Question for the Getbiggers with a non English first language

[galain]

What was/is the hardest thing to learn when you learnt English?
I was trying to explain something to someone here in Germany the other day and thought, English really could be confusing if you didn't grow up with it.

Second question - how did you all get so good at it? I'm always pretty impressed at how well some of you non native speakers write in English.

[Cleanest Natural]

I started taking english lessons when I was 8 and at 19 I moved to the States. I feel it's as much a part of me as romanian. sometimes I prefer english as romanian can be a little limiting and archaic at times.

[galain]

Cool. Your English is excellent. Is it normal for English to start at age 8 in Romania?

I used to teach at a bilingual high school here and while some of the kids left with a high level, there were some kids who couldn't manage a sentence (not too different from most schools I guess).

[Cleanest Natural]

Cool. Your English is excellent. Is it normal for English to start at age 8 in Romania?

I used to teach at a bilingual high school here and while some of the kids left with a high level, there were some kids who couldn't manage a sentence (not too different from most schools I guess).

I had previous lives where I lived in US. So as a kid, I was more fascinated with american history, geography, language, culture and completely oblivious to the romanian one. I felt alien in Romania and very at home in US. As a kid, in my mind I was living in US. So basically was a combination of past life inclinations and a getting ready to move there. I am not sure I am a good example as I can be more eloquent in english than in my native tongue. But I would say I am the exception to the rule as far as a bilingual person might be concerned as most of the others tend to speak one better than the other/s.

[visualizeperfection]

are you fluent in anything else?

I had previous lives where I lived in US. So as a kid, I was more fascinated with american history, geography, language, culture and completely oblivious to the romanian one. I felt alien in Romania and very at home in US. As a kid, in my mind I was living in US. So basically was a combination of past life inclinations and a getting ready to move there. I am not sure I am a good example as I can be more eloquent in english than in my native tongue. But I would say I am the exception to the rule as a bilingual person as most of the others speak one better than the other/s.

[Kwon_2]

What was/is the hardest thing to learn when you learnt English?
I was trying to explain something to someone here in Germany the other day and thought, English really could be confusing if you didn't grow up with it.

Second question - how did you all get so good at it? I'm always pretty impressed at how well some of you non native speakers write in English.

Here in Sweden we have english implemented in our curriculum quite early

I also started reading english novels when i was around 8-10 years old (mostly novels by H P Lovecraft), watched a lot of american cartoons , and as i grew older (13-15 years old) , you had to choose another language (either French or German) as well.

Since i started with English at such a young age (and most of the media was in english/american english), it was much easier to learn than French / German for me.

If we would have had more media (cartoons, comics and other influences) from France/Germany/Spain etc during the early ages, as well as these languages implemented earlier than 13 years in our education, i'm sure we would be better at these languages as well, since when you are 7-12, your brain is like a sponge.

[Cleanest Natural]

are you fluent in anything else?

no... I spoke perfect russian until I was 6yo (lived in Russia a few lives as well), as a teen I spoke a little german at school. I understand french and speak a little, I understand italian easily and speak it although I never had a chance to converse.

[visualizeperfection]

no... I spoke perfect russian until I was 6yo (lived in Russia a few lives as well), as a teen I spoke a little german at school. I understand french and speak a little, I understand italian easily and speak it although I never had a chance to converse.

How many lives to you suspect you have lived?

[Bertha Butt]

What was/is the hardest thing to learn when you learnt English?

• Different rules for past tense.
• Different spelling in British and American English.
• Sound differences for t, th and d. I know the difference, but to get my mouth to make the correct sound is a different story. I guess therefore I will never be able to speak Icelandic... 

Second question - how did you all get so good at it? I'm always pretty impressed at how well some of you non native speakers write in English.

Started lessons age 10 at school, and only stopped when I graduated university age 25. But I've learned most from watching The Fun Factory on Sky Channel, a lot of BBC documentaries and from my nearly bilangual hubby.

