aleshc

In Slovenia we don't really differentiate the types of rap/hip-hop, it's just that. We have a couple of artists who are considered mainstream, but I prefer those that are more underground, or better said that they have their own label and work hard to build it up. You have rappers that are known locally but also nationwide, since it's such a small country. Italian rap, lately there's been quite an addition of rappers to the mainstream scene, but there's still independent labels who try to make it. Some labels already made it big by singing with Universal and such. My favorites are probably Fabri Fibra (which is one of the most well known artists in Italy), Salmo, Gemitaiz, MadMan, to name a few...

I'll have to cheat a bit since I consider both Slovenian and Italian my native languages so the list would look like this: 1) Slovenian/Italian 2) Mandarin 3) Spanish 4) English 5) Hindi I chose these languages purely because they are the most spoken languages in the world, and if I could know only 4 additional to my native ones, these would be it. The number of people you could potentially communicate with is immense!

I always found Latin to be an interesting language, since one of my native languages (Italian) is directly related to it. It's too bad that it's a dead language and you can't really actively use it with someone, unless that person teaches Latin or something. I know it's used in Law, the human anatomy and church..but that's about it. I used an app on my android phone that translated English phrases into Latin and sometimes I could understand a couple of words, since Italian derives from it.

That's a very romantic idea Slovenian - Ne morem si predstavljati življenja brez tebe Italian - Non posso immaginarmi la vita senza di te

@lushlala Oh no need to apologize, I understand what you meant, but some people are really sensitive about the topic, that's why I wanted to share that article so you know for future reference I agree with @Trellum that Americans have a weird way to classify people. I mean, you can be white, black, asian, latino and native american. That's it? You can't just group an entire population under one umbrella based on the color of their skin. And that doesn't go just for census purposes. I don't understand how they can group so many different cultures and ethnicities, all having significant differences between them and using one singular name for them. That's just silly to me. Like, I would be considered white I presume. But do I have any connection with someone from a Scandinavian country? Definitely not. Yet we're all "white people"? I don't get it. And it's sad that Black people in America are considered just that, Black or African-American. Their ancestors originated from different parts of Africa, even Western Africa alone has so many different cultures, you can't just group them into one. It's erasing ones background, and that's very wrong.

She could be regarded as first generation Latina as her parents immigrated from Kenya to Mexico and she was born there. But saying "clearly, to look at her, she's not latina" is a very wrong conclusion. When a person is considered Latino/Latina, that only means that they were born in Latin America, where they speak Romance languages (in this case Spanish and Portuguese), regardless of their skin color. I think people confuse the terms Hispanic and Latino. There's this great article to help you understand all the terms! -> http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/difference-between-hispanic-latino-and-spanish_55a7ec20e4b0c5f0322c9e44

I've always been intrigued by Blackletter or Gothic script. It's essentially Latin but it looks just so cool! The letters give off a very strong authoritative vibe.

I've never heard of this app until now and I think it's brilliant! It's really important to connect with native speakers so you can try and emulate their pronunciation, and not sound like a foreigner anymore I'll definitely give it a try!

I found a website which host a collection of some of our Slovenian myths and legends, I think it could be a great source! The stories are written both in English and Slovenian. The most well known are the one about the Goldenhorn, Martin Krpan and Kralj Matjaž. It's a also an interesting read for everybody else in this forum! http://www.thezaurus.com/webzine/category/Myths%20and%20Legends I hope you find it interesting, I certainly do! I don't think you should have any problems with copyright. After all, these myths and legends were passed onto the people by word of mouth. I think including at the bottom of the text the name of the English translator should suffice.

Google is Ok for basic translations or individual words, but if the phrase is more complicated, it usually messes it up. Although sometimes, I'm impressed at how good the translation can be. But that's probably just because a user added the phrase and translated it properly. And that's a good thing, because if more people are willing to input the correct translations, or google somehow upgrades their service, it could potentially be really useful in the future.

Seems like a good idea to me! As shadejb above me mentioned, a progression ladder would be great, from basic everyday sentences to a full conversation with the native speaker. You could set up the app with a couple of "main" languages such as English, Spanish, Hindi and Chinese so people can still understand each other through these languages (the users could select their main language, and then add the second languages that they wish to teach to other users). It wouldn't be a full course or a teacher/student experience, but it would certainly be a great source of knowledge for certain expressions and to understand the flow of the words and pronunciation. Plus, you could potentially meet a lot of cool people through this app! I think you should go for it

Ciao! Vengo dalla Slovenia (Litorale sloveno), però sono cresciuto parlando tutti e due Dalla parte paterna l'italiano (minoranza italiana nell'Istria) e dalla parte materna lo sloveno.

I use two websites to check my pronunciation. For English, I mostly use howjsay.com and for other languages I use forvo.com which is an amazing site that offers audio clips of native speakers pronouncing words. I think the best way to acquire a good pronunciation is by listening to the native tone/flow.

Hello everyone! I'm Alesh (Aleš) and I'm new to this forum. I hope it will serve me well as I learn new languages. I'm a native speaker of Slovenian and Italian, so if you have any questions about them, feel free to message me! I'm also fluent in English and semi-fluent in Serbo-Croatian. I'm currently learning Spanish, it's in the same language family with Italian and I'm getting a hang of it. I also started to learn a bit of Russian. Russian is a Slavic language, just like Slovenian, so I hope I'll be able to pick it up quickly. I wish I could speak all the languages of the world!

I first started with some audio lessons, then I used Fluenz to get a bit more interactive. I think you have to start with a basic vocabulary and later slowly upgrade to a more diverse one. I think watching movies/series and listening to music in the language you're learning really helps you understand the flow and pronunciation of the words. When you come across a word you don't know, you look it up in the dictionary and write it down, so you'll remember it easily. Reading books or magazines is also a good way to learn the language and come across new words. When I don't know how to pronounce something, I use forvo.com, a great website where you can listen to words being pronounced by real native speakers around the world. And that's how I usually do it, a little bit of everything. Still, nothing beats being immersed directly into the culture of the language you're learning and embracing it all. That's why I hope next year I'll be able to visit South America during the summer for a couple of weeks, and attend a Spanish language course.

Slovenian: Laži in klevete