Learning English as a second language must be a long, torturous road. As a native speaker, I can only imagine. In a language class, you will learn all about grammar and vocabulary, but this still leaves you ill-equipped to really use the language naturally and 'blend in' with native speakers. The truth is that much of learning a language isn't really about language. It's about rhetoric, etiquette and culture.
When you drive around in a car, there are rules of the road. There are posted speed limits, stop signs, and conventions that are supposed to keep everyone from crashing into each other. But the thing is, you find that on some streets, the posted speed limit is thirty miles per hour, yet everyone around you goes forty five. If you drive the speed limit, you run more risk than if you break the law and drive with the flow of traffic. You are put in a position of doing wrong to do right. To be a safe driver, you have to know the rules and also know when and how to break them.
Learning a language is like driving. What you learn in English class is what linguists call prescriptive grammar. Prescriptive grammar is like the rules of the road. It is what authorities such as teachers think people ought to do. Teachers will slyly act as if this is all there is to language, but it's not. Knowing that everybody goes forty on third street is different kind of rule or convention that is just as important. This is what linguists call descriptive grammar. Descriptive grammar is how people actually talk.
There are many rules in English that no one really follows, or that they follow in some cases and not in others. Mastery of language involves knowing all the rules, and knowing when and how to break them. That is what I plan to write about here. If you are learning English and wrestling with this, please tell me in the comments what you are having trouble with and I may be able to help. If you are a native speaker of German or Spanish, please go start a blog like this for your language!
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