Hardest thing for you learning a new language? - Page 2

Originally Posted by Ambarina (Post 33442)

The mind certainly is your best friend or worst enemy. Like a psychologist friend of mine said "El coco dá pá mucho".
Anyone out there bilingual, having learnt two languages (if not more) from childhood or are there any of you who have bilingual children? It is really interesting to watch them develop. I've always talked to my son in English. From about the age of 1.5, although he couldn't speak very well, he was able to discern what language was the most appropriate. He spoke Spanish to the neighbours and English to his mum and dad. From lack of vocabulary, he mixed both languages for a while until the day when, when stuck for a word, he said "Mummy, how do you say ......?
Children don't have our hang ups. They just get on with it.
Watching my cousins when they were small - two bilingual Spanish/English, two bilingual Spanish/French and two Spanish speakers. They soon realised that the language they had in common was Spanish but it was amusing to see them playing the first day, mixing languages. It was a real tower of Babel.

Originally Posted by Jane (Post 33475)

Since different people learn in different ways, what one person finds difficult could be very easy for the next person. Also we should take into consideration different levels or stages of learning, what a beginner finds difficult will not be considered as such by an advanced learner...
For me, at the beginning, speaking was very difficult for me, for fear of making mistakes and making a fool of myself, but these days, I´ve learnt to learn from my mistakes and get better. Now, achieving functional fluency is my next goal and it isn´t easy one bit...

Originally Posted by poli (Post 33481)

For me it's understanding different people and different accents. Depending on the person, I sometimes understand nearly 100%, but with
others much less.
Reading is less difficult. I can generally say what I need to say although sometimes awkwardly.

Originally Posted by Fazor (Post 33492)

It's certainly difficult to speak and listen to others in the language. But the hardest thing for me is just remembering everything. Verb tenses and conjugations, idioms, vocab . . . you can learn them all individually, but in use, you have to put everything together. It can be a lot.

I'm awful at spelling, but spelling in Spanish seems to be a lot easier than in English. Things tend to be spelled the way they're pronounced, and follow certain conventions, whereas English doesn't seem to be as consistent.

Originally Posted by Fazor (Post 33505)

Sí. Es por qué soy aquí. :)

Originally Posted by chileno (Post 33457)

First of all, I misspelled "fluency" :o

And yes, it has always been fascinating for me to watch children develop in two languages. They just go and get it.

My two girls are fully bilingual, with almost no accent in English and almost no accent in chileno. :D

I say almost because it is impossible not to soften your accent living outside your country. In the case of my girls, although there were born in the US, their first language was spanish a como diera lugar! :-)

Originally Posted by irmamar (Post 33416)

I think that everything is difficult when learning Chinese: listening, speaking, writing, reading... and the tones. One friend of mine lived with a Chinese who changed her name to a Spanish name because nobody here could say correctly her name and she didn't understand when someone pronounced it. :hmm:

Originally Posted by Fazor (Post 33492)

It's certainly difficult to speak and listen to others in the language. But the hardest thing for me is just remembering everything. Verb tenses and conjugations, idioms, vocab . . . you can learn them all individually, but in use, you have to put everything together. It can be a lot.

I'm awful at spelling, but spelling in Spanish seems to be a lot easier than in English. Things tend to be spelled the way they're pronounced, and follow certain conventions, whereas English doesn't seem to be as consistent.

Originally Posted by irmamar (Post 33524)

Do you know that being bilingual makes that the Alzheimer can be delayed (I'm not sure, I wanted to say: puede retrasar la aparición del Alzheimer)?. To be bilingual in this case is enough if you get a minimum in writing, speaking or listening. This is because of the connections made in the brain are good for this. These connections also help to get a better memory and concentration. :)

Originally Posted by irmamar (Post 33524)

Do you know that being bilingual makes that the Alzheimer can be delayed (I'm not sure, I wanted to say: puede retrasar la aparición del Alzheimer)?. To be bilingual in this case is enough if you get a minimum in writing, speaking or listening. This is because of the connections made in the brain are good for this. These connections also help to get a better memory and concentration. :)

Originally Posted by Jane (Post 33544)

Sometimes, in the middle of a sentence, I find that I completely forget how to say a particular word, or like you said; verb tenses, conjugations, idioma, etc... It could be something I use very often, something easy, but somehow, fpr the life of me, at that particular moment, I can´t remember...:eek::eek::(
Believe me guys, that is frustrating...:mad:

Originally Posted by CrOtALiTo (Post 33569)

I didn't know it.

But if you have whole information about your commentary, I think that it will be good idea sharing with us the information that you know in relation the you said before, as I said before, I didn't know anything about, but yes I believe that because when you are learning two or more languages you brain get endeavor more and more in resolve the questions and learn the that you are doing, then it's like that the mathematics, you know the people who study mathematics or some similar to it they think so much and the brain produce more cells and you are more intelligent, for example I don't know if the same situation with the other people, but when the first days that I was learning the English by first time, always I had heartache, but with the time the concentration was easier until today, already not I had heartache anymore of course I have, but it's for the hot that there is in my state, I believe that it's normal.


:blackeye:

Originally Posted by irmamar (Post 33588)

I suppose you meant "headache" instead "heartache":confused:

I give you a couple of links:

http://www.universia.net.co/vigia-de...l-cerebro.html


http://www.elsiglodetorreon.com.mx/n...de-demenc.html