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Every time I hear an American pronounce "mobile" I always wonder if I'm wrong in my pronunciation.
Click the links to hear different pronunciations:
1. mō-bī-əl (how I pronounce it)
2. mō-bəl (how most Americans pronounce it)
3. mō-bēl (how the French pronounce it)
How do you pronounce mobile and which do you think is correct in the context of wireless phones?
mo-bill ftw!
yes i'm american
I'm British and, at the risk of getting my arse kicked by my "American cousins", it is definitely pronounced "mo-bi-al".....Americans are often lazy in their use of the English language, so they will silence letters to reduce the number of syllables in a word....
Just to prove my point, if it's pronounced "mo-bill", is an old person "se-nill" or is war "few-till" or will it be ready in a little "will"
That's my opinion - and I know I (can) speak English properly
Mark.
WOW
Mark, that was really funny, but really true at the same time! I like it! Nice job clearing things up!
Somehow I think one should defer to the British when asked what is the right way to speak English
Surur
Mark Crouch said:
I'm British and, at the risk of getting my arse kicked by my "American cousins", it is definitely pronounced "mo-bi-al".....Americans are often lazy in their use of the English language, so they will silence letters to reduce the number of syllables in a word....
Just to prove my point, if it's pronounced "mo-bill", is an old person "se-nill" or is war "few-till" or will it be ready in a little "will"
That's my opinion - and I know I (can) speak English properly
Mark.
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Yea, your examples do make sense. However, at the risk of throwing a wrench in your theory, American, British and Canadian all pronounce "automobile" as in example #3
we don't even call it a Mobile but fartelefon
gullum said:
we don't even call it a Mobile but fartelefon
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Thanks for sharing gulum, that is way too close to Fart Telethon for comfort
uh, dude, it's a CELL phone.
i say moe-bile
in my nativ language it's mo-bil
I use the second one. Though in my language it is "Mo Bill" ("o" in "mo" like in "Colt")
borealcool said:
Yea, your examples do make sense. However, at the risk of throwing a wrench in your theory, American, British and Canadian all pronounce "automobile" as in example #3
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Err british (myslef at the least) prononce automobile as au-to-mo-beale not au-to-mo-bill
Midget_1990 said:
Err british (myslef at the least) prononce automobile as au-to-mo-beale not au-to-mo-bill
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That's right, as in example #3 of my original post.
As for Americans, they don't pronounce mobile as in mo-bill, mo-bial or mo-beale. They completely silence the "i" as in marble or noble.
Yeah, typically an American would say moe-bull.
Yes, this phonetic feature is called "ellision" and can be found often in AE.
BTW: correct spelling in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the received pronounciation would be "ai" rather than "ia" concerning the vowel in the last syllable -"
Nope, I'm not even a native speaker of the English language So I'm pretty objective when it comes to things like these.
E_Shinobi said:
Yes, this phonetic feature is called "ellision" and can be found often in AE.
BTW: correct spelling in International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for the received pronounciation would be "ai" rather than "ia" concerning the vowel in the last syllable -"
Nope, I'm not even a native speaker of the English language So I'm pretty objective when it comes to things like these.
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Élision is a French grammatical rule which consists in silencing the final vowel of a word if it precedes another word beginning with a vowel or silent h. For instance you would say l'article and not la article. Germans have another grammatical rule for ae, oe and ue.
why Americans silence the i in mobile is probably a question of dialect influenced by pop culture. For example an icon of American industry is Exxon-Mobil pronounced mo-ble.
One spanner.....back at ya!!!
borealcool said:
Yea, your examples do make sense. However, at the risk of throwing a wrench in your theory, American, British and Canadian all pronounce "automobile" as in example #3
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Ah yes, that is true.....however (throws spanner back across the pond), the example you gave has a preceding syllable (or two ) - pronounced "or-toe", not "or-doe" as the Americans would have it
The same soft-pronunciation is true for words like "snowmobile" and "Oldsmobile" - both of which are American-originated words...guess us Limeys just copied the mis-pronunciation (having given up any hope of getting Americans to speak the language properly) and it's stuck....
