are really good at *speaking* it (a lot better than I will ever be, in fact), and not that great at *writing* it. I know many people who spent a year abroad whose English sounds like a native speaker's.
Back in school, more than ten years ago now, we had a couple of people who had spent a year in the U.S. Needless to say, they spoke American English fluently, without any accent and with a perfect grasp of the vocabulary needed for any kind of normal conversation (if you learn it early enough in life, you'll pick up a foreign language really well, in most cases). Yet for the most part, they *still* couldn't write it as well as I could, even then. And I had only had six years of normal English classes at school, had never spent *any* time in an English-speaking country, and had read perhaps a couple of novels in English.
You would think that a year in the U.S. would trump reading a couple of novels... but apparently it didn't, not when it came to written expression. Not for me, anyway.
Similarly, after having spent almost a year in Britain, I *still* don't *speak* English as well as most people in a comparable situation, but, considering that my beta reader only found one or two semi-serious errors in the story I posted recently, I'd say I am able to write it pretty much at native-speaker level now. (Though errors still occur. I'm only human. *g*)
I also don't know a lot of colloquial *German*, come to think of it. It's as if spoken language just doesn't really enter my brain, somehow.
Yeah, well, but I know a lot more non-native speakers of English who...
Back in school, more than ten years ago now, we had a couple of people who had spent a year in the U.S. Needless to say, they spoke American English fluently, without any accent and with a perfect grasp of the vocabulary needed for any kind of normal conversation (if you learn it early enough in life, you'll pick up a foreign language really well, in most cases). Yet for the most part, they *still* couldn't write it as well as I could, even then. And I had only had six years of normal English classes at school, had never spent *any* time in an English-speaking country, and had read perhaps a couple of novels in English.
You would think that a year in the U.S. would trump reading a couple of novels... but apparently it didn't, not when it came to written expression. Not for me, anyway.
Similarly, after having spent almost a year in Britain, I *still* don't *speak* English as well as most people in a comparable situation, but, considering that my beta reader only found one or two semi-serious errors in the story I posted recently, I'd say I am able to write it pretty much at native-speaker level now. (Though errors still occur. I'm only human. *g*)
I also don't know a lot of colloquial *German*, come to think of it. It's as if spoken language just doesn't really enter my brain, somehow.