I often wonder about how well native speakers of languages other than English actually use their languages, if they are as poor at them as most native English speakers are, and if that has anything to do with how ``difficult'' the language is to begin with.

I guess this is a universal issue. Though I do expect eg. Chinese to be more difficult to learn than Western language, if not only for the different "alphabet".
I found English to be relatively easy to learn, (much more so than French), because it's a more "intuitive" language. (if you know what I mean). French has so many exceptions to their general rules, it's ridiculous.

Something I've always wondered about natively English speaking people : do some song lyrics sound as stupid to them as to me? When I hear song lyrics, I can't help sometimes but translate them into Dutch in my head. When I try to sing the "Dutch version" of the song then, it just sounds utterly stupid. Not only because most of the times the words don't match or rhyme anymore, but mostly because then I really realise how stupid the meaning of the lyrics is.

When I hear songs in Dutch, most of the time I'm ashamed. The song lyrics are mostly so corny, like you wouldn't believe. Granted, there are some exceptions, but very few.
Then I also think : people who speak English natively surely must experience this too? Or has this effect "faded out" because English songs are practically all you hear?
_________________________
Riocar 80gig S/N : 010101580 red
Riocar 80gig (010102106) - backup