Just for fun I wonder where England and the USA would be on this list…

I find that broken English is easier to understand, compared to the time I talked to a Londoner in the bus, I could understand him but my travel buddy had no idea.

Accents can be rough on tourists.

It’s known that two non-native English speakers can understand each other more easily than a non-native speaker and a native speaker. The non-native speakers are better at deciphering incorrect use of the language than the native speaker who has stricter expectations.

I wonder what the numbers look like between English first language ‘with no second language experience’ versus ‘some or fluent post-childhood learning second language experience’.

I’ve been told im awful to practice English with because i just understand. But i have teen/adult learning experience with two other languages.

I think it has a significant impact, yes. When you understand how different grammatical structures in other languages behave, and if you are even familiar with some of the words from other languages, understanding the speaker’s incorrect English (or other language they are trying to speak with you) becomes much easier. 👍

Yeah i think just having experience with a different grammar at all forces you to be more flexible. When you only talk to other english speakers as a first language, the rules are somewhat rigid in the sense that everyone’s interpretation assumes your intent aligns with what is spoken. If that’s your only experience you might try to apply that assumption with non-native speakers. So I’m suggesting regardless of your knowledge of any particular other language, having learned some of any secondary language in practice forces you to re-evaluate the rigidity of those social rules and think more critically about what an English learner is trying to say.