Hi all,
Just wondered who speaks to native speakers of the languages you're learning (French, Italian, Spanish, Chinese, Russian etc.) to practise and learn the language that way?
I'm currently using EasyLanguageExchange to find language partners and have made a lot of great friends on there, everyone's really friendly and is a real confidence booster - is anybody else on there?
Thought this might be useful; in my experience practising and learning languages with native speakers is much better than reading a book etc.
What do you think?
Être bilingue retarderait certaines formes de démence:
http://www.poliglotti4.eu/php/media-centre/index.php?doc_id=3855&lg=en#.UnzepdR2-zI.facebook
what do you all think,
I gave four lectures at a French university two years ago. Because of a 'health issue' I have not been able to repeat that although the intent was there on their part. My wife could as easily deliver the lectures in English, but the regulation that allowed me says that to give such lectures requires either English as first language or English as the main formal qualification of the person delivering the classes. My wife is born Italian speaking, studied in French, worked in Spanish speaking Peru first, England after thus making English her fourth language. She also has no qualification of any kind in English, but had a fellowship for four years in one university and was a senior academic in another for five years in the UK. I also, ironically, have no qualification at all in English but it is my first language because of where I was born, parentage and education. The universities offering courses are going to have a complicated time if those absurd type regulations persist and people who are more than adequate like my wife are unable to teach here whilst having the French for the non-class element of academic work. So, the idea there is interesting but possibly doomed to ignominy unless the system itself is changed to accommodate it.
Franglais row: Is the English language conquering France?
Science journalism. Not convincing in some respects but interesting points. My father-in-law has had several major strokes but remains comfortably trilingual in his eighties. In fact it is probably more than trilingual because of dialects he knows that really are quite different from the received form of his first language.
I have always been bilingual and seem to have found it easier to learn other languages than other people but I am not sure whether or not that constitutes evidence. However, over the years my work has got me around the world quite a bit and I have seen that many more people are bi- or multilingual than we are often lead to believe. I had to learn Spanish before going to work in the Peruvian Andes. I had no warning that South American Castellano has many diverse forms and nearly all of the them are very different to the European Castillian I had in the language laboratory, apart from which many people spoke Quechua as first language anyway. However, 'younger' generations mostly knew both and took them for granted.
My children are both bilingual, the older is Down Syndrome and thus people said she could never do it. I think that makes a statement in itself about preconcepts and notions of language competence. Our younger daughter is getting good at Italian (Maman's first language), worked out that Spanish falls in place almost on its own and is slowly learning German from me (that is my other language).
I think there is a great deal that an article covering that topic skirts past but OK, after all it is an article and not a scientific paper.
Thought this was interesting;
Understanding How the Brain Speaks Two Languages:
Hi,
Sorry it's been a while :)
Yes I will arrange a picture!
Hope your well
Hi again!
Ok that's fine then - apologies for the confusion! No I'm not learning a language (although speaking French is an ongoing learning process...!)
C x
ps profile pic - pretty please?
Hi Catherine,
I'm sorry I only put them back up again because I couldn't find them and I received emails to the thread which I wanted to respond too. I am on the site, go by the name sally and I am not connected to the site at all. I believe you asked me a question, what language am I learning? It's French.
Are you learning a language too?
Hi Sally
Your two previous discussions / comments on this subject were deleted as it would appear that you are promoting a site you are connected with? I looked for you on there as a member but you didn't show up? Please advise if this is not the case?
Best wishes
Catharine