humanoid

Yes, I'm British! I'm at a strange place with my Polish right now - I can understand someone telling me about their work experience and education but there's no way I could follow a conversation about, say, shopping or movies just yet. My classes are very business-language oriented and it's full of people like me who are learning for career advancement. I suppose you could say I'm doing it for the money and that's a great motivator!

I'm learning my fourth language at the age of 38. I learnt French and German at the same time at school and I have to say that learning just one language seems far harder now. Prior to this, I hadn't studied for many years so I expect this is really what's been making things seem more difficult.

I'm currently learning Polish, Not really for fun but because there's been a large influx of Poles coming to my city and the surrounding area. I work in the office of a recruitment agency and we work with a lot of them. I'd like to be able to communicate more effectively with them. It would do my promotion prospects a big favour too!

I'm a native English speaker and I have to say, if we'd used "wanna" and "gonna" etc. in class, we'd have got a telling off for being lazy and not speaking "proper English". However, it's certainly beneficial to understand informal terms such as these. Most of us use them and if it deepens a student's understanding of the language then it has to be worth it.

The link you provided doesn't seem to be working. Do I need a Soundcloud account to access it?

I find that writing is really important. Like others have already mentioned, the act of writing helps me remember the words. It's like a postsitive reinforcement.

When I said "formal", I meant there were no idiomatic expressions, colloquialisms or slang words taught at school. Nothing to do with the actual rules of the language.

It's not called "British English" though, it's just called "English". English-speaking settlers took the language over to the US.

Apples, oranges and pears is correct. You don't need a comma before the word "and" as the word acts as a separator in its own right.

"May I" is defintely more formal than "Can/could I" but both of these expressions are considered polite. One thing we don't say when asking for things in the UK is "Can I get an OJ please?". That's an Americanism and is never used here. A native English speaker would say "Can/could I have an OJ please?".

I bet I would have been one of those people you couldn't understand! Whilst a neutral English accent sounds very clear and easy to understand, the regional differences are huge and can be very confusing. I have a very strong regional accent and other Brits can tell which city I come from as soon as I open my mouth. Whilst the US has it's regional variations too, they seem to be far more subtle than those in the UK.

How about "He ran out of the room like a rat up a drainpipe", meaning that he ran out of the room very quickly indeed! There's also "monkeying around" which means someone is behaving in a very silly manner, much like a monkey would do.

I can't say I've really had this issue with native speakers. The only problems I really encounter is when I ask someone a question on French or German and they reply to me in English! I know people are just trying to be helpful but I want to practise my languages whenever I can. Maybe they just want the chance to speak some English themselves, who knows?

I prefer a proper book too. There's just something about having the book in your hand and turning the pages that I like. I've never got on with e-readers at all. I suspect that, as long as you are reading in a well lit area, books are kinder to the eyes too.

I have a couple of "language" friends on Facebook who I've met through different groups. One speaks French, the other two are German and we talk in our native languages to give each other a chance to practise. We're all interested in soccer so that gives us a common ground.