Regarding the past tense as present, what’s the problem? It’s a narrative. One time long ago, I was in the Army (flashback type of transition on the screen): I go to my sergeant, and I tell him, “hey dude, you suck!” He gets angry, so he tells me, “You can’t speak like that to me! Drop and give me 20 [pushups]!”
Other languages do have the same problem, at least in Spanish. Most of the problems I see are spelling, though. I’m not the best Spanish speller, but I usually know when to use “b” or “v,” at least on the simple words. The more illiterate Mexicans (in my experience, they’re Mexicans) don’t distinguish.
They also invent words: “lamber” instead of “lamer.” But that could be pronuciation; I don’t really know if they try writing like that.
Whenever I hear someone say “seen” instead of “saw,” I just think they never passed third grade. On the other hand, I work with engineers (invariably black), that despite all they know, still say “axed” instead of asked. These are people that presumably achieved at least four years of college education.