I am British, my first language is English but I also have the same problem speaking English! It's because you are 'holding back'. Possibly nervous or busy translating everything in your mind. My personal solution is to take a refreshing breath before you speak, smile and do your best. Stand up tall (straight back) and be proud that you can speak English. People will be very happy to hear you speaking English.

Someday, All will be gone. Thinking of this, I am relieved. No matter how painful love is, No matter how tired hate is, They all will be gone. Suffering from insomnia, Being misunderstood, Encountering traffic jams, Living in poverty, They all will be gone. Being looked down on, Being forced to lie, Being obliged to admit that I can't change anything, Or just Having an unpleasant face, They all will be gone It is so amazing, How could a life be customized so mercifully, While so impassively? Is the thing you love to collect; Our laugh Or tears? You don't have to answer, Whether for conscience Or for compassion Because you are considerate enough, You have promised me over and over. Someday, These tiny things I doubt, Will also be gone. All will be gone. When poetry is written in English the first word of every line has a capital letter. Punctuation should still be used. Mostly, though, this was a well translated poem and delightful to read even if it was pessimistic!

The British Empire conquered 1/3 parts of the world. English was expected to be spoken in many countries across the world. For the same reason French and Spanish are also very popular. Think about how many countries speak Arabic as their first or second language in the Middle East. Because of this history and the recent success of western business English has been widely adopted for business, trade and economics. Also the internet is largely based in the USA (America) and knowing English allows a person to maximise (US var. maximize) the use of the internet. The world is beginnng to change. Many western countries offer relatively new courses in Asian languages. Japanese was popular in the UK and USA for a few years and now Mandarin / Standard Chinese is growing quickly in popularity. Most people learn a language for one of two purposes: 1. Business, and 2. Travelling As Asia becomes stronger economically and more attractive to tourists and travellers Asian languages will obviously become even more popular.

English, like all languages, has trade-offs. It's a very 'colourful' language with many similar synonyms and a degree for many concepts (boiling, hot, warm, luke-warm, tepid, cool, cold, freezing...) but this means there is a lot of vocabulary to memorise (I have heard that there are more words in an English dictionary than any other language). Grammar is difficult for learners of non-latin-based languages - in Thai, changing the tense is uncommon and only then requires the addition of a prefix, suffix or tense-determiner which is very similar for Chinese and Japanese, in English there are many tenses (perfect / simple / continuous for past, present and future...) so tenses can be tricky to get right for the non-native speaker. At least there are almost no gender-specific grammar rules or, as ichbinlance points out, so many conjugations. Spelling is another issue. American spelling is objectively easier than British spelling but is still not entirely phonetic (there is a seperate phonetic alphabet found in dictionaries that is worth learning if you want to teach English to Asian students - in my experience they prefer it as would I). Although the spelling is based on an alphabet which is easier than Chinese - memorising 26 characters and their sounds is easier than memorising 2,600. All in all (a phrase that itself would need an explaination!) I have found English to be challenging to teach and I often imagine that if I were to learn English as a non-native speaker then I would struggle with the above issues.

Panic. The best thing to do is be confident but polite too.

There are many differences but no critical differences - almost all Americans are aware of British English and almost all British people are aware of American English so both can understand the other quite easily. Here are the main differences: 1. Vocabulary (Holiday / Vacation) 2. Spelling (Centre / Center) American spellings are often easier because they are more phonetic. 3. Stress (evoLUtion / eVOlution / Evolution) 4. Accent (Girl / 'Gerl' / 'Gal' / 'Gairl') There is also a difference in the world's opinion of American English and British English. Often people believe American English is Trendy / Modern. Often people believe British English is Traditional / Stylish. One interesting point: Americans might see the British accent as desirable but British people see the American accent as a little irritating! The same small differences are found in Australian English or Canadian English too.

Unhealthy, greasy food. Dirty restaurants and over-worked staff. Perhaps most irritatingly the awful adverts! I can't think of anything positive!

It is common in asian languages to use the system 1+10+1 or 2+10+2 (for example: Thai: sam-sip-sam = 33, Japanese: ni-jyu-ni = 22, Chinese: chee-shi-chee=77 (I can't type tones, for Thai and Chinese, sorry)). The English system is similar in structure but not completely logical and probably has an origin. It is just the way the languages have evolved. So the numbers 1 to 12 have unique, non-systemic words. It is common to find discrepencies in other European languages. In French the number 77 is structured 60+10+7 not 7+10+7. There are other discrepencies in English too although not so obscure: Twenty instead of two-ty and fifty instead of five-ty. The big numbers are also counted differently. In English: Hundred (100), Thousand (1000), Ten-thousand (10,000), Hundred-thousand (100,000). In asian languages there is usually a single word for 10,000 not ten-thousand.