Sort of related to this, I started to design an easier dialect of English because I think English is too hard and that (1) it would be easier to learn it in stages and (2) two people who have learned the easier dialect could speak it among themselves. This would be nice in reverse; I married a Filipino but found it difficult to learn Tagalog because of the lack of available Tagalog courses and the fact that my wife doesn’t understand and cannot explain the grammar of her language. I wish I could learn an intentionally-designed pidgeon/simplified version of the language before tackling the whole thing. Hearing the language spoken in the house for several years hasn’t helped.
It would be good for EAs to learn other languages, but it’s hard. I studied Spanish in my free time for four years, but I remained terrible at it, my vocabulary is still small and I usually can’t understand what Spanish people are saying. If I moved to Mexico I’m sure I would learn better. But I have various reasons not to.
Sort of related to this, I started to design an easier dialect of English because I think English is too hard and that (1) it would be easier to learn it in stages and (2) two people who have learned the easier dialect could speak it among themselves. This would be nice in reverse; I married a Filipino but found it difficult to learn Tagalog because of the lack of available Tagalog courses and the fact that my wife doesn’t understand and cannot explain the grammar of her language. I wish I could learn an intentionally-designed pidgeon/simplified version of the language before tackling the whole thing. Hearing the language spoken in the house for several years hasn’t helped.
It would be good for EAs to learn other languages, but it’s hard. I studied Spanish in my free time for four years, but I remained terrible at it, my vocabulary is still small and I usually can’t understand what Spanish people are saying. If I moved to Mexico I’m sure I would learn better. But I have various reasons not to.