bxcnch

Okay, I think (and hope) that this is completely unnecessary and I am just being paranoid, but, just in case, I want to apologise in advance for every time that I might come across as obnoxious or annoying in the forums.

In the internet there is of course always that risk that you are seen in a different way than you intended to. Jokes sound like mockery, compliments sound condescending, lack of compliments sounds dismissive etc. 

English isn't my first language. I think I understand the grammar and the spelling quite well, most of the time and I even understand how to use 'some' and any 'correctly' (intuitively even, you probably haven't got some idea how difficult that is distinction can be). What I really cannot and probably never will be able to do is understanding the less apparent apects and connotations though. I know that there's a difference between 'acquire' and 'get' even though the meaning is basically the same, but what about 'obtain' for example? I have seen people use 'sir' to refer to each other in casual conversation, which really confuses me. All of these things are really important, but a lot of that is too subtle for me. 

Everytime I finished a post I re-read it and get the impression that to a native speaker what I wrote probably sounds like completely incoherent, crazed, unrespectful rambling of a guy who tries to sound way smarter than he is. This probably is just paranoia on my part, and I never got any warning or anything, but just in case I just want to state that I still am pretty new to this site and have a lot of respect for all the other people around here, most of which are much more knowledgeable than me - even when I disagree with them.