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comment by humanodon

I am, though I wouldn't say I speak anything other than English fluently. I can get by fairly well in a few languages though. Certainly well enough to buy things (like beer!) and flirt with locals. As for higher concepts, perhaps there are particular grammars or vocabularies that express certain concepts more clearly than in another system, but that would be hard to compare and quantify.

As for the thing with your grandfather swearing, was he Polish? I ask because linguists have long observed that people tend to curse in their L2 (their acquired language/languages) even if they don't in their L1 (mother tongue).





lil  ·  3937 days ago  ·  link  ·  

His cradle language was probably Yiddish. Should another thread on this topic evolve, more will be said, esp. about lying in non-native languages.