Quote Originally Posted by Maciamo View Post
That's quite natural ! Most Dutch people born and raised in the Netherlands speak English very well, some almost like native speakers, without having lived in an English speaking country. Dutch is the closest language to Old and Middle English, that explains a lot !
Just on this forum I have noticed a lot of US-born Americans who do not master English very well - less well than many Northern Europeans who have English as their 2nd or 3rd language.
That doesn't really explain anything. Old and Middle English are about as far removed from modern English as Normandy French.