Missed an important anniversary
2008 is, as I noted earlier, the year I turn ten in fandom. I just noticed that 2007 also was the year of an important anniversary for me. Sometime in the latter part of that year I should have celebrated the 20th anniversary of my first acquaintance with another great love of my life: 1987 was the year I began to learn English. Heh
( Read more... )
But really... twenty years of constant learning. Fifteen years of reading English books. Eleven years of reading *predominantly* in English. Nine years of using - written - English every day. Eight years of writing fiction in it. Six years of watching predominantly English-language TV and movies. One year spent living and studying in Britain... I dare say I've probably had more exposure to English in my life than even most immigrants in an English-speaking country do (unless they also read a lot in English). Living in a country will only get you so far - you get a good grasp of the spoken language there (though my year in Britain didn't even do that much for me, language-wise), but it's easy to stagnate. To learn more, you need to read.
I think I have the advantage of having acquired my English largely by reading, which means I got to absorb a wide vocabulary and grammatical complexity early on. My English grades started to go through the roof a mere year or so after I started reading English books (as you can imagine, I'm a great proponent of learning languages by reading now *g*).
It's a disadvantage, too, though, because it essentially means my main language (besides German) is not simply English but 'written English'. I don't do half as well with spoken English, which is one reason why I find dialogue incredibly hard to write (and particularly scary if it's supposed to be for Gene).
(More on languages - esp. word numbers - here: http://hmpf.livejournal.com/176309.html)
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Anyway. Now you know *why* it's off when it's off. *g*
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