yong321

Many people have suggested listening to native speakers and living in the country where the language is spoken. Note that as an adult, we have largely lost the innate capability of learning the native accent by listening. This loss is said to start around the age of 7 (but various researches say it differently). Being able to discern the difference in other people's pronunciation is always easier than being able to utter it yourself, even for a child. Although some adults have remarkable talent in mimicking unfamiliar sounds, many don't. For example, many Chinese Americans still pronounce "mug" as /mag/ (where /a/ is the the first part of the diphthong /aɪ/ in "high") instead of /mʌɡ/, even though they have listened to the native speakers for decades. They can tell the difference between the correct /mʌɡ/ and the wrong /mag/ when listening. But they have trouble in speech production. How can they improve? My suggestion is to carefully studying International Phonetic Alphabet, or at least the vowel graph of it, combined with focused listening and self-practice.

I agree with both linguaholic and Xequeo. My suggestion is to just change to an easier and more interesting book. I always wonder if there's research to prove my hypothesis, i.e. if the study material can be understood about 70 or 80%, you'll have the highest efficiency and make the fastest progress. This is about both reading and listening. Nowadays I don't allocate large chunks of time studying languages. I mostly read one page of Facebook newsfeed from Le Figaro, Der Spiegel, ... sometimes plus readers' comments, and memorize a few words or expressions I didn't know or know well. (I use an outdated web browser to read Facebook to avoid infinite scrolling.) Reading one page takes little time. But I do this a few times a day. Studying languages many times a day, but for a short duration every time, is efficient for me and keeps me interested.

Someone brought to my attention the book CHINESE IDIOMS AND THEIR ENGLISH EQUIVALENTS (https://www.amazon.com/CHINESE-IDIOMS-THEIR-ENGLISH-EQUIVALENTS/dp/9620700430/) It cannot be previewed on Google Books or Amazon. But one reader's review on Amazon tells us how the entry looks like. It's a wonderful dictionary. The authors did exactly what this Multilingual Idiom List does, limited to Chinese-English only but with a far greater number of entries. It may be the only Chinese-English idiom dictionary ever created if we emphasize the word "equivalents" in the title. I don't know if there're other idiom dictionaries between two (or better yet, more than two) languages that list the equivalent idioms.

" a current " -> "the current" (if I understand you correctly) "The speed" -> "Speed" (just to be consistent with the other subtitles) " , everyone " -> ". Everyone" or "; everyone" " , all passengers" -> ". All passengers" or "; all passengers" " Passengers health" -> "Safety of the passengers" (I don't think you're talking about people's health here.) " , we still have not enough" -> ": we still don't have enough" or "is that we still don't have enough" " railway ... that" -> "the railway system ... than"

Regarding "the younger the better", I've always wondered if that claim is only valid for certain modes of language capability. (Mode refers to reading, listening, writing, speaking, etc.) For example, it's extremely difficult for an adult to learn a foreign language and be able to speak with no accent. It's also difficult, at least compared with a child, for an adult to learn to speak and listen. But an adult can learn to read with probably the same difficulty or ease as a child. I occasionally check the latest research on Second Language Acquisition on various websites but don't recall seeing such study differentiating the modes of language capability with respect to age of learning.

More sample words: inhabituel unusual, uncustomary. Since habituel means “usual”, “customary”, “habitual”, this word with the in- prefix means exactly the opposite. Just don’t confuse it with English inhabit (which would be habiter in French) or its related words. The key to remember is that English prefix in- here means “in”, “within”, “inside” while French in- signifies negation. Thus, for instance, English inhabitable is French habitable, English uninhabitable is French inhabitable. épater to amaze, to flabbergast. épatant amazing, stupefying, splendid. The root is patte (“animal’s paw or leg”). It’s said the word originally referred to breaking off (é-) the foot (patte) of a glass, by an angry gambler (Cf. Charles Virmaître, Dictionnaire d'argot fin-de-siècle). Actually, this word is more about “to amaze or impress (with talent etc.)” than “to surprise or alarm” in general. English idiom knock off one’s feet (as on hearing one winning a grand prize) is a good match literally and figuratively, although its origin is unlikely related to this French word. If you know Spanish, you may be pleasantly surprised to find that Spanish despatarrar (where pata means “leg”) can also mean “to amaze”, as well as, if used reflexively, “to open legs wide” or “to manspread”. See also patte.

