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It would certainly help, but I don't think it would be enough. In my opinion, you'd still be best off having some form of interaction so as to practice your oral and communication skills. Your understanding of the language would probably improve, through your listening skills improving. Also, it may help you with pronunciation. But you still need other aspects of the learning experience.

Hey takibari No, thank God, I'm not friends with any of these people at all! I wouldn't associate with people like that because I have a very strong sense of identity, and I'm very comfortable in my own skin and with who I am. I agree entirely with you, they'd have to have had a very traumatic experience in which they banged their heads, in order to have "amnesia" of this magnitude! But realistically speaking, how could all these people have gone through such an ordeal?! -and don't let's forget the same types of people Sidney mentioned in her own country, thousands of miles aways from me hehe. I think we'll never solve the mystery to this one, sadly

Honestly? I wouldn't rely solely on it because it's not always accurate. I'd happily use it for my own personal use, but for anything work related. Is it just me or is there another thread about this?!

If you take my native language Setswana and English for instance, I'd have to say a lot. You make a good point when you say some languages don't have certain word or concept equivalents in another. Setswana tends to go round the houses to convey a very simple idea, whereas English is very economical by comparison. Some ideas are better expressed in setswana to get the full effect and vice versa, so quite often you'll find people in Botswana mixing English and Setswana. -and sadly with the young, it's even worse; they much prefer to communicate in English.

I personally wouldn't trust it! I have to laugh at some of the things it comes out with, even with English and French; and it gets worse with my language and English! Most of the time it's gibberish that doesn't make any sense, or it goes off on a tangent altogether. I wouldn't trust it for serious work related stuff at all.

I agree with the previous posters, they really covered all there is to say! It's that easy. All you have to bear in mind is that if you are qualifying a speculative situation (e.g. what could happen, what might have happened, and what we wish would happen) then you would use the conditional "If I were", "If she were" etc. "I was" generally describes something that actually happened or was happening in the past; as in "I watched.." or past continuous "I was watching..".

This is a very good point that someone else made! of course it's best they learn it from being a baby because then it becomes second nature, it becomes embedded in their heads and they grow up to speak the language naturally; effectively making them 'native" speakers in a sense.

Yes, I guess it's quite like that in my country; most households are bilingual. English is also the official language, so the bilingual family setup is quite the norm.

-and that Dora M is the point we're trying to make! You've been gone 20 years, and are probably not surrounded by people who speak your language. Very much like me when I lived in England; I very rarely had the opportunity to speak my language. I only got to speak it when I called home, like say once a month. So it's understandable that you would forget some words, and become a little rusty. But for people to claim they can't speak it anymore is very WEIRD lol I just feel sorry for some of these people's families, because some of them are just simple, barely educated people; who don't speak a jot of English! So it's a mystery as to how they communicate with them!

I agree with you on all those points! I think it's extremely sad when people do that, because it points to them having a severe identity crisis, almost like they are not happy within themselves about who they are, and have to project this I lived abroad, and I'm now superior because I forgot my language and now speak with an affected English/American accent. I find it disingenuous, embarrassing and SAD. What makes me laugh is that some of these people don't even speak good English. I know a classic example of someone who lived in an area of England where the accent is very distinct and they have their own dialect. This is what she puts on, and it comes off as very affected and not quite what she's going for. I guess she's relegated the quality of her English to the back burner while she focuses on the fake accent and the affected dialect; which can't be easy at all!

Thank you so much for so eloquently explaining this to the forum, takibari. I'm also of the opinion that at ages 18-21, you language skills are so IMPRINTED (I too like that word. I like posh English words, don't you lol?) that it's highly impossible to forget your language to the point where you can't speak it and/or understand it! I was gone 13 years (granted I was older than 18-21 when I left), and although I was a little rusty at first when I returned; it took me say about a week for my brain to re-adjust! That's why I pointed out in one of my earlier comments, that the brain is too powerful a tool for that to happen. it's just NOT feasible.

I have to agree with everyone here, and I know you probably don't want to hear it; but even still, It's all about repetition. So you're right; practice, practice, practice because as cliched as it is, practice makes perfect! Where possible I'd also recommend you find German speakers and interact more with them. I know I'm not very good with all this, but sadly, it is a very effective way of improving your spoken language.

That's so true! Younger children are also not shy about things such as language learning. They're not as self conscious, they just get on with it, and probably retain things in their brain better.

Wow, that's fantastic! -and Danish is not an easy language to learn. My dad is Danish, and the few expressions he tried to teach me were so hard, I just couldn't grasp it! The language seems to have pronunciations that I have never ever come across. Although I suppose you could say the same for all Scandinavian languages!

I'm sure this very question was asked fairly recently, like last week? Unless I'm having a deja vu moment lol Anyway, to answer the question; when I was learning French, I didn't have any French speaking friends or even acquaintainces around me. It was only years later that I met and became friends with a couple of French people. They didn't speak a jot of my native language, but our common language was English. They did help me with my French if I asked.

Excuse my ignorance takibari, but I just wondered if there were any similarities between Filipino and Korean, or are they as different as chalk and cheese? You must be very good at it though, if you're able to watch Korean movies and TV!

It's amazing just how similar your country is to mine in many different ways! The brain is such a powerful instrument, I honestly doubt this is possible. I find it very sad that people would view their language as being somehow inferior to a foreign language. I don't know about the Philippines, but in Botswana these people are not actually viewed in a good light or even envied. They are ridiculed and viewed as being pretentious. Some of them tire of keeping up the facade and end up mysteriously remembering the language lol

Yes, very odd indeed Trellum! I just can't wrap my head around it at all. The sad part is that some of these people have parents who can't really speak English. I'd like to be a fly on their wall to see how they actually communicate with their parents!

Wow, takibari, it very interesting you should say that! I love languages, and I'm actually curious about Filipino if you say it's easy for foreigners to learn! I'll have to check it out and see how I fare lol

I chose French because for the longest time, as I was growing up I'd see so many French books around me that would really entice me, but which of course I couldn't read. I was fascinated by the unique letters and always hoped to learn the language some day. So as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I was straight in there. The other language I chose was Italian, because I love all things Italian. Also, I went there many years ago as an au pair, and most people around me didn't speak English. When I started learning it, I found I actually enjoyed it even more than French. But I love both languages.

I really like your answer, takibari! I think it explains why my classmate beat us all at French, by a clear mile. We obviously were all interested, but where she had one up on us was aptitude. I wish I had a very aptitude for languages **sigh**

I thought I was very interested in languages, but this girl clearly beat me hands down lol I think that may be where I hold myself back, although not by design; FEAR of failure. I need to embrace the expression practice makes perfect a bit more!

She had zero knowledge of French and as I understood, we were all starting from scratch. But like you say, she must just have had a strong affinity to the language and took to it like a duck to water! It was amazing to watch. She wasn't ever shy about speaking it either, she just breezed through it!