Oghenekevwe's recent posts

I'm going to go see Alita too. Came out last week! 

Thanks for the birthday wishes Dragonsky.

My birthday was on February 14 and i literally couldn't go anywhere. There was heavy traffic everywhere, everyone was in a frenzy cos of Valentine's day. I just bought a bucket of chicken from KFC,went home and ate my soul away.

How did you'll spend your Valentine's day? 

Oh and did i mention I got two cakes?

Thanks to a Chrome extension called Language Learning With Netflix, you can now learn a new language by watching Netflix.

All you need to do is install the Language Learning With Netflix Chrome extension. Then, you pick a film to watch, select the language you want to learn how to speak and the language you can already speak, and away you go. It really is that simple.

https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/learn-new-language-watching-netflix/

See for yourself. 

There's no one way of understanding women and i think the mistake some men make is applying the knowledge of Woman A to Woman B.

The beauty of understanding women, is realizing and accepting that it is a never ending process. How do you understand someone who hasn't fully comprehended herself?

The French language is a very beautiful language - very polite and very classy.

It can be very hard although to understand or decipher.

One of the things i find really frustrating is that, French has a lot of ways of saying things. Take for example, my previous post on the translation for "A farmer".

Also, the pronunciation is so complex! You'll think you've found a rule that works, only to discover there are exceptions to that.

The last but not the least, Written French is different from spoken French.

I do love the process, but it can get very frustrating at times.

What are some difficulties you're currently facing in the language you're learning?

The link to the article says '404 not found'

She's too adorable! I love her spirit. Look how much she has learned I'm so little time.

Does this mean children do pick up languages faster than adults?

dragonsky wrote:

I don't know if this will come off weird nor not but I feel like reading new articles in Pidgin makes the news more entertaining haha

I think the website has been around for a year now, it first came out last year if I recall correctly

Yes that is correct.

And yes, even I found it to be very funny and entertaining too.

Pdigin English is widely spoken in West Africa and has been for a few hundred years. It is very similar to Caribbean English based Creoles like Jamaican patois. The language varies among nations and ethnic groups.

Samsung j7,chrome browser. It doesn't happen all the time.

Sometimes when i log on to check my notification and click on one,it doesn't respond. I try refreshing but it still doesn't work till i log out and log in again. I don't know if I'm the only one experiencing this.

Nice! I used that method a lot through high school and boy did it help. In biology,MR NIGER D stood for characteristics of living things;

Movement

Respiration

Nutrition

Irritability 

Growth

Excretion

Reproduction 

Death 

Mnemonics is,for me,a very efficient way of learning and remembering. 

:joy::joy:

Okay,Where did you learn that from?

The third one is actually 'This one nor get wahala' or just 'no wahala' meaning 'No problem'

Nice one SGP!

Asides mine, I'm learning French and i must say it's not as easy as i thought. The language and the culture is completely foreign to me and not having someone to practice with makes it really hard sometimes. 

Okay I'm getting confused all over again.

The examples you used; being a gamer and a video game player. I can see that one is 'intense' and the other 'casual'. Could the same be said for those three farmer translations? 

Could you please just use them in a sentence? 

Thank you so much. The dictionary helped.

Thanks SGP.

Does this mean all three can be used interchangeably? 

I was looking up farmer in my dictionary and found different french words corresponding. I was wondering what the different nuances are between them: 

un fermier 

un cultivateur 

un agriculteur 

Any thoughts? 

And please in the most simplified way possible.

Thanks Leo.

Of course it's absolutely normal to use simplified words for a growing baby. It's same for someone learning a new language, you don't go off learning the complex vocabs first.

As for the higher voice, I think it happens naturally. Anytime I'm speaking with a child,my voice pitch automatically goes up.

Rose.Angelie wrote:

I never heard of "parentese" before but I think this is true! As a parent, I made sure that I didn't "baby talk" to my kids when they were younger. I always spoke to them in complete sentences (even when I know they might not understand me), though in a slower pace, and I constantly repeated what I said especially when I was teaching them something like giving directions. And true enough, my two children were pretty advance speakers when they were young. Both of them were able to communicate clearly at age 2 compared to their peers. (They're 8 & 5 now and are very talkative! haha).

I remember playing with my friend's baby and was mimicking baby sound. That's when she told me about speaking to your kids and how they catch up faster when spoken to in the way you would an adult.

I see the sense in it. Growing babies are picking up and learning new things everyday from their surrounding. So what they hear,they tend to assimilate. 