That's indeed a great idea. I can see the value in language studies. But I wish the books they publish were originally in more diverse languages. I mean, look at the selection of the titles. Most were written in English, and then translated to other languages. I would love to have e.g. Don Quixote in Spanish and English, Madame Bovary in French and English, Calvino's novels in Italian and English, etc. I recently read Le Petit Prince in French, English and Chinese (a trilingual book) and noted quite a few differences or even errors in the English and Chinese translations. It was fun.

I'm a little surprised too. But note that the poll creator has both Mandarin and Chinese. If you add the two together, Chinese will be lower than Russian but higher than Portuguese. It's still lower than what many people would expect. The reason may be that this poll is about people's free choice of languages to study, not really out of usefulness to their career or work. Secondly, the members of the Polyglots group are probably concentrated in Europe. (I'm guessing. I don't have the stats.) It makes sense for Europeans to study Europeans languages more than non-European languages.

Everything "linguaholic" said. But it really depends on your personal interest. I choose languages to study 99% out of interest and 1% out of usefulness. I happen to know a big poll about what other polyglots are studying and I saved the result as follows I happen to be studying the top few languages. Not a pure coincidence! You listed "Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Greek" as possible languages to study. They are all good. But I heard that the Dutch people don't appreciate much if you study Dutch; they may ask "Why do you study that?"

It means, if the OCS skills (not sure what it is) are mastered earlier, then when these kids grow up, their skills are more relevant or (simply) more useful in a complex environment.

It would be better to allow people to see what's going on first. The link forces visitors to sign up.

I have completed writing my book, Learning French Words Through Etymology and Mnemonics: A New Approach to Vocabulary Study. Please see http://yong321.freeshell.org/lfw/ for details. Unfortunately, I was not able to convince a publisher to have it published. In the meantime, I can accept donation for a free copy of the book, on the condition that the book is not shared beyond your immediate family. Any comment or critique or correction is very welcome.

I replied to you and the message disappeared, and got an email in my Yahoo email account: Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. <admin@linguaholic.com>: 550: No Such User Here --- Below this line is a copy of the message. ...[some crypted text snipped]... ------=_Part_2105749_1282543207.1548198877556 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Yes I tried that, many times. I would never try other means without going = to that first. The Contact Us page is working now. Thanks for fixing it. Yong On Tuesday, January 22, 2019, 5:08:51 PM CST, Linguaholic <admin@lingua= holic.com> wrote: =20 =20 =20 | | | | | | Linguaholic | | | | | | | | =20 | Hi yong321,=20 linguaholicquoted one of your posts in a topic. | | =20 | =20 | =20 | Posted in Need better way to contact admin | | =20 |=20 | 4 hours ago, yong321 said: =20 Finally logged in, after months of this error=20 Sorry, there is a problem =C2=A0 Something went wrong. Please try again= ..=C2=A0 Error code: 2S119/1 =C2=A0 and not being to able to contact a= ny admin, including admin@linguaholic.comand postmaster@linguaholic.com | | Really? I am very sorry to hear that! Have you tried the Contact US=C2=A0section of the website?=C2=A0 That shou= ld workjust fine. Thanks for pointing this out! Best,=C2=A0 Lingua

Finally logged in, after months of this error Sorry, there is a problem Something went wrong. Please try again. Error code: 2S119/1 and not being to able to contact any admin, including admin@linguaholic.com and postmaster@linguaholic.com

I subscribe to a few news feeds on Facebook, such as Le Figaro, Le Monde. On my cell phone, I use an old version Opera Mini browser, the only one I find that allows you to copy text in the big block of text plus image (not sure how to call it). In other browsers, you can't select the text. So, whenever in doubt, I copy the text and click the Google Translate bubble.