czarina84

I wasn't trying to start a fight. I apologize if you got that impression. I was just trying to explain my original post, in which I was trying to say that many people don't have those kind of resources. And I am talking about the here and now. I had to fight my way up from poverty. Not everyone is given that opportunity. At the end of my last post, I said that your advice was good for those who have the resources you mentioned. I wasn't being mean or condescending. I truly meant that it was good advice for those who were able to take it. I was saying that for those who don't have any other way to learn, they are kind of at the mercy of the school for what their child learns and how they learn it.. I was just using my own struggles as an example.

I wonder how different versions of the same languages started. I know that different places around the world have different languages (which I've wondered how that started, too). But why do they have regional versions? How did that start? You see it in nearly every language. Spanish spoken in Spain is different from Spanish spoken in Paraguay. There's British English and American English. What caused factions of languages?

Thank you. At least it's a start, right? You have been very helpful.

I think this is a thing that varies person-to-person. Some people have an aptitude for languages; others have to work a bit harder. Some languages come more easily to some people than others. One person can learn Mandarin very easily, yet have trouble with Swahili or vice-versa. I think it just depends on the person.

For me, the best method is translating something on my own and having a fluent or native speaker check my work. That's how I did it when I was in school. I would go try translating anything I could with the knowledge that I had and have my teacher (who lived in both France and Spain for about 10 years) correct it for me. He would explain my errors, so I could become better. I mostly love listening to foreign music and trying to translate that.

Yeah, but I didn't have the resources to learn a foreign language fluently before I had my child. I live in a rural area, where everyone speaks English and, honestly, they are a bit xenophobic. I'm not proud of that fact; it's just the truth. I have run into two people in my life who spoke a different language. One was a relationship that ended badly, so asking him to teach me is not really an option. The other was a friend who started to teach me, but we ended up losing touch after she had her third child and I moved. Now, it's easier to learn because you could have an internet friend to speak with and sites like these. I didn't have access to the internet from my home as a child and teenager. We had trouble buying food, much less a computer. I didn't grow up with these privileges. For people who can afford these things, your advice is very good, though.

I can't draw very well. Will this affect me if I want to learn Japanese? I know that the characters must be precise. Is there some kind of method I could use?

Most people get offended when they are corrected. It makes them feel stupid. I used to correct people, as my mother did for me. I stopped correcting others because they told me the same thing that they told you. I don't mind being corrected. I would rather be told what I have done wrong publicly, as well. I know that sounds silly, but, in my mind, if I made the mistake, other people may have also made that same mistake at some point. If I'm corrected in front of others, then they can learn from my mistake without feeling embarrassed.

I grew up in the United States. My native language is that same as my countrymen-English. However, despite English being their native language, many people still make grammar, spelling, and pronunciation mistakes. Does this happen in other countries/languages, too, or is it exclusive to America?

Thank you for posting this. I'm trying to become a writer, so this will help me greatly. Don't be too hard on yourself when you make a mistake. I know many people who speak English as their native language, who make a lot of these mistakes.

A lot of teaching a child a second language depends upon what you have available. For instance, if you speak one language, you are at the mercy of the school system. My school only taught French or Spanish. My plan was to take two years of French and two years of Spanish for my electives and then build upon what I was taught, so that I could become trilingual. However, I was told that two years fulfilled my language requirement and I wasn't allowed to take more. Basically, I was denied any extra learning. If you speak a few different languages, I would speak to your child in each language. Just say a few sentences. The language that your child likes best should be the one that you teach him/her.

One way I have been trying to learn Spanish is by translating Spanish songs that I like into English. I was also thinking of trying to watch an English language movie or show with Spanish subtitles. My only concern is that I'm not sure what type of Spanish they use. I know that Spanish varies from country to country.

