SteveR Loc: Michigan

Regarding the preposition rule: we certainly know where YOU'RE from!!!

SteveR Loc: Michigan

"I can't fathom that." No wonder, do you even know what a fathom is? It's six feet.

DakotaColt

Wasn't 'tar' that black rubber thing you put on a wheel to go down the 'rode' in your 'cah'? One of the fellows in our Madison WI morning coffee group is from Brooklyn NY; he catches it in the neck regularly. When in the Army we had a lot of fun with guys from all over the country!

SteveR Loc: Michigan

When you hear my Dad or his friends who grew up in the hills of W.Va talk about a pissant, they may be talking about an actual ant. However, most people give the term a different connotation.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Is that a result of the historical norm that most people did not travel far at all away from the immediate community around their home, so very localized dialect and accent differences developed within rather close proximities to one another?

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Thank you for the good tips. You probably are a good language course teacher.

For an adult with previous years of life experiences and an established foundation thinking, reading and conversing in a mother tongue, complete immersion in a different language could probably be a bit daunting at the beginning, yet I can understand how it is more effective than disconnected piecemeal attempts of the word-by-word approach.

One comment/tip made to me (by a native english speaker, if I recall correctly) those years back when I worked among the group of spanish speakers, is to get comfortable within the new vocabulary words so that constantly mentally translating every individual word as it's spoken or heard can be put aside....
when speaking or hearing spanish, think just in spanish, not english to spanish, spanish to english.
That was some helpful guidance.

Studying to learn well and become comfortable with the verb tenses is something that would be of great benefit in my better comprehending what I hear, also.
So many times I was keeping up with the flow of the thought in what was being said, then up came a verb whose conjugation I did not know, and my comprehension/attention went into a death spiral because my mind would go into a frantic whirl trying to decode what action had just been mentioned. Usually, I'd lose the continuity of the information flow at that point, and have to try asking questions to help me get back to the point of following the flow of the action of the topic.
That challenge helped give me a bit of insight into why it's probably easier for some new learners of english to state most things in the present tense and have struggles with other tenses.

I haven't had opportunity for daily interaction with spanish speakers for a few years, since that job ended, so I'm sure there is rust to be knocked off the parts I have learned. Your tips to read and find ways to listen are good advice.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Lucian Loc: From Wales, living in Ohio

Yes, that was good advice from that person, because the last thing you ever want to do is to try and translate each word as you go. I was an Alpine ski racer for a number of years, and it is just like racing down a slalom course, where the gates (poles) come at you incredibly fast. If you screw up a gate, do not think about it. We often want to take a second and say... damn it, I am so annoyed at myself for doing that etc. but that is the last thing you should ever do.

Save such thought for when you have completed the course. The moment you make that mistake on the course, you instantly put it to the back of your mind and get on with the business in front of you. If you stop for a millisecond to think about what you just did, you will never be able to catch up in your brain, to where you are on the course, and will eventually screw up again in a gate or two further down the mountain, or just ski out of the course, altogether.

Therefore, in a conversation, if you miss a word or two, don't worry about it, just carry on listening. Words coming up in the conversation may well put you right back on course and help you fill in the blanks. It is the same way when speaking with others in your native language and you don't quite catch a word or two, being said. You don't stop to contemplate what that might have been, you simply carry on listening, and usually you can work out what might have been said, from words coming to you further into the conversation.

Of course, at first when trying to learn a language, you will be trying to translate each and every word as it comes to you, which will be futile. Don't be concerned though, it is normal for people to try that in the very early stages of learning a language. Eventually you will get the gist of what is being said, even if you only understand half of what is being spoken, because your brain will sort of, fill in the blanks.

If you persevere, there will come a time when you suddenly catch yourself thinking in that new language. It is only then, that you have truly arrived, and can say that you now speak another language. It takes time and a constant effort on your part, but it is worth the investment. And if you think about it, speaking a foreign language can't be that difficult because in that country, you see little kids doing it, all around you, right? :-)

I'm not a language teacher, I am just telling you how I approached learning languages. I have taught other things in my life though. I was a ski instructor and a flight instructor; therefore, I do have experience in how people learn things. I've also taught Photoshop, when I was president of our local camera club. No group of people will learn the same way, I have found. So, try different avenues, to see what feels best for you. It might be an audio tape, or a book, or in person lessons or all of those things. Enjoy the journey and don't focus on the destination, you'll have more fun along the way.

Stephan G

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqJf1mB5PjQ

The moment we know that we have learned the language is when we can transfer the concept to a differing environment.

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

Thank you for the little push of encouragement.

Oh.......and I'll let the thought that young children are running around speaking spanish without any problem be a push of motivation, too. 😊

coullone Loc: Paynesville, Victoria, Australia

Yes and the downs go from sea level to about 200m (600 feet) in just a few miles.
Also us 'Poms' were just plain not interested in seeing what was over the hills!

dustie Loc: Nose to the grindstone

That's definitely a level of satisfaction with known life that is beyond the grasp of consumerism-/discontent-minded modern societies.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

This should be given to every high school foreign exchange student coming to the USA. We had three girls, a Chinese, a German, and a Ukrainian, stay with us when our daughter was in high school. They all asked a zillion word questions. It was a running joke... "Why do you say...???"

Stephan G

One of the main reasons why English is difficult is the range of sources for particular words.

"The fast boat is fast to the dock." is a good example. The definitions for the word "fast" come from two different sources, causing them to be opposites of each other. The first addresses the mobility of the boat as the second addresses the position of the boat at the dock. Then there is the "fast" at mealtime that is "broken".

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Very seldom do we hear that second usage.