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In European Spanish is it possible to pronounce soft C as [th] and Z as [s]?

So I heard that in all of the Spanish language, Soft C and Z sound the same. In European Spanish, C is used for [th] before I and E and Z in all other cases while in most other regions, both are ...
Akshat Goswami's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
23 views

Low-intermediate graded readers for Latin

Which books can I use to progress in Latin reading once I have finished Lingua Latina per se Illustrata: Colloquia Personarum? The degree of difficulty should correspond more or less to the level you ...
Charo's user avatar
  • 197
2 votes
1 answer
24 views

Where should I go for questions about the Finnish language?

I was looking for a site here for Finnish language, because I could nowhere find any hint on how double letters are spoken. Is "tt" spoken as "t" holding not as short as it would ...
Gyro Gearloose's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
23 views

Is there research into language teachers getting comments from students on their appearance?

Sometimes I encounter in online or in-person Chinese classes, students who comment on their teachers appearance. Typically it's a female teacher, and the student will say something like 她很美丽 or 她很漂亮 (...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
32 views

Correct way to use the Articles: a, an, the

So, is there any way to master the use of articles. I do basically know where to use them but I think I might be overusing. Is there a way to limit the usage -- basically, I want to know where not to ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
31 views

Pronounciation of final -k in Azeri

So I read that, in Azeri, K can either be pronounced as [c] (in Azeri words) but also [k] (in loanwords). However, in the word "çörək", it turns out that the final -k can either be ...
Akshat Goswami's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
19 views

What are the grammatical similarities between Mongolian and Japanese?

Are there any native speakers of Mongolian that have learned Japanese, or vice versa? Any tips on learning the grammar would be appreciated. I'm not expecting anyone to have learned both languages but ...
NYC Tech Engineer's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
52 views

How can ESL students improve their pronunciation by using technology?

Can ESL students improve their pronunciation by using technology? Are there any specific applications for pronunciation assessment and improvement?
Maex's user avatar
  • 19
2 votes
0 answers
44 views

English short grammar books recommedation

I hope this message finds you all well. I want to study English grammar, but I could not find good resources for me, I want to study shorter books before the longer ones, but I could not find any ...
Florian Geyer's user avatar
-2 votes
0 answers
20 views

Grammar rules or Linguistic subfields first?

I am 20 years old and a self-taught learner of English. Should I learn Grammar rules or Linguistic subfields like Phonology, Phonetics, Syntax, Morphology, and Semantics first? I suppose that ...
Henry's user avatar
  • 1
1 vote
1 answer
28 views

How can I improve the sophistication of my Chinese grammar usage?

I'm starting to become aware of a weakness in my Chinese grammar. While in my speaking and writing I'm generally grammatically correct (of course, not always), I don't often use more sophisticated ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
24 views

Where can I get Chinese reading materials to copy/paste into LanguageCrush?

I'm trying out LanguageCrush which tracks your vocabulary while reading and watching videos (kind of like LingQ, but I'm able to use the free version). The feature I like is how it keeps track of how ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
31 views

Need help in improving my spoken English

English is my second language and I had a weak foundation in my childhood. Now, I am having trouble in building long conversations with people as I have very limited vocabulary. I would like to ...
user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
33 views

What is the anticipated usage of this Chinese textbook's long lists of questions and answers?

The Chinese HSK6 textbook series 《HSK规范教程 6上》 by 王璕 has many pages like the following wherein there are many listed questions and answers, such as 最近一年你身边有什么灾难发生吗? In the previous year, has a ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
17 views

How can I improve my listening for a selection of Chinese HSK6 words?

I downloaded Mandarin Corner's mp3s where, for each of the 2500 Chinese HSK6 words, Teacher Eileen says the word twice, then its example sentence twice. I note down the words which I don't near-...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
101 views

How can I find the meaning of a sign language sign that I don't know the meaning of?

If I have a sign language (specifically, American Sign Language) sign which I don't remember the meaning of, how can I search online to find its meaning? I've tried describing the sign in Google, but ...
user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
23 views

How can I go from "I can express myself" to "I can express myself in multiple ways"?

Most of the time, I can express myself appropriately in Chinese (speaking and writing). The catch is, my language would sound more fluent if I were able to say essentially the same thing in multiple ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
105 views

Two common ways to increase vocabulary -- which is more efficient?

