Hell, it's confusing to us natives too :P

Ill tell you something:

Thats one of the best things u can ever do to her. Look at me, im Brazilian, female, never ever knew not even how to say yes in english when i was 11-12 but i learned it to the fluent level in 4 months and i was just 12 back then....

Ofc i didnt know as much as a person my age now but i knew about 600 words already (more or less i believe). And i finished my course as the best student among ppl age 22-28... that were already doing uni (here in Brazil kids 12 learn what kids 8 learn in UK schools >_<....).

I learned it that fast because i always asked teacher to correct me as much as possible, i also do that with anything i learn that way i can speed up things. Ofc i dont know a lot still but people that hear me actually believe that i live in the uk or us sometimes...and since when i got a pc i use it to ask my foreign (uk, chinese, philipine, tons from us, greece, etc) ppl to always correct my English. Thats definately the best method ive found... :3

As in for japanese, i think i should do the same, i already understand some words from animes and know how to write them, theyre not that many words but thats pretty nice for someone that never had classes, ive been working like nuts sleeping 2 hours per day and doing systems analysis Uni right now so i had to take a pause at learning japanese, but ill try to get back at it asap as i can!

Oh if u know some or anybody else :3 feel free to join me XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD!

And guys if theres any japanese game that i could play here in brazil tell me because gaming was the main tool i used to really improve my English! >.<!

:3! So keep it up ;3 ure doing just fine :) :p

I believe, that you can learn every language very quickly as long as you really go into the country of the mother-tongue and really spend time mostly or only with natives. Even if you do not know much or any before you went there.

It doesn't take you longer then just a couple of months actually. For non romance- germanic languages like Japanese or Chinese it probably takes a little longer perhaps at least for us.

To be fair, you most likely didn't learn so fast compared to the 22–28yos because you asked the teacher to correct your mistakes. You learned so fast because you were 12, which means you were not past the second critical period yet.

Once you pass the second critical period, learning languages for almost everyone becomes immeasurably more difficult.

The first critical period is while baby or toddler, and it marks the point where you start having trouble learning distinct sounds like the difference between aspirated and non-aspirated p as "different" sounds. To explain, the "p" in "pet" and the "p" in "happen" are the same sound to native English speakers, but to Spanish speakers, the "p" in "pet" does not exist, and to Hindi speakers, the two letters make words mean different things! English speakers don't even hear the difference unless they're told to listen for it. This is one reason Hindi is difficult for native English speakers to learn past a certain age. Also, one of the telltale signs of a gringo Spanish speaker is their use of the "pet-p" instead of "happen-p" at the beginning of words like "pajaro" (parrot) and "pelota" (ball).

The second critical period is around puberty, and it marks when, for most of the population, it will become nearly impossible to learn a new language to fluency.

There are exceptions, of course—usually those who already know multiple languages and thus "know" how to learn another or those who are musically-inclined (i.e., have an "ear" for sound).

Granted, this is all half-remembered from my linguistics class nearly ten years ago. But the fact remains that children find it much, much, much, much, much easier to learn a second language.

Omg thank you so so so so soooooooo much, phew now i can put a japanese signature on my drawings aswell!! Thank you one more time, Gosh *0* iunno i have a huge crush over this language hahaha XDDDDDDDD

Oh btw if u happen to want to chat or anything and have a bit of patience helping me out a little more with japanese feel free, if not thats totally fine because im fully happy with the help with my name already!!

Btw if i wanna write some drawing was made by me, how do i write "By" Juanita in japanese aswell?

Cheers :3 !
:vsign:

Well i quite agree with you, still why like ive met nobody in brazil that learned english so early? it might not be that amazing there but here its pretty much a hell of a nice thing, trust me, i have music inclination i also can understand a bit of french, italian (90% spoken but i NEVER studied or never watched for real an ita movie but anything on youtube in ita i can understand quite well and not all brazilians can do that AT ALL), i also speak a bit of spanish, my native language is portuguese-brazilian (different from portugal).
I think im an ok learner at languages and i wont give up on japanese, if you wanna help me out with it, feel free, ill be truly thankful XD!
:p

I think you would master Spanish really fast^^

wen i rite essays for my uni, i get heavily critiqued on my grammar, vocab, structure. its got to b topnotch. wen i wrote articles for website they always had to b flawless. me and my friend converse about the intricacies of english all day cos i have studies english grammar and phonetics and linguistics.

but i dnt think its in anyone's right to grill someone on their language and spelling on a forum. dnt make the internet a school.

i do however note that this forum seems to mostly use full standard english in most posts. so i could be the exception.

also, don't be so ambiguous about ur socalled proven point. what exactly did you prove?

I dunno, I think language should always be treated with respect. It's not yours to toy with, really. I'm not trying to be a dick, but when you spell things wrong and make needless abbreviations ("u" instead of "you," "prolly" instead of "probably," "your" instead of "you're") you rob the language of its expressive potential and allow ignorance to prevail through generalizations.

Disregard if English is not your native language.

perhaps, but i have always seen forums as a chance to let ur guard down. abbreviations, i see, as an expression of comfort and closeness.

you're would be spelled ur, but thts not important