Quote:
Originally posted by Melusine:
Language education in Holland is quite good, but it's a big misconception that the Dutch are good at languages: they just THINK they are 
Of course, there's a much larger percentage of Dutch speaking English than vice versa, and out of necessity almost every Hollander speaks at least a few words of English, French or German, but they arrogantly assume that they all speak it so very well. *rolls eyes* Well, I can tell you that the worst accents and mistakes I've ever heard, I've heard in my own country. The most common mistake that the Dutch make is translating expressions and idiosyncratic constructions literally into a foreign language resulting in -little amusing example from RL for those who speak Dutch- a businessman telling an overseas partner that "we will go into the sea with you" (huh?  ).
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Well, there's still a difference between writing English and speaking it fluently. For example, my own writing skills are absolutely superior to my linguistic skills; practice makes perfect, but while I spend time on International Internetforums every day (positive stimulant to English writing skills), I hardly speak English in daily life, and the few times I do, I'm surprised by my own horrible accent and awful direct translations from dutch; while I'm writing, I can
think in English, but that's not the case during real life conversations for some reason. It's something chemical in your brain I think, to apply your wide grammatical and stylistic knowledge of a certain language successfully to a fluent conversation, but it certainly needs practice, experience.
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[This message has been edited by Grojlach (edited 10-26-2001).]