lisasian86

I'm not really sure about differences between countries. I've tried to learn a little bit of British Sign Language but to be honest I've only really mastered the alphabet. My partner knows Makaton which he uses to communicate with the children he cares for at work, I think that is fairly easy to pick up if you put some time into it.

I've just listened to my friend on the phone again, she switches mid sentence! I can't keep up! I can tell the difference between the two languages so I can hear when she switches but I didn't realise until today that she uses both languages at the same time, it's madness!!

I really find it fascinating because I'm only fluent in my native English. Slightly off the subject but still interesting is that I have also heard people switch accents, I myself have done it before. I have my local accent because I grew up here but I moved to a city for a few years that had a different accent and I picked it up. When I am at home I use my normal accent but when I speak to friends from the city I switch to that accent without realising.

I have a friend who was born in Bosnia but brought up in France so she grew up bilingual because her parents spoke Serbo-Croatian and she lived in France from an early age. I have listened to her when she talks with her family on the phone and she will often have a group call with her parents and sisters. What fascinates me is that she can effortlessly switch between Serbo-Croatian (when talking to her parents) to French (her younger sisters prefer to speak French) several times during one phone call and then when she is finished she will put down the phone and start talking to me in fluent English. It's incredible.

I'd never thought about this before, but going on the posts in this thread I have to say I think the Tibetan script is beautiful with Hebrew coming in second.

As a native English speaker of course I prefer British English! To us Brits American English is butchery!. Although I do concede that our accents vary a lot and I have a hard time understanding some of them so to a non native English speaker it must be very hard. I hate not using u's in the right place...favourite, colour etc

I've looked up Rosetta Stone before and the price astounded me! I'd never be able to afford that but I do accept that it's very effective. I just don't have the luxury of spending that much money.

I have used Duolingo before and quite enjoyed it but I just didn't keep up with it, are there any other free language learning sites that are effective?

I've always liked the idea of learning Spanish and I think the little I have learnt I found easier than other languages and that is because I like the language, it appeals to me on a personal level. It is always easier to learn something you are interested in rather than something you have to learn. Being a native English speaker I find that people in Britain are not pushed to learn another language when they are young because as a nation we just expect everyone else to have learnt English. I wish learning languages had been made more of a priority in school, especially European languages and I wish we had had more choice because as an adult I find learning languages very difficult.

Terry Pratchetts Discworld series are my favourite books ever. I love how they are written and the amazing characters (Granny Weatherwax is my favourite) and the fact that there are so many in the series! I highly recommend these books to anyone looking for something to read.