I was definitely hoping for more depth here.
Reality: Supported languages: English, Tiếng Việt, Polski, Español, Français, Deutsch
:-|
Hope it helps with your Dutch :)
Is this supposed to teach absolute beginners? Or do you assume some knowledge of the language already?
Is it a comprehensive course, or should it be used as a supplement to a course?
But: if I can get thru that, and start to engage with (say) Italy at a deeper level, away from tourist activities, or starting to engage with their literature, then learning the language will have a huge payoff. It's just a bit disheartening when you struggle to reach A2 or B1 but can't use it in the country because everyone switches to English. I guess my accent needs more work than I thought...
I was at a native+ level of English in high school according to an IELTS test I took for fun. During college my English improved further.
When I moved to USA … ho boy the difference between fluent English and culturally fluent idiomatic English is surprisingly vast. Much hilarity, frustration, and subtle misunderstandings ensued. It’s like an uncanny valley when your language is so good you start being judged as a native who’s a little weird and unsettling.
After 9 years of full immersion (I live here with nobody of my native language to speak with), you could say my English is near perfect. Hell I write and publish books in English! The next generation has started using new idioms I do not fully grok. What the hell is “based”?
Basically feels impossible for to ever fully catch up. Language moves too fast and your cultural background will never be same as the natives.
Edit: One super interesting aspect is that to speak fluent native English you have to do it wrong. Californians, for example, don’t use the plural contraction. You have to say “there’s many options” instead of “there are many options”. Otherwise you sound like a weirdo.
I knew my Japanese was getting decent, many years ago, when my Japanese coworkers started replying to my Japanese in Japanese, instead of replying to my broken Japanese with broken English.
In fact you can argue natural pressures have stopped us from evolving. We don't need our logical skills anymore to deduce the tracking and pathing of animals we hunt, or our memory to remember where the berries are.
Languages with global speaker bases will be fine, but languages with tiny speaker groups would highly benefit from having an alternative to "stop speaking your own language and learn ours, or your government won't talk to you".
