Language /
Extremely Hard - Polish the hardest language to learn [226]
Protestations to the contrary, one's mother tongue remains one's
mother tongue for the rest of one's life!
Although I've never heard you speak, based solely upon brief
samples of your English posting here on the Forum, there are still
clear, if isolated, examples of first language interference in the way
you express yourself in English, especially when angry, which seems
quite often these days:-)
Above all, you came to the States essentially as an immigrant, not
a visitor, and so ridding your accent as well as trying to linguistically
adapt at leisure to the cultural nuances of American English
and the like, were probably the last things on your young mind.
A language is much like an iceberg. It seems normal on the surface,
yet beneath the ice, there's a hard chunk below the water.
Maybe you spent hours just watching American TV for as long as
possible. That doesn't necessarily mean that you absorbed the language
like a native speaker. There're always bound to be gaps and holes.
Hate to burst your bubble.