This debate will undoubtedly run for many centuries to come - I for one will shortly be donning my disguise and emigrating to Outer Mongolia, lest an irate American should come looking for me
Mark.
PS. One final question.....I sometimes hear (in films....uhh..movies) the phrase "he's/she's/it's been 86'ed"....can anyone offer a) a translation into English, b) an explanation of the origin of that phrase.....please....
Mark Crouch said:
Ah yes, that is true.....however (throws spanner back across the pond), the example you gave has a preceding syllable (or two ) - pronounced "or-toe", not "or-doe" as the Americans would have it
The same soft-pronunciation is true for words like "snowmobile" and "Oldsmobile" - both of which are American-originated words...guess us Limeys just copied the mis-pronunciation (having given up any hope of getting Americans to speak the language properly) and it's stuck....
This debate will undoubtedly run for many centuries to come - I for one will shortly be donning my disguise and emigrating to Outer Mongolia, lest an irate American should come looking for me
Mark.
PS. One final question.....I sometimes hear (in films....uhh..movies) the phrase "he's/she's/it's been 86'ed"....can anyone offer a) a translation into English, b) an explanation of the origin of that phrase.....please....
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I'm glad this thread is taking a humour u-turn, I sort of had second thoughts after posting it
86ed is straight out of American pop culture and look no further than the Urban Dictionary for an answer
borealcool said:
I'm glad this thread is taking a humour u-turn, I sort of had second thoughts after posting it
86ed is straight out of American pop culture and look no further than the Urban Dictionary for an answer
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Thanks for that - it made for some interesting reading I've bookmarked that site in case I ever need anything else explained to me....
Oh, and don't worry about posting threads like this - it's good to have some off-topic light humour once in a while. It makes a nice change from all the ranting and stupid questions that the main forums are littered with
OK, it's 1am UK time.....I'm beat....."time for bed", said Zebedee (explained here)
Mark.
Mark Crouch said:
Thanks for that - it made for some interesting reading I've bookmarked that site in case I ever need anything else explained to me....
Oh, and don't worry about posting threads like this - it's good to have some off-topic light humour once in a while. It makes a nice change from all the ranting and stupid questions that the main forums are littered with
OK, it's 1am UK time.....I'm beat....."time for bed", said Zebedee (explained here)
Mark.
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Ok good night Zebedee, but you're not getting off that easily. When you're back, I want to know why the British pronounce words containing "aw", "au" and many words ending with an "a" as "AR". Don't send your "laryer" after me
Last week I was watching a US TV program in which I noticed that several people from all over the US pronounced "Houston" as "How-ston". How stunned I was. Just like in 1995, when I ordered a bunch of routers and my supplier wanted me to believe that "row-ter" was the correct pronunciation.
I'm old enough to remember those historical words "Houston, the Eagle has landed". Houston sounded like you-ston from Neil Armstrong's mouth, and the whole world knew what he was talking about.
Remember that song "Get your kicks on Route 66"? Route, not rowte.
It didn't take much Googling to find out that these changes in pronunciation are the deliberate work of ignorant language purists who believe that English should sound as if there are no foreign influences whatsoever. Route and Houston sound too French by their opinion, English does have the ou that sounds like ow (indeed, like in "sound") so lets put that pronunciation wherever we can...
The very English unavoidable word YOU as far as I know is in no dialect ever pronounced as "yow". Yes, it is historically related to the French "vous".
So, should you perform the same rape to it as to Howston and rowte?
Take an etymological dictionary and see: every word in any language has its roots in other languages. The original English language was Gaelic, then came the Saxons, then the Romans, next the Normands and Vikings, then French, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese influences etc. It's a historical fact that victors in wars and successful business nations have a dominant influences on other languages.
