As with anything it helps if you have a natural aptitude for it (good job I do as I'm pretty useless at everything else), that's not to say you can't learn just through effort but ideally you would want to have a top quality command of English to start with, have a good appreciation of literature (foreign and English), be willing to learn the boring technical stuff to do with structure - and it's that latter point that trips most people up. English has virtually no rules, we learn it as we go along and never pick up habits such as abiding by relatively strict grammar rules, plus we have no such thing as masculine/feminine cases, verb conjugation doesn't really exist in any meaningful form, we don't have specific word orders to stick to...it's all an alien concept to a native English speaker so many struggle to get their heads around it. I always say to people that you have to start with the foundations if you're serious about learning a language, I can teach you in an afternoon how to order a couple of beers and a burger, jump on the train, find out where the airport is etc but it's of little long term use if you can't carry a conversation in your own right.
Add to that that many, many English people don't see the point of learning a language as it's not that often they'll encounter a situation whereby they're talking to someone who doesn't speak English, save for on holiday and then they just sort of fudge through it. It's ingrained in people that it's a worthy but largely unnecessary skill. Shame but that's the way it is.
As I say I only do it because I can't do anything else!
So may recognisable points there DW.
The one that always fucks me is the M/F gender. I still after 27 years here, take the piss because they have Beer as feminine, and annoy them to fuck (in fun) by always using the masculine term.
Grammar is my total downfall, i just cannot make myself sit down and study it. Too much like being back at school.
As you say, in Athens almost everyone speaks some kind of English and actually want to talk to me in English to better their own use of the language, but here in the sticks, i get by with my error strewn grammar because they actually love someone who will have a go, however inaccurate they might be.
However that backfires on me when i'm listening, as my poor grammar often sends me off in a totally different direction.
When i was in Hamburg i was ordering stuff in pubs and resturaunts and on the metro and buses within a few days, but sat at a table with three or four Germans in full conversation, I was blind deaf and dumb for the most part.
Acropolis 1 will always try and put me right, she's a treasure, but i have had to tell her to stop doing that when we are in a bar or resturaunt with a big group of people, as while she is explaining the three words i got wrong, i have lost all track of the general conversation.
The other novelty is that because i have learned Greek as a mimic here in the outback, Athenians are fascinated as to where i come from, and i mean where in Greece, not whether I am from Ireland or whatever.
I appear to have learned the Greek equivalent of Geordie, but nevertheless, i know more serious swear words than the polite Athenians have ever heard ha ha ha.
