The English language must be one of the more difficult for non-native speakers to learn as a second tongue. Consider, for example, our idioms. Why is it that we ride IN a car, but ON a bus? Why ON a ship, but IN a kayak – many of which are made so you can’t get inside them? Perhaps it’s the same reason we park in driveways and drive on parkways?
If idiom isn’t confusing enough, look at our spelling. Through, dough, and enough all end in “ough,” yet just listen to how they sound! Then there are the words with multiple different uses. We can park our car in a parking lot. If the engine falls out, we may choose to visit a new car lot to replace it. We can order paper (or on Ebay, even clothing) by the lot, and when it comes, we can have a lot of trouble with it.
And that’s just a start!
I love our language, enjoy words and have fun with writing in this quirky, unpredictable tongue of ours, but I’m glad I learned it as a native language. Coming to it as an adult would probably be too much for this old brain to handle.
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