[mootothemax]

It kinda reminds me of holidaying in India - lots of English speakers, and for the majority I'd be fine understanding them (as a native English speaker), but occasionally would stumble.

My wife's sister was there with us, and her English wasn't so great - and yet she understood everyone.

It kinda seems like if you're still learning a language, you know the pitfalls to expect and understand unexpected pronunciations that bit easier.

[Swizec]

I have definitely noticed that the more time I spend in the US, the worse I am at understanding bad English.

More infuriatingly, I have started making their/there/they're mistakes. I always thought native speakers were just dumb, but damn it, they really do sound exactly the same.

[mootothemax]

Hmm, you know when people say that it's when you start dreaming in a foreign language that you can tell you've started getting there with it? Maybe struggling with bad language use is also a sign?

Fun times with their/there/they're: even if you know you're using the correct one in your head, you can't guarantee that your fingers' muscle memory won't get in the way.

After a particularly exhausting week working with MySQL, I lost the ability to type the word "myself." As soon as I start typing "my", the fingers take over and quickly spit out "mysql".

It's infuriating!