If native English speakers start trying to deny that by raping their own language and turning it into something artificial it might well end up on the pile of artificial, hardly spoken, rudimentary languages like Esperanto, Interlingua and Ido.
Route, You, Router, Houston. They all sound the same in English. However we got to the English language, as you mentioned, then that is it.
If Americans or other countries want to pronounce them differently then that is their choice, but as long as you know what you want to say and how, and the various ways of saying it differently...
Any changes you want to make won't happen overnight though. I could take generations to get it right, if indeed it was ever wrong, as there are always going to be cultural differences.
Of course, I'm probably just wibbling here. So I'll go back to the forums
HNY BTW
Elwyn M3100 said:
Any changes you want to make won't happen overnight though. I could take generations to get it right, if indeed it was ever wrong, as there are always going to be cultural differences.
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Happy New Year to you and all
I do get the impression that the US is actually trying to create its own language overnight. And I'm very sorry to see/hear that more and more native speakers of the Queen's English are actually very susceptible for US influences.
I think that the US's influence on language is more prevailant than we would probably like to think. Mostly down to satellite news coverage and worldwide distribution of media...
Elwyn M3100 said:
I think that the US's influence on language is more prevailant than we would probably like to think. Mostly down to satellite news coverage and worldwide distribution of media...
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...US software with US spell checkers, US help files, US voices in games and so on. There probably are US citizens who seriously believe that Roman columns are clumsy copies of US examples and that the Egyptian Sphinx and pyramids are clumsy massive copies of luxurious Vegas hotels, they invented freedom and democracy and history started on the 4th of July 1776, give or take some primitive pre historical European events.
Yes, IKWYM Maggy
I would be interested in the result if America had to pay $9 a gallon of petrol or diesel and $4 a gallon of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). I think this roughly works out correct by the exchange rate?!
that sounds funny. i also hate the fact that some americans pronounce iraq like I-rack or I-ran for iran... just ridiculous... the whole world & the population of those countries says ee-rack or ee-ran. geez, just listen to yourselves speak! heheheh
Maggy said:
...US software with US spell checkers, US help files, US voices in games and so on. There probably are US citizens who seriously believe that Roman columns are clumsy copies of US examples and that the Egyptian Sphinx and pyramids are clumsy massive copies of luxurious Vegas hotels, they invented freedom and democracy and history started on the 4th of July 1776, give or take some primitive pre historical European events.
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ahahahahah TRUE!
eternal respect for such consolidated msg!
respect!
Elwyn M3100 said:
I would be interested in the result if America had to pay $9 a gallon of petrol or diesel and $4 a gallon of Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG). I think this roughly works out correct by the exchange rate?!
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I'm sorry, but I don't believe that's anywhere near funny. The US idea of free trade still means the US has the right to sell US goods to whom they approve as buyers at the price set by the US; the US has the right to buy what the US believes it needs at the price set by the US. Countries who don't like to play by those rules shouldn't be surprised if the US finds an excuse for war...
Maggy said:
like to play by those rules shouldn't be surprised if the US finds an excuse for war...
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US always finds excuse for a war that they did want to, if you want example look at Iraq, the reason was so-called WMD but it was just myth than fact, where in North Korea there are nuclear weapons that I'm considered WMD but they didn't take any action (yet, but look like they wont)
You say eether and I say eyether,
You say neether and I say nyther;
Eether, eyether, neether, nyther,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like potato and I like potahto,
You like tomato and I like tomahto;
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto!
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh! If we call the whole thing off,
Then we must part.
And oh! If we ever part,
Then that might break my heart!
So, if you like pajamas and I like pajahmas,
I'll wear pajamas and give up pajahmas.
For we know we need each other,
So we better call the calling off off.
Let's call the whole thing off!
You say laughter and I say lawfter,
You say after and I say awfter;
Laughter, lawfter, after, awfter,
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like vanilla and I like vanella,
You, sa's'parilla and I sa's'parella;
Vanilla, vanella, Choc'late, strawb'ry!
