Oh boy. I'm here 17 yrs now and they still loose me in a conversation. If they pick up the speed and I don't concentrate like hell...i'm out of it.
I thought I could help myself with English in South Africa...but I was wildly mistaken when I arrived here. This English turned out to be a few levels above what I could understand. They spoke way differently than I was used to, and most went over my head. I hardly spoke for the first year or two...cause I couldn't understand half they said...and they had a hard time with me.
In South Africa if you don't know the English word you throw in your own language word, and they get it. Here I couldn't do it. If I didn't know the word, I was stuffed....and in the beginning here, there was a whole lot of words I couldn't get. Also I was thinking in Afrikaans, and you have to constantly translate to yourself as you speak. Man that is a recipe for confusion

. You start speaking better once you start thinking in English...and i'm just about there lately.
Now I feel like i'm rolling it. Sometimes they still don't get me...and me them, especially when they go into the slang zone, but it don't bother me that much anymore. Yeah I said it before. I love this country
