No. I am not comparing the foreign lagnauge ability of all taiwanese to that of all americans. If I were, the taiwanese would come out way ahead as i suspect would every country ni the world.
WHILE most americans do not apply themselves seriously to studying a foreign language, WHEN THEY DO they usually succeed in being able to communicate. ALMOST ALL Taiwanese "study" english and work very hard at "studying" English, and despite years of grinding effort and strong desire to learn, usually fail. I suggest that this extremely high rate of failure can be ascribed to the incredible sucktastickness of ESL programs in taiwanese schools.
The fury of mighty yoshie descends upon my poor head for this. ::shrug::
By the way, I agree with your point below that women have an edge over men in learning foreign languages. Every teacher knows this but it's not something one is supposed to say ^_^
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