If English is not your 1st language, how did you learn it?

[Kewpie]

I was joking but your English is very good, Kewpie.

Aww, I'm not worthy, but thank you very much for your compliment Amy.

Friend of m_i_m19 worked really hard to learn English so fast, I couldn't do that.

 

[nowherefast944]

I taught myself English while raised in a Spanish-only household.

Cartoons and Power Rangers books helped my English enough to get me a full ride through college

 

[Amy]

Aww, I'm not worthy, but thank you very much for your compliment Amy.

Friend of m_i_m19 worked really hard to learn English so fast, I couldn't do that.

I imagine English would be hell to learn from scratch, the vocab is extensive and complex.


Edit: and then once you've got that knowledge you have to learn the slang and the dialectal variations, which makes it even more complicated

 

[M-in-Oz]

Is English difficult to learn? A majority of my friends are non-English speaking (Norwegian, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Dutch, Portugese) & they give me feedback about all the things that Australian's say that makes conversation hard to understand. So I am really trying with that, of listening more, talking less. It also makes me really think about what I am saying as so much of conversation can be unsaid/unspoken.

I studied Japanese for 5 years at high school & regretfully have forgotten most of it.

 

[ThisCharmingGirl]

Is English difficult to learn?

I think it is because it has lots of expressions and vocabulary, like somebody mentioned above, but not too much for the rest. It's not like Spanish for example, which have millions of verbs forms. It's very odd that a non-Spanish speaker will ever learn and use properly all of them. If there is anyone on here studying Spanish I'm sure they know what I'm talking about

 

[Cassius]

I think it is because it has lots of expressions and vocabulary, like somebody mentioned above, but not too much for the rest. It's not like Spanish for example, which have millions of verbs forms. It's very odd that a non-Spanish speaker will ever learn and use properly all of them. If there is anyone on here studying Spanish I'm sure they know what I'm talking about

I know what you mean. And you have to use the proper verb form so as not to offend people...it's confusing!

 

[ThisCharmingGirl]

I know what you mean. And you have to use the proper verb form so as not to offend people...it's confusing!

Yes, but don't worry, we're used to that

I forgot to mention before the English phrasal verbs. They're really difficult and a nightmare for me!

 

[the judge]

aww judge, i think you do very well...with writing it at least.

Thanks

Every country has an unmistakable English accent, don't they?

You can tell a Russian accent from a Croatian one? Anyway I think you're right in a way.

If I ever feel like brushing up on any of the languages I learned in college, the first thing I'm going to do is look for an interesting music forum in those languages.

Are you being sarcastic?

Wait--is it amazing because you think that 20 is so young, or so old, to be learning something?

So old for languages.

I soooo want to teach one of those accent-eradication classes that are offered occasionally here

Add me on your list

I forgot to mention before the English phrasal verbs. They're really difficult and a nightmare for me!

Hmm. What about Simple Past and Present Perferct?

 

[Not Right in the Head]

You can tell a Russian accent from a Croatian one? Anyway I think you're right in a way.

Maybe not (not sure I've heard enough Croatian-accented English), but I'd probably be able to pinpoint each one to within a 200-mile radius.

Are you being sarcastic?

No! I'm totally serious.

So old for languages.

Nah. I started learning Greek at 20, and German at 22. (Of course, my German is horrible.) But I don't think I'd have any problem starting a new language even now, at 36.

Add me on your list

Ok, but my services aren't cheap.

 

[sistasheila]

At school-we start learning english at the age 10 its much early this time now theyre alreday larning it at school much earlier

i did make a language course for 3 weeks in 96 in poole...but othing came out of it..what i didnt alreday know before..

would say i understand (almost) everything but sometimes have problems expressing it..esp when talking to a native speaker..one reason is thts I am embarressed by my german accent...it s not that bad but its still there

and ofcourse
By watching films
By listening to music
By reading books
with this you can approve your skills of course ..unfortunately foreign films get sychronised and not subtitled in germany
thats why in my opion scandinavian people speak english so well american/british films gets shown in the orginal language there and get their swedish/danish subtitles down below the frame...
(i could see danish tv stations for a few years..thts why i know that)

so thanks to dvds now we an choose but english films on german tv in orignial language forget it(very rarely)..and synchronzing ruin everything especially british films/tv series...i just watched a" little britain " rerun again and get annoyed about the horrible german synchronsation.

i

 

[SvartaSjael]

I adore Jeeves and Wooster. Stephen Fry is my intellectual crush.

I totally second that


As for me, I'm German and I had 6 years of English when I went to school, but I'd still say that only taught me about 10% of my current 'command' of the language. I developped a rather nerdy interest in the language and started reading english books when I was about 11. Like someone else mentioned earlier on here, I also had the habit of translating tons of song lyrics. What helped my communication ability the most, though, was when I discovered the internet and made friends from the UK and US and met them, because no school book on earth can teach you the (informal) conversation language you'll need once go to that certain country. Always watching english films without the stupid german sync helped a lot as well.

By now, I've actually come to prefer English to German and when I think about things, I usually think in english even if that's a bit weird. I 'boycott' german TV (eventhough I'm working for it) but I like a lot of what's on British TV. I love this language. I'm hoping to move to England too, so I'm doing anything possible to keep improving.