language opinions

[regshoe]

Learning a new language, possibly especially a highly inflected language like Greek, teaches you a lot about grammar in general. Ιt's very useful and interesting, but the main conclusions I've come to so far are that English has too many verb tenses and the rules for when to use them make no sense. Like, I have a native speaker's intuitive grasp of which tenses to use when, but there are so many of them and so many complications that I could not explain the rules if I tried.

Comments

[pretty_plant]

I think that most native speakers cannot explain the rules of their languages if they are not specifically taught to do so. That is why we have English teachers. My native language is extremely simple in terms of grammar (even though the pronunciation is very) but I won't be able to explain it towards everybody else.

One thing I note about English native teachers that used to teach me is the fact they are not good at teaching grammar like non-native English teachers. Maybe they were just not taught like how nonnative English teachers were taught

[regshoe]

Very true. I've not had much formal education in English grammar—I basically learnt what I know about it by reading a lot and osmosing the rules—and I get the impression that grammar teaching in the UK in general is not great.