Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?
This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.
Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.
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Notes -
How well do communication skills transfer across languages? I have always been impressed with Ilforte’s writing, and a few days ago, saw Anatoly Vorobey (whose Russian blog I follow - I suspect Hebrew is his strongest language, but I cannot read it) post in very precise and clear English here.
(I would not be surprised if there are many other such posters here, but I can’t read their native languages. I’m not a very effective communicator in either language, though writing verse is way easier in Russian).
I find it much easier to talk in my native language. I've been doing some interviews in English recently, and I've definitely lost a lot of fluency compared to my peak in 2002 or my international experience in 2012. Now I sound like Trump, constantly backtracking, whereas my native lookahead lets me talk in verse if it's not a complicated topic.
With writing, backtracking is not a problem, and I find it much easier to write on a more complicated topic than to talk about it. I still find that a lot of my writing needs additional editing when I reread it later, but that doesn't really change whether I write in my native language or in English.
I'm really looking forward to George E. Hale's answer to this question, he's the only one here who has written something that is worth a damn and can speak a second language well enough. I don't know if Yassine is bilingual.
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