Are you learning a language?

I agree that practicing a language with a native speaker is one of the biggest challenges of learning a language. I applaud you for participating on a site like MyLot, which is in English. I expect it will be years before I feel confident enough to go to a Portuguese forum and start posting.

Muito bem, obrigada! I am learning European portuguese. I'd be glad to practice with you - perhaps through the messaging system?

I guess we could try to have a converastion with each other in portuguese by sending messages (see the tool bar at the top). I haven't been learning portuguese long and only understand the basics, but I'm sure trying to have a conversation would improve my knowledge considerably!

Great I'd love to but how do we do this through the messaging system. I'm new to this so please help me along. How long have you been learning Portuguese?

You are right, posting on forums is a very good way to learn languages.

What language were you trying to learn?

That is very good advice on the difference between the written language and the spoken language. It's always easier to read a second language than speak it, because if you are unsure about anything, you can read it again. With speech, it happens quickly and is gone. So you have to concentrate very hard. If you start to wonder about some point, by the time you are back to the conversation, it has moved on, and you've lost the gist.

I would like to add this too. I know some people who can read in a language and they understand but when they try to speak they can't. Also when they listen to someone speaking that language they don't understand most of what they are saying. That's because by learning by themeselves they pronounce their own way. This happened to me. When I was first talked with my English penpals on the phone I couldn't understand what they were saying but then when I ask the to spell the words I say "Hey I know this!". You see I know the words when they are written but I don't if I hear them pronounced. So of course if you use pronounciation tools and you try to listen to the news for example you will not have that problem.

Spanish is gaining in popularity isn't it. I think more people learn Spanish these days than French

Did you find the dutch modules helpful, then?

Is scottish gaelic very different from Irish gaelic? As an aside I'm sometimes amazed that we in britain arn't made to learm all the Uk langiages. If you think about places like belgium where french and flemish have equal status, it seems amazing that in in Britain, welsh and scots don't have mucb status except in their native areas.

The BBC is cool all round (you might want to explore the edicational material they offer for toddlers and other children - it may be of interest to your children. I definitely feel that the more languages you learn the better. As you say, learning Polish and Hungarian will help you read documents that help with your geneology. I often wonder how much we miss by confining ourselves to English.

Wow! Chinese and Finnish! Two very different languages. I understand that Finnish is related to Estonian, but no-one knows the root of the two languages (they are different from the other European languages which tend to be either Latin-based, germanic or slavic).