#dream!tale

Little bit of extra information. Why I think I have some weight in this conversation.

I have the ability analyze learning English in multiple age groups, from learning it as a kid, to a teen to an adult. These stages have completely different results and challenges unique to them.

I went from Spanish to English. I speak rioplantense Spanish but everything should still apply.

Assumptions

Yes Dream does canonically speak in very simply language but I am pretty sure it's a "not to confuse” decision, and the fact he is very young?

Dreamtale was a spanish only AU, meaning till Dream gets out of Dreamtale, he knows no English.

Dream left Dreamtale at 14-15, joined the MV at 15-16. This is important.

This would be set around 5-7 years after he started learning English

Most of the AU's dream visits communicate in English.

Dream communicates frequently with multiple different dialects, but cannot sit down and learn.

Main components of fluency in language discussed will be listening, speaking, and reading/writing.

He can read and write in Spanish

Age, Language Learning, and differing experiences

Short and easy, age affects how easily you learn languages. Learning the actual rules becomes harder as you age. Your speaking becomes accented with your mother tongue after a certain age (mostly 12 and 13).

Everyone has a different experience, my experience and how I learned and saw other people deal with learning English might be completely different to another person and might not even apply, so proceed caution.

Listening

This is first because it is the easiest to analyze for me even without considering age groups. Dream would be able to understand spoken English well. Age doesn't really matter as much here, even if you learned it later.

Assuming Dream has consistent conversations in English with multiple, consistently, he would have no problem gathering information from conversations. Even if you learned the language later in life and don't consistently use it, listening is much easier to cultivate (my main reason for thinking this is because generally, in my immigrant family, English comprehension is never a problem)

This is the shortest section because it doesn't change much. Main thing would be just not knowing somethings, but after 5 years of decently consistent use, listening comprehension would be near a native level. He would miss a lot of the metaphor stuff unless it's pointed out to him, might mishear some stuff but not anything severe

Speaking

This one is kind of hard. There are so many different possibilities and outside factors that affect this, but I will give the 2 main ways I see it

He would either 1) speak near fluently with a moderately prominent spanish accent or 2) Be able to communicate well but would struggle in certain areas, speaking with a prominent Spanish accent

1

Dream would most likely be here in speaking. Being 15-16 means he is catching the language well, he knows how to conjugate verbs correctly (not really the why but just knows it sounds right), his sentences would make sense, his speaking like 90% of the time is dandy, maybe slips sometimes or forgets words but all good. But because he is in his mid/late teens his accent is there, it doesn't interfere with communication but it's there. I would recommend listening to exchange students speaking English, their Spanish accent is predominant even if they learned it earlier.

Dream might struggle with some expressions, might even struggle to express himself in some instances (I still do, my vocabulary extends in so many directions just not self expression) but regular day to day he is fine.

2

This is most prominent (in my experience) in people who learned English later on in life or have not consistnet exposure to it. Their vocabulary is fine, maybe a little bit limited, but they find it hard to express themselves. This mostly comes down to the type of language English isn't.

70% of all English words are borrowed from romance languages. This means most vocabulary words would be easy to understand or learn, main issue is grammar. English grammar is germanic, completely different set of rules.

Dream under this scenario could possible wrongly conjugate verbs, structure sentences differently (I don't remember exactly but spanish places verbs and nouns in different orders if I'm correct), and might speak in fragments, and might accidently use spanish instead of English. This of course wouldn't be as severe as time goes on but for the first few years, he would consistently make these type of errors. He can still be understood, the grammar is just off.

Read the fic "An angel in disguise" by Higurasonic if you want to see dialogue I thought handled it excellently. I adored the way Dream speaks.

TLDR

Dream would speak with a mix of dialects because of the fact he travels. I project it with how I speak, I tend to go for both British and American pronunciation for different words

But I'm so near certain he would have a spanish accent when he speaks. His pronunciation would not be quite as sharp as most English speakers. Everything else mentioned is just a matter of opinion.

Reading and Writing

These go hand in hand, but are slightly different.

Reading

I actually don't really know how to analyze this one, I had a very hands on approach with reading (I was forced to read for my own good) so I don't have a good grasp on how dream would learn it...

I would predict dream can read atleast at the very basic level, he can read letters, common books, contracts probably later on. I'm projecting but I struggle with seeing metaphors, sarcasm, and every single literary device and intentional Grammer use, I kind of project that dream would be the same. You have to learn this stuff so early on that if you don't you just end up missing it unless you intentionally look for it.

At what level if reading is Dream? No idea, this depends on how much and what he fancies himself go read in the AU, if he doesn't often he won't be as familiarized than if he did so consistently.

Writing

I think the main thing about writing is that when you learn English, even if you can express yourself, writing as a medium would suffer unless you seat down and studied. I'm going to assume dream didn't sit down for like 6 hours a day studying grammar.

Dream's writing is he would be able to reproduce words because he knows how they look and sound like, but has like 0 grammar facts. He probably isn't great with prefixes, doesn't know what a verb or noun is, and collects commas like it's a challenge. His writing would lack intention, like you can read it, it just won't make sound as fluid. Dream would be able to hypothetically send texts, draft letters, do simple writing, but would heavily struggle with anything academic. Dream just wouldn't have the knowlegde to make the most of his English. Also English isn't the most logical I spelling, so early on dream would definitely misspell a lot of words (spanish is very much write it as it sounds).

TLDR

If dream early on has consistnet access to writing and reading tools he would have problems with sentence structures, spelling, punctuation, and conjugation. It would get better overtime but would still be an underlying issue, in my interpretation, English grammar after a certain while is near impossible to learn, it comes more naturally to others. He would be able to do every day stuff, he would struggle with analyzing texts with more complex language or hidden double meanings

Dream and Illiteracy

I can also see dream being illiterate, reading and Writing is very practice heavy, I am completely assuming he has some sort of method to get practice ocassionally, without that he would never gain the skill. He would be able to recognize words just by how they look but be unable to reproduce or make full sentences on his own, he wouldn't be able to read and pronounce words he doesn't know.

Literacy in one does not net you literacy in the other.

Ending Note

Learning English is such a complicated and varied experience that specifically telling someone that one thing will happen is near impossible.

Dreams story after leaving dreamtale isn't developed enough, or I haven't seen enough of it to really give a solid opinion.

Just remember, this is all based on my personal experience and observations. Different people learn differently and of course I was not the exact age as Dream so this might not be fully accurate.