I just wondered how I can increase vocabulary to be able to communicate better and enjoy magazines, books and news programs in English.I have two vocabulary workbooks that contain around 2000 words ...
BehdadB's user avatar
  • 61
3 votes
0 answers
40 views

How can people with the same native language and target language practice with each other?

In this thread Dr @Rebecca J. Stones raised a very interesting question on the reasons behind Chinese people who are eager to practice English don't simply practice with each other, and I've shared my ...
Lerner Zhang's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
15 views

Software for Windows and/or Android that has built in dictionary when reading PDF's

Is there any type of pdf(possibly others) readers that can translate in real time and/or have dictionary access to look up unknown words? E.g., if I want to read a book in Latin it would be nice if I ...
user14448's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
76 views

Are the highest language levels (eg: CEFR C1+) unnatural?

I am learning German, and I find many of the concepts taught in C1 very unnatural. For example Partizipialsatz, konsekutive Konnektoren (folglich, infolgedessen etc) seem to be almost never used in ...
tryst with freedom's user avatar
0 votes
1 answer
20 views

transfering my B1 DELE skills to quickly pass italian CILS?

can having passed B1 in Spanish SIELE or DELE language exam help me pass B1 in Italian exam(CELI, CILS ,PLIDA) with MINIMUM amount of study? does the knowledge of Spanish somehow transfer to Italian ...
ERJAN's user avatar
  • 103
4 votes
2 answers
83 views

What topics should I have knowledge of when teaching ESL?

I am someone who's been learning English as a second language from a very young age, through consuming A LOT of American media, as a result, I grew up to be very fluent in it, and because I pretty ...
The Riser's user avatar
  • 141
1 vote
0 answers
13 views

Equivalent of interlinear for audio?

I'm interested in learning a foreign language by audiobook format where the sentence is read once in English, then a second time in the foreign language. Does this have a name? Do any resources like ...
Tom Huntington's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
28 views

Measuring distance between languages, including grammatical differences. Maybe the minimal size of an auto-encoder?

This question is similar to this one; the difference is that I'd like to find out about quantitative measurements that are not based solely on the vocabulary. Are there any such objective quantitative ...
Michael's user avatar
  • 109
4 votes
2 answers
56 views

Struggling with voicing an alveolar trill

I was hesitant to post this question, as I imagine a ridiculous amount of people post here asking about it, but I can't find help with this specific issue. After some time and tutorials, I'm able to ...
Claire's user avatar
  • 41
1 vote
0 answers
30 views

Is translation a more relevant skill when learning a foreign language more closely related to your native language?

Anecdotally, I've encountered people online who consider language learning closely related to translation. This took me by surprise, since I consider learning foreign languages to be weakly ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
22 views

Confused by the capitalisation of titles when they are plural

Worked on a project with General Managers be capitalised. If I had written Chief Executive Officer, then I'd say yes as it's clearly referring to a person. However, in this case I'm referring to ...
Capitals's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
25 views

Protracting vowels during speech

I would like to know why protracting vowels during speech, even in languages that do not have the distinction between short and long vowels, even, perhaps, protracting vowels excessively, even, at ...
Joselin Jocklingson's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
52 views

Would it be easier for someone who speaks Farsi to learn English or Arabic?

Since English and Farsi are both Indo-European languages, one might think English is easier. But Farsi and Arabic have similar systems of writing, and I would guess they've had influence on each other,...
user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
16 views

Resources similar to Nicos Weg for Korean

While learning German, I've found Nicos Weg to be a good resource alongside, and sometimes even more useful than, Duolingo. It's a course provided by the German public international broadcaster ...
shreyasm-dev's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
75 views

Resources similar to Nicos Weg for Finnish

While learning German, I've found Nicos Weg to be a good resource alongside, and sometimes even more useful than, Duolingo. It's a course provided by the German public international broadcaster ...
shreyasm-dev's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
35 views

Why do days mutate in Welsh when standing on their own, and why does the object of a past-tense sentence mutate when following 'chi'?

Background: The Welsh Duo Lingo course was designed in two parts: the "flash cards" (the things you do in the app) and the accompanying course notes. Unfortunately the notes were never ...
M_M's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
0 answers
37 views

Do students who have had both native and non-native language tutors say the non-native tutor is better?

Almost anyone who had a native speaker and a non-native speaker as tutor says the non-native speaker was better. Reddit user Theevildothatido, 23 July 2023. (score 294) A curious claim! It was ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
1 vote
0 answers
49 views

How do I pronounce the Swedish "o": /ʊ uː/ or /ɔ oː/?