Let's call the whole thing off!
But oh! If we call the whole thing off,
Then we must part.
And oh! If we ever part,
Then that might break my heart!
So, if you go for oysters and I go for ersters
I'll order oysters and cancel the ersters.
For we know we need each other,
So we better call the calling off off!
Let's call the whole thing off!
you say potato i say tomato
I say patat, tomaat, vanille, chocolade (I'm Dutch).
Hello,everyone.I am just a Chinese Junior High School student and want to practise English in the forum,of course,I am very interested in Android OS though I haven't had an Android phone yet.I hope I can make friends with the memebers.
Age:14
Birthplace:Hebei Province,China
Certainly,I am a boy!
Welcome to the forums.
are you going to get an android device soon?
Welcome to forums
Read, Search, Respect and Enjoy!
Age 200 yrs
Birthplace: México City
Sex: Yes!
betalove said:
Hello,everyone.I am just a Chinese Junior High School student and want to practise English in the forum,of course,I am very interested in Android OS though I haven't had an Android phone yet.I hope I can make friends with the memebers.
Age:14
Birthplace:Hebei Province,China
Certainly,I am a boy!
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Click to collapse
betalove said:
Hello,everyone.I am just a Chinese Junior High School student and want to practise English in the forum,of course,I am very interested in Android OS though I haven't had an Android phone yet.I hope I can make friends with the memebers.
Age:14
Birthplace:Hebei Province,China
Certainly,I am a boy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't normally say anything, but since you said you are wanting to work on your English, I'll do some peer editing
Just a couple things:
-practice
- When you do punctuations in English, you add a space after them and before the next word. It makes it easier for others to read and separate your thoughts and ideas.
I'm certainly impressed though, your English at 14 is far better than my Chinese at 21
Welcome to the forum, you will make many friends here.
Your English is excellent by the way (BTW).
Welcome to the forums. Yes your English is good for a 14 year old, don't want to say that its excellent (for motivational reasons).
And as someone above me said, please use the spacebar after commas and other punctuation.
Orb, you playa.. made my laugh yet again 'Yes!' Haha
Join Team Llama!
That is all. Good Bye.
Sent from my HTC Desire using the XDApp. Pure Madness.
betalove said:
Hello,everyone.I am just a Chinese Junior High School student and want to practise English in the forum,of course,I am very interested in Android OS though I haven't had an Android phone yet.I hope I can make friends with the memebers.
Age:14
Birthplace:Hebei Province,China
Certainly,I am a boy!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
welcome to the forums. You should join Team LLama . We need a Ninja to learn ninja skills to take over XDA.
hey, im a 12 year kid in the US that has nothing to do ever (because I get straight A's easy) so i go on xda and hack the crap out of my android. btw, i speak chinese too( go bilingual people) as my parents only know chinese so ummm yeah... welcome to xda!
kevina90 said:
hey, im a 12 year kid in the US that has nothing to do ever (because I get straight A's easy) so i go on xda and hack the crap out of my android. btw, i speak chinese too( go bilingual people) as my parents only know chinese so ummm yeah... welcome to xda!
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What sick teacher is giving you an "A" in English?
Poor grammar,
Horrible Punctuation,
I don't even see a single capitalized word in any of your run on sentences!
FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!!
T.C.P said:
welcome to the forums. You should join Team LLama . We need a Ninja to learn ninja skills to take over XDA.
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You fail too!!!!! Ninjas are Japanese!!!!!!
DAILY DOUBLE FAIL!!!!
kevina90 said:
hey, im a 12 year kid in the US that has nothing to do ever (because I get straight A's easy) so i go on xda and hack the crap out of my android. btw, i speak chinese too( go bilingual people) as my parents only know chinese so ummm yeah... welcome to xda!
