How did you learn English?

[Duo]

I think English is one of the easiest languages to learn. Only four verb tenses. Other languages have tons, french italian, and wha not. Also english allows for more freedom of flow when expressing yourself. I learned english since 5th grade, but i was just at a rudimentary level. Four years of American High school shaped me up though.

 

[Brooker]

@Misa....
I always thought you were American. You're Japanese? What brings you to the states?

@Duo....
You went to an American high school? In America? In Belgium?

 

[Duo]

In Belgium, sorry for not clearing that up

 

[Elizabeth]

I think English is one of the easiest languages to learn. Only four verb tenses.

Although that is a tad misleading of course without considerng all combinations of their time aspect -- present perfect and continuous auxiliary tenses etc. making at least 12 in all which aren't found in Japanese, but are in Spanish (the only Latin language I'm familiar with) as far as I could tell....:?

 

[Duo]

yep, there are about 12 or more in latin languages
I am fluent in Italian and knoledgable in French, so i can vouch for that. That's why i like english better. My native language, Albanian, has prbly even more, and also 36 letters in the alphabet, also a couple more sounds from other languages, is really hard to lear in. Only good thing is that u spell phonetically.

 

[Brooker]

@Duo....
Sounds like you're a pretty international guy. Albanian, on a Japanese forum who studied at an American university in Belgium and speaks French and Italian. Whoa! :bikkuri:

 

[Duo]

Ah French, well hmm, not so good, but the rest yeah, hopefully i can get to see Japan too, never been to Asia before.

 

[RockLee]

well..as I said, I could talk english before I even I realized I could, watching tv has done some pretty good work I must say...also when I lived in Germany I watched German programs on regular basis, so I picked that up aswell, WITHOUT even have to do something for it.Now my german is only at the speak/hear level, writing is something I never learned.And about english, it really freaks me out actually that I learned it without any books, just by hearing it(Anyone saw the movie (The 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas?He picked their language up in no time !! ^^' ) Well I hope I won't have any difficulties learning Japanese

 

[topi]

Damn, thats exactly what I need.

Im trying to teach myself Japanese, but theres no place I can really practice or even hear it. We dont get Japanese TV shows etc, and theres no Japanese people around me.

The first chance ill get of real life Japanese language is when im actually in Japan in Ocotober.

I hope I can pick the basics of the language up pretty quick whilst im over there, I dont want to rely on other people's English skills.

 

[misa.j]

@misa....
I always thought you were American. You're Japanese? What brings you to the states?

Yes, I am still a Japanese. I have the American flag up in my avatar because I reside in the U.S., and I would like to become an American citizen A.S.A.P..

As everyone have stated, English is spoken all over the world which is one of the reasons why I have wanted to be able to speak, understand, and communicate fluently in English ever since I was little. I really like the sound of English, it sounds beautiful and laid-back.

I had to be surrounded by English to actually learn the language. I believe that is the best way to learn another language.

 

[kirei_na_me]

My husband always hated English with a passion while he was a student in Japan. He said that being required to take English made him hate it. I think he even failed his English course a time or two. Of course, you couldn't tell it now. It's amazing how much he has improved in the past 8 years or so, and that's just by listening to people communicating with each other. He hasn't studied English since he's been in this country, but his spoken English is really good. The only things he could use a little work on would be his written English and even that is pretty good considering. Oh, and making phone calls. He will not make a phone call to a non Japanese speaker to save his life!

 

[akime]

i think english is a pretty easy language for me
at least i think well im actually a latian girl
but i started talking english since i was 2
cause i grew up in australia

well some of u might want to know where laos is ]
right its in between thailand and vietnam

 

[Dream Time]

My husband always hated English with a passion while he was a student in Japan. He said that being required to take English made him hate it. I think he even failed his English course a time or two. Of course, you couldn't tell it now. It's amazing how much he has improved in the past 8 years or so, and that's just by listening to people communicating with each other. He hasn't studied English since he's been in this country, but his spoken English is really good. The only things he could use a little work on would be his written English and even that is pretty good considering. Oh, and making phone calls. He will not make a phone call to a non Japanese speaker to save his life!

I've also never really 'studied' English since I am in this country,
my written skill still sucks because I never really tried to work on it, doing English homework don't really count because I do that just for the sake of getting marks.

 

[akime]

wow some of u are
really smart i mean how can u learn other
language that easy? :?

dream time are u originally from
canada? :?

