Language issues

Since our adventures in Aruba I have realised a somewhat odd experience.

I find myself very good at the english language. I always scored top on most of the tests I did in school.

But my english is mostly learned by the books. I havent used my knowledge of english for speaking it much.

In Aruba I came to realise that it is mostly the other way around over there. Many of the locals has not learned english by the books. Still they are good at understanding and speaking it.

This is obviously because they had to learn it in order to serve the tourists well. You simply need to be able to understand what they say.

But writing english is not as important for them. And therefore they never really learned it. The spelling is mostly hearsay.

Meaning that they often spell the words exactly like they sound.

In most cases that makes no difference to me. I still understand the meaning, even if I sometimes have to think twice...

I did experience a language issue yesterday though, my misunderstanding was grave, and it could have ended badly.

It still can, but I think that I might have been able to save the situation somewhat.

Sorry for that. Im not flawless. I am a man.