“It strikes me that many of the English speakers who post here in the most awful English are hoping to learn enough Spanish to live in Spain”
It is something which never ceases to amaze me also, but I have learned whilst living in Bulgaria not to judge people by their ability to speak a language. I lived alone when I first arrived and made a few contacts/friends in local cafes whom I judged to be polite and pleasant people. After a year or two my circle broadened and a couple of locals who spoke excellent English asked me what I thought of one or two other people. It appeared that some of those I had originally liked used rather crude and vulgar humour in their own language, a fact confirmed by my now wife when she met a couple of them. I am no professor of linguistics and can only guess that these people were using English they had learned in school or from television , and their ability was no reflection of their personality. In other words perhaps I could not trust my usual instincts and means of judgement ?? It is not entirely relevant to the original posting, but I thought it may be of interest to some of you.
Likewise I have met Brits who cannot form a sentence without at least one f—- somewhere in it, and they seem to be doing alright for themselves living in a foreign country. I think it was dreamer who commented on people having loud conversations thinking they are not understood, and I have certainly witnessed that many times, but I think that some of those people do not care that the f word is almost universally understood thanks to USA films and revolting lyrics in some “music”.
It is not only us English speakers though- as a foreigner I have been discussed several times by people who did not realise that I do not have to be fluent in their language to know the basic outline of what they are saying.