Quote:
Originally Posted by kati42
Plus, I am just frustrated by the lack of dictionary support, and wanted to jump on the thread.  |
I am frustrated that I don't have dictionary support as well, as English is my second language and I read only in English for the last 8 years.
However, to be completely frank, if English was my mother tongue, I would never consider studying another language. Why? Studying a foreign language is an immensely huge task! It is a big commitment, because to study a foreign language to a certain level you must invest incredebile amount of time. Unless it is a necessity, like studying English for me, why bother? There are so many interesting things you can do with your time instead of studying some foreign language that you might never use in your life or use it once or twice when you travel abroad? Instead, you can learn a new subject that might help you in your career, or study something you would like to know, to learn it just for general knowledge. The end result is much more sutisfactory
I envy you guys whos mother tongue is English.
P.S. I live in England for 5 years, I have a lot of problems with English. The worst problem is listening skill. Next comes speaking(I just don't have a talent for languages, I am much better in math or networking
). And I have big advantage over Americans or British, because I actually live in a country where English is an official language. To learn a foreign language when you don't use it in everyday life is much more difficult. (I have a bit more of experience of studying a foreign language because I lived in Israel for 10 years where I had to learn Hebrew, which is a lot easier to learn than English, at least for a Russian speaking person like me.) So, I don't care what people say about Americans, I know that I would not bother with a foreign language if I were an American.