Yeah but, once you memorize them, the metaphors are pervasive and follow common patterns. I think having a similarly-metaphorical language helps taking cues fro

Yeah but, once you memorize them, the metaphors are pervasive and follow common patterns. I think having a similarly-metaphorical language helps taking cues from context. I haven't seen it taking ten years or so to memorize them. Phrasal verbs on the other hand? A nightmare! I've been speaking English "fluently" for more than 15 years and I still struggle with them. There's definitely some overlap of metaphors in western languages though, and English culture influence over western media helps establishing those metaphors too (we don't use "blue" as "sad" in our language, but it's not hard for us to relate to it since it's in so many songs).