 

[Dream Time]

I feel that more English speakers should go learn other languages

it is like,if you can speak English,you can go anywhere in the world,
it is not really fair, sometimes I think this way,
for example, many English speakers in China, they don't even bother learning Chinese, why don't they just learn Chinese and speak Chinese to us especially if you are actually living in China??
why we have to speak English to you guys even if we are not good at English?? :?

it never hurts to learn more languages

 

[akime]

misa.j u are japanese well i didnt kno that
well i like the sound of english too
and i also like the sound of ur language
i wanna go to japan some day
i heard its original name is nihon
which means the land of the sun ?

 

[Dream Time]

wow some of u are
really smart i mean how can u learn other
language that easy? :?

dream time are u originally from
canada? :?

no I am from Hong Kong, I came here when I was about 10 and I am a Canadian citizen

well I am not smart,it is just easier to learn the language when you are surrounded by the language

I really like the sound of English, it sounds beautiful and laid-back.

in my opinion this is true, thats why most of the lyrics I have writtened are in English, it is much easier

it is quite hard to write Chinese lyrics, the tone of the Chinese language is hard to fit into the melodies and sometimes it sounds ...err...just not so good

 

[Foxtrot Uniform]

I've heard that English is one of the MOST DIFFICULT languages to learn. In English there is an exception to every rule.

Chinese seems like it would be much more difficult to learn than Japanese because the pronunciation is so difficult in Chinese. The intonation in Chinese can change the meaning. Japanese is not so difficult to pronounce for English speakers because most (not all) sounds in Japanese can be found in English.

Dude, the hardest language to learn is Russian. Trying to learn Russian is extremely difficult because of the complicated grammar and how each verb changes depending on a million rules. I gave up after bits of my melted brain dripped out of my ears.

 

[Nuala]

My parents enrolled me in an accelerated english class when I was young so that is why I speak it so easily along with the fact that it is my native language.

 

[misa.j]

Dude, the hardest language to learn is Russian. Trying to learn Russian is extremely difficult because of the complicated grammar and how each verb changes depending on a million rules. I gave up after bits of my melted brain dripped out of my ears.

LOL. I agree w/ you that the Russian is one of the hardest language to learn.
It seems like it might help to have a marble in your mouth when you speak Russian. I mean no offense to all the Russian speakers.

 

[akime]

i went to australia when i was 2 years old
i went back to my country: Laos when i was 7
i learned english in australia
when i went back i kinda forgot some
of my english now im in the united states cause my mom has to come to work in the
embassy i was so lucky i finally review some of the words that i had forgotten

well to be honest im not all that good either u know cause theres lots more
i have to learn some people doesnt even all of the words of their own language i mean
who would i dont know all of the words either

Dude, the hardest language to learn is Russian. Trying to learn Russian is extremely difficult because of the complicated grammar and how each verb changes depending on a million rules. I gave up after bits of my melted brain dripped out of my ears.

talking about hard to learn well i think chinese and japanese is
hard to write i mean how can u remember all those

 

[RockLee]

If you're not busy with the language EVERY DAY U will never learn it properly, speaking/writing every day makes your brain flexible to store the things you learn, it's like a brain gymnastics :angryfire

 

[Duo]

True that, u need the environment to learn a language properly.

 

[Brooker]

Kirei na me wrote....

Oh, and making phone calls. He will not make a phone call to a non Japanese speaker to save his life!

Phone calls are so difficult in a foreign language. Even Japanese people who speak English very well have difficulty communicting by phone.

I recently called a friend in Japan and spoke half English, half Japanese, and it didn't help that there was a time delay on the line, and I was trying to say that her parents are very kind (yasashii) but instead I said yasui (cheap). Arg! I felt really stupid. It took me forever to explain what I actually meant to say.

Dream Time wrote....

I feel that more English speakers should go learn other languages

earlier Brooker wrote....

As a native English speaker I guess it's good that English is so common because it helps when I travel, but it's also bad because it's kind of a dis-incentive to learn another language. While I was in Japan I really had to make an effort to learn Japanese. Many Japanese people would actually become quite annoyed if I insisted on speaking Japanese with them because they wanted to practice their English. If I had been a non-English speaker I might have had more chances to speak Japanese. I'm not complaining, I just think it's a little weird.

 

[RockLee]

hehehe Brooker, that's no good man, callin them cheap that's what you get when trying to impress her j/k...well comfort yourself, I made mistakes like that before...but I cleared it up in no time