To everyone who works really hard to improve their English

I

'm glad that you're putting effort into being able to speak my native language - but I just thought to say something.

I notice sometimes that many English learners are probably a bit too focused on speaking English *perfectly,* as if a native speaker wouldn't understand you otherwise - this isn't necessarily a problem, but it makes things harder for you.

What I think many of you don't understand is that English, unlike less commonly learned languages, has such a large variety of people speaking it with such a large variety of different first languages, each making different errors consistently, that native English speakers are *very* good at parsing what someone is trying to say to them.

I've seen so many posts or messages on here that start with "I'm terrible at English, sorry for the errors" which then continue without *any* errors at all, with everything spelled correctly and worded in the same way that I myself would word those same sentences. No! You're fine! I understand you perfectly, and would have phrased everything exactly the same way as you!

Also unlike most other languages, there is no formal institution to decide what words and grammar structures are "standard" English. This leads to the following conclusion, which I feel many of you may benefit from hearing:

There are two types of English: "correct" English, and the English spoken by native speakers.

Don't be discouraged by thinking you have "bad English"! We can understand you, and we love and appreciate you for learning our language. Thank you :)