Lingua Franca

I think that you are facing the same problem most people face when the y learn another language. When you are in a class room the teacher will enunciate the words clearly so that you understand what is being said. On the other hand in our daily lives we don't speak this way and we tend to cut corners. My advice is keep listening, if you are looking at movies try to follow the language while reading the subtitles. There will come a point of clarity and you might find yourself not having to look down at the subtitles.

As mentioned before it really comes down to the text itself, if it's technical then the word for word approach would be the best approach but if it's fiction it can be a bit trickier. It's not to say that the word for word approach will be easier, especially if you haven't come into contact with the technical terms you are translating.

It depends, I have experienced both cases, both having contact with the author and not. Most of the time you won't have contact with the author and unless you have some knowledge of the area that you are translating you are going to have double the work. It is near impossible to translate something that you don't understand. I experienced this when I had to translate a medical publication which I had very little knowledge of. On the other hand I have translated some CVs with the author next to me.

I haven't had much contact with this language and I too am not a great Trekkie fan, but have seen Trekkie fans that take this language very seriously. At least in the Trekkie conventions they do, even going as far as to teach their children. As far as I have been able to figure out the language is structured like any other language and can and is used to communicate between each other. It isn't just a bunch of words that people uter, there is a structure behind it.

I personally would do the corrections in the other language that I was translating to. I wouldn't alter the original text unless I was able to speak to the author before hand and explain the situation. When you receive a text to translate, you very often don't really know what the back story is. So if you receive a text with typos and broken grammar you might not be able to tell if it was done intentionally or that the author of the text simply isn't that knowledgeable of the language and is a poor typist.

For me what started my interest in languages was meeting people that come from other countries in a exchange program that came to my school. It can be a great catalyst, provided the experience is positive. Not only are you exposed to a new language, but to a new culture as well.

The issue you have is not with English, it's the fact that you are shy. For you to be able to openly speak with people in the language you have learned, you will have to overcome this. I suggest that you find a public speaking group like Toastmasters to help you overcome your shyness. They will help you bulled up your confidences.

Being isolated form your mother tongue can have these consequences. Fortunately, now days there a great amount of resources online. Youtube can keep you visually and audibly connected to your mother tongue. I don't doubt that you can find forums in your native language were you can keep your writing in check.

I think that it doesn't really mater if someone else thinks that your method of learning a language is different. Just as long as you are comfortable using it and above all you hit your objective and learn your chosen language. My suggestion is don't worry what others think, have fun and enjoy the learning process.

I'm glad to see that I was able to contribute something new to this form. There have been various attempts to create global languages, some with more success then others. Interlingua is just one of these various a languages. The great advantage of Interlingua is you don't have to learn it to understand it. If you can speak one of the romance languages you should be able to grasp a large amount of it.

I would say language classes are the best way to learn a new language. Sometimes it might not be possible to attend these classes due to work or studding. In a class room you are surrounded by other people that have the same objective. It can be a great advantage because very often one of your colleagues might have a question that you might not have thought of making and have someone there that can answer it immediately . If on the other hand you had to learn the language online, you won't have this asset.

Yes, this can be one of the great problems when it comes to translating one language to another. The best examples you see of this are ads, were certain ads in the country of origin get a laugh but let them be shown in another country. I think the best way to deal with this is remember that when you translate a text you are conveying the meaning of the text, so if you can find something that is equivalent in the other language, use that. On the other hand if you have visual cues, you have to find a way of translating the text so that the images make sense.

There is not really any way around it, you just going to have to sit down and learn them. If you are lucky, you might have someone explain them to you and give a reason why they exist. Even in the same country, people have different expressions from region to region. I have lost count of the amount of times I have seen people from the same country speaking about expressions that they use in their region and are completely unfamiliar to the other person.

Interlingua was created to be a universal language. It´s base is English, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish having Germain and Russian as secondary references and It includes certain words from other languages. I haven't learned it yet but I was surprised how easy it was to understand without having ever seen it before.

I personally think it's a great idea. It's not uncommon to get certain sounds confused if you only learn a language phonetically. A m can easily be confused for a n, and a d for a b. If you read in that language you can see what the word looks like and not run that risk.

I have felt a certain amount of anxiety when speaking to people that don't seem to be friendly or reachable. It just seems like they really just don't want you to bother them and it´s as if you are standing in front of them with a mouth full of teeth. I normally don't think to much about it and just try to talk. After all it's not as if you are speaking your first language, but if you do make a mistake and they happen to make fun of you, be assured that they are in the wrong, not you.

I think that it's essential, you can't be fluent in a language if you are illiterate in it. Most people focus mainly on the spoken language but imagine that you went to a country that you lernt the language of that country phonetically. Just trying to leave the airport would be an ordeal, unless there was someone to chaperon you. We tend to underestimate the written language but it's of great importance.

Not so long ago, they used to promote learning in your sleep. It was very common, I never tried it and never did met anyone that did either, but it went along the same principle that you mentioned. While you were sleeping, you would put on some headphones and certain phrases were repeated over and over, your subconscious brain would pick these phrases up and you would learn the language. I never did find out if it worked.

I have never heard of people forgetting there mother tongue, on the other hand I do know that there are people that don't feel comfortable speaking it and preferred to speak in a another language. Apparently one such person is Arnold Schwarzenegger, even though he speaks German he normally falls back on his English.

I think that french would be easier, based on the fact that English has a great amount of French words. On the other hand Dutch would be a good option as it's the most closely related language to English. Just be for warned Dutch phonetics are very different to that of English.

It's just another way of approaching the learning process of a language. I personally find it easier to learn a language phonetically, but I know that I run the risk of making huge grammatical mistakes.

People are people, just because you came into contact with people that mocked you doesn't mean that the great majority of the people of that country will do the same. My best advice in a situation like that is avoid the people that cut you down and favor the people that will actually help you.

I don´t know if you are referring to regionalisms. In the case of spelling mistakes, there will always be someone that will make spelling mistakes but fortunately there are very few people that do. The great majority don't.

Some people have a gift for languages and can learn quite a few of them at one go. Not only that but you mentioned people between 15 and 17 years old. At that age your brain is a sponge and can take in a great deal of information. If the languages are very different from one another, the waters can remain separate from each other, but if the languages are very similar they could run the risk of mixing them all up.

The tips you gave are dead on. The most important part of learning a language is to have fun with it. If you dread the idea of having to sit in front of a computer and are forced to learn one or other language, you probably will never learn it. If have the you have a friend that speaks the language you are learning, not only will it be easier for you to learn it but you can learn more of the culture of were the culture is from. There is only one way to learn any language and that is to sit down and actuality learn it. Good post.