RE: Many English people can't speak English?
July 15, 2015 at 8:22 am
(This post was last modified: July 15, 2015 at 8:27 am by Metis.)
They really can't, you want to see some of the papers I mark from my students who grew up speaking English. Nothing short of horrendous. I'm aware my pronunciation is a bit off sometimes since I've got quite a strong accent. My written English still isn't perfect either, I do occasionally still mix up homophones ("Let's meat up for a coffee") but it's fairly rare now and usually only when I'm writing rough notes.
Not to offend anyone personally but I really don't understand why if I can reach this standard in less than three years why the British and Americans can't in eighteen. Plenty of other Europeans manage to become fluent in two, often three east of Germany and these aren't always smart people; I've even met illiterates who can speak several languages perfectly.
I can't say I know what happens in them but the state ran English speaking education systems must be terrible.
Not to offend anyone personally but I really don't understand why if I can reach this standard in less than three years why the British and Americans can't in eighteen. Plenty of other Europeans manage to become fluent in two, often three east of Germany and these aren't always smart people; I've even met illiterates who can speak several languages perfectly.
I can't say I know what happens in them but the state ran English speaking education systems must be terrible.
