User Power
Value/Post Ratio
455%
- May 1, 2011
- 7,641
- 34,772
English is my second language. Without it, I'd be nothing.
Seriously, if you're a native English speaker and you don't thank God/Mother Nature/your parents/whatever every day for being born a native English speaker, you're an idiot.
I know I shouldn't do it, but I still often catch myself thinking how "unfair" it is that I have to learn English and will maybe (hopefully) one day, after decades of learning and living it, reach the level of mastery that native speakers enjoy by default.
Spanish is my third language. Business-wise, it helped me judge the quality of my book translations. I also reply to my Spanish-speaking readers in Spanish.
Indirectly, both English and Spanish provide other benefits, too:
Seriously, if you're a native English speaker and you don't thank God/Mother Nature/your parents/whatever every day for being born a native English speaker, you're an idiot.
I know I shouldn't do it, but I still often catch myself thinking how "unfair" it is that I have to learn English and will maybe (hopefully) one day, after decades of learning and living it, reach the level of mastery that native speakers enjoy by default.
Spanish is my third language. Business-wise, it helped me judge the quality of my book translations. I also reply to my Spanish-speaking readers in Spanish.
Indirectly, both English and Spanish provide other benefits, too:
- As weird as it sounds, I have three personalities, one for each language.
- I understand different cultures and different ways of thinking.
- I can make new international friends.
- I keep learning new skills every day.
- I find travel way more enjoyable when I speak the local language fluently.
- Online, I do virtually everything in English (reading, watching, listening, chatting with English-speaking friends) so without English I wouldn't learn or enjoy most of the things I know/do.