lushlala

Language changes and evolves over time, because it isn't static. It changes to take into account trends and modern times, so that you'll find new words come into the vocabulary, while some die out. It's not something that we 'consciously' change ourselves, it inevitably happens over time. Somehow, I don't see how we can divorce language from the cultural aspect. I think you'll find a lot of people who are interested in their chosen foreign language, are by the same token equally as interested in the culture of the people who speak that language. Of course, some may not be interested at all, but I'm willing to bet that that number is negligible compared to those who are.

Eh no I didn't just lose interest LOL Life happened and for reasons I'd rather not go into, some thing took precedence over my interest in language learning. Sadly that meant I had to put it in the back burner for a while, and a while just kept getting longer and longer. it's nice to know that i may soon have the option of going back to my learning, because it's something I've wanted to do for ages RE the history between the dutch and Indonesian; that's very interesting! I never knew about it, and it seems pretty random LOL

I'd say that would be a great set of languages to learn! I often see many job adverts wanting those languages, and these are usually very well paid jobs, too. So I'd say keep at it and good luck in learning all three

I agree it's such a cool language; so ancient yet still relevant in some professions. It's a great shame that it doesn't seem very popular, which makes me wonder if it's in part due to its complexity. I used to work for one of the biggest exams board in the UK, and its schools offered a wide array of 'modern foreign languages' among them Latin (I know, but that's what they called them!) Latin wasn't very popular among high school students. The most popular ones were French, Spanish, German, Italian, Hindi and Urdu (no particular order). The real surprise for me was both Mandarin and Cantonese, which seemed to grow in popularity year on year!

I know! It's just crazy. It must be extra hard to try and learn it as a grown up, but I find it very fascinating! Imagine trying to memorise all those images! It would certainly be interesting to give it a go and find out exactly how difficult it is.

I'm glad to see that the tide is turning and the snobbery towards non-native English teachers is slowly but surely disappearing I guess i'm even more aware of the situation because English is my second language, and I'm a trained English teacher myself. In my country we have many professionally trained English teachers who are fully capable, too. It would be such a shame to see so many qualified English teachers across the world go to waste because of some ill-conceived notion that because English is not their first language, they couldn't possibly effectively teach the language. Long may this continue

Hehe you made me laugh with that! I love the sound of Swahili, it sounds like such a beautiful language. I don't even have to understand what they're saying, because it sounds ever so melodic to my ears! But no, I don't know anything like what you're describing in Setswana.

I find it interesting that some idioms are very similar across different languages. These are the ones that i find easy to remember ça coûte les yeux de la tête English equivalent- It costs an arm and a leg. Appeller un chat un chat English equivalent- to call a spade a spade

I agree with everything you've said. In fact, this is my favourite way of learning, that alongside the typical classroom setup. I've always said that if I could, I'd go the immersion way every time. If money weren't an object, I'd just take a year or two out and go and live among the people and soak up their language and culture. I'd prefer to go where there's little to no English spoken, to force me into learning faster, too.

@111kg, I like the idea of watching videos/movies in the chosen language, because it helps a lot with the pronunciation side of things. I don't know if it's just me, but my only snag is that the conversation always seems so fast it's hard to keep up LOL I don't know if it's because I'm not quite there yet or if speakers of other languages speak fast. But I guess there's the benefit of stopping and starting each time you miss something.

@Mouad, I think you've got your man. I think he's probably the best help you can hope for

Like someone said, Google translate is better than nothing and is probably best for translating individual words as opposed to huge chunks of text. There's been quite a few times where it's let me down with its inaccuracies. I'd urge people to use it with extreme caution.

I was quite looking forward to reading the article! It's such a shame that it's in German, a language I don't know I bet it makes for very interesting reading, too.

My language skills are as follows: Setswana: Native speaker English: near native, I've spoken it all my life, It's the most commonly spoken language and official language of Botswana. French: A1 (studied for 5 years at university, studied in France for 3 months) Now rather rusty Italian: A1 studied for a year, then spent 3 months in Italy with sole purpose of learning the language. Now rather rusty

@Chris_A...I can believe that, because there aren't many people known to speak the language. I only know of one person, a lawyer, who's know to speak it relatively well here. I guess they have to take it as part of their training.

I don't know what they all mean but I too have always admired Chinese and Japanese scripts. They look like art to me, and I always wonder if anyone writing in those scripts could be considered to have bad handwriting LOL? -and how long it takes to write?

This is a great idea, but probably too advanced for new learners. I think once they've learnt the basic and have laid the foundation to their language of choice, it's then easier to get them to write stories, or compositions as we used to call them in school. In fact, when I was in school, this was a part of your language learning anyway. You had writing, reading, oral and listening skills and comprehension. The writing also involved writing short texts on a selection of topics. It was good because the teacher would then mark it and tell you where you went wrong and what he/she liked about it, how to improve etc.

Each time I've learnt a new language, I always found that repetition and continuous practice is what really works for me. Although it can take a while to stick, especially with the more difficult words, once the words stick, they really do stick. I've also found that learning words by association works for me. It could even be something that doesn't make any sense to anyone else but me, because it's just a neat little way to help me remember things easily.

I agree with those who say it's all about having the creativity and a good imagination, being able to tell a story. Many people with a very good command of the English langue can't write creatively. Quite simply put, creative writing is a skill that sadly we aren't all blessed with. I'm an ok writer, but don't feel I could successfully write creatively

I totally agree with you, missbookwork! I lived in Bolton, a town in North West England for thirteen years and the people always told me I spoke 'posh English', even though I clearly have a non-English accent. This is because regional dialects don't always observe the formal language rules. This is why I sometimes worry when all these countries insist on recruiting any native speaker over someone who speaks English as a second language but who also has the qualifications to teach English. I think you'd have to visit different British towns to really get a feel of exactly what I mean. A few of my English friends even struggled with written English skills.

I'm with you there, Sidney I would rather tell my teacher about my appreciation of his/her help, or get them a thank you card. I agree too that if you can spare the money and you had a fantastic teacher, that your idea wouldn't be a bad one.

Wow, I feel sorry for you and hope that you do get your mojo back. I'm lucky enough never to have had that happen to me. But I'm hopeful that you'll regain your drive and passion, you just need to regroup and start over. Maybe a mini break away from the lessons would help in re-energising you?

I've never done any of them. Where will you be taking them? Maybe do a Google search or speak directly with your provider and see if they can help in distinguishing between them all and hopefully helping you make your decision.

At the moment i'm not learning any new languages. All I've ever wanted to learn is French, and then later on I also fell in love with Italian. It wasn't so much for fun, but really to learn the languages with a view to actually becoming near fluent.

I can't seem to think of anything off the top of my head! Maybe my language is not that special LOL Anyway, my language is Setswana, a version of which is also spoken by some people in South Africa. It has a lot of guttural sounds and weird combinations such as mph-, which a lot of foreigners struggle with pronouncing.