Having been a resident of England while working for Uncle Sam, I picked up many English traditions, word spelling and a bit of the language. When I returned to the States, my parents had difficulty understanding my speech.
But I still retain much of the spelling when writing here on the forum, i.e., mould, calibre.. petrol and others.
Well, most Americans can at least understand British... and even Scottish and Cockney! Irish English, though, is pretty difficult. When I worked at a gun shop, I was the only one who spoke any foreign language (German), so if anyone came into the store speaking anything other than English, they got me as everybody else was afraid of them.
Once a couple of young men came in and gravitated to the black powder section where I was working. The first man said, "He (the other man) is from Switzerland, and he is looking for reloading dies for some kind of rifle...." I turned to the other man and said, "
Was fur Gewehr?" We continued the conversation in German until the transaction was complete. You want to make an instant friend? Just speak his/her language in a foreign nation!
Now the man with the thick Irish accent tried to speak to a female co-worker. Totally mystified, she turned to me, "Dale?" The young Irishman had to repeat just about every phrase, but eventually I got the message. Learning your first second language is difficult, but it helps you later on because you learn how languages work and you can usually plug what you know into the next one...AND you learn how to really listen closely.
My Arabic is mostly gone, and I only ever learned a few words of Mandariin. The times they are a changin', though, so I may yet be learning more than
ni hao and
shay shay. Hope I never have to learn to
read Chinese though.
