[Banat]

I don't know the process for obtaining U.S. citizenship, but in Canada one must take a written test (in French or English). There are about 20 questions and all are really easy (e.g. "How many provinces does Canada have?", "What is the capital of Canada?", etc).

I know people who have lived in Canada for decades, yet speak very, very little English (not to mention French). I don't get it. How do they go about their daily lives without speaking the language? What's the quality of their life? They are missing out big time. English is not that hard to learn, especially when it is being spoken everywhere you go.

[Old Student]

” English is not that hard to learn, especially when it is being spoken everywhere you go.”

From what I’ve learned, talking to hundreds of people over the years, English is one of the hardest languages to learn to speak. Watching lots of television does seem to help.

I’ve been trying to learn to speak Spanish for about 40 years, on and off, and still can’t do much more than say hello and good-by, and the other polite pleasantries. The best time learn a language is from approximately birth to age 3. After that, it gets much harder.

There are some exception, of course. Some folks learn language quite easily. I’m not one of them.