Ivy-Mabel’s Comments (group member since Feb 04, 2023)

Ivy-Mabel’s comments from the Language Learners and Polyglots group.

Well done J.C.!! That was a real feat!

Hi Peter: On the subject of Latin (which I also learnt for seven years), did you ever see the chap on German TV who taught it? I enjoyed the lessons (although he moved fast) but what surprised me more than anything else was the way the language was pronounced in the programmes. The German version of it sounded like Italian. That is of no importance but it fascinated me. I can't remember which channel it was on but there was also a Russian course which they put on at times when no 'normal' person was up! (When I did manage to see it) the chap did not explain things as well as the Latin teacher, which was a pity as Russian takes a lot of explaining!!!!

Nice to meet you, comrade!! I feel like an endangered species when I get the students to learn grammar and vocabulary!!! After all, grunting would probably work just as well!

'Fixated on grammar' - warms my heart. The move away from grammar (as you can guess I am/was a teacher) has led to teachers and students speaking gobbledygook. I realise not everybody can learn grammar but I have always encouraged my students to learn as much as possible - it does not learn itself and it is, after all, the basic structure of the language.

I don't know if you all know this but there is a website called:
www.mylanguageexchange.com
I have found some good friends on there over the years.
Good luck to you all!
Kathy

Berengaria wrote: "Hey Peter!

I'm very touched that another person enjoyed the group last year. I saw you were reading something in Dutch at the moment which you got from a friend in the Netherlands. Geweldig!"

Hi Berengaria
Is the aim of the group to read books in six foreign languages? I could manage 4 reasonably easily but the other two would take the rest of my life!!!
All the best
Kathy