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Click to collapse
nice , now ya get banned for not bein 13
fail #3
and u even write it in ur sig
fail #4
telegraph0000 said:
What sick teacher is giving you an "A" in English?
Poor grammar,
Horrible Punctuation,
I don't even see a single capitalized word in any of your run on sentences!
FAIL FAIL FAIL!!!!
You fail too!!!!! Ninjas are Japanese!!!!!!
DAILY DOUBLE FAIL!!!!
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Click to collapse
damn u are right!! I meant Learn Kung Fu panda
urbanengine1 said:
Welcome to the forums.
are you going to get an android device soon?
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Oh,you know Chinese people are not as rich as American people.I think I am too poor to get an android device.Maybe you can send one to me.
Thank you,I will.
If I make a mistake,I hope most of memebers (not all) can forgive me.
I believe I can learn a lot of useful things from the forum that is full of cool hackers and developers.
betalove said:
Oh,you know Chinese people are not as rich as American people.I think I am too poor to get an android device.Maybe you can send one to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
betalove said:
Thank you,I will.
If I make a mistake,I hope most of memebers (not all) can forgive me.
I believe I can learn a lot of useful things from the forum that is full of cool hackers and developers.
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Click to collapse
When you type with punctuations, use a space after the punctuation. A good way to learn this is to use Microsoft Word and see everything that's underlined green and red. Usually it comes with explanation.
That said and done, your written English is alright but from my understanding of Chinese English users, your spoken English will be more useful to get a good first impression. While I do advice reading of English materials from the standard package of magazines and newspapers (Reader's Digest, for one), learning to listen and speak the language will be more difficult. One thing I can suggest is to listen to English news broadcast from either Britain or the USA. Listen to the way they speak, and try to follow their tone. Inflection (the emphasis on which syllable to stress on) is another danger for non-native speakers. On a side note, training in music helps here because you know what to hear for
As a multi-linguist, I also caution against the use of translating words directly from one language to another. You will lose the grammatical structure and the nuances of the language when you do that. While it may get you started, the way English speakers speak English and the way non-English speakers speak English is different and almost immediately noticeable.
As someone who has helped a lot of non-English users get proficient with the language, I recommend several tools:
1. Google Translate <- translate major languages as well as the pronunciation.
2. Google Chrome <- highlight word, right-click, search!
Last but not least, welcome to XDA!
Age: 25
Birthplace: Somewhere in Malaysia, Malaysia
Certainly, I am a boy! <- FTW!
And @orb3000... he's 14, so
SEX: right hand
/the internet is for pr0n
booyakasha said:
I wouldn't normally say anything, but since you said you are wanting to work on your English, I'll do some peer editing
Just a couple things:
-practice
- When you do punctuations in English, you add a space after them and before the next word. It makes it easier for others to read and separate your thoughts and ideas.
I'm certainly impressed though, your English at 14 is far better than my Chinese at 21
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for your praise and suggestion. I think I am quite weak in English if I want to be a programmer. I will do my best.
sakai4eva said:
When you type with punctuations, use a space after the punctuation. A good way to learn this is to use Microsoft Word and see everything that's underlined green and red. Usually it comes with explanation.
That said and done, your written English is alright but from my understanding of Chinese English users, your spoken English will be more useful to get a good first impression. While I do advice reading of English materials from the standard package of magazines and newspapers (Reader's Digest, for one), learning to listen and speak the language will be more difficult. One thing I can suggest is to listen to English news broadcast from either Britain or the USA. Listen to the way they speak, and try to follow their tone. Inflection (the emphasis on which syllable to stress on) is another danger for non-native speakers. On a side note, training in music helps here because you know what to hear for
As a multi-linguist, I also caution against the use of translating words directly from one language to another. You will lose the grammatical structure and the nuances of the language when you do that. While it may get you started, the way English speakers speak English and the way non-English speakers speak English is different and almost immediately noticeable.
