[Kodu]

[color=#000000ost_uid0][quoteost_uid0="Sa'ar Chasm"]English is one of the most difficult languages for non-speakers to learn. Â It's a collection of exceptions to rules. Â Why do I feel we've had this conversation before?[/quoteost_uid0]
I can think of a lot of languages I've had more problems with than English (German, French, Latin, Greek, and the rest I didn't even bother to try )
English exceptions aren't the exceptions, the 'regular' stuff are the exceptions . Also, the exceptions are much easier to learn than the actual rules. I never had any kind of problem with the exceptions, but the rules for the other stuff always confused the hell out of me (Made worse by the school spending about 15 minutes of class on the regular stuff and the rest of the years on the exceptions)
I've always been told that Dutch is one of the hardest languages for non-speakers to learn. We have a lot of rather complicated exceptions and it seems it's also confusing that verbs ending in 'd's aren't an exception (leading to conjugations ending in 'dt' but pronounced 't' )
The fact we changed our spelling a couple of years back might also cause some problems.

[quoteost_uid0]I also find that Dutch people speak better English than the average AOL user (I know I've said that before).[/quoteost_uid0]
It's a sad fact that a lot of Americans can't use their own languange properly, and AOL seems to draw a disproportionate part of it's user base from that group for some reason.
Your quote also reminds me of the fact that in Dutch-language competitions it usually turns out that the Belgians have a better grasp of Dutch than the Dutch [/colorost_uid0]