How To Actually Learn A Language (Without Wasting Time)

What's the difference between "por siempre" and "para siempre"?

Technically interchangeable, but you typically see/hear para siempre in everyday speech

In this particular case it's not really a por/para difference so much as what's poetic

There are a handful of words/expressions that in Spanish can change based on the intended (often poetic) tone/context - the best example is el mar "sea" which can be la mar feminine in specific settings or expressions

Outside of poetry and song lyrics you're not likely to be seeing/using por siempre

Roughly it's kind of like the difference between "forever" or "always", and then "for always" or "everlasting" or maybe more literally "in perpetuity"

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But again you will not be seeing por siempre in general. You might read it, but you'd rarely if ever say it

when I was a teen and first getting more seriously interested in languages and linguistics I encountered those polyglot YouTube videos where people speak all the languages they know and I was so impressed and jealous and wanted to be able to make a video like that too. Now, there are three problems with that: I ended up spending the last couple years specializing in other things, I'm more of a dabbler, and a lot (not all) of these videos are dishonest.

So obviously, as a first video on my imaginary YouTube channel, I'd make a video where I introduce myself in every language I can introduce myself in - even if that's the only thing I can do in that language - and then do a very honest and transparent commentary. How I had to go through my past notes and script this video. How much I actually know in each language. I wouldn't want it to be a video exposing the fakes (languagejones has already done two brilliant videos about this). I want it to be a defense of dabbling, of messy progress, of just having fun with languages without having to pretend you're some genius hyperpolyglot.

Every single person studying a language when they recognize the most basic word of the language in a text or a video

more uncommon topics for vocab lists in your target language:

astronomy

mythology

folklore

obsolete professions

specialized medicine

linguistics

history and artifacts

botany

art styles and periods

oceanography

cryptozoology

esoteric hobbies

etymology

logical fallacies

You need to be looking for sewing and drawing tutorials in Spanish, to watch baking tutorials in Russian or read the wikipedia article about the insect you've just discovered on your balcony in German ! You cannot watch Peppa pig in your target language forever.

Will knowing how to say "aiguille à tricoter" in French be useful for your exam ? Probably not, but who cares ? You're listening to spoken French AND you're learning a manual skill !

Youtube is full of wonderful tutorials in many languages, everything is there just waiting for you ...

And why stop at manual skills ? Philosophy ? History ? Astrology ? Hop hop hop, in your target language ! Want to learn something about Egypt ? The Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona has a coursera course on it.

"But I won't understand anything" I personally prefer to understand 20% of a lecture about a sacred temple in the middle of the desert than understand 60% of the most boring standard "what do you like to eat for breakfast" textbook learning material.

affirmatives and filler words/sounds are my favorite thing in any language. i love that every language has various noises to make between words & thoughts and in pauses etc. i think they're also called "hesitation forms" (?)

growing up autistic i've always been very prone to language mirroring and i pick up hesitation forms so quickly i often explain upfront that it's not on purpose and i'm not mocking or purposefully mimicking someone in a conversation.

i also pick up affirmatives unintentionally and nearly immediately. in a lot of languages, people have a way of gently saying "yes, yes, yes, yes," repeatedly while receiving a list of instructions. in english this often is along the lines of "yes, mhm, okay, yep. got it. okay."

i took a kendo class in which everyone but me spoke Japanese as a first language and i was expected to answer instructions in Japanese and i began so formal but quickly fell into extremely casual, repeated affirmatives. i have very little experience with Japanese, so note this is only what i picked up in one particular place with this particular group, but it was fast nodding and repeated "ah. mm."

when i lived in norway and learned the language on the fly by immersion, i got completely stuck doing the affirmative H, which sounds like a gasp. i couldn't stop doing it for months after i moved home, and some of my friends near Oslo also used it as a hesitation form, so it was a double whammy.

no point to this, i just love languages and sounds.

learning another language is always beautiful, no matter how long it takes. like, what do you mean you are crying because you had to read a sentence twice to get it, when at the beginning you had to do it five times? kicking yourself because you had to listen to an audio at .75x to understand it fully, when two months ago you could barely understand one or two words, even at your second try? getting mad because you had to research how to spell a word, when a few days back you didn't even know how to pronounce it? hell, that's amazing. keep going. you'll get there.

What they don’t tell you about speaking multiple languages is that your brain does not in fact have a box labeled Spanish and another one labeled German. Instead it has a box labeled “Not English” and sometimes when you’re talking or writing in one of the languages you speak it will just start pulling random words from that box.

