i long-distance dated a girl when we were high school aged who lived in myanmar. (i sadly lost contact with her years ago when i made new social media accs)
she learned english as a little girl and only spoke burmese with her family and at school. however im assuming she didn’t read or write in it that much and most of the time, spoke to me and her online friends (which would be in english).
i remember google translating “hello, how are you?” or something like that and she told me to please not type in Burmese because she couldn’t read it without using Google translate to find out what i wrote in english.
while she can understand spoken burmese as well as speak it herself (she kinda has to living in myanmar), she can’t read it and told me she struggled in school for that reason.
naturally, she preferred english. i also know of people who speak 2 languages but either can’t read/write the one language and only speaks it or has trouble spelling words.
i think i knew a spanish speaker in the us who spelled words like “como te llamas” as “como te yamas” (not as a slang spelling, he was just trying to spell it)
i always used to think that it was odd that my grandfather’s cousin’s english was so good for a mexican, but never questioned it; i found about 2 weeks ago (and almost 35 years after his death) that the was born and raised in los angeles, but was forcibly deported to mexico the last time the united states did mass deportations like they’re doing right now. he lived out the rest of his life in mexico and most of my cousins had no idea, go figure.
that’s so sad 🫂 im so sorry, he did not deserve that
it worked out okay for him in the end since he got married and had children (and grandchildren) and he also got his citizenship back after a couple of decades of trying; but remained in mexico until his death a few years later.