anna3101

That's an interesting idea. It sure is a lot of information to learn. Personally, I think it would be great even to just browse through some textbooks for children, and not only those related to language. I feel that I'm missing out on a lot of things that are natural for natives due to the very fact that I finished school somewhere else. The thought of looking closer at the Polish school curriculum has been in my head for some time but this task just seems too huge to tackle. Maybe when I retire, I'll go study the abc and the rest

In case you haven't heard it before, it's a must-have for anyone who loves learning French. La Langue De Chez Nous sung by Yves Duteil: I hope you like it as much as I do!

Hi meshellmybell, I used to have a diary and as a way to practise I wrote in English, French and German on different days. That was very long ago, when I was in high school, and when I occasionally stumble across those entries, I'm amazed just how many mistakes a person can make in just a couple of sentences But I must admit - it was a good practice. I was forced to look up new words in the dictionary and learnt some new things along the way. I no longer keep a real "journal", I mean, the one where you write every day or regularly. I only write from time to time and only in my native language. But this also has its purpose - I live abroad and don't speak my own language that often anymore so it helps me not to forget it. Also, I think a journal is ALWAYS a good idea, regardless of what language you are using. I cannot see any disadvantages, only benefits. Ania

Actually, I like that about French. Yes, some say it's ridiculous and unnecessary but I don't agree. English is everywhere now. There are more and more words and expressions coming in from English that actually have their native equivalents but people prefer to use English ones. I think that's very sad. English is great but so are other languages, and if French speakers try to protect their language from too much of a good thing that is English, then I can only take off my hat and bow. I even admire the fact that some French people know English but refuse to speak it Arrogant? Yes, very much, and also annoying. But for as long as you can afford that arrogance, it forces your business partners to learn French or to hire people who speak it. Thus helping promote the language. So not such a bad thing after all.

Hello, Do you have a problem finding language course books for less popular languages? Is it easy to find the materials you need in your country? I used to live in Russia, now I'm in Poland but one thing hasn't changed: extremely limited amount of learning materials for less popular languages. Judging by the shelves in a typical Russian/Polish bookshop, people only learn 5 languages here. You go inside and you see: huge amount of English learning shelvessomewhat less but still a lot of German language materialseven less but acceptable number of French study booksSpanish learning books are in about the same amount as French or slightly lessfinally, Italian corner with the same number of shelves as SpanishThe end. Sure, there are other languages but they should be considered lucky if they have a whole shelf or two to themselves. I always feel a bit sad when I see it. Not that I don't like English, I do, but it's just... somehow not right. What's your opinion? Do you have the same situation in your country? Ania

Native Dutch speakers cannot understand this. I've met a couple here and there and when I said what my favourite Dutch-speaking band was, they would just burst out laughing But hey, it's a great way to quickly learn all basic Dutch words. Seriously. The songs are super simple, and extremely easy to remember. Probably because this band's target audience is small girls I proudly present... K3! My favourite Dutch-speaking music source

I have a lot of Dutch oldies that I love listening to. I've managed to find lyrics to most of them but it was not easy feat, for some songs I had to search and search. But I love how they sound! Whoever says Dutch is not beautiful simply doesn't know what he's losing

This has been a problem for me as well. I wanted to do "language exchanges" but I presumed this would be a couple of friendly people meeting over a cup of coffee or Skype, asking a couple of questions or talking in a given language. I had no idea that people expected me to teach them the language from the scratch I'm not very fond of teaching actually... But finally I was very lucky to find language buddies in a place where I wasn't looking: inside my own family. It has made a world of difference to my progress and motivation. Unfortunately, not when it comes to Dutch - no one I know is studying it.

For me, the better option is a paper course book I just cannot help it - I like to "touch" the words and be able to physically turn the pages over, as well as scribble down my own notes right inside the book. I have a simple but well-structured course for beginners. The only problem is lack of time, especially with other languages waiting for their turn

Hello, I'm now trying to revive my long-forgotten German. My favourite method of learning a bit more vocabulary has always been listening to songs. Unfortunately, I don't know anything about German music except for Marlene Dietrich and Rammstein I like those two lot but would love to listen to something else as well. Could you please share your favourite German songs with me? Thanks in advance! Ania

Well, my Dutch is not that good, so I probably won't be of much help to you but if you need some kind of enthusiastic person that wants to know more about Dutch, then you've found one My spoken Dutch is probably around A1. I've never had any practice and I can't make correct sentences. I'm a bit better at reading, probably around A2-B1, mostly because of the similarities between Dutch and German. Actually, I've started to learn Dutch a long, long time ago because I fancied a guy from the Netherlands The fascination quickly went away but my love for the language stayed, so even if I sometimes do not do anything with my Dutch for months on end, I always end up coming back to it simply because I really like it. My main problem is, well, exactly what you've mentioned in your post: Dutch is not popular here in Poland. The common reaction to someone trying to learn it "Well, what for?". And that's a problem for me because in order to make any progress I need to have some kind of "learning buddy" I'm a very lazy person, and left to my own devices, I'd probably stay day after day in bed and do nothing. This is why I always rely on "external" motivators. I'm very lucky to have people with whom I can study (or at least, who can control me ) when it comes to my English, French and Italian. I'm hoping to find someone for Spanish soon but I know I have a zero chance of doing the same for Dutch. Which is a pity And yes, my partner is Polish and what can I say? He's the best man in the whole universe And he's also the reason why I'm so often complemented on my Polish. He always corrects my mistakes but in a very friendly way and talking to him has been the best language course ever

I would definitely want to learn informal English. Actually, that's what I'm doing at the moment - after going through many "serious" course books I've finally found one which concentrates on informal language and idioms. Informal here does not necessarily mean "gonna" or anything of that kind - it's just the kind of language that real people use. There are bits of more formal writing or speech from time to time but mostly the authors concentrate on normal, everyday conversations. It's very enjoyable and extremely useful.

