[OT] command of English by non-native speakers

[Chris Rees]

2009/12/7 Amedee Van Gasse (ub) <amedee-ubuntu at amedee.be>:
> On Mon, December 7, 2009 00:37, Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
>
>> I think you have a fine command of the English language, Amedee.  You
>> manage to abuse it with the skill of a native speaker. :)
>
> Thank you sir! :)
>
> I have a little pet theory about that. Because I am not 100% fluent in
> English, I have to write slower than I would in Dutch. That forces me to
> think a bit more, and that reduces my error rate.
>

Added to the fact that most Dutch people seem to acquire a genetic
talent in language acquisition from their family. How many languages
do your schools teach??? It's a point of shame to me that most native
English speakers speak only that, and badly.

Your point about thinking about words with different origin shows that
you're aware of homophones in grammatical structure, and learning
another language clarifies rules that are almost innate in most
people, but sometimes blurred. I really think that learning another
language improves your mastery of your native tongue too.

Chris


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