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Before going on holiday have you ever tried to learn a few French or Italian lessons to make your travels more easier, only to find the nuances of language can lead you in another direction? Well, you are not alone. An English language specialist has discovered that other foreign languages possess a myriad of complexities to master, more difficult it seems, when compared to reading and writing plain English. Michelle Sheehan from Anglia Ruskin University shares her insights into linguistics and why being able to read and write in more than one language might be a struggle for English speakers. Most of our foreign counterparts are fluent in three or more languages and will never end up catching the wrong train, plane, bus or ferry. But this is not such a disaster, I've met some of the best people by making this mistake when on holiday.     

Michelle Sheehan explains why learning a foreign language is so difficult in her excellent article - Five Reasons English speakers struggle to learn foreign languages - published by The Conversation.