Pour moi aussi, Paris et Tour Eiffel sont une sorte de symbole principale de la France. En ce qui concerne les gens en Russie, surtout les gens de mon age (aux environs de 30 ans) ou ceux qui ont 40-50 ans, je dirais que pour nous la France est representée par: les révolutions, surtout celle de 1789 le vin et les fromages les comédies avec Louis de Funès ou Pierre Richard les chansons de Mireille Mathieu, Joe Dassin, Edith Piaf, Yves Montand le tableau le plus fameux avec Marianne ("La Liberté guidant le peuple") les livres de Balzac, Hugo, Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas C'est un peu stéréotypique peut-être, mais j'aime bien tous ses symboles (à part de Voltaire et Rousseau que j'ai toujours trouvé trop ennuyeux). Moi, personallement, j'ai trouvé mes propres "emblèmes" français. Mais la liste des mes choses préférées est bien trop longue pour l'écrire ici J'adore les écrivains français, et puis les fims, les chansons, l'histoire de la France, les desserts, la beauté du pays et bien sûr la langue.

Haven't seem La Boum, was it fun? I'm always look for new French films to watch. Another good one which I forgot to mention in my previous post is "On connaît la chanson". It's a great film, mostly funny, sometimes sad and with lots of wonderful music!

I can relate to that, Tyrell. These words just get stuck inside your head! It's so difficult to get rid of them, and then it's like some kind of a hydra: you can cut off one head, another one grows in its place Some time ago I noticed that my partner and I started to really "go heavy" on a couple of Polish fillers. So we decided to be on our guard and stop using them, once and for all. And what do you think? Now there is another word, or two, or three, that just creep into our conversations like some slimy insects. Urgggh. Those really ARE parasites!

To tell you the truth, I have no idea about what is popular in Russia these days. I'm now living in Poland and I do occasional teaching tasks here. And I must say that some of the things children listen to actually make me apprehensive I have nothing against pop, I actually like it a lot myself, but some of the "cool" songs (not just Polish - also American or British) have a lot of swear words, insults or plain ugly stuff that I don't even want to describe here. It's sad that such young children already listen to that, probably, they don't understand much, but still...

It seems like you did a lot of studying, Trellum. I admire that. I must admit I've let my go when it comes to Dutch. I haven't practised for quite some time But as it is with any language, if I stop studying it, I invariably go back at a certain point, because I feel something is missing from my life. "Hmm, why do I feel a bit sad, what is it that I miss... Ah! Of course! Dutch! Haven't tortured myself with impossible word order for some time! Let's do it once again!". I must be a masochist or something Dutch and German are really hard for me. But without them life would be less exciting

FlagOnce, thanks a lot for that! The list will be very helpful for me to stop abusing those poor "bon/mauvais"!

I think that poems should still be translated. After all, there are so many people who will never ever learn that particular language, and then they'll never even be able to get a glimpse of how beautiful, say, Arabic or Chinese poems can be. Translating poetry (and songs) is the most difficult translation task I can think of. The only method that helps is study the masters of such translations (I know some examples of English to Russian translations that were brilliant). See how they did it, what words they chose, how they worked with rhythm... I'm now attempting to translate a certain song from French to Polish, and it's a huge struggle. I've been working on it for weeks and it's just so hard. If you do it as literally as possible, you'll lose the song's rhythm, and it's too important to lose. If you try for a "more or less" vocabulary approach, then suddenly the song doesn't sound even half as funny as it did in the original. Keeping that balance starts to seem pure torture to me. I feel deep respect for anyone who does these things professionally. Those people must be so very talented.

All of my course books have always been in the "classic" Spain's Spanish, only randomly pointing out the differences between Spain and other Spanish-speaking countries. However, it looks to me that, certain differences aside, once you know some Spanish, you'll get by in any country. I can still understand Latin American songs and watch some Mexican and Argentinian soap operas The accent is different but most words stay the same.

I'm sorry you can't try it out right away I hope you can try again when you have Java, I'm sure you'll find some of the tests useful. Plus, they also have a kind of "self-evaluation" criteria before you start which is always a very curious thing for me. I've seen it with friends that tried Dialang that we all either have a tendency to overestimate our skills or underestimate them. I wonder which one is worse

Thanks a lot for the explanation!

Thank you all so much for sharing the information. It's really interesting to see how things differ or how they are the same in various countries.

We are quite lucky to have access to the Internet, right? So much useful information out there... I cannot imagine my life without it now. When I think back about my university times, those long queues at the library, writing down information from books... well, I don't feel nostalgic I'm really glad we have so many more possibilities to learn.

I wonder how it is in other countries when it comes to the amount of additional money you may get for knowing a particular language. My experience working in Russia and Poland points to French being more "useful" in a job search than English. English is supposed to be the "standard" now, so it's assumed you should know it at some intermediate level. However, not so many people speak really fluent French which just may be the reason for more interesting job offers. However, if you want a really amazing salary, Chinese is probably one of the most valued because there's a lot of business with China and very few speakers. Also, Dutch is a huge advantage. Job offers with Dutch are rare but so are the people who know the language. How is it in your country?