Quote Originally Posted by bitpicker
And it is incredibly hard to attain a level of mastery where you sound like a native speaker of a 2nd language, even if you know all the rules of the language by heart.
I agree with Robin about knowing the rules and sounding like a native. There are many different levels of mastery.

One of the reasons I came on this forum was so Dmitri could sound like a native. If you remember the types of questions that I ask on this forum... they are all questions that only native speakers know the answers to! And in many of my postings I try to give hints about how "real" Americans speak and explain why I say things or write things the way I do and how I don't follow the "rules" of proper grammar. I speak in run-on sentences all the time, as do all Americans. If I ever want to send my book to a publisher, I will need an editor BEFORE I send it out! Maybe I should post the entire thing on this forum and have ya' all correct the entire thing as an exercise in proper English grammar!

As for my girls, they actually have what is called "radio Spanish." Their spoken Spanish has little to no American influenced accent to it. Here in the states, many kids speak perfect Spanish; yet, their spoken Spanish has a harsh New York or New Jersey accent to it (or an accent from where ever they happen to live) which is not good at all for commercials, tv or films. So, to a true native, say from Spain, they come across as if they speak it like a native, yet sound like a foreigner. And as a side note, many of the kids can't read or write. They can only speak and understand.