Tom Claverie asked Timothy Robbins:

I had to learn Dutch as a second language and I still don't have it down yet. After 22 years! What do you think is the hardest thing to get across to non-native speakers of English? Also how do you handle idioms? I think these are very useful to know.

Timothy Robbins My students are adults, so mastery of the aspects of English phonology that differ from the phonologies of their native languages is hard, if not impossible. Phrasal verbs are also daunting. Idioms can be a lot of fun because they're often vivid and because students like to share idioms from their own languages, which makes for lively discussion. Example: students have taught me that "when pigs fly" in English, "mules have babies" in Spanish and "crawfish whistle on the hill" in Russian.

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