[Kwon_2]

How many lives to you suspect you have lived?

I've had quite a few.

After a session with my third eye, alot of my older lives were revealed.

[Cleanest Natural]

How many lives to you suspect you have lived?

I know of 38 with details and places people times etc going as far back as 4.5 billion years to the original birthplace of humanity, the Lyra star system. I know of those that are relevant to the present one in one way or another, otherwise you'd go insane and lose your mind trying to understand who and what you are. You have so many timelines in so many places it's an immense affair.

[Kwon_2]

Started lessons age 10 at school, and only stopped when I graduated university age 25. But I've learned most from watching The Fun Factory on Sky Channel, a lot of BBC documentaries and from my nearly bilangual hubby.

bilingual

[ESFitness]

most the girls I've had... hell, all the girls I've had relationships with learned English as a second language, usually when they were young and my observation is grammar is the hardest part to learn, even after speaking it for 20years.

same goes for me speaking other languages (I have a 'workable' vocab of probably 5 languages)... my grammar is always "off", but I usually get by because it's a unusual to see a big white guy speaking viet or Japanese or tagalog or even Spanish and pronouncing things like a native speaker... just getting the grammar/syntax wrong.

I think it's important to speak, or at least understand the basics, of a few languages. my kids will speak 3-4 languages before they enter college. kids with different moms will speak different languages though.. one side will speak eng/viet/span and probably French or Japanese, other side eng/tagalog/mandarin/Japanese/spanish

[Bertha Butt]

Here in Sweden we have english implemented in our curriculum quite early

I also started reading english novels when i was around 8-10 years old (mostly novels by H P Lovecraft), watched a lot of american cartoons , and as i grew older (13-15 years old) , you had to choose another language (either French or German) as well.

Since i started with English at such a young age (and most of the media was in english/american english), it was much easier to learn than French / German for me.

If we would have had more media (cartoons, comics and other influences) from France/Germany/Spain etc during the early ages, as well as these languages implemented earlier than 13 years in our education, i'm sure we would be better at these languages as well, since when you are 7-12, your brain is like a sponge.

Quite the same as in Holland. Next to Dutch and English you can choose from German and French. Some schools offered Spanish, Russian, Chinese and Frysk.

"Die Sendung mit der Maus" gave me a little head start on learning German.

[Bertha Butt]

bilingual

He is, I'm not... 

[Kwon_2]

He is, I'm not... 

But you do like the (ostrich/elk)meat.

[visualizeperfection]

I know of 38 with details and places people times etc going as far back as 4.5 billion years to the original birthplace of humanity, the Lyra star system. I know of those that are relevant to the present one in one way or another, otherwise you'd go insane and lose your mind trying to understand who and what you are. You have so many timelines in so many places it's an immense affair.

I think this is my first one   

Am I doing it wrong?

[24KT]

{sigh}  Poor Americans, ...they're just sooo underpriviledged, and imprisoned in their one language,
...which is really an appalling bastardized version of the true language anyway. Do you think one day they may catch up with the rest of the world? 

[anabolichalo]

i notice on this board

people always use "it's" when they should use "its"


it drives me crazy

[Natural Beast]

i learned english and german by watching mtv with german subtitles all day long when i was 14 or something

[MORTALCOIL]

Learnt english when I was 6 or so. It pretty much kicked in naturally as my mother spoke fluently english and I'd hear her talk from time to time with friends. English can get really sophisticated and all but learning the basics is way easier than in french. I still have to check my spelling with that absurd grammar we have.

[Cleanest Natural]

Learnt english when I was 6 or so. It pretty much kicked in naturally as my mother spoke fluently english and I'd hear her talk from time to time with friends. English can get really sophisticated and all but learning the basics is way easier than in french. I still have to check my spelling with that absurd grammar we have.

[visualizeperfection]

irony.

good eye.

[MORTALCOIL]

Touché.

[Cleanest Natural]

I make plenty of mistakes, no worries. I am impatient when I write.