Language Barriers - EFL 

Well, lets start with the facts of my English knowledge.

I learned:

• 3 years in Primary school
• 4 years in Secondray School (unfortunately I had to start over from the beginning after primary school) - And I always received "A" Grade at the end of the educational year
• watched over 1000 movies in English, with English or Hungarian subtitles
• watched over 800 american TV series episodes in English
• Worked in English speaking enviroment for 5 and a half years, also lived in english speaking enviroment
• watching TV, listening radion in English, having English speaking friends

BUT STILL I DO NOT UNDERSTAND THEM :-)

It is unbelievable how accents can change this language. English is now full of slang words, which with this terrible Northern pronounciation makes impossible to understand. For me Scottish English is sometimes easier to understand than this Manchester/Liverpool mixup. My life is a struggle on a daily basis with understanding. Of course I am not talking about shopping, or buying ticket for the bus, or reading anything in the newspaper, as these are going well. However during work, sometimes I just sit, listen and don't understand a fcking word from a conversation between my colleagues. Isn't it annoying?

Imagine on a weekly basis I have conference calls between our Manchester and Glasgow offices. (Lots of funny scottsmen) Conference room. 12 people in it from Manchester side. Other 6 people from Glasgow over the phone. And the official telecom discussion. I understand the people over here as this is plain technical language, but through the phone the scottish people speaks a different language for me. :-) Over the phone the language is always harder to understand I know, but still it is after these years?

Why are all of these years for then? Of course everybody assures me, my English is good, but still, I was expecting something much better after these years. Kinda frustrating feeling. To Make this post, I can not deny, a news was giving me mood. A news that one of my friend just recently went to the US, where she says after a couple months, she speaks fluently (which is hardly believable, but anyway), and UNDERSTANDS everything.

For me, after watching so many american movies, the american English is more understandable than British English, however still if I am watching the news, when some american average people speaks, I still have problems not understanding them 100% sometimes. For the truth, I have an american colleague, which I understand almost completely, and sometimes I am jelous, as he understands all of my other english colleagues :-).

In understanding I am going for perfection. I want to understand written-spoken English fully. That is an important reason of me being here amongst many others.  I am still not there, however I have improved a lot in the last 5 years, but still not enough. My writing has already received its critics, regarding my grammar, and believe me, I am working on it to improve.

As I don't find myself a person who has problems with learning languages, I have to say, my friend was exaggerating when she said, she understood everybody, and everything.

General wondering: How long does it take to learn a language properly? 10-20 years? Language schools are offering their courses 4-6-8 weeks, 2-3-9-12 months for what? To speak a hungarian called "kitchen english"? :-) To understand and express the basics?

This is my second time in the UK, and I can say, I can live my life here without any major language problem. (I deal all of my stuff easily) However I still have some percent of knowledge I am missing out, and this drives me crazy :-)

This is disappointing. But anyway, I still have good chance to be even better than this by living here, and this is a treasure chest to keep.