As someone who has helped a lot of non-English users get proficient with the language, I recommend several tools:
1. Google Translate <- translate major languages as well as the pronunciation.
2. Google Chrome <- highlight word, right-click, search!
Last but not least, welcome to XDA!
Age: 25
Birthplace: Somewhere in Malaysia, Malaysia
Certainly, I am a boy! <- FTW!
And @orb3000... he's 14, so
SEX: right hand
/the internet is for pr0n
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Click to collapse
That's very useful. Thank you very much!
i think i will learn more english than phone knowledge.
my mobile is meizu m9 and i cant find much of it.
reading books and novels taught me good English
The best thing I know to do is to start asking questions and never stop.
Sadly, too many of us here in the U.S. don't care and don't take pride in being able to write properly.
I know I'm new here (in fact I'm *brand new* as of today) but if you have questions, I'm certain there's others on here like me who can help.
Remember: we learn by doing.
I learned English at a strip joint.
Assuming you're in China, get a girlfriend who can't speak Chinese.
Join more activities with people from different countries.
I'm not a proponent of the "immersive" approach to language education, tbh. I don't believe it really works all that well, and I do believe it is an extremely resource-intensive, inefficient approach.
But then again, that's just me talking.
I just got rosetta stone for arabic. The pronunciation is killing me. Can't vouch for it though, just started it.
Cable television helped a lot with my english, back when I was in school (20 years ago)
boborone said:
I just got rosetta stone for arabic. The pronunciation is killing me. Can't vouch for it though, just started it.
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need help?, I am a native
@clown, yup movies, movies and more movies without reading subtitles
husam666 said:
need help?, I am a native
@clown, yup movies, movies and more movies without reading subtitles
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I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'm saving up for a backpacking trip to the Middle East. That is is some beautiful land and culture yall have out there. Just so much untouched land. I've backpacked around America, but never been outside the US.
EDIT There is one thing that you can help me with. Besides Al Jazerra, what other news sites would be good to watch/read to learn more. Also, do you know of a good way to learn the alphabet and writing? Thanks.
boborone said:
I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I'm saving up for a backpacking trip to the Middle East. That is is some beautiful land and culture yall have out there. Just so much untouched land. I've backpacked around America, but never been outside the US.
EDIT There is one thing that you can help me with. Besides Al Jazerra, what other news sites would be good to watch/read to learn more. Also, do you know of a good way to learn the alphabet and writing? Thanks.
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here's one http://www.alarabiya.net/
with the alphabets, sry idk.
husam666 said:
here's one http://www.alarabiya.net/
with the alphabets, sry idk.
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Thanks man
best advice is to hang out with people who speak the language you want to learn, Then ,read out load every day that language (gets your mouth used to saying the words). That was the biggest help for me
SciFiSurfer said:
I'm not a proponent of the "immersive" approach to language education, tbh. I don't believe it really works all that well, and I do believe it is an extremely resource-intensive, inefficient approach.
But then again, that's just me talking.
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Immersion is pretty well proven to be the fastest way to learn a language actually. I studied Spanish for 5 years in high school and college and learned more Japanese in the first six months I lived in Japan without studying for one minute than I learned in 5 years of Spanish classes.
Btros said:
Immersion is pretty well proven to be the fastest way to learn a language actually. I studied Spanish for 5 years in high school and college and learned more Japanese in the first six months I lived in Japan without studying for one minute than I learned in 5 years of Spanish classes.
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Here's my question on that point: Do you attribute immersion itself, or that by living in Japan you had a credible "need to know" as opposed to a merely arbitrary academic requirement and/or interest when you were still in school?
SciFiSurfer said:
Here's my question on that point: Do you attribute immersion itself, or that by living in Japan you had a credible "need to know" as opposed to a merely arbitrary academic requirement and/or interest when you were still in school?
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*the bold
What's the difference? Not sure what point you're trying to make. Please explain.
