Tyrell

Oh my, I'm very sorry! My eyes were strained (I don't work well with an all white background and I couldn't find an option to change the theme) so I couldn't focus properly. God, I'm blind. To answer the question though, yes there is. I was reading up on languages and apparently in Irish there is no 'Yes' or 'No'. Let me quote it here. -- THERE'S NO "YES" OR "NO" IN IRISH. There are no words for "yes" or "no" in Irish, but that doesn't mean there's no way to answer a question. You communicate "yes" and "no" with a verb form. The answer to "did they sell the house?" would be "(they) sold " or "(they) didn't sell." In Irish: Ar dhíol sian an teach? Dhíol. Níor dhíol. -- So I suppose that's an alternative way of saying 'Yes' and 'No'. But for Indonesian, which is my mother tongue, I can at least confirm that the words that I mentioned earlier, 'Ya' for 'Yes' and 'No' for 'Tidak' is all we have for 'Yes' and 'No'.

Yes. In my native language 'Yes' is 'Ya' and 'No' is 'Tidak'. I can't believe some languages don't have 'Yes' or 'No' though. Like that must be very confusing for it's speakers. I genuinely wonder how they communicate effectively without those words considering how vital they are in a normal and standard daily conversation.

Completely and absolutely irrelevant. I'm an avid book reader and I've never once refused to read a certain book because of it's writer. The only exception for this would probably if the author had said something offensive about something that I like or very firmly believe in, then he or she would be instantly banned from my life because I really don't like those kind of people and I refuse to support them with my hard-earned money. Will I still read the book? Probably, if it's good. I don't believe a name is a reason to miss out on something good.

Does anyone? Yes, of course. Me, personally? No. I've never any had online lessons for anything - not even languages. I think they're generally rather pointless and ineffective so I try to stay away from them. Plus if anything, there are a ton of ways that you could learn a language for free. I feel a little bit cheap saying that but yeah no, I wouldn't spend money on an online language course.

I didn't even know there were language holidays! I mean I knew that every day is literally a holiday according to Google, but I didn't think that there would be holidays based on languages. Makes me wonder if people do actually celebrate these. World Poetry Day sounds fun though! I'd dig that.

Nope, not at all. It depends though, because most people travel to vacation, so their mindset is obviously set to relaxing and having fun, not learning the language. It also depends on whether the guy travelling have some sort of knowledge about the language of the country he's visiting in the first place. But either way, I don't think it's very effective. When you travel, you're usually in the country that you're visiting for a very short time, a few days to a week at most, and that's not enough time to really try to better your language comprehension/fluency.

I'd say Arabic. I've read multiple times that it's been named the hardest language to learn. Take a look at this link that I got from a quick Google search: http://www.effectivelanguagelearning.com/language-guide/language-difficulty The more common languages like Dutch, Portuguese and Spanish ranks in Category I with an estimated time of learning of 23-24 weeks (575-600 hours) as they are among the closest to English (assuming you're a Native English speaker). German comes next in Category II with 30 weeks (750 hours), and then there's Indonesian, Malaysian and Swahili in Category III with 36 weeks (900 hours). Two of the languages you're learning, Slovak and Russian, are both in Category IV with 44 weeks (1100 hours).. and then there's Arabic in Category V with 88 weeks (2200 hours), along with Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese and Korean. These languages are, directly quoting the website, "Languages which are exceptionally difficult for native English speakers."

Find French and Arabic forums. You'll be surprised to know how much they will help you maintain your language fluency. I've spent the last few years (five to be exact, going six) in a non-English speaking country, but I've also spent all those time on English forums like Linguaholic. Find forums that covers your interest, and start posting there. For example, my biggest interests are music and TV series, so I've been spending the last few years on a few forums that covers them. You might want to note that you're not a native French/Arabic speaker though, because people can be jerks and they might bully you for not being fluent at the language.

That depends on where we're talking about. In the US, probably not much, there are millions of people who can speak those languages fluently (most probably even more than you), so yeah no, I don't think it's even a factor in your wage. And if it does make a dent, it still won't be much. If we're talking Asian countries though, then A LOT. Singapore is literally the only country with English as the official language. Most Asians really just speak their native language, and they don't really bother with English. Those who do speak English aren't fluent at it. Meaning if you can speak English there you're a valuable asset, given that you avoid Singapore, Philippines and maybe India. Remember to the currency conversion rate into account though.

"Like, I don't know. He is, like, oh my God, it's great. But I'm not sure. Is it, like, really that good for him?" GUILTY. It's ridiculous how infectious filler words are. I was actually one of those people who thought that they're stupid.. but then I made a fatal mistake of using them ironically. I wanted to make fun of the stereotypical Starbucks-holding American white girls (sorry if any of you find that offensive, it was an inside joke with my group of friends. And no I'm not racist - they're white). That was my downfall. NEVER use anything ironically, no matter what. You WILL get used to it eventually and before you know it, you're using it like, all the time. Nowadays I just try to embrace it. It's kind useless to fight it because eventually you're gonna use it again anyway. It's one thing if the people around you (both in real life and online) don't use them because then it'll much be easier to stop using them, but since pretty much everyone use them everywhere, you're fully exposed to it and it's impossible to fight. It's like trying to swim against the current.

I agree. Making subtitles can be very tricky at times so being more than 'good enough' at the language is often necessary. I'm not passionate about subtitles (I know a few people online who are though), but I'm almost a hundred percent sure that it's related to languages. Like you said, we need 'true knowledge' about the language to do it right, so yes I'm pretty sure it's related to languages.

