Originally Posted by Galtar
Perhaps you should rewrite this sentence as such. While attending school I spent a significant amount of time studying English and it's proper grammar, however my native language is not English.
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I think the poster after you critiqued your rewrite of the OP's sentence rather nicely. However I will bring up a couple of points that I have noticed as an ESL teacher:
English does not have "Language rules" rather "guidelines" (they are called "Rules" however as you will read, they are more like "guidelines"). This is evident in the words it's and its: Normally, to show a possessive in English, you add the suffix 's to a word, however "its" is an exception to the guidelines. In the case of it's, normally be expected to be a possessive; however, "it's" is a contraction of the words it and is. So it+is=it's. Thus the possessive of it is written without the '. English is a minefield that is full of exceptions to the guidelines like "its".
The various exceptions to the guidelines makes English even more difficult to learn for non English speakers. In addition, English borrows many words from other languages. Those words often retain the rules of their parent language. This further confuses ESL students.
English itself is a hybrid language of several Germanic, Celtic and Nordic languages with a later infusion of Norman French and Latin (via French). Later during the Renaissance, additional words where imported from Latin and Greek. Finally in modern times, heavy immigration to the United States (1800s-present), the United Kingdom (1900s-present) and Australia (1800s-present) have additional words to English as a whole and to each country's branch of English. All these additions only add to the complexity of the language.
Another thing to remember about English that has been brought up in the thread a few times, is English is not a monolithic language. English is the second largest language (only Chinese is larger and Chinese is not a monolithic language either) by population and geographically is the most widespread language spoken on Earth. With the wide geographical spread of English and the isolation of many English speaking countries, a number of English branches have arisen. Thus what may be consider "proper" grammar and spelling in one branch of English may be different in another branch of English.
The major branches of English:
- British - British Isles, taught in many European schools, has a number of regional dialects. The "Queen's English". Has influenced the English of many countries that made up the former British Empire.
- American - Taught in American (both in the US and overseas) schools, has a number of regional dialects. Heavily influenced by languages imported by immigrants in 1800s, additional words contributed by Native American languages and later Asian languages.
- Canadian - Canada, hybrid of British and American English
- Australian - Australia, New Zealand is a close cousin, influenced by immigrants and Aboriginal languages.
- Indian - India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, influenced by the plethora of languages spoken on the Indian subcontinent.
- South African - Cousin of British, influenced by Dutch (Afrikaans) and other languages
There are other, smaller English branches that I have not listed here.