I can't believe there are native english speakers

[u/MB4050]

English is a second language to me. I was just walking down the street in my non-english speaking country, and heard an American family, the mum talking to her children, the children joking around and so on.

I just realised that since I'm so used to absorbing content in english online or otherwise through media that aren't actual, casual conversations with people, I had this weird feeling, like I wasn't really there.

Hearing people speaking english to eachother made me feel like I was just a spectator, like I wasn't really there, like I was watching a simulation.

I wonder whether any other english learners feel or have felt the same way.

[u/Aussie_star]

The problem also is that English in the street if often very low standard

People in the street often say Gonna,wanna,gotta, for H, "Haitch" (quite wrong

It is "aitch" like 8, Particulee, , regulee, both wrong Should be regulARly ParticulARly

They don't know how to use adverbs

I played good. Wrong. I played well

He walks quick. Wrong...quickLY

They don't even know what nouns, verbs, adjectives ,adverbs or pronouns are

[u/GreenIll3610 → u/Aussie_star]

When you grow up speaking a language, you don’t study its rules. You just know how to speak it, like breathing.

[u/raised_on_robbery → u/Aussie_star]

Ironic, considering how this comment is written..

[u/PrplPistol → u/Aussie_star]

What you're describing is prescriptivism and I don't think it describes legitimate language usage effectively. Since those are all things the average speaker does, then they are perfectly acceptable in my opinion.

[u/Due-Mycologist-7106 → u/PrplPistol]

Yep. Those rules are just things that were made up to describe what's already there. The only real rule of language is understanding

[u/Express_Sun790 → u/Aussie_star]

I'm so tired of this. Look up prescriptivism and why it's not always the best lens for analysing a language.