Definitely English. It's pretty rare to find someone who's fluent in English here. A lot of people can speak English, but they're far from fluent at it. In fact, they still mess up.. everything. So it's really an advantage to be fluent in English. The main reason why there aren't many fluent English speakers is because those who are fluent are no longer in the country. Most of them have moved to other countries - Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, Korea, the US, etc. This is because the fluent English speakers usually have a rich background and have very little appreciation for the country. Many don't even identify themselves as Indonesian anymore.

I usually feel just fine. This might sound a bit weird, but I never really worried about tests or the like. Most of the time I just remain relaxed and do what I need to do, and.. just get it over with. I can get a little bit nervous waiting for the results, but not during or before the exam itself. Even getting nervous waiting for the results is mostly because I was afraid of my parents' reaction. I was afraid that they would be angry and all that jazz. They never are though, probably why I'm relaxed most of the time.

Calling English the easiest language ever would be a little far fetched, don't you think? If they were that easy I don't think anyone would be making grammatical errors. Among the easiest, sure, but definitely not the easiest. In fact, most of the people I've met seem to think that English is incredibly hard. My former classmates for example, struggled in English.

i'm 100% certain learning a new language in fifteen minutes is impossible. You could learn a few words and/or sentences, sure, but the entire language? No. In fact, I don't even think you can learn a new language (and master it) in two weeks. You'd have to be an absolute and total genius to be able to do that. Hell, even they take weeks to master the language. So conclusion? No. Absolutely not.

My native language is Indonesian, so yes, I do think in English. I don't 'try' to do it, it just happen naturally for me. In fact, I seem to think in English way more than I do in my own language. I get a bit confused between the two sometimes though.

Fortunately for me, I have a lot of free time so I never really had to 'find' time to study. It always comes down to motivation.. which seems to be the thing that I'm lacking. I always get myself occupied in unnecessary things and spend my time on things that I don't really need to do. Kind of unfortunate but that's how it is with me. I'm still trying to focus on the language that I'm trying to learn though.

Not really no. I've never gone to any of these meet-ups, and I don't think I want to. They just seem awkward to me. If it works for others and help them learn their desired languages better then I say go on and do it, but I don't think it'd work very well for me. I'd just be all shy and end up making the entire thing awkward, and I don't plan to ruin anyone's learning experience anytime soon. That or I'd back out the moment I pronounce something wrong.

I'm an introvert and I have no problem learning new languages. In fact, I remember my English teacher saying that I was the most enthusiastic student (to learn)! I've always been interested in languages (and learning them, of course) so i suppose it was never that much of a problem for me. It's probably true that it's harder for a lot of introverts to learn, but I don't believe that it's impossible.

Happened to me once. That wasn't exactly the scenario though. It was more of like, "Good morning, I'd like a bottle of mineral water, please." And then they reply "Sorry?" and then you repeat what you just said and they're just like, "...Sorry?" and then you just give up, said "Nevermind" and leave the store. I think it's safe to say that I wanted to die at very moment from the embarrassment Never again.

You wan an English joke? Try David Cameron. Just kidding. He is a joke though. I like knock knock jokes the most. But other than that, here's some: I think I want a job cleaning mirrors. It's just something I could really myself doing.What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot."Could you please call me a taxi?" "You're a taxi."If you ever get cold, just stand in a corner for a bit. They're usually around 90 degrees.What's blue and smells like red paint? Blue paint.My grandpa has the heart of a lion, and a lifetime ban from the zoo.Two cats are swimming across a river. One is named "One two three" and the other is named "Un deux trois". Who makes it across? One two three, because Un deux trois cat sank.Did you hear about the two guys that stole a calendar? They each got six months.Got them from a popular joke site called 9Gag. Yes, I re-typed them.

I tend to study daily. I've noticed that if I skip a day I'd start forgetting the words that I just learned. Happened to me with Spanish, which I'm currently learning now. It's a bit hard to do it though, because you need the motivation and stuff like that, which I often lack. I get distracted a lot so I always end up 'pushing' my study schedule back. I just keep pushing it back until it's the next day haha. In fact the last time I learned Spanish was last Sunday, and now in 40 minutes it's Wednesday so it's technically been three days already. I'm gonna have a lot of catching up to do.

My second language is English, so.. Merry Christmas. Well, that was kind lame so I'll give you the translation for 'Merry Christmas' in my first/native language instead, which is Indonesian: 'Selamat natal'. Don't try to break it down though, because it gets a bit weird when you do that. The word 'Selamat' means 'congratulations' or 'happy' (as in 'Happy birthday!') and 'natal' means 'Christmas' in English. So it's like 'Happy Christmas', which is really weird.

I personally practice listening by listening (duh) to music in that language and watching movies in that language (with subtitles, of course). For example, I'm currently learning Spanish so I've been listening to artists like J Balvin, Nicky Jam, Daddy Yankee, Wisin and more. I'd open up the translation for the lyrics and read them as the line is sung. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

I've experienced this as well. I've been forced to say that I'm a bear and that we are turtles. I'm not kidding. I even took a screenshot: It's funny because it's so bad Duolingo actually has a Twitter account dedicated to them, called @sh-tduosays (Sh-t Duolingo Says). I personally follow them on Twitter, their tweets are hilarious. "Há três mulheres no banheiro de meu pai. - There are 3 women in my father's bathroom." "Die Schweiz ist ohne Hoffnung. - Switzerland is without hope." "Ich biete Euch meinen Körper an. - I offer you my body."