I just wanted to give my answer in the comments, but I thought that replying in another post would be more practical, and it might also help other people :) So, I'll try my best to explain, don't hesitate to tell me if it's not clear! First of all, in your list, only "Qui est-ce ?" can be used as a question in this form. For the others, you need to add other words. Also : - que = what and que + est = qu' - qui = who and qui + il = qu' • Qu'est-ce que... ? This is used to ask "What is..." with a direct object - Qu'est-ce que c'est ? — What is it?/What is this? - Qu'est-ce que tu fais ? — What are you doing? - Qu'est-ce que tu veux faire ce soir ? — What do you want to do tonight? → You can replace "qu'est-ce que" with "quoi" as a direct object (more informal form) - Qu'est-ce que c'est ?/C'est quoi ? - Qu'est-ce que tu fais ?/Tu fais quoi ? - Qu'est-ce que tu veux faire ce soir ?/Tu veux faire quoi ce soir ? • Qu'est-ce qui... ? This is used to ask "What..." where "what" is the subject - Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ? — What is happening? - Qu'est-ce qui est rouge ? — What is red? - Qu'est-ce qui t'intéresse ? — What interests you?

→ You can replace "qu'est-ce que" with "quoi" as the subject (more informal form)

- Qu'est-ce qu'il se passe ?/ Il se passe quoi ? - Qu'est-ce qui est rouge ?/C'est quoi qui est rouge ? - Qu'est-ce qui t'intéresse ?/C'est quoi qui t'intéresse ? • Qui est-ce ? This is correct as it is, it's used when asking about someone's identity - (Knock on the door) Qui est-ce ? — Who is it? - (Showing someone in a photo) Qui est-ce ? — Who is he/sher? • Qui est-ce qui... ? This is used to ask "Who..." where "who" is the subject - Qui est-ce qui a fait ça ? — Who did this? - Qui est-ce qui chante ? — Who is singing? - Qui est-ce qui cuisine ? — Who is cooking? → You can replace "qui est-ce qui" with "qui" as the subject (more informal form) - Qui est-ce qui a fait ça ?/Qui a fait ça ? - Qui est-ce qui chante ?/Qui chante ? - Qui est-ce qui cuisine ?/Qui cuisine ? • Qui est-ce que... ? This is used to ask "Who..." with a direct object - Qui est-ce que tu as vu ? — Who did you see? - Qui est-ce que tu cherches ? — Who are you looking for? - Qui est-ce que tu écoutes ? — Who are you listening to? → You can replace "qui est-ce que" with "qui" as a direct object (more informal form) - Qui est-ce que tu as vu ?/T'as vu qui ? - Qui est-ce que tu cherches ?/Tu cherches qui ? - Qui est-ce que tu écoutes ?/Tu écoutes qui ?

• To sum up: - Qu'est-ce que... → What... (direct object) - Qu'est-ce qui... → What... (subject) - Qui est-ce ? → Who is it? - Qui est-ce qui... → Who... (subject) - Qui est-ce que... → Who... (direct object)

Hope this helps! Feel free to tell me if you still have questions!

HELP!!!!

French teachers, please help with these chaos of questions!!!!

Qu'est-ce que?

Qu'est-ce qui?

Qui est-ce?

Qui est-ce qui?

Qui est-ce que?

My poor head! Its crazy!

PLEASE explain me the meaning of all of these.

List 5 things that make you happy, then put this in the askbox for 10 people! Get to know your mutuals and followers (ू•‧̫•ू⑅)♡

Hi :)

❈ Listening to music - I listen to a lot of different genres and I like to discover new things. I can't spend a day without listening to music x) (and I like to play it too!)

❈ Crafting things - Especially origami but it can be all the other manually things/DIY that I can found in Internet or books :)

❈ Learning about languages and culture - I think that the diversity of languages and cultures in the world are really beautiful, I love discovering new things, new ways of saluting, showing love, new concepts, new untranslatable words...

❈ Writing/worldbuilding - I'm a Fantasy worldbuilder, and I like to write songs and poems. I'm currently working on a draft for a book that's still a messy draft, due to a lack of time and organisation x) Hope one day I'll finish my projects xD

❈ Nature - I'm just fascinated by the diversity, the beauty and the complexity of nature, it's so mesmerising!

#ask #tag game #i always write a lot even for simple questions x)