anna3101

Making smaller words, usually nouns in singular, by combining letters from one long word - do you know this game? I remember we played it at school and then even at the university. Do you think it could be useful for language learning purposes? Also, many coursebooks have "find a word" games, where you have a number of scrambled letters and are supposed to identify and cross out words. I've always wondered if this is actually helpful in any way... What do you think?

Hello, Can somebody help me understand the difference between these? Are some more popular in certain country/countries than others? Are all of them informal? All of my coursebook only had "qué tal" or "Cómo estás", and for many years I was sure that's the only way to say "how are you?" And now I've started seeing these other expressions on the Internet and I'm a bit confused. I understand the meaning but why do some people use this or that expression? Does it depend on the country? Thanks in advance! Ania

I watched the better part of and I didn't like it that learning styles were shown to be so primitive (ie visual vs auditory). It's like saying somebody's temperament is choleric or sanguine whereas in actual fact it's a weird mix of this and that. Maybe I didn't get it right and the whole point of the video was to criticize oversimplification - if so, I totally agree. I thought that by "learning style" people mean a combination of methods that are unique and useful to a particular person.

First English novel, it brings so many memories.. For me it was "Five Children And It", and I cannot even remember what it was about, but I still remember how the book looked like, and the picture on the cover... Time flies so fast.. So many great books in English happened my way since then.

Hello KlezmerGryphon, Welcome to the forum! Glad to have you here, and also happy to see another person interested in French! Ania

Assimil is something that works well for some people and not so well for others. I belong to the latter category. It's too simplistic for me, I've tried learning Dutch this way and no, I'm not going to try it ever again. As a way to learn some useful phrases or repeat certain patterns - yes, for this purpose it works just fine. But I'd never be able to write and speak fluently if I used Assimil because for me grammar is an importand and indispensable part of language learning. For Assimil it isn't...

I wonder if anyone has ever had a daily calendar related to language learning. And if so, if you can recommend any particular publishers? I always use a daily calendar, either at work or at home, or both. These are small things that that stand on your desk and you tear off one page each day. They come in all kinds of flavours (logical puzzle a day, cute kitten a day, famous quote a day, pie recipe a day and so on). Recently, I've seen that there are "learn language X" editions, most of them feature one word a day, with some examples of how to use it in the context. I'm really interested in trying it out, not as a way of seriously "learning" but as a pleasant and somewhat useful addition to my main learning process. Maybe someone here already tried these? If so, what's your opinion? Were the words adequate to the level? I wouldn't want to see something too complicated in A1, or something too easy in B2...

This is such a great initiative! I listen to TED talks from time to time, and I often wish I could share some of my favourites with those friends who don't speak English.

Mindmapping works well for me when I try to learn a lot of words with the same root, it really looks much more organized and somehow this "neatness" gets transferred to my brain much easier than when I used traditional learning methods. Mindmaps are definitely a nice technique. At least, they are for me, and I'm happy to know there are other people out there who also use them

I wish there were more people who think like you, lushlala. It's sad that there's so much hate and so little tolerance in this world. And you are right - we are all people, we all have a lot in common, wherever we come from. It's such a pity we often choose to blame each other for our differences and condemn anyone who's not like us I think that for as long as people don't hurt other people or animals, there's no reason whatsoever to meddle with how they live, what they do, how they dress etc. I wish so much that we could all just live and let live..

I mostly use online dictionaries but when there's no Internet, I have offline apps on my phone to help me out. I'm glad that I no longer have to use paper dictionaries because they were horribly heavy, took up a lot of space and often the very thought of taking this big monster off the shelf and then looking for the word, page by page, was just too much for me. Online and offline dictionaries are stuff of my dreams. They make looking for words a quick and easy process. Now even with my laziness there's never an excuse not to look up whatever I don't know immediately.

Brian, thanks so much for that link!!! It's a great blog, I can already see how helpful it'll be for me. Thank you for sharing!

I don't agree with that. Whenever newest research shows something that is contrary to my own experience, I stick with my experience. Research may prove that learning things before going to sleep is no better than any other part of the day, but if it works for me, why should I stop? Research has shown vitamin C does not cure common cold but if I feel better after eating those 3 huge oranges, why not do it? Besides, it also changes all the time. The things that scientists believed in 50 years ago are often quite far apart from what they believe today. If I remember 10 words out of 50 when I listen to them and 30 out of 50 when I write them, I'll go on writing them. I think that it is quite obvious all people are different and what works well for one person, does not necessarily work at all for another. So yes, I'm still a believer in learning styles because that's a handy word for describing a set of conditions that make the learning process easier and more efficient for a given person.