Sometimes I have problem spelling catarrh and address 

Thank you so much for clearing that up for me.

https://learningenglish.voanews.com/a/study-speaking-parentese-helps-baby-s-language-learning/4764116.html

From what I gathered,they think mimicking a baby's babble and speaking baby language will slow down their language learning process. 

How realistic is this "parentese"

Thank you for explaining Ikaymoreno.

"It's so that the customer can understand them with little to no effort and that the conversation can focus on the customer's concern and not where the agent is from."

What if the Agent speaks clearly and is easily understood but doesn't have the American or British accent. Will the person still need this training to sound "proper"?

leosmith wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

I've heard a lot of people say "I need someone who speaks English with little or no accent". I'd like to know what the deciding factor is. Which is the standard English with no accent?

Who decides how English should sound like generally?

All you can do is ask them what they are talking about. I think in general people from the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA and Canada are the ones most likely to be referenced as having "standard accents" or "no accents". But who is to say that countries that have millions of native English speakers, such as India and the Philippines, have "non-standard" or "accented" English? It's a tricky and sometimes controversial question.

The funny part Is,all these places you named,the people don't sound alike. They all have variations in their accents. In the US,you have people with different accents so I'm just here wondering exactly what the "standard " English accent is.

Like you said,Its controversial and i couldn't agree more.

wrote:

Try to use whatever language you know, without worrying about mistakes or looking foolish - play with the language, learn from your mistakes, and have fun.

This is what I've been saying about not taking yourself too seriously! Thanks for sharing.

I've heard a lot of people say "I need someone who speaks English with little or no accent". I'd like to know what the deciding factor is. Which is the standard English with no accent?

Who decides how English should sound like generally? 

ikaymoreno wrote:

Do you follow a course/syllabus? I'm thinking of learning French again. :)

Presently,I'm letting Duolingo be my guide. Whatever I'm learning for the day from there,I go to the internet and dig deeper and get leads from there . There are a lot of resources out there that are really helpful and fluentu is just one of them.

I came across this article. I didn't even know there were similarities. Maybe I knew but i didn't look deeper. Especially with the loan words...

https://www.fluentu.com/blog/french/similarities-between-english-and-french/

Honestly I do need help with my punctuation marks. Thanks for sharing. 

Basically, accuracy is the ability to produce grammatically and lexically accurate sentences, while fluency is the ability to produce language in a coherent, effortless way. That being said, someone learning a language can become fluent but would take a whole lot more time to reach the level of accuracy a native possesses. 

If you're learning a language solely for everyday conversation purposes, then fluency will matter to you more. Of course someone learning it for educational purpose will go deeper than the person learning just because.

Charlyn wrote:

Hi Oghenekevwe! Goodluck in learning French! :slightly_smiling_face: French sounds interesting. I'm thinking to learn it soon.

You should Charilyn. It's interesting but not easy. There are days i want to quit,but I'm making progress. When you are ready,I could do with a study buddy :wink:

They are not there just for decorations obviously. They are meant to aid you in pronunciation. Just as in English—where if you don’t dot your “i” or cross your “t,” you’re left with a stubby little line that is dangerously close to becoming an “l”—French accents are used to distinguish between letters.

Thank goodness there are just five I should know;four accents from vowel(a,e,i,o,u)and one from consonants(c). 

That's what I'm currently learning, What are you doing? 

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I am always amazed at the capabilities of some, they make me feel like I don't live up to my potential but the first polyglot is right it is totally dedication which I don't have the time for in this lifetime

You're absolutely correct Jade. We all commit to something. For polygots, It's learning different languages. 

dragonsky wrote:

For starters I'll start with finding the dedication to clean my room lol :D

:joy::joy:very funny 

dragonsky wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

dragonsky wrote:

Ok completely random, but when I was younger I never understood the phrase "pet peeve".

What's the origin of the word/phrase? Like.."pet"...why is there a "pet" in the phrase? I don't get it :/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_peeve

This doesn't totally explain it.but i hope it helps.

Ha! So it came from a comic/strip

Many words have weird origins :D Thanks!

You're welcome. So what are your pet peeves? 

dragonsky wrote:

I've seen a thread like this on multiple forums so I think a thread like this may be fun to have on this forum.

Here you can talk random things...talk about your life, what you're doing, literally anything you can think of!

Currently...I am sick :/ I have a cold and it definitely sucks :/

And how are you doing fellow forumers? (forumers is not a word but who cares :D )

Get well soon...

Woke up with a start and it's just been going downhill from there.I just want this day to end already. 

I want to be Doctor Strange.

dragonsky wrote:

Ok completely random, but when I was younger I never understood the phrase "pet peeve".

