I’m pretty sure that’s not what **Annie-Xmas **is talking about. I think she’s referring to something I have seen , where a customer who doesn’t speak enough English gets angry/annoyed that a store clerk doesn’t speak their language. I’ve even had people stop me on the street and ask me something ( I assume directions or where the train/bus is) and get annoyed that I don’t understand them . It’s the reverse of the stereotypical American who goes to a foreign country and gets annoyed that the waiter/store employee doesn’t speak English.
I bring
thou bringest
he bringeth
…and the imperative would be “bring thou forth…”. Or something; presumably whoever is learning English by reading old Bibles and Chaucer would get it straight.
Okaaaay, I’ll amend it to “bringest thou”; "“bring thou” just isn’t whacky enough.
Remind me not to invite you guys to my first standup gig… “Hey, watch yo’ declension, Bozo!” “Yo, the Conditional Tense called, she wonders why you’re ignoring her!” “Do you even lift a thesaurus?”
Chaucer is older yet, and someone reading a Bible in his English (Middle English) would be reading the Wycliffe Bible, with passages such as:
Saint James???
They may well have used the Douai-Rheims version or Douai-Rheims-Challoner version, both of which can be criticised for being excessively Latinate (they used the Vulgate as their source with some cross-fertilisation from the Authorised Version)
There are a ton of variables here.
If you learn any language to some degree of use then subsequent languages are easier, regardless of the age you are. There will most likely be a definite difference between someone learning their first additional language in their 50’s and someone learning a 3rd, 4th, nth language in their fifties.
Even if you don’t study a language, hearing it in the background from a young age should make picking it up easier because you’re used to the sounds and rhythms of it, and maybe picked up a few words/phrases without being conscious of doing so.
And there is considerable difference between individuals - some people really do have more facility with language than others, whether you’re talking about a native tongue or an additional one.
This. So much this. Most people just aren’t willing to put in the work, either because they have unrealistic expectations or other commitments (such as survival) that take priority.
Fortunately, I speak Esperanto. 
Bela lugosi! (Read the last one.)
I’ve spent some time with teen-agers. Even teen-agers don’t speak English as well as 25 yo’s. It takes something like 18 years full time study to learn English to an adult level.
No reason to expect that Spanish or Mandarin would be easier.
Thank you to everyone for your replies. It’s given me new insight, understanding and respect for my grandparents not speaking English.
I suspect one of the reasons that it’s easier to learn new languages when you’re young is because of facial muscle memory and smaller vocabulary. Also tones. People think I’m crazy for wanting to learn Cantonese with it’s 8 (and up to 16 or more depending on region) tones. Like many people, I can understand many more foreign words than I can properly pronounce.
Some of my proudest moments were when I’d visit Chinese video stores and ask for movies featuring my favorite actors and actresses. I’ve been praised for proper pronunciation, but have been asked, “Why do you speak with a Hong Kong accent?” 
I explained it was because I learned to pronounce their names through Hong Kong award shows. 
Besides the refugee thing, maybe you care about the geography/environment/cost of living?
Or you were offered a job which opened a lot of professional doors. You may have even been offered a job in an “up or out” kind of situation; it’s not so much that the gig opens doors, as that not taking it will slam them in your face. If part of a certain organization that’s particularly famous for that expression, your job won’t just mainly be in your language: it often comes with a whole enclave of people who work for the same organization including housing, food and medical facilities, etc. Depending on the location, your family will be there with you, and have access to schools and grocery stores within the complex itself.
Re: my comment about mass - I readily acknowledge that parts of the liturgy might be in archaic language, but I’d imagine other parts would be in modern-day English. Of course, a large part of church-going is community, and non-native speakers likely appreciate being part of that community speaking their native language.