Btros said:
Immersion is pretty well proven to be the fastest way to learn a language actually. I studied Spanish for 5 years in high school and college and learned more Japanese in the first six months I lived in Japan without studying for one minute than I learned in 5 years of Spanish classes.
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Can't agree more, they taught us hebrew in my school and I can barely understand that language
sent from a parallel universe
SciFiSurfer said:
Here's my question on that point: Do you attribute immersion itself, or that by living in Japan you had a credible "need to know" as opposed to a merely arbitrary academic requirement and/or interest when you were still in school?
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Click to collapse
boborone said:
*the bold
What's the difference? Not sure what point you're trying to make. Please explain.
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I agree, I think that is the point of immersion - that you are forced to find ways to communicate in the native language. The best advice I ever got about learning Japanese in Japan was from a fellow American - he saw me keep looking in my English to Japanese dictionary and told me to throw that thing away and get a Japanese to English one. Instead of looking up words in English and then trying to say the Japanese word I saw there, I would listen to the Japanese speaker telling me something, look up the word IN JAPANESE and then find the meaning on my own in English.
Using the words I learned in an authentic context day after day was the only way I learned to use them naturally.
boborone said:
*the bold
What's the difference? Not sure what point you're trying to make. Please explain.
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Well, just like Btros said, he took Hebrew in school and can't function at all in it. The difference is that when you take a language in school, unless you actually have a personal passion for learning another language, or that language in particular, you don't really have a need-to-know and so you don't really learn it.
Btros said:
I agree, I think that is the point of immersion - that you are forced to find ways to communicate in the native language.
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I suppose one could stumble through this sort of process, but it just seems like a very painful one. For one, how can you look up words in a language you don't know? I mean, if I were listening to a Japanese speaker, I'd have enough of a time trying to hear the individual words, let alone ever attempting to reconstruct their spelling and, from there, look up the meaning of the word.
Without at least some formal instruction, how can someone actually know what they're listening to? It's not like any of us native speakers speak. like. this. when. talking. to. other. people. in. the. real. world. and yet, without conversations being had in that manner. we native speakers speaklikethiswhentalkingtootherpeopleintherealworld and that is basically impossible, aurally, to pick apart when you don't have vocabulary.
SciFiSurfer said:
Well, just like Btros said, he took Hebrew in school and can't function at all in it. The difference is that when you take a language in school, unless you actually have a personal passion for learning another language, or that language in particular, you don't really have a need-to-know and so you don't really learn it.
I suppose one could stumble through this sort of process, but it just seems like a very painful one. For one, how can you look up words in a language you don't know? I mean, if I were listening to a Japanese speaker, I'd have enough of a time trying to hear the individual words, let alone ever attempting to reconstruct their spelling and, from there, look up the meaning of the word.
Without at least some formal instruction, how can someone actually know what they're listening to? It's not like any of us native speakers speak. like. this. when. talking. to. other. people. in. the. real. world. and yet, without conversations being had in that manner. we native speakers speaklikethiswhentalkingtootherpeopleintherealworld and that is basically impossible, aurally, to pick apart when you don't have vocabulary.
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you should work in politics or better yet, samsung pr
"ah yes, that's a nice question, hey look over there"
I am not sure what to learn. I started learning French a while back, it was quite hard. Haven't officially given up but I've not studied it for over a year now... I still can understand very simple texts, but can hardly speak it, and man the dictation is a pain in the a$$! I'm not sure to continue French or start a new one, like German, or Italian?
What do you think?
Any practical reason, or just to challenge yourself?
In my case, living in southern California, USA, Spanish is almost a must. No other language would be of any use....well, maybe some Asian languages, but Spanish sound easier
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Well, you already have the advantage of being bilingual, so you could probably learn faster than someone like me. The little bit of Spanish I do know gets me by, but I'm just too embarrassed to speak it. I never feel like I'm saying it right.
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TheSkinnyDrummer said:
Any practical reason, or just to challenge yourself?
