Refrain... oh you mean you'll abstain from an impulse to say how many. :)

>I will refrain from mentioning how many Americans cannot speak English well :o)
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>>It's also a matter of verbal talent. Ayaan Hirsi Ali has that talent. I won't say she speaks Dutch as fluently as native speakers, but it's really sophisticated and, more importantly, everything she wants to say she finds the correct words for. And what's also important: She is able to make complex, well built sentences, using even abstract words in the right context. Quite many natives do not have that talent at all. Their comprehension of the language is enough for smalltalk, but not for intellectual talks.
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>>>In one foreign language school I recall, tests were taken in three areas: reading, writing, and speaking. (The speaking test was one student speaking to 5 teachers who each were fluent speakers of the same language but from a different country). A possible grade of 1-3 for each. Most native speakers actually scored barely a 2. A 2 was required to pass for some specific in-country positions where fluency was required. I went to school with many native speakers who spoke the language worse than many who learned it in highschool as a second language.
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>>>There are many people in some countries who do not learn the grammar rules of their native language. Some never finish school past the 8th grade. Others never bother to learn and employ those rules.
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>>>Anything is possible.
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>>>>Hi All, but esp. Dragan and Terry.
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>>>>In my Dutch newspaper of today there is the story of a French teacher (a teacher of French, not a Frenchman) who is currently sueing an employer for not wanting to hire him. The employer is a private, commercial school where adults can learn various foreign languages. The employer only wants native speakers as teacher. This person is a Dutchman who claims to have a better knowledge of current French than many of the employed native French speakers. He claims to know 28.000 French sentences by head, to know all current developments in that language, that many of those native speakers may have been born over there, but may have left their home country more than 20 years ago. She, the employer, feels 'insulted' by him because he says she discriminates him.
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>>>>So, what's your opinion guys.