I was just trying as hard as I could to identify easy ways my students could get some practice, without adding huge additional tasks. They listen to/watch Spanish language radio/TV, instead of English. I ask them to at least use subtitles while watching movies. I remember one time that drove me nuts. My student had a high school son who played soccer. We ran into a teammate of his son’s who was yakking away in English with his friends. My student starts talking to this kid in Spanish. If he isn’t going to look for instances as available as that to work on his English, right in front of his teacher, then what chance is there that he will do so on his own?
I found it very common for students to ask about specific phrases. For example, if they wanted something from the stockroom at work, they wanted to know how to say it correctly. But that sort of hunt-and-peck accumulation of discrete phrases is really no way to achieve fluency in a language.
Also, many institutions make it easy for people to stay in their native language. I’ve had students say they were automatically placed in Spanish language groups for things like their kids’ school curriculum nights. I know that is well-intentioned, but one of the most basic situations I was able to encourage my students to aspire towards was participating meaningfully in their kids’ school activities.
The students who really want to learn English are a joy to work with. They rapidly progress beyond what I can provide and take ESL language and GED classes at the local community college. They actively seek out opportunities to speak English. IME, they are a tiny minority.
The King James Bible is basically never officially used in the Catholic Church which the original comment referred to. It’s viewed as reflecting Anglican theology, not just having ‘old fashioned flowery language’.
The original comment might have been about English Mass outside the US and there are minor variations in the US. But Catholic Missals in the US take the Bible readings from the New American Bible, Revised Edition, almost always what they are reading out loud. That’s pretty much ‘normal American’, although any Bible translation features particular words relevant to the ancient Mediterranean world and religion that will be relatively less useful in general conversation.
Still, I think church is a good place to practice comprehension in other languages, if you happen to be going anyway, though can hardly be your whole effort. You can read what the lector or priest is about to say, then listen, then later read again. The problem is generally the homily. I follow the readings and prayers well enough in Korean (not my native language, and the Korean Catholic Bible is pretty different than everyday speech) when I go to Korean language mass in our area of NJ or visiting Korea but the priest’s homily (though in everyday Korean), I still only get pieces.
Yeah, learning another language completely as an adult is hard without an extraordinary knack for it, I’m not terrible at it but still hard. Still, English is the American language, and people who move here permanently should really give it a go to learn it as well as possible IMO. I am put off by the attitude of some people I deal with in a business setting, tenants, who don’t seem to think so, Spanish speakers in the US. It’s not a rant, not saying they are the only ones (just the only ones I’ve dealt with), it’s far from all Spanish speaking immigrants. But I don’t agree with that attitude and I do see it sometimes. A single language everyone can speak is highly preferable in a country without a single ethnic identity. And countries which don’t have that for deep historical reasons (Canada, Belgium) don’t make me think it’s good to start now. The answer to this (if not overwrought cries of ‘racist!’) is often that it’s an imaginary concern because American born people learn English. To the extent that remains true, it won’t turn into a big problem.
I was part of the final results publication, not the detail research, but I would expect that if, say, 95% of the culture was common, there would still be the remaining 5% of differences like celebrating Thanksgiving in November rather than October, following US news rather than Canadian, and inability to end a sentence with “eh?”.
I lived 15 years in the Gulf Middle East, I had a rudimentary ability to speak and understand Arabic. Couldn’t read it. Spent 18 months in Italy , not fluent but could get by and understand it. My Belgian cousins are fluent in Dutcch(Flemish) French, German and English. Some of the younger ones also speak Italian. When I’m with them we speak sort of a hybrid of Flemish and English. After wine and or beer were all fluent.
Miami. But those same Augustins did things such as require appointments for Confession (still makes my head hurt to think of it) and berate one of the few Spanish-speaking catechists for wearing a medal of Our Lady of Charity of Copper (aka la Marielita, patron saint of Cuba) then not understand why they couldn’t get Spanish-speaking catechists. “In touch” isn’t what I would call them. We had a Portuguese father there for about a year who was ok with medals and with Hispanic mariology; it’s been 20 years and I expect he’s still missed.