I'm a Swedish learner. As a beginner in Swedish, I thought the Swedish "o" was pronounced /o oː/. However, recently, I read the Wikipedia article "Swedish phonology", and I noticed ...
cout Hello world endl's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
80 views

What are the (dis)advantages of learning thousands of Chinese characters one by one via a frequency list?

If you've used Reddit's r/ChineseLanguage or r/languagelearning, you may have encountered people propose studying Chinese characters one by one in order frequency based on lists such as Jun Da's. This ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
14 views

Apps that quiz you from a pair of decks instead of a single deck?

I want to make one deck with grammar structures and one deck with topics and I would like an app that can randomly choose one card from the grammar structure and one card from the topic list and give ...
iYOA's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
1 answer
43 views

What's the best way to learn the sounds of Arabic letters?

Before tackling learning the Arabic language, I thought of an easier stepping-stone goal that would build confidence and also be useful on its own, for reading things such as bus destination signs and ...
JoelFan's user avatar
  • 121
2 votes
0 answers
46 views

Why is "fluency development" so commonly overlooked?

Prof. Paul Nation in Learning Vocabulary in Another Language (2001) put forward his idea of four strands to learning/teaching languages: (a) meaning-focused input, (b) meaning-focused output, (c), ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
6 votes
1 answer
97 views

Are native English speakers explicitly aware of the difference between "a/an" and "the"?

I know that native English speakers can use "a/an" and "the" correctly by the age of 3, but how do they explicitly learn the grammar of articles in their grammar classes? I'm not ...
naruto's user avatar
  • 163
4 votes
0 answers
28 views

Is there an exam like TOEFL for English, but for Italian that I can take online?

The thing is I am asked to pass a 6-credit Italian exam this semester. I am currently out of Italy and can not take the university exam which is held in person. I have practiced my Italian and I am ...
Bitwoded S.Demissie's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
37 views

Is it possible to filter an RTK Kanji Anki deck to only include Kanji from a vocab deck?

Is this an appropriate place to ask about setting up Anki? I have used RTK (Remembering the Kanji) in the past, and it was helpful for kanji recall using the little mnemonics, but I wasn't really ...
Trevor Buckner's user avatar
0 votes
0 answers
37 views

General subject publishers of cheet-sheet-style reference material

For the purpose of studying subjects of interest in target language(s), I want to discover any other publishers of cheat sheets or reference material similar to those in the links below; that is, ...
progr's user avatar
  • 1
3 votes
0 answers
42 views

Which brain disorders cause better second language learning?

I heard that people with some types of synaesthesia may have some advantages for learning second language. I don't know it is true or not. which kind of brain disorders cause better second language ...
user14105's user avatar
2 votes
0 answers
39 views

Do native speaker teachers who have learnt a second language teach better?

Suppose there are two groups of teachers of a language, all native speakers. One group has the experience of learning a second language and the another group doesn't. Is there research that studied ...
user141240's user avatar
4 votes
0 answers
20 views

Details of Pair-teaching system with untrained teachers

I am trying to find details of a teaching system which I believe comes from one of the universities in Quebec, for teaching English and French. It's an exchange technique: the students are organised ...
jonathanjo's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
121 views

How to pronounce [ɮˤ] [closed]

When attempting to produce it, I move my tongue to the top-left back teeth where I make a sound which resembles a drowned out [d͡z]. If I misplace my tongue here, this devolves into a trilled [r]. ...
murshad's user avatar
  • 81
1 vote
0 answers
18 views

Are essential Chinese study tools, like Pleco or browser popup dictionaries, mentioned in any Chinese textbook?

If you study Chinese, there are some essential tools, like the Pleco dictionary or a browser popup dictionary. Curiously, I don't recall ever seeing them mentioned in any textbook I've studied. The ...
Rebecca J. Stones's user avatar
3 votes
0 answers
20 views

Japanese: Are there computer games that support learning the Genki I and II textbook vocabulary?

Are there computer games that use the Genki I and II textbook vocabulary? Sometimes playing a game allows for better memory formation of vocabulary compared to straight memorizing lists and viewing ...
seventyEight's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
60 views

Practice Welsh Pronunciation in Duolingo

I've been using Duolingo to learn Welsh recently. My wife, seeing my progress, has installed the app to learn Portuguese. It's only now (having seen my wife practicing) that I realise there is a "...
gingerbreadboy's user avatar

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