Agnes, I think your English, as a second language, is better than a lot of English-only speakers. English is not an easy language to learn the first time, much less as a second language. Where I am, we get a lot of former Mexicans, and with neighbors, I think I have seen some of the difficulties.
One, English is not a *pure* language. It may have been at one time, but Arthur was king in Camelot probably then. Since then, English has hid in the alleys and mugged other languages for words. So where other languages may have only one word for a concept, with English, hit the thesaurus for the best one. And this does not get into the topic of synonyms, because while "kill," "murder," and "execute" may be listed as synonyms, the meanings are so different, that using the wrong word in a court of law could be perjury. For example, the Commandment in the kjv "thou shall not kill" may have been correct during King Henry V, it is a lie in modern English, because "murder" (French?) is closer to the Hebrew verb.
Two, English has homonyms and brogue spellings. Homonyms are screwey because they are spell checked correct. Is it "there," over "their," or "they'res?" I live in a "hows" but in Yorkshire, I suspect I live in a "ho-use."
Three, English is probably the least tonal dependent language on the planet. The only use of tonality I know is the rising tone at the end of a question. When I tried to learn Thai, with its 5 different ways of saying "ma" that was too complicated, partially because colloguial Thai was not distinctive in the tones for tone deaf to get the differences between a horse, mother, water, or whatever, and rarely the subject matter was a help or a clue. Learning a language involve grammar and vocabulary, and if the vocabulary is a song, then complication get cubed.
Vocabulary lead to a fourth factor that may confuse English as second language. We English first are used to a slow syllable rate as we compose our sentences on the fly, picking the best synonym. English is complicated enough that complex meanings can be put into fewer syllables, and thus slower, which may be why it is the international air controller language; like French international diplomatic. Listen to a Texan. And then listen to a German whose words have many syllables and they, like Mexican speakers, have a high syllable rate that make hearing and understanding difficult. No doubt the vocabulary variations make English difficult, even if slow.
And I think syllable rate is an impediment. I read the English, most of the Spanish, and most of the French "Warnings" on a plastic bag. Because many of the words in these three languages have the same Latin roots, I can recognise enough to avoid a snake pit: Maybe. I was amused that "Warning:" in Spanish and French have the same root as "Advertisement." Advertisements try to sell me something: Warnings tell me to back off.
Here in these Jane Austen sites, we are dealing with text 200 years old, from a Georgian and Regency culture, and we have a lot of American, Australian, British, Canadian, &c. dialects. Writing styles, e.g. on speaker tags: I am a Nazi about having one speaker per paragraph or run-on. Change speakers? New paragraph. That should make it easier to convert my stories to scripts.
My speakers do not "cry" unless they are "weeping," "bawling," or a better synonym I conjure at the time. In fact, I got so gusdustipated with the "said" tag, that I omitted it until recently when I got the idea that most of the time, the speakers just "Say" something.
Well. I see by the short vertical slider that I must be about to go down a rabbit hole. Therefore, if anyone want a discourse on English, maybe that better be a new thread.
"The avalanche has started. It is too late for the pebbles to vote." -Ambassador Kosh Naranek
