The English Language

Well, at least I found a way to write, but I still don't think I'll be able to press enter. Oh well this will do for now. This semester I have two TESOL classes (AKA ESL or English as a Second Language). One of my professors is from Turkey and the other one is from China or Korea or one of those Asian countries. My professor from Turkey is super pregnant and has this adorable accent and cute long, frizzy hair. Anyways, she was saying how when she first came to America she knew someone who would always end his statements with "you know what I mean?" Obviously, this was just a filler that he used like "ya know?" But she was so confused as to why he was always asking her if she understood. She thought it was because she was foreign and a second language learner. It's so interesting learning these little, pragmatic aspects about learning a second language. Another example was given by one of my classmates. He mom is a native Spanish speaker and often gets prepositions mixed up. For example, instead of saying "in you dreams" she always says "on your dreams." I totally get Spanish prepositions mixed up too. Then there are those common English saying that second language learners would be like "what the hell is this person saying?!" such as "it's raining cats and dogs," "I swear to God," etc. I know there are a ton but I can't think of anymore right now. Something else really strange/interesting; animals don't make the same sounds in different languages! In Spanish a dog goes "guau guau" and a cat goes "maiu" hahaha. I hope that I didn't bore you too much with this information about language variations.