Rachael Lininger wrote: > > On Jul 18, jhereg69 at earthlink.net said: > >Starshadw at aol.com wrote: > >> > >> > >> And another book question: Do you have "comfort" books? Sometimes, if I'm > > > >Mmm. Susan Cooper's Dark is Rising sequence comes to mind. One of the first > >series I read in this language, and I found it in our school library. My > >mother started me off by having me read The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings when > >I was about 9 or 10 and just learning English. She despises fantasy, but loves > >Tolkien. Anyway, off that tangent... > > No, that's a good tangent. What a way to learn English! > > I'm jealous, I am. Yeah, it's not too bad. It means having a large vocabulary of words you often mispronounce, because you've never heard them used in conversation. Never use the word "doldrums" to describe the lack of airport traffic to a taxi driver. They look at you funny. Actually, nothing has confused my English more than learning German. I can't do spoken grammar particularly well any more (not to say that my written grammar is better, but at least grammar and spell checking help you avoid looking like a fool). Speaking English but putting verbs at the end of a sentence achieves a neat Yoda effect, but it's not so cool when you do it unintentionally. I've ended up able to speak three languages.... badly. *grin* Jose -- Jose Marquez jhereg69 at earthlink.net