popular metaphors are used even if it's not a direct transliteration of what was said. Subitles -- even scanlations -- are often not direct, literal translations of the words -- they take the lines and transform them to what an English person will understand so there will be some nuance lost that might not be fitting when talking to an actual Japanese person. It's useful in common phrases though I think. Can't get wrong with the most common ones... maybe.

It's not really untranslatable because there are approximations but the name suffixes (e.g., -san, -kun, -chan) and personal pronouns are rather hard to convey in English since some don't have a direct translation. Not to mention which suffix is used can denote the relationship type between two people and which personal pronoun is used can be a distinguish character of a person. I mean, I doubt a normal Japanese person will introduce themselves as "俺さま" but anyone who might already gives off a feeling of their personality, doesn't it? Similarly, when you call someone "-chan" and both of you are not toddlers/young children, it gives a feeling of closeness. I've seen this sometimes translated to as "[name] dear" but while it fits some situations, it doesn't really fit in with others. If you're supposed to meet people for business and you see two business-attired people with no hint in their body language of whose higher in the hierarchy, you can figure out who's who by listening if someone addresses themselves as "boku" or if someone address the other by "-kun". How do you translate that in English, right?

I tried this for a short time while studying for college to get some extra income on the side. It wasn't on skype though, the company I signed with have their own program to use with timestamps and their own voice-over-ip program. I was so nervous starting because English is my second language, not my first, but more than my accent, the students really just want someone to converse with to practise their listening and speaking skills as well as to maybe widen their vocabularies when they hear me say something they're not familiar with. When a new word interests them, I explain what it means, shows them how it's spelled and in what cases the word can be used. Then we either talk more about that new vocabulary word they learned or we continue our conversation for their conversation skills. It wasn't as stressful as I was expecting but speaking in a second language can be hard when you do it continuously all the time. I had to stop when I got full-time work because I just wanted to rest or have fun once work was done. I might try it again now though. Wonder if they're still hiring.

My bucket list is... kind of vague right now, haha, but I'll be fleshing it out more when I've made a headway in the languages I am currently learning. I'm a slow learner so I'm not sure when that is, but I'm optimistic and I really want to be a polyglot so... Right now, I'm focusing on 2 languages because anymore and I can't concentrate. These 2 are: - Japanese: JLPT5 - Spanish: A2 or B1, not really sure which I fall on hmm. My future plans are: - one more European (not really a priority) - one more Asian (Chinese/Mandarin maybe? Kinda interested for business stuff) - one with Cyrillic writing - one from the Mediterranean - one either from South Asia or the Middle East My end goal is to learn at least one popular language in every continent, haha.

Disclaimer: I self-study so I don't know if this has any basis in anything; please take with a grain of salt, haha. I've found writing kanji by hand pretty useful because it greatly helps with memory retention. The act of writing kanji in the correct stroke order makes the actual kanji easier to remember because memorization is needed in the stroke order itself. I've always found that writing kanji over and over again makes it easier to understand other people's handwritten kanji because I get used to the small differences made when a similar looking kanji is written in a different stroke order. Even with simple katakana, it was always so annoying how similar looking ン is with ソ and シ with ツ sometimes even ノ if the handwriting is small/messy enough. But writing it out has helped me and I hardly get confused by them anymore.

I'll have to agree with the consensus that a valuable language is something that you would need in your everyday life -- not just for communication but also for retention since language fades over time. So if you're in America, it would most likely be Spanish because of how widespread it is, and if you're in a country with a high percentage of French speakers, then it would be French. I want to have a business in the future so I think for people like me, the most valuable languages to learn would be Mandarin and Japanese. Mandarin because a lot of business trade and deal with the Chinese market, and Japanese because they're currently the number one investors in my country and I'd want to speak with them without losing much nuance like I would if we converse in English.

I think this is more the probable maximum for people who didn't have to grow in a multilingual environment though, don't you think? Because someone whose native language is English would need to learn two more languages, as opposed to someone who's had to learn their native language AND the English language since they were children. If they had an interest in learning a language, they'd have the advantage of time because they grew up bi- or multilingual already. People like your mother whose native language is not the official language of their country would be sometimes be raised knowing three languages to boot, since they'd need to know their native ones (Cebuano), the official one (like Tagalog/Filipino) and English and sometimes, a dialect or so as well.

Right? Like centre/center and spectre/specter. And the usually 'u' with honour/honor, favourite/favorite, etc. I am also more familiar with pavement than sidewalk which I just recently been told is more common in British English than the American one. I think the internet is making things more muddled because different people from different countries with different ways to write English are conversing everyday and influencing each other. I remember having read the Harry Potter books before (the UK version) and having a discussion with someone who read the US version and the different things that were changed so people with varying English knowledge can understand it better, haha.

I'd like to second duolingo since it helps you in listening, speaking, writing and reading but I'd recommend that you turn off the speech practice unless you're okay with randomly speaking up when it prompts you to voice out a phrase. Also - I haven't tried this yet really but someone recommended Word Bucket to me and told me that it's a fun way to learn a language since it incorporates learning with a game-like interface that makes the process fun. And there's always Anki. The community has a lot of premade decks that you can download depending on your studying habits. There are decks that focus on listening to speech, some on written phrases and other still in both. It's been very useful to me so far. Good luck!

I'm still learning Japanese so I had to look slander up on a dictionary, haha. Anyone more fluent is free to correct me: 嘘と讒誣 (うそとざんぶ - uso to zanbu) PS: 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.