I also text with proper grammar and spelling. I hate when I see numbers replacing words or abbreviations that never existed before. Personally, I dislike "text language". However, part of me thinks that at some point it actually may replace our current incarnation of English just as contemporary English has replaced Old English. People have already been saying things like, "OMG" and "BFF" for years. Isn't that how it starts?

I think it's also because writing is more formal than speaking. Plus, we are taught in school that when you write you have to follow certain rules. You don't necessarily have to follow those same rules while speaking: for instance, the infamous dangling participle. I agree with the above post, as well. You have more time to go back and rewrite, but can't go back and change what you have just said. Once it's out, it's out.

I'm sure many of you have seen Desperado. The second in the El Mariachi trilogy. The first one to have Antonio Banderas as El Mariachi. He sings a song at the beginning that I'm trying to translate. I don't have much of it done. There's one line in particular that is giving me trouble. "Jineteando en mi caballo". Does anyone know what this means?

All of them! I love all languages equally. I think they are beautiful in their own way. I'm not fluent in anything other than English, but I know a decent amount of French from high school and studying it on my own. I have even been reading the warnings that they have on cleaners and other items. You know, the ones that they have in two or three languages. I'm mostly focused on learning Spanish right now. It's the most practical one to learn for jobs.

My ex-boyfriend was from Ecuador. He told me that he learned English mostly from music. I'm not sure if that was helpful, but I hope so. I would take it one line or one verse at a time. I'm trying to teach myself Spanish. I'm writing down the lyrics in Spanish in one color and the translation of the lyrics in another color right below, line by line. So the first line is in Spanish, and the second line is the English translation. That has helped me. I still have a long way to go, but that technique has helped me learn some Spanish on my own.

I'm in the United States. We have Southernisms, but we also have other places where people are teased because of accents and phrases. Boston, for example. If you have ever seen The Simpsons, they have a character called Mayor Quimby. His accent is an example of an exaggerated Bostonian accent. Also, in California, there are Valley Girls. The 1995 movie Clueless is full of them.

I have the same problem with Spanish: idioms. Does anyone know of any good books or websites for this? I like Spanish music and much of them use expressions that make no sense when I translate them. I figure that I'm translating incorrectly or they are idioms.

I just associate a word with an object. Like when you teach a toddler the name of something. You point and say, "chair", until they understand it's a chair. I did the same with some Spanish words. That's how I learned them. Granted, this won't work with verbs and other parts of speech. Those I just read until I remembered them. I tried putting them into sentences, as well.

I understand what you are saying. I think that the reason most people say that people are "too old" to learn a language is because you only have so much room in your brain to store information. The more you age, the more you have to remember. I think the problem is that we don't prioritize learning a new language. The language you grow up around is most likely the language that is necessary for your everyday life.

Both. I wanted to learn a foreign language since I was six years old and stumbled upon my mother's Spanish-English dictionary. I have a love of Spanish music, which would benefit greatly from knowing what they were saying. . Also, many jobs prefer people who are at least bilingual.

I currently only speak English. My goal is to learn as many languages as possible. I don't count English, as it is my native language. So far, I know some Spanish and French. I know some words and phrases in Russian, German, Cantonese, and Japanese. I can usually tell what a word means if I see it in Italian and Portuguese because of how close they are to French and Spanish.

I am going to try all of these. I am a huge Spanish music fan, mostly Selena and Kumbia Kings. I like others, as well, like Olga Tanon and Giselle, but Selena and Kumbia Kings are my favorites. I have tried translating them myself, but I never took any classes, so I don't really know much about the idioms. Hopefully, these will help. I figure learning my favorite songs will help as a stepping stone to learning Spanish, then other languages.

I would say French. I wouldn't quite give up on Japanese, but it sounds like you need a bit of a break from it. I learned some French in high school. I took it because the choice was Spanish or French and most people said French was more difficult. For me, it was actually easier. Between the two French is closer in grammar to English (my native language) than Spanish. Since you said that you were studying English, your brain may take to it more easily than Japanese. As for the pronunciation, that may get better with time and practice.