My Thoughts on English Language

I am ashamed to say that I’ve been studying English for nearly 30 years. “Ashamed” because my level is still far from perfection. But now I believe that learning any foreign language is a process and as life itself is a process we should better enjoy both without trying to achieve any questionable goals.

My mom started teaching me some isolated words in English when I was three. Now I understand that it’s not the best way of learning because you have to apply these words somehow and actually use them. That’s why I used this method with my son only a couple of months and then, quite soon, we started reading books in English and watching cartoons in English. As far as he wasn’t accustomed to watching any cartoons in Russian (because I believe that books are better for children and I was afraid cartoons could affect his speaking badly) he really liked it.

To be honest, I didn’t really like English at school. It was not a problem for me but I always got irritated by frequent “It’s an exception and this is an exception, too!” and that's why I was not really interested in it. I don’t know why but German is much easier to me because I can visualize in my mind all the schemes and tables while writing or speaking, so its grammar is not a problem. Maybe I like strict rules. When I am being told that I should say something another way, I always memorize such things for German — and almost never for English, because I can’t follow its logic.

Thanks to my university teacher I learned to enjoy using English. I speak fluently and without any fear (but with maaany mistakes, I guess), I like reading contemporary books in English and watch some videos in English with English subtitles. When I write something in English, I always want to apologize for my own stupidity, but that’s okay.

In Russian I prefer to read Tolstoy (that's why my sentences are so overloaded, lol) but in English I prefer to read some psychological thrillers because their vocabulary is not so complicated. I can read this kind of book almost as quickly as a book in my own language and using a dictionary only rarely.

Recently, I started watching some videos on the English language from native speakers, about its origin and development. I think its biggest problem is the fact that its alphabet was not originally made for it and was borrowed from another language which had totally different sounds! It is not okay when a language has only 6 vowels and approximately 20 vowel sounds. For example, in my language the alphabet was developed based on the language’s sounds. You can write any word — you can even invent your own word and put it down — and everyone will be able to read it correctly, the way it was planned by you!

All the spelling problems are caused by its alphabet. Sometimes I think that English needs a new one, which would better reflect its phonetic system. And — oops — it already has it! But of course no one is going to use English transcription symbols instead of letters. It's a pity.

I really have no idea how English native speakers teach their children to read if two letters being put together don’t sound the way they sounded separate. I teach my son to read in English and he can do it a little already. And I have noticed that I “simply” have to teach him how to read every single word he sees. Of course there are some rules on reading which we also discuss but there are so many exceptions that it’s not even worth it. Because there is no common system.

Still, I love English. I can even enjoy it in ways I never enjoy my beloved German. But it’s really chaotic