What's the origin of the word/phrase? Like.."pet"...why is there a "pet" in the phrase? I don't get it :/

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_peeve

This doesn't totally explain it.but i hope it helps.

Winston

Wales

Walrus

Next:B

Uriel

Uzbekistan

Urchin

Next: F

dragonsky wrote:

I'd love to see a reality show with him traveling from one country to antoher :D

That will be something. Even if it's not a reality TV show,maybe a short film.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Crazy , though I have to say the more I learn the easier they seem to accumulate

Yeah,the more you learn,you increase your brain capacity to assimilate and store things.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Cool, you find some really awesome resources the self assessment tool is useful I'm going to give it a go, I consider my Spanish pretty rubbish but I did parents evening last night and spoke to all my students mums very well and didn't struggle do maybe I am hard on my self.

Yes Jade,it's one step at a time. I'm sure you're doing just fine! You don't become a pro overnight.

Gulliver

Georgia

Gorilla

Next: Q

https://edl.ecml.at/Home/tabid/1455/language/en-GB/Default.aspx

https://languageshowlive.co.uk

Have a look at it for yourself. There are fun language quizzes that you can take too.

Michelle.Batan wrote:

wow! amazing dedication

You can say that again!

https://www.greatbigstory.com/stories/the-ultimate-polyglot-this-man-speaks-32-languages

https://www.worldcrunch.com/culture-society/hyper-polyglot-greek-translator-speaks-32-languages

For him it is all about getting immersed and absorbing the foreign culture - even to the point that he changes religion and eating habits according to his current projects.According to what I've read, He learned through total immersion without ever doing a formal study!

"I learned English through magic like every other baby"

That line got me :grin:

Great video! Thanks for sharing Ikay.

This image is inspiring me to drop popular languages and learn the unpopular ones especially the rich varieties we have in Africa.

Let your fear motivate you,

Afraid of living an ordinary life? Then strive by all means to be extraordinary.

Live to the fullest,give all you have and die empty...

That would make you cringe...

S: Sarafina,Senegal,Snake

Next: K

Well i want it all SGP.

I wrote this, took a second look at your writings, saw exactly what i wrote and started laughing at myself.

The article from Psychology Today is almost too accurate...Almost...

I think It's still too early to tell.

I've just registered for a certification course that I've been putting off.

Fingers crossed Charilyn... 

TemitopeAkinyede wrote:

Hi Kevwe,did you grow up speaking your language? Or like somewhere its spoken alot? .
I’m actually experiencing this and i kinda feel bad sometimes. People say its difficult at this age but i find that hard to believe.

Hello Tope, i actually grew up listening more and speaking less and I'm trying to bridge that gap now. I was literally transferred from state to state while growing up because of the nature of my father's job. Once I started to pick up a language, It'd be time to move and that just kept happening over and over again. I just got tired and realized that I pick up languages faster when I'm passively listening, strange right?

BTW, where have you been? Happy New Year!

Rose.Angelie wrote:

Funny how my intial reaction was "oh, this is easy" and when I got to the next page I was like "WHAT IS THIS???!!" Hahaha

Yeah i guess it humbled most of us here.lol

Rose.Angelie wrote:

Not Language related but mine includes people who walk sooo slow (they're usually on their phone) in the middle of a busy street/corner/corrider/alley/pedestrian, aisle,etc.. and those that suddenly stop (while walking) without taking consideration/not minding the people behind them. Whenever this happens, I'd tell the person "EXCUSE MEEE" in a loud, sarcastic tone. Lol

hahaha when that happens to me i tell them "you're gonna be a very bad driver" 

Thank you for your kind words SGP.

You just might be onto something here...

Looking forward to your next post.

After the long read,I'm still at loss as to how you plan to "understand" women.

Oh SGP, we're so lucky to have you.lets all work hard enough to be more "interesting" to you.

"Kim is famous for doing nothing".

You're doing something,has the world changed?

Have you thought about it that perhaps if you weren't so condescending in your writing,you'd probably make a good point?

edz.conde wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

http://testyourvocab.com/

Just a short test to find out how many words you know. I scored 16,400.

What's your score?

Got the same rough score...haha

Well done!

Rai.S. wrote:

Got 17700, and I have no idea why. :sweat_smile:

You should be proud of yourself, I scored lower than that and now I have to update my vocab.

dragonsky wrote:

Hmm, actually it's 16,400 for me too...this actually turned up being tougher than expected...cause like the first few rows were so basic and then out of nowhere it got tougher haha :D

It would be fun if there was a site like this for other languages

I was like 'easy breezy' at the first stage until the more difficult words humbled me lol. It made me go back to my dictionary and that's a good thing.