In my case, living in southern California, USA, Spanish is almost a must. No other language would be of any use....well, maybe some Asian languages, but Spanish sound easier
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Agreed, we have on our Country Spanish as 1st language and English 2nd. I've heard on other countries that spanish is a must, contrary to french.and Portuguese as 3 or 4 years ago.
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John McClane said:
Agreed, we have on our Country Spanish as 1st language and English 2nd. I've heard on other countries that spanish is a must, contrary to french.and Portuguese as 3 or 4 years ago.
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What is tricky for me though was being raised on the east coast. The Spanish they teach there is the Puerto Rico dialect. When I moved to California, I realized how different it is. So the 4 years I spent learning Spanish is almost of no use now. Ahh well.
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m1l4droid said:
Spanish is necessary for America but I don't see myself going there. I prefer Europe.
I'm thinking of these languages:
1. French, I know a little (very little, but still), It's a nice language, but quite hard.
2. German, I don't know why but I like it. Easier than French too.
3. Italian, I like it. Easier than French.
I'm not really into Spanish...
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My ancestry is German. I've been interested in learning it.
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French is a matter of getting the specifics down. It's kind of odd at first in that different endings on verbs are pronounced the same way, having to add consonance only if there's a vowel following certain words, using possessive adjectives that modify the thing they are possessing, not the owner. Just starting it but I love it.
I think Spanish will be my next language because I have a number of friends from South America. Going to learn German eventually because I must visit the home of the VW Audi Group someday.
I would ask to learn spanish.. or italian.. i love both of these languages..
Don't forget to hit 'THANKS' if I helped..
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John McClane said:
Agreed, we have on our Country Spanish as 1st language and English 2nd.
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The US is on its way to that. Lol
As a native german, learn german but i think italia is a nicer land because of the wheather
m1l4droid said:
1. French, I know a little (very little, but still), It's a nice language, but quite hard.
2. German, I don't know why but I like it. Easier than French too.
3. Italian, I like it. Easier than French.
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I feel like you should probably finish French, once you know one language the second one that is similiar (like French and Italian) is much easier. I know a fair bit of French and could pick up basic Italian (enough to get by) within a few days.
85gallon said:
The US is on its way to that. Lol
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San Diego is leading the charge.
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French...
It isn't that difficult
For a challenge though, try arabic...
Typed on a small touchscreen
Try Irish but I doubt they teach that over in the US. And no matter what they say, ITS NOT GØD DAMN GAELIC!
Its quite easy to learn apart from the verbs, they may be difficult
You are all fools. Chinese, learn Chinese. You won't regret it in 20 years when the whole west is named "The United States Of China".
Also, it's a HUGE plus to have chinese as a second or third language when you want to find a highly paid tech job in Singapore or whatever.
LordManhattan said:
You are all fools. Chinese, learn Chinese. You won't regret it in 20 years when the whole west is named "The United States Of China".
Also, it's a HUGE plus to have chinese as a second or third language when you want to find a highly paid tech job in Singapore or whatever.
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Now that's a good point
But those tech geeks won't be staying in the East for much longa!
I bet they're gonna make a device to telaport em to the WEST!
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If you want some challenge, try Portuguese. Verbs in English have 3 possible ways, and most of them applies to all the pronouns. In Portuguese, you have AT LEAST 9 different verbs times and one for each pronoun ( Me, you, he/she, we, them and he/she ( plural))
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You teach me some more arabic and I'll teach you french
Felimenta97 said:
If you want some challenge, try Portuguese. Verbs in English have 3 possible ways, and most of them applies to all the pronouns. In Portuguese, you have AT LEAST 9 different verbs times and one for each pronoun ( Me, you, he/she, we, them and he/she ( plural))
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All I need to know is "Where are the whores?" for when I go to Brazil!!
85gallon said:
All I need to know is "Where are the whores?" for when I go to Brazil!!
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that's all the Secret Service cares about apparently