I just want to put this out there for all of the language learners, and I’m not sure if this is even the right category.
I used to study earnestly on another site, and I used to help others on that site as much as I could. One day I came across a review of one of my friends (my Brazilian friend learning English), and this is what it said, “You are very close, almost perfect, keep trying”.
I felt the need, at that moment, to reiterate something (something that I felt needed to be said again). I was born and raised in the United States. English is my native language, and do you know what? I am not perfect in English. I do not know every word in the English language, nor do I know every English grammar rule. I do know one thing though … I am fluent in English. So is my Brazilian friend. He had numerous, English submissions that were amazing (almost perfect … lol). His accent might not have appeased most, but I understood every word that he said.
Nobody is perfect, and nobody ever will be. All that we can ever do is strive to be the best that we can be.
Nice! I like the idea that there is no “perfect,” but we can continue to improve as much as we need/want to.
I’m not an English teacher, but I volunteer sometimes as a tutor. When I was being trained, I was taught not to correct the students too often; if they’re communicating what they’re trying to communicate, then that’s great! Like you said, accents and other details don’t matter as much as understanding. Focusing on that helps me overcome any embarrassment I have when I’m trying to practice my target languages, too.
Edited to add: I think this topic fits either here, or in the General Language Chat of the Language Quarters category.
Taking this from Oxford dictionaries. “The Second Edition of the 20-volume Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.” Also consider the slang terms that are used in different countries and geographical regions. Chances are no one will be perfect in the comprehension of the English language unless they care to learn thousands of words they will probably never use. For this reason Jaime i agree with your idea that there is no perfect in learning a language. Plus the fun in language learning is discovering things you never knew. Perfection is boring.