My Challenge :D

[LadyW]

Okay folks, after returning home from a fantastic holiday in España, I have decided to set myself a new challenge.

I met many people on my holiday, all from various parts of the world; the majority of them could speak English reasonably well. It's such a fantastic skill to have, to be able to speak a foreign language. In fact, I felt quite useless - I speak only a small amount of French (which I study at school) and a miniscule amount of Spanish.

So I have decided to begin studying both French and Spanish (at least a hour everyday.) I'm actually considering continuing languages into further education. It seems only sensible to start learning now.
I understand it will be quite difficult, especially since this is my last year in High School and I have GCSE exams approaching, but I am quite determined.

Any support and/or advice is welcome :)
I'll keep you updated on how it's going.

[wilbur lim]

Okay folks, after returning home from a fantastic holiday in España, I have decided to set myself a new challenge.

I met many people on my holiday, all from various parts of the world; the majority of them could speak English reasonably well. It's such a fantastic skill to have, to be able to speak a foreign language. In fact, I felt quite useless - I speak only a small amount of French (which I study at school) and a miniscule amount of Spanish.

So I have decided to begin studying both French and Spanish (at least a hour everyday.) I'm actually considering continuing languages into further education. It seems only sensible to start learning now.
I understand it will be quite difficult, especially since this is my last year in High School and I have GCSE exams approaching, but I am quite determined.

Any support and/or advice is welcome :)
I'll keep you updated on how it's going.
Greetings LadyW,
After reading it,I would like to wish you a wondrous luck for learning both French and Spanish. But,alas,you should concentrate on thy GCSE examinations first,altering your life to learn both languages would be intricate,I know. Can you share with me your perspective of what you are going to do after learning the languages? Many thanks.

My perspective is to learn the whole language in the world. Hilarious indeed,however it might inevitably be awkward.HAHAHA!

[LadyW]

Greetings LadyW,
After reading it,I would like to wish you a wondrous luck for learning both French and Spanish. But,alas,you should concentrate on thy GCSE examinations first,altering your life to learn both languages would be intricate,I know. Can you share with me your perspective of what you are going to do after learning the languages? Many thanks.

In all honesty? I think I could just about manage an hour a night with a little will power. The only problem will be during the exam period when I need to revise. I finished the majority of my coursework last academic year, so homework mass will be considerably less :lol:
However, the issue might lie in learning Spanish as well as studying French in school. I'll see how I go on...

After learning the languages? Well I intend to carry it on into A-level, and perhaps even higher education. I've always wanted to teach you see, and up until recently, I always imagined myself teaching English Literature (eventually in universities.) Now, I quite like the idea of teaching English abroad :)



My perspective is to learn the whole language in the world. Hilarious indeed,however it might inevitably be awkward.HAHAHA!
:D Haha, I say go for it. We're laughing now, but in 10 years time when you're translating the most obscure languages at the click of a finger...

[Annamariah]

It's always great to learn languages :nod:

In comprehensive school languages (English and Swedish) were the only subjects that gave me any trouble, everything else I seemed to learn with little effort. Later the effort of spending some extra time with them paid off, and now I study translation at university :)

[Nossa]

It will always be a dream of mine to learn how to speak/write fluently in French, so best of luck with your plans :D

[InspireMe]

wow, good luck!
i've heard that it's extremely difficult learning both spanish and french at the same time. i mean, a lot of their words are similar, isn't it? love is amor in spanish and amour in french, i think. it could get confusing!

[Poetess]

It is always great to be multi-lingual.
I know Arabic, English, some French (I understand reading French more than writing sentences. But i`m still sort of good at it). I know a little bit of other languages like German, just a little bit.
But I talk accents if that`s included, which i`m sure is not.

Usually, a basically French educated person in Lebanon knows French, English and Arabic perfectly. Apart from other elective languages provided at schools.

If I get married to a foreigner, our baby will at least be trilingual which I like.

LadyW, studying languages by yourself is pretty clever and great. What do you use? Books or DVD programs?

[LadyW]

Thank you for all the support folks :)
I'm going to need it I think... haha.

Annamariah, that's fantastic. That's exactly what I'm trying to do - take my own free time studying the languages, in order to save me some trouble in the future.

[Poetess]

^^ together.

[Annamariah]

Thank you for all the support folks :)
I'm going to need it I think... haha.

Annamariah, that's fantastic. That's exactly what I'm trying to do - take my own free time studying the languages, in order to save me some trouble in the future.
Good luck for your studies and don't get discouraged even if it's sometimes really hard. It's going to be worth it :)

For me the one thing that has helped me most has been reading novels in English and Swedish. It's a great way to expand your vocabulary, and you'll pick up the grammar at the same time without even noticing it. The best part is that it doesn't even feel like studying, because reading novels is so much fun :nod:

If you don't think you know Spanish or French well enough to read a novel yet, start with something you've already read in English. That way you won't miss anything even if you don't understand every word :)

[aBIGsheep]

Good luck!

[LadyW]

LadyW, studying languages by yourself is pretty clever and great. What do you use? Books or DVD programs?
Books mainly :)
But also, I think a great way of practicing is listening to music in the particular language you are studying.
I've recently discovered a popular Spanish band named El Canto Del Loco, and a French band I've always quite liked named Yelle.



Good luck for your studies and don't get discouraged even if it's sometimes really hard. It's going to be worth it :)

For me the one thing that has helped me most has been reading novels in English and Swedish. It's a great way to expand your vocabulary, and you'll pick up the grammar at the same time without even noticing it. The best part is that it doesn't even feel like studying, because reading novels is so much fun :nod:

If you don't think you know Spanish or French well enough to read a novel yet, start with something you've already read in English. That way you won't miss anything even if you don't understand every word :)
That's a fantastic idea :) thank you so much.
I would imagine that's one of the easiest ways of learning - through translating text. Well, it beats reading french-english translations from a text book and memorizing.

Thanks again everyone :)

[Poetess]

I know someone studying a foreign language by CDs and it`s pretty efficient. Until now I haven`t seen any mistake although the language is pretty hard.

I do it by books, but sometimes I need to listen to pronunciations. Other times, and especially for French help I use www.dictionary.com to translate texts from English to French or French to English. My "some" French basics help me to manage the sentence because sometimes the translated texts lack structure. Try it and tell me.

[kratsayra]

That sounds excellent LadyW! Good luck!

I know French, but I seriously seriously need to practice and have been thinking of making myself practice for one hour a day or something of that sort. I can read in French perfectly well, but my accent isn't so good - I mostly need to practice speaking and writing. So I should really listen to some cds or maybe French radio on a regular basis - I may join you in the challenge!

I was learning French and Italian in university at the same time. Sometimes it was a little bit confusing, but overall I think it's kind of useful to study similar languages together. The grammar that you study in one can be reinforced in the other. Or something like that.

[LadyW]

That sounds excellent LadyW! Good luck!
I know French, but I seriously seriously need to practice and have been thinking of making myself practice for one hour a day or something of that sort. I can read in French perfectly well, but my accent isn't so good - I mostly need to practice speaking and writing. So I should really listen to some cds or maybe French radio on a regular basis - I may join you in the challenge!
:D Jolly good, that would make it slightly less daunting I think. Let me know if you decide to do it.


I was learning French and Italian in university at the same time. Sometimes it was a little bit confusing, but overall I think it's kind of useful to study similar languages together. The grammar that you study in one can be reinforced in the other. Or something like that.
:) That's reassuring. I just need to be mindful that I don't get them mixed up whilst in school, studying for major exams etc.

[wilbur lim]

Precisely,via translating will be productive to you.