Yeah, I lived in Japan until 12 years ago -- I moved to Texas when I was 31 years old. So, English is my second language in every sense. And DJ, the person who "badmouthed" about the metric system was Alan, not Ian.
And yes, Peter, articles are a nightmare for me; the Japanese language has no article. No concept of articles, period. You don't really "count" -- our oldest daughter was 4 when we moved to the US, and her primary language is, by all means, English (100% native). She also speaks in Japanese fluently without any "foreign" accents, but it is definitely her secondary language.
