deleted.93356's recent posts

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

I hear their Spanish in Spanish... but when I respond it is mentally in English which is slowing me down and making me speak Spanish in an awkward way

I can totally relate this when I was learning Japanese. I can understand the people speaking in Japanese but my mental response is in English. It takes focus and much practice to automatically respond in the language you are learning.  

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

In Brazil people with northeast accent are mistreated and made fun of when they come to the South. We regard them as vulgar and non-educated, although they have a really rich culture up there.

That sounds a bit sad. Is the northeast part of Brazil, rural?

This is an interesting post. First time I heard of "phrase comprehension" and I have to agree. It is more helpful to memorize lesser number of words within a context of how it is used than having a wide vocabulary with no context/ 

This is an interesting thing with my mom. She usually uses Tagalog and Visayan but she switches to English when she is angry with us or when she's quarreling with my dad. I've observed that my maternal grandmother is also like her and some of her siblings too.

Aside from that, I've observed that some people switches to their native language and dialect when their anger or emotions are really intense. 

Is anyone here like this or do you know anyone who also does this?

Would like to hear your thoughts.  

Mavis.Bean wrote:

The only way to make English better is practice. I'm talking with an American boy for 2 years and he teaches me a lot. But I don't have anyone who can speak English with me in my town/office/home. I couldn't improve my English.

Try also participating in forums where people write and respond in conversational English. It's a good way to practice language. You can correct yourself while you write. :)

Thanks for mentioning CEFR. I looked it up and found it interesting. The levels are good approximations for a language learner.  

I looked up the work conyo and you're right it's not a word to use in public conversations. 

In tagalog, conyo isn't exactly derogatory but it has implications of social climbing. 

That's interesting. In the Philippines, our official language is Filipino which is based in Tagalog but it is not spoken by the major population.

I think you cannot be fluent if you are not accurate.  

The occasional mistakes and usual language errors are understandable. But mistakes in basic measure of accuracy is obviously not a sign of being fluent.  

Just my two cents.    

I think it's important to have clear goals when learning a language. Example, when you just want to survive daily in a foreign land, it's better to learn conversationally and not spend too much time on grammar. It's better to focus on growing vocabulary like how kids start communicating. But when you want to communicate more correctly and express ourselves more clearly, then we have to learn grammar. 

And I don't think we can achieve "fluency" in just 3 months. I agree with Jade, the article should be how to start a language. 

I worked in Japan for 4 years. People have limited English skills there and my Japanese is zero. I had to study basic Japanese and really listen to people's conversations to pick words. I also joined communities of foreign people in Japan. They helped out in my language learning and also living in Japan. Actually now that I mentioned this, I miss living there. :)

Watch kids videos on your target language. My son watched random Spanish and Mandarin videos and we're able to pick words unconsciously.  

Oh wow! I hope they can record a usual conversation, like talking about usual things and not about speaking different languages. It would be interesting how the words will fit coherently. 

Found this meme about English language. :)

so gunmen hunted her down

The card is available on Shoppee for around P500. Just checked it recently.:)

I've been trying to use it, no one has replied to my chat yet. :)

Hello Jade! Welcome back! 

"there is some evidence that learning grammar can be counterproductive to learning a language, for example)." 

-I have seen evidences in kids who are constantly exposed to another language. They are not taught grammar and has no formal language education and yet they speak more fluently, with near-native level, compared to those who started with ABC's and grammar rules. I guess in some way, those who started learning grammar have become so conscious with the rules rather than trying to string out sentences. 

Baking?

Planting?

Maryjoy.kuta wrote:

What is the easy language for you guys ?

Filipino and English.

Although when I was learning languages, English is actually more difficult to learn that others because it has a lot of exceptions

Valeria.Fontes wrote:

My Spanish has also improved a lot during the years I was married to a Peruvian guy, not only the realisation of the language itself, but also my conscience of its idiosyncrasies.
I'm here for those who would like to know a bit about Brazilian Portuguese.

Are there also other types of Portuguese?

leosmith wrote:

In English, Bisaya is a group of languages spoken in the Visayan Islands. Cebuano, Ilonggo and Waray-waray are all Bisayan languages.

Oh okay. So Bisaya is like a big umbrella of languages.

Maryjoy.kuta wrote:

Thats so nice sir Leo.
I am lazy to learn languages in my age now. But now I'm not lazy to lean more languages because of this. :)

What language are you learning at the moment?

How is Bisaya and Cebuano different? Also, is Bisaya and Waray different from each other? 

And where can we play this game? 

Now I thought about it, we have no direct translation for "Good night" in Filipino. 

We only have "Magandang Gabi" which means "Good evening!"

Jade.Xuereb wrote:

Fanny is an important one to look out for too in English we use it for slang for a ladies front parts and in America (correct me if i am wrong) but its your behind ?

Oohhhh... I know someone named Fanny. She should not be going to the UK. :)

So what is the difference between Bonne Soiree and Bonne Journee? 

