I wish we as society could simply have one language to overcome language barriers, but that’s more of a content for my daydreaming.
I often encounter issues due to language barriers.
Mainly with 2 languages.
Since the start of war, I’ve been encountering lots of Ukrainians I can’t really speak with. Especially when I was on a dorm, where they were a great majority.
Not that I tend to talk with people, but I felt weird after a while.
Probably like someone who doesn’t speak Spanish in the US (at least I assume that’s fairly common over there).
And now searching for a job, I found many companies want you to know German.
Which I also encountered as “would’ve been useful now” a few times.
Seems like I should know an answer to this, as English isn’t my first language, but I have no fucking idea how I picked it up. I never made any serious attempt (i.e.: studying for more than a week) to learn it.
My job is to teach English to Japanese people, both kids and adults, but anyone over 12 seems really set in their ways when it comes to grammar and sentence structure. I have a really hard time getting them to write coherent sentences like you do.
Have you tried to give them american comic books? Or some very popular teenager adventure stories?
It is hard to grab someone’s interest if it’s just schoolwork…