What is something you take so much for granted that you don't realize other people struggle for it?

As you know, I’m an English teacher and an active user here. Not to mention I have a love for English movies and books. This means that I have to use English everyday. For a long time I assumed that there was no way anyone who has to use English as part of their job could forget English. That was until a friend of mine approached me and asked me to help teach her English because she felt that her English skills were failing. She was also an English teacher like me, and she said the reason why her English was failing was because she spent too much time around small children that she forgot the more advance usage of English.

Since then there has been other similar incidents, but I didn’t think much about it, until when I had a chat with another friend. She is currently living in a foreign country, and she complained that her knowledge of English is failing and her dream of opening an English center is dying because she doesn’t have an opportunity to practice English in that country. This came from a person who scored above average in IELTS.

This was when it finally dawned on me that my English skill isn’t something easy to come by at all. I had been using English for so long that I just came to assume that anyone could do the same thing I did. I never thought some people are actually struggling to remember English. That really makes me appreciate the kind of work I do to maintain my skill that I typically just overlook, and the time I spend here on Fluther.

Do you have a similar story?

My friend also advised me to find older students to teach because she is worried that I would forget my English if I just stay around with small children. If only she knew what I do on the Internet :D