May I know why "vagabundo" has a heavy connotation?

Manigong Bagong Taon.  

This is Filipino. Directly translated as "A Prosperous New Year"

Clayton.Henderson wrote:

Would love to learn a bit. I think my current attack plan is to use a pinyin based course/audio course while becoming literate and then later merging and consolidating them with the readingtool. Tagalog will always be my main foreign language for obvious reasons, but Chinese is sounding tempting especially with all these neat tools (readingtool.io, this anki addon that adds color coding tone marker to hanzi, etc). Reading tool really handles Mandarin with some grace. Too many websites/webapps are Eurocentric, but I love how well LT handles asian languages in general.

I checked the tools mentioned here and you are right, it makes Mandarin learning seems interesting. Pinyin sounds easy but it is not. Haha

I just seen this post now and this is a wonderful, unique idea. I will try this.:) 

Just want to say HI! 

Kdrama is a such a big thing right now. They're always trending on Netflix. I'm currently watching 100 Days My Prince. (?) Not sure if I get the title correctly.

A lot of people in the Philippines are picking up Korean words because of Kdrama fame. Words such as "Oppa" "Saranghae" and common Korean words have become integrated with our language. 

So in English mothers are usually called Mommy and fathers are Daddy. How about in your language?  

Fun way to learn Korean is to watch Kdrama! There's a lot of them on Netflix! :)

Phillip.Laplana wrote:

FENDY = For Everyone Not Done Yelling
New: OLGA

Sounds like a good name for a blog. :)

Loved it as well! Thanks for sharing. Will try again. Haha

... so she did Tiktok videos... 

I also used to play this game. We would add categories to up the challenge. If another person has the same answer, we get 5 points. if our answer is unique, we get 10 points. 

Louis

Lithuania

Lion

Next is F

6. noon (in Tagalog means "in the olden days") 

Let's open this thread again. :) 

Thanks for this! Will check this out. 

Soup wrote:

Hey Valeria,
This is a really interesting topic I think.
As I was starting to learn English in a serious way, ten years ago now, I noticed how people online gradually started saying "she" about a hypothetical person instead of "he", and then, more recently, how it started shifting to "they". Similarly, in French, the écriture inclusive is something that became quite prevalent recently: instead of writing les amis/les amies, you can write les ami-e-s. In Spanish, you can write lxs amigxs instead of los amigos/las amigas.
These are all examples of gender-neutral language [0], which is itself a subset of inclusive language [1]. The wiki pages in English and Portuguese about this are very poor compared to the ones in French or in German, for example, but they're informative nonetheless. And yes, it seems to be a new development, insofar as it's becoming socially accepted, and even expected in some circles, and is becoming the norm in official communication.
[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_language
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusive_language

Using "they" is easier than having to use slashes all the time like he/she when one is not sure what the gender is. 

Nirupam.Deo wrote:

My nana (maternal granpa) used to address my mother and her sisters as boys (in boyish terms) that was because being a female was shameful for fathers in those days

Ohhhh, this is interesting. Has things changed now? 

Interesting. I think as adults, we tend to think we can no longer learn or develop skills because we're set on our ways or sometimes we're lazy or doesn't really have time to learn. But this study shows that if we set our minds to something, we can actually learn another language. 

For me, someone who can simplify complex ideas to make it more understandable to students. Someone who also inspires me to do well in his subject matter, :)

JaeHong.S wrote:

I would like to help if it's Korean that you want to practice with! :)

This is awesome! I might take your offer. I studied Korean while in the university but did not really use it. 

Watch Youtube videos and English movies with subtitles. :) 

For example with Korean, they say "AJA!" which means fighting. 

In Japanese, it's "GAMBATTE!"

How about in other languages? 

I'm trying to learn Spanish and I find assigning gender, "la" and "el" to objects and animals. :) Like, who decides what's their gender? 

I like to learn Mandarin but I know it's hard work. (huhu!)

Japanese sounds fun too because it sounds like a very expressive language. 

I learned Korean back in the university because I like Kdrama. But, I've forgotten about it too. 

HolaIsabel wrote:

In Colombia we study Spanish grammar in schools too. Actually I guess it is important. May be we know how to "write", i mean the alphabet. But we can't write an essay or something like that. Our literacy is not that good. We are trying to improve that with education (also, I don't know how to write in English hehehe).

One of the things I remember doing is when we have to translate short essays in our native language to English so we can improve writing. Maybe you can try that? :)

In the Philippines, we also study English grammar from pre-school, I think. When we move to higher grades, we have a combination of lit and grammar. I didn't like it to be honest. Analyzing the grammar rules of stories and poems just seem to ruin it. But I guess, it somehow works since we can write essays. 

As mentioned by july.lullalove here, in the Philippines, we look down on people who have Visayan accents. People with those accents are not taken as seriously as those without it. In job hunting, employers prefer those without the Visayan accent even if they are more competent. It's a sad reality. How about in other countries, do accents affect people's employment opportunities?