I'm a big fan of French and no, it's not true that there are no rules. There are rules in every language, as well as numerous exceptions. Personally, I think that deciding which language to learn should be entirely your own decision. Only you can judge what's better for you, what fascinates you more, what you really need. Whatever other people say is, well, just other people's opinion, and there will always be people who say "Go for Japanese" and those who say "Go for French". I'm not sure how that can help with the decision

Hello BrianL! Welcome back, it is really impressing you can speak so many languages! Shamanism is a very interesting topic, I hope you'll discuss it here. I lived in Siberia for a long time but our town was far too "modern" to have much of indigenous culture left. Ania

It's really interesting how idioms are often similar in different languages! It's practically the same in Polish as it is in Serbian ("Better a sparrow in hand than a pigeon on the roof") andd in Russian we have a similar saying that says "Better a tit in hand than a сrane in the sky". A tit is a small bluish bird with yellow tummy, and a crane, obviously, is a much bigger bird.

In Polish and Russian: Pies (dog) / собака (sobaka) : PL - hau hau, RU - гав-гав (gav gav) Kogut (cock) / петух (petukh): PL - kukuryku, RU - кукареку (kukareku) Kura ( hen) / курица (kuritsa): PL - ko ko ko, RU - куд-кудах (kutkudakh) Żaba (frog) / лягушка (lyagushka) : PL - kum kum, RU - ква-ква (kva kva) Koza (goat) / коза (koza): PL - mee mee, RU - ме (me) Kot (cat) / кошка (koshka) : PL - miau, RU - мяу (miau) Krowa (cow) / корова (korova): PL - muu, RU - му (mu) Owca (sheep) / овца (ovtsa): PL - bee, RU - бе (be) Wąż ( snake) / змея (zmeya): PL - sss, RU - шшш (shhh) Świnia ( pig) / свинья (svinia) : PL - kwi kwi, RU - хрю-хрю (khru khru)

I sometimes use Amazon when I look for new books but I do prefer goodreads. I can't always rely on the general "score" of the book or top reviews but one thing that I find really great is that there are many like-minded people there So I can go and browse their bookshelves, see what they liked and I try it for myself. I've manged to find a lot of interesting books in that way.

Now that you've mentioned it, I realized that sometimes I do the same. I don't know why it happens but sometimes, when I accidentally burn a finger with the frying pan or can't find my keys, I say "Damn" or "Ouch" instead of using exclamations from my native language. That's weird now that I think about it.

I watched a little bit (when I was a teenager, I loved Argentinian soap operas) and I'd love to re-watch that good old Muneca Brava in Spanish but I can't find it anywhere It was pretty popular in Russia but then it was dubbed, and I can't find the original version anywhere... If you know about a place/shop/online service where I can get some Argentinian fluffy love stories in original, do let me know!

When someone speaks a foreign language, it means he's from a different culture. This may be a challenge to overcome - or a huge bonus. For me, it's the latter. Because my partner and I grew up in different cultures, speaking different languages, we never lack subjects to talk about. There is an endless well of things and words you don't know about that other country, and about your partner's life in it before they met you. We both keep learning new things as years go by, and I'm loving it so much.

Thanks fot the advice, sounds fun! I like small steps. They don't scare you as much as "learn the whole language"

That's a wonderful dream, Carlyarn23! I love Paris and I'd recommend it highly, even though I know some people who absolutely hated going there I haven't been much around France because of my fascination with Paris: whenever I manage to gather enough money, I go to Paris, yet again... instead of seeing some other parts of France. I've been to Paris about 8 or 9 times I think. I love it there! It's quite dirty, yes. People are arrogant - also true. Service is dreadful. Prices are far from cheap. And sanitation in some cafes can scare even the bravest travellers And food quality is also not top notch everywhere - if you want to eat good stuff but don't want to pay a fortune, you need to prepare in advance and find the places that are visited by the locals, not tourists. But all of the above doesn't matter because Notre Dame is AMAZING. You can just sit there and be fascinated. Sainte-Chapelle is also breath-taking. If you enjoy impressionist paintings like I do, you'll like Musee d'Orsay. Parc Monceau is small and cute. Going on a small cruise on the Seine, in the evening, mmm. The cemetries are real works of art. Versailles is quite close to Paris and it is miraculously beautiful. But the best thing of all is just walking around, sipping coffee in small cafes, watching people go by. And listening to great French songs. I have a huge collection of songs about Paris, always makes me happy I'm not the only person who likes the city

I think it depends on the kind of book you choose for your reading When my knowledge of the language is basic, I go for children's books or my guilty pleasure - primitive romance novels. You really don't need a lot of vocabulary for either of those but whatever you encounter will often be of the useful, basic vocabulary range. I also enjoy rereading my favourite books translated into the target language. If it's Harry Potter or Shopaholic series, I know perfectly well what I'm reading about, so it's easier to get hang of new words. But, of course, films are also useful, and while you are reading, you won't know how to pronounce words correctly (when you are still at the beginner level). It's just that I enjoy books more than films, so when I study a language, I start with what's more natural for me: reading.

Couldn't agree more! When I see such notes, I also think that the translator must be really good at what he/she does because they don't just translate word for word but know the cultural context, the nuances of meanings etc.