Thank you so much Jade! I went through the site and discovered thoughtco.com

It is highly informative and really helpful. It contains pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, idioms, culture etc.

http://testyourvocab.com/

Just a short test to find out how many words you know. I scored 16,400. 

What's your score?

Happy New Year Jade.

Here's to 2019... 

I celebrated the New year in church, then I went home and slept all through.

2018 was a learning ground for me. I am more certain of what i want to be, who i want to become.

2019 is a continuation for me, to put together all I've learned so far and work towards achieving the goals I've set for myself.

So...... fingers crossed... 

Hi Hanna! Welcome and I hope you have a wonderful time with us.

I've learned that there's no 'one clear path' to language learning. You have to find what works for you and stick with it

I also learned that it's easy for you to lose sight of why you started in the first place.

I've learned to go at my own pace and not feel the need to compare my achievements with others.

Lastly, I learned that I really don't need to take attend a class physically to learn a language.

ikaymoreno wrote:

People touching my pens. I feel like their body oils seep under my skin when I use my pen. :S

That's deep mehn!

Rai.S. wrote:

Mine is the improper use of they're, there and their. :face_palm:

I feel you Sister. It gets me really upset every time people use them incorrectly and i have to bite my tongue from correcting them.

The only thing i want to do better is be more disciplined and dedicated to learning French. Every other thing is secondary to me.

Mine is those who use "am" instead of "I'm". It really pisses me off.

What's yours?

My My! She's really pretty. Congratulations to you all. The last time we actually had anyone from my country go that far was Miss world pageant where Agbani Darego came out as the winner.

Merry Christmas and Happy New year to you all!!!

leosmith wrote:

It's really pretty!

Yes it is Leo, thank you.

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Cool, not sure how accurate this isbut after googling I was curious to see the one for unity looks a lot like DNA to me

Well it doesn't to me. Did you mean the one for love? Like I said, this is really old and I don't know much about it myself. There are not much materials to go on but there's a possibility the writing must have been mixed up somewhere. Not by natives of course, but by those materials that are available.

dragonsky wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

dragonsky wrote:

Saw this when it came out and it's still great ;D

I am so glad I saw Frozen before the song became a huge hit, cause that might have given me big expectations or whatever...

Maybe I am not a huge fan of the film but I absolutely love the song, it's amazing.

I love hearing translated versions of the Disney songs, I remember hearing some of the Lion King and I totally loved them :D

Yeah me too, I saw frozen and immediately fell in love with the song. I love animations any time any day! I have lost count of the number of songs I've learned just from watching animations.

Kind of off topic but do you consider the Disney movies musicals? I see so many people that classify Frozen as a musical, but despite the great sogns I don't view it like that : /

On topic:

If singing and dancing play a major role in the movie, then it is considered a musical. Usually the music and dialogue are interwoven. That's why frozen is considered a musical.

Have you seen "the greatest showman"? Awesome movie!

Michelle.Batan wrote:

HAHAHA! this is so entertaining! I LOVED IT! thank you so much! :)

You're welcome Michelle!

It's a very old writing system here in Nigeria. It's so old only a few people know about it. Read about it yourself here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nsibidi

http://nsibidi.wikia.com/wiki/Nsibidi_Wiki

dragonsky wrote:

Saw this when it came out and it's still great ;D

I am so glad I saw Frozen before the song became a huge hit, cause that might have given me big expectations or whatever...

Maybe I am not a huge fan of the film but I absolutely love the song, it's amazing.

I love hearing translated versions of the Disney songs, I remember hearing some of the Lion King and I totally loved them :D

Yeah me too, I saw frozen and immediately fell in love with the song. I love animations any time any day! I have lost count of the number of songs I've learned just from watching animations.

And I'm just here wondering how I'm just seeing this now after so many years!

I hope you really enjoy it like I did!

Rose.Angelie wrote:

I think many of us (if not all) will go through this stage when learning a new language. And I think it's even natural like in the case of young kids when they completely understand what someone is trying to say but they can't respond very well yet. :) So practice and more exposure (actually conversing) will fill the gap faster I think. :)

Thanks Rose!

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Really cool I surprised myself I love how the languages changediffering only slightly to their neighbouring countries but more as you travel

I played on medium

Nicely done Jade! Glad you liked it.

It's a game where you guess the language that is being spoken.

It's really fun, I hope you like it!

https://www.languagesquad.com/

Find his way to Ithaca...

