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Linguaholic

Lingua Franca

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Everything posted by Lingua Franca

  1. I think that spelling bees are a great way to improve your spelling but not all countries use this technique. It started in the USA and has turned into a huge event. I am not aware of other countries using this technique. Is it restricted to the US?
  2. That is easier said then done. It's not to say that most people that learn a language don't try but not everyone has the same linguistic ability. I have encountered this as well. It can be comical at times, but I think it really comes down to the context of the conversation. This is the great problem of learning the language phonetically and not seeing how the words are supposed to be pronounced.
  3. If you can go to the French and Arabic communities were you live, would be a great way to stay sharp. Fortunately, both languages have a huge community online so it's easy to keep your language skills by looking at videos and going to forums in those languages.
  4. There are certain jokes that are just universal, I have lost count of the amount of times that i have heard the same joke told in two distinct languages. It often surprises me how a joke that I thought wouldn't work in another language, just does.
  5. I think it really comes down to the language that you are studying, you can't compare Dutch with for instance French. Dutch phonetics can be quite difficult to perfect but in the case of French it's as if you are dealing with two different languages, the written and the spoken language. This is in the case of European languages, I suppose when it comes to Asian languages, everything will be new, both spoken and written language, so the level of difficulty will be double.
  6. It all depends on the your individual perspective and the languages that you speak. For some one that speaks English and Ukrainian, will find that Russian is very easy yet for some one that speaks for instance Spanish and Japanese, might find it difficult. So I don't think that chart is 100% correct. It really comes down to your linguistic ability and experience.
  7. I never have and probably never will. Hats off to those who can, but I find it practically impossible to convey the same meaning in another language. I have read some translations but always find that something was lost in the translation.
  8. The important part is to be completely comfortable with the two languages, you should be able to jump from one language to another with out any difficulty. A good way to start is speaking to two different people in their respective languages but not necessarily translating for them. If you can do this, you can move on to the next step, but as it's been mentioned before the most important part is practice.
  9. A great many languages use the roman alphabet but are completely different from one another. The same can be applied to sign language. Like any spoken language, sign language can also have slang and regional dialects.
  10. I used to have some favorite authors but more recently I focus more on the genera then who wrote it. I found that if you focus only on a handful of authors you end up loosing out. Book discussion groups can be a great way of find some good books.
  11. I think it does help. It can be very interesting to see the evolution of a language. It might not function in all the languages but in the case of European languages it can explain why we have the languages we have now. Romance languages all have the same origin, Latin, but to see how they got to the various languages that we have now, is anything but boring.
  12. This is when you learn the alphabet of a language but how it's actually pronounced. We learn how to recite the alphabet bet when we use it in the written language the sounds of the letters are different. Sometimes the letter for a sound in one language is represented by another letter in another language. This can lead to great amount of confusion. If the the phonetic alphabet was taught first, this could be avoided.
  13. Being multilingual functions as a filter when you are looking for a job. It's always a good resource to have. Unless you are applying for a non-skilled job you might find yourself at the door while someone with less qualifications then you have but knows some how to speak another language will probably get the job. We are living in a global village and most companies now days want to do business abroad and look at their employees as means to achieve that.
  14. This can be very disheartening but they are just trying to help you. If you explain to the them that you are trying to learn their language, you will find that their posture will change completely and if they were helpful before, from that point on, you will treated like a king or queen which ever be the case.
  15. If you don't have a time limit to learn, you don't need to spend a great amount of time studying the language. Just 15 minutes a day can make all the difference. If you can listen to some audio recordings on your way to work, you find that this is a invaluable resource.
  16. The ideal is to change your keyboard settings and add the language that you intend to use. Windows allows you to have more then one keyboard layout. If you have the possibility to add the symbols onto the keyboard itself, be careful not to cover anything that you might need later. The last thing you want is to have to pull them off and stick them on again.
  17. I really don't see why they couldn't, a language isn't merely verbal, there is the literary part of it. Just because someone is shy and has difficulty communicating with other people, doesn't impede them from learn another language. There are plenty of source for them to perfect there language skills and we are using one of those right now. Forums are a great place to remove any doubts you might have about a language. I'm sure that some of the posters here might not be able to have a verbal conversation with someone but be perfectly comfortable posting in a forum.
  18. It seems like common sense, to learn the phonetic alphabet of a language, but till now I still find that it's not common practice. I think it's of great importance to learn and doesn't take that long to teach or learn. How important do you think it's to learn the phonetic alphabet and have you taught it?
  19. I don't know if it prevents dementia but it certainly does stimulate your brain. When people learn a new language they don't only learn the language itself, but are exposed to a new culture. It also will help you with your native language as very often you might come across certain words that you normally wouldn't in other circumstances.
  20. It's the only way that you can truly be fluent. If you are thinking in another language and translate afterwards there will be a delay in your speech. Not only that but you might run the risk of translating certain expressions word for word into the other language. This might create confusion to the other person. It's not easy to thinking in a language that isn't your mother tongue but well worth the effort.
  21. Meet ups can be a great place to master your new learned language. The ideal is to have some native speaker in these groups. I personally haven't used these groups, mostly due to overlapping schedules but people that I know that have only say good things about them.
  22. Very true, normally the best approach for a situation like that would be to translating phrase by phrase. At the end of the paragraph, you should read it to make sure it makes sense in the language that you have translated too and once more right at the end when everything has been translated. Even though you might not grasp the concept completely, linguistically it should be sound and there shouldn't be any doubts to who reads the translated text. When it comes to technical terms, you will just have to hunt down their meanings.
  23. How could you learn a language in such a sort amount of time? I think you might learn some of the structure of the language in question but you couldn't fit all the grammar in such a short amount of time, let alone learn any of the vocabulary and what if the language doesn't use the roman alphabet. How would you learn to write? I don't think this is true, it's just a way to catch peoples interest or rather a publicity gimmick.
  24. The video concept is a fantastic idea. It will be an extra help to your students. Whether you use English or Spanish really comes down to your target audience. The main objective is to make it enjoyable for your audience to learn the language in question and that you feel comfortable doing it.
  25. Reading and writing is the only way to go, but don't underestimate the listening part either. If you only read and write your vocabulary will expand but there are certain words that are pronounced in a very different way to what it is written. There is always the risk of miss pronouncing them.
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