John Snort

My favorite would be Hannibal. I'm yet to watch the movie Silence of the Lambs but the eponymous villain of NBC's show "Hannibal" was really great — ruthless, intelligent, intriguing. It's always hard to find a villain you hate but sort of want to see more of. It's a shame they had to cancel the show.

This joke has been told over and over but if you haven't seen it posted somewhere on the net, here goes: A man, a turkey in his arms, walks into a confession and says, "Forgive me Father for I have sinned. I stole this turkey to feed my family. Will you take it and forgive my sin?" "I'll not take it," the Priest answers, "you must return it to the one you stole it from." "I tried," the man says, "but he refused, what shall I do, Father." "If what you say is true," the Priest says, "then it is alright to keep if for your family." The man thanks the Priest and hurries off. When the Priest gets back home after the confession, he walks into the kitchen and finds out that someone stole his turkey!

Lots of people actually get homophones wrong. A few more of the common ones that can be confusing: than - then, affect - effect, accept - except, bare - bear . . . and complement - compliment. Embarrassing thing is I once used thanks for the complement instead of thanks for the compliment in a work-related email and boy, did I feel dumb when I realized that I'd made a mistake (just after I'd hit send).

I haven't yet started watching children's shows in the language I'm learning because getting hold of them is quite hard especially when you don't even know what you are looking for. But as @OP points out, kids can learn a lot from these shows and I've noticed that children whose first language is not English also get to learn how to pronounce words correctly the more they watch cartoons.

The only way you can gauge you verbal skills is by speaking to native speakers and while traveling abroad and living with them might force you use the language more often, you could also start speaking with native Gaeilge speakers right away if you can find a language exchange partner online. Though of course you might feel a little intimidated initially just remember that once someone realizes you are trying to learn their language they will be more than willing to teach you how to pronounce the words you've learned, correctly.

Immersion might b the answer to learning a language quickly because you learn by listening and speaking. Pretty much the way kids learn their mother tongue. However you may need to live abroad for about a year so before you leave for Spain try to find out if you can find a temp job because you might need it if you'll be staying there that long. If you can't my advice would be to find language exchange partners and chat with them via Skype.

I read a lot so I hardly ever remember the exact moment I learned a new word. Occasionally though I'll find an unusual word and probably remember the exact moment I learned it. There is the word "Demagoguery' for example. I was reading an article about Donald Trump and the word was used to describe how sleazy a politician he is. It's the association with Trump that makes me remember the exact moment I learned that word.

I like the RP English accent. The enunciation is perfect. Though not many people speak with a pure RP accent (not even in the UK, so I've heard) it certainly is the easiest to understand and easiest to learn too. So like others I believe that someone who is learning English as a second language should listen to BBC a lot. You can even record some audio clips and use them to learn (practically) how to speak better.

There was a time when a part of Spain was under Islamic rule. And as many Muslims have to learn Arabic so they can read the Koran, we can make assumption that many of them spoke Arabic. I also assume that the Spaniards and Arabs had some trade relations. This is why some Arabic words ended up being used by Spaniards. According to a Wikipedia article, there are about 4000 Spanish words that are of Arabic origin. You'll find a list of some of the words here: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Arabic_influence_on_Spanish

English is spoken widely because of British colonization. The only way for Chinese to take English's place as the most spoken language in the world would be because China has a become an economic superpower . People who want to sell anything in China may need to learn Chinese.

Apple Doesn't fall far from the tree — people invariably end up growing up to be just like their parents. Not give a fig — to be less than concerned about something. Like Two peas in a Pod — used when two things are so similar to each other it could be hard to tell one from the other. Small potatoes — something that is not that significant.

How easy a language will be to learn depends on what your native tongue is. Native English speakers for example won't find German that hard to know because they [English and German] have the same roots. Same applies to other language families. According to an article I read a while back, English, Spanish. French, Chinese and Italian are the most studied languages in the world but in the U.S Spanish takes the #1 spot.

The ancient language I would like to learn is probably Akkadian. It's one of the earliest Semitic languages so I suppose if you know it, learning other Semitic languages might be easier. It's just an assumption I'm making but I'm a history buff so there's much I could learn about Mesopotamia if I could read the language the spoke back then.

When learning a language should you make speaking that language with a genuine accent one of your primary objectives? It's relatively easy to pick up an accent if you are living amongst people who speak only the language you are learning but can be a lot harder if you aren't. What do you think? Is a "foreign accent" fine as long you can fluently speak the language?

There are a number of authors who I'd say are my favorites. That's because I have no favorite genres. A few of my favorites: Humor: P.G Wodehose, Robert E. Howard Horror: Stephen King, Sheridan Le Fanu Others: Erle Stanley Gardner, Willard Price, Lewis Caroll and Enid Blyton. To be honest I hardly ever read books that were written after 2002 so I don't know too many contemporary authors.