ConfusedPossum

Lovely. I used to have a Ukrainian coworker and she overheard me use the word ‘zoeken’ (search) and she thought I was swearing as I didn’t pronounce the ‘n’ strongly

Actually no, but I’ll try as soon as I have the opportunity. Thanks for the advice!

The Slavic languages are interesting but I don’t know a lot about them. It must be amusing to be aware of the various levels of mutual intelligibility. Do you know any jokes Eastern Europeans make about this among themselves?

No amount of exceptions and quirks will prevent you from learning any language as long as you have lots and lots of exposure. After your reach a certain base level you just keep improving as you use the language, and even the exceptions start to feel natural.

English is the only language other than my mother tongue I have achieved this level with. I’d like to think at least in writing it’s indistinguishable from a native speaker. Theoretically tho German should be easier for me as I’m Dutch. But my German never reached the same level because of the difference in exposure