English has so many words that I have encountered probably hundreds of times and never looked up. I just skip past them or use context to understand.
What the fuck is a cantilever? What is a yeoman? And why do people insist on bringing in Fr*nch words like rapprochement?
So if I’m still learning English, despite decades of practice… then I shouldn’t be embarrassed about learning a language that I just encountered a couple years ago.
I felt relieved to realize that no one 100% masters a language. You just reach a point where some % of mastery is enough for what you need to do. So I don’t need to worry about being fluent, if that even has a precise meaning. Every little improvement helps.
Learning a second language can help better understand the first language, especially when there is some overlap. I remember seeing the word semaphore in some OS development literature. Basically zoomed right past it. Then, when I was taking Spanish classes I learned the world for traffic light is semáforo, and something clicked. Not only do I have a personal memory to pull this word from, but I actually have a better understanding of the English word I discovered in its original context, which was originally just jargon to me.