Jess.PWinkler wrote:

IMO the gap is filled with "need", practice and motivation :)

Thank you Jess. You're absolutely correct because I've actually not felt the need to balance it out. If i can get to that, I'll be able to close the gap.

This simply means; understanding a language but not speaking it.

It's funny but that's what I and my brother are experiencing. We understand our language perfectly when you speak it to us. Speaking it back is a whole other thing.

Anybody has any suggestion about how to fill the gap between the level of understanding and the level or capacity of speaking in that language?

This article says more, take a look

https://www.scienceabc.com/eyeopeners/how-can-we-sometimes-understand-a-language-but-not-speak-it-very-well.html

I am of the school of thought that says; when you've been studying for a long time, take a break and catch some sleep. You'll wake up feeling refreshed and you'll find out that what you studied before resting comes easy to memory and you have space for more. 

The brain, like every other part of our body needs sufficient rest for it to function at it's best.

Learning in my sleep, never tried that. However I've discovered that resting my head after a long study session makes it easy for me to remember.

Language and culture are so intricately entwined together, I don't think you can separate one from the other. It makes sense for one to totally immerse himself in the entirety of the language he's learning, which includes the culture of the people.

SGP wrote:

wrote:

Some people here in Nigeria say aks but it's mostly when we're speaking Pidgin English.

Now it is time for another German word. Schleichwerbung.

It literally means sneaking advertisement. As in: very subtle. Not sneaky.

One possible interpretation of her post would be: Because I already spoke about possibly making a log about Jamaican Patois/Patwa, she side-noted that there is a pidgin in Nigeria, too.

So maybe she secretly is advertising something. She could try to suggest that I should learn that pidgin instead, but she still wouldn't admit it.

Or I could just be giving you an innocent reply to the question you asked me. Not everyone has an agenda Benjamin.

SGP wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Very funny. I was actually able to read through what you wrote. Usually it gives me a headache to read through this Jamaican way of speaking and writing. The 'aks' part got me laughing too.

Yes it is Jamaican, too, but "tink", "ting" etc. are also included in some variants of African English. Not telling you anything new.

But maybe you could tell me something new. Do you know in which country or countries they say "aks" instead of "ask"? I do know that it is being said like this, heard it more than once or twice. But not sure where it comes from.

Some people here in Nigeria say aks but it's mostly when we're speaking Pidgin English.

SGP wrote:

Oghenekevwe wrote:

Welcome Benjamin, maybe you could be Leo's ANGRY GIRL:laughing:

T'ank you for di welcome Oghenekevwe.

Before writing anyting more, I ges would wan fi tell ya why I sometimes would be writing dat weh. There be a strong African influence on bot' of mi personality and mi weh of speaking English.

Sometimes I even be tokin' to native Jaman (German) speakers using mi African/Caribbean mix. I don't tell you story. I be tokin' to dem inna di same manner I be writing dis post, too. And because I know that not everyone would always understand mi very motivashon if I wouldn't tell dem, I just told you and others rite now.

Now I'd like to aks you someting. Was I able to convey mi motivashon for writing dat weh? Because usually, people with an, esample, African background did understand it (or even appreciate it) when tokin' to dem face to face. But because we are on di Internet rite now, I ges would wan fi mek sure.

(For some others: Yes, it really would be "aks" in this case, A-K-S. :smile:)

As for dat "angry girl" report, I already read it a long time ago. Also, I do know that you be jokin' rite now. But still, there be more differences between me and her than just something biological. I am also tinking about several personal details (as mentioned by Leo), and those two (me and her) are way too different.

But on di other hand, because I am someone who really is into All T'ings Communicashon (especially the non-theoretical aspects), I am still wondering whether she will read it any day. I nah be tinking 'bout it as someone who is nosey. However, I be doing some reflections on many matters related to communicashon, interactions between humans and so on. And da's why I even would be tinking 'bout topics like dat one ("angry girl") sometimes :astonished:.

Very funny. I was actually able to read through what you wrote. Usually it gives me a headache to read through this Jamaican way of speaking and writing. The 'aks' part got me laughing too.

leosmith wrote:

Got it, thanks. I'll write a ticket. Is this android?

Yes it's Android. It's working just fine now.

Once I open my browser, I have to refresh several times before new notifications show in the notification bar.

I've noticed that if i log on to this site from my laptop, I don't have any issues. But with my phone, it hardly refreshes for me to see new notifications.

Welcome Benjamin, maybe you could be Leo's ANGRY GIRL 

ikaymoreno wrote:

Ted-Ed had a wonderful piece related to this. (goes off to look for the video)

So I'm supposed to look up the history of every word i come across that is spelled one way and pronounced another.