Lingua Franca

Yes it is, there was great scientist that won the noble physics prize in 1922. If we have to go according to this notion of stereo types that's all he could do, the thing is he also won a Olympic gold medal. His name was Niels Bohr. I don't think people should put kids into one or other type of group.

The language they use in movies and tv series is not exactly the same as the that one you use at home or in your day to day life. It is a good way to learn pronunciation, just as long as you remember that it can be a great help.

That is a terrible idea, how can you create two groups like this. What if someone is good at the two areas do they cut them in half and put half in each group?

i don't think there is a translation tool that is 100% accurate fortunately. There are some that are better then others but most will make your eyes bleed.

I think it's essential, it can change the meaning of a sentence completely and lead to some misunderstandings. It's obvious that if you have a very heavy foreign accent people will be more tolerant to how you pronounce the words. Hopefully you will meet people that will correct you, that can be a great help to perfect your language skills.

When people go to a dentist they already feel uneasy so if you have to go up to them and asking them questions about their word choice it might not work out well. On the other hand if she was relaxed and looked friendly I probably might ask her. After all the chances of seeing her again wouldn't be very good.

I think that it really comes down to the country that you are talking about, if you look at the most spoken languages in the world you will find that they are the most represented online. So people from Ireland, France, Portugal, Spain and the UK probably will find what they are looking for in their native tongue. The languages that are less spoken probably will do more searches in a alternative language.

Anyone that speaks more then one language will use words from another language without realizing it. I can't tell you the amount of times I am speaking to someone and you just see the person crease their brow and just stare at me. I often have to back track trying to figure out which was the word that I used that the person didn't understand.

It is probably the first greatest influence you will have. After having some more knowledge of the language and coming into contact with native speakers you will get new influences. All languages have accents and the one that you will pick up first will be your teachers.

Google translator is not that good, I used them to translate some text a short time ago, but fortunately understood the language I was translating too. I spent just as much time correcting the errors as if I had translated it myself. Unfortunately there are no easy solutions, your friend might get a general understanding of what you are saying but not more then that.

It really comes down to the document, if it's technical a word for word approach would be better. On the other hand if it's literature you might run into some problems translating the text word for word and still keep the same meaning.

It really comes down to language families. The closer the languages are the easier they are to understand. I couldn't help noticing that you are a native Tswana speaker so if you had to speak to someone that spoke sesotho it would be much easier for you to understand then someone that spoke French for instance.

As the say never say never, you might think you will never visit the country but you never know. Yes, I most certainly learn a language of a country that I am not planing to visit. Just because you don't visit the country doesn't mean that you won't meet people from that country or see movies or books from there.

Time is also a factor, if a child starts learning another language when he is 10 years old and doesn't stop studding it, by the time he is 18 years old he has invested 8 years into learning the language. I doubt there will be many adults that are willing to spend this amount of time learning a language.

It has great deal to do with language families. The closest language to English is Frisian, this said that doesn't mean that you will understand it, believe me I tried. The language next in line is Dutch, the thing is, because England had been invaded by the French, it had a very strong impact on the language. To try to remove this French influence there were some English scholars that tried to replace the French words with Latin ones. So modern day English has a Germanic base with a great deal of Old French and Latin words and, oh yes, I nearly forgot the strong Scandinavian influence, not to mention all the loan words. I'm glad you mentioned Afrikaans, I am sure that you have heard this phrase before. My hand is in warm water (English) My hand is in warm water (Afrikaans - "which means My hand is in hot water" in English) Even though the two languages are written in a similar way the pronunciation is completely different.

I was going to say no but if I think more clearly I suppose I do. Maybe not to a large extent, but I think you do pick up on mannerisms that might be associated to the country that the language you are speaking comes from. If I speak a Romance language I use my hands a little bit more then I would if I was speaking a Germanic language. I think that when you learn a language you are not limited to the language itself, you also learn a bit of the culture and that shows when you speak.

I think it doesn't mater how many languages you learn. We will always have that core language that will come out under a extreme situation or when our emotions get the better of us. It's the language that is you don't have to think about, the words come out without you realizing that you said anything.

How old are theses books? I'm asking this because in the past it could have happened more frequently. Sometimes people had very little time to translate full books and never did do a recheck to make sure that everything was in order, not only that but now days we have the benefit of spell checkers that makes everything easier and faster.

I agree, I think you brought up a very valid point. Maths can be considered a language in it's own right, even though when most people think of maths the first thing that pops into their heads is arithmetic. Maths is much more then that and that old idea that two mathematicians might not understand each others language but are able to communicate with one another through mathematical ideas can be valid.

I think it's wiser to start with one language at first. When you start to feel comfortable with that language, you can start with the language. Unless you feel that you won't confuse the two languages. In that case there is no reason why you can't learn the two at the same time.

A spelling bees is when you are in front of an audience and you are given certain words to spell out loud. If a contestant misspells the word they are eliminated from the competition until only one person is left. That person will win the spelling bee.

Not all jokes are translatable but there are some that are. It really comes down to how the joke is told. Just a side note, the bus and snot joke is English. I didn't translate it from another language. Why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side.

The easiest way to distinguish European Portuguese from Brazilian Portuguese is by the sounds that Brazilian Portuguese has but European Portuguese doesn't. e.g. Di is pronounced J like in Jeep Ti is pronounced chee like in cheese Te is pronounced chi like in chip There are certain sounds that are used in the same manner in European Portuguese as they are in Brazilian Portuguese. In Brasilian Portuguese you don't end its words with hard "L's" and is replaced by a "u". Portugal is pronounced Portugau in Brazilian Portuguese. If anyone can remember anything else, please add.

Sometimes it's unavoidable. If you have to translate a text with a cultural practice that is simply summed up in one word in the language that you are translating from, it is a wise idea to give a brief description of this practice into the language you are translating too, if it's a concept that you feel the reader will be completely unfamiliar with. A good example of this is the practice that Australian aborigines have of doing a walkabout. If you simply did the translation of this practice, it would lose it's importance in the text that you have translated.

A boy is siting in a bus and stands up quickly and starts yelling, " I lost my ball, I lost my ball" The bus driver after hearing this, grinds the bus to a stop, and immediately orders everyone to look for the boys ball. A hour later, exhausted from looking for the ball, the bus driver builds up enough courage and goes up to the boy. " Sorry, son but we can't find your ball" After hearing this the boy puts a huge smile on his face and points at his nose and says " Don't worry I'll roll another one." Try and translate this joke to another language and you will see that it will works.