Жопожуй Конидзэ
Okay, you got me. I've read Chaucer in the original and barely understood it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I read Chaucer in Russian as a teenager, got disgusted with cheating skanks, and never bothered reading it in English even when my English became fluent. But my English is about as fluent as linguistically untalented person's can be. Heck, I bloody well think in English most of the time (then translate into russian when posting here). And I'm equally unable to say the "seashells" tongue-twister in English and "Sasha po shosse" in Russian :)

Ublyudok, mat' tvoyu, a nu idi syuda, govno sobach'e! A? Sduru reshil ko mne lezt'?! Ty, zasranec vonyuchij, mat' tvoyu, a? Nu, idi syuda, poprobuj menya trahnut', ya tebya sam trahnu, ublyudok, onanist chertov, bud' ty proklyat! Idi, idiot, trahat' tebya i vsyu tvoyu sem'yu, govno sobach'e, zhlob vonyuchij, der'mo, suka, padla! Idi syuda, merzavec, negodyaj, gad, idi syuda, ty, govno, ZHOPA!

"To read and understand" doesn't mean to be a fluent speaker. I don't catch American accent at all. I can understand Manchester folks and even Highlanders, but US news without subtitles blow my mind.

Never said it does. The poll assumes people would vote with their proficiency level in mind.

Жопожуй Конидзэ
So what does "Chaucer" mean? Being Chaucer, reading Chaucer, speaking like Chaucer...

flamarina
Being into Chaucer English enough to read it in the original and understand most of it.

Жопожуй Конидзэ
So it's definitely not about "fluent SPEAKERS".

Books by Chaucer, by the way, are often read in the official translation to modern English (by Penguin).
Middle English is not English, like Old Church Slavonic is not Russian :-)

flamarina
It was about how deep one's diving into English. The "fluent" option is actually "A piece of cake". "Chaucer" is just for English geeks.

Жопожуй Конидзэ
So I'm officially non-geek creation. But... I've read Macbeth and even found rhythm... so forget it! I'm a geek.

flamarina
You may be a geek, but not geek enough for Chaucer :]

No worries, sane people are never Chaucer-level geeks.

Жопожуй Конидзэ
Being sane is rather boring experience...

To each their own. I personally prefer boring at this point.

Jedem das Seine?

I'm rather sure, that "каждому своё" is not translated that way...

flamarina
IIRC, this is an English idiom. I even googled it just now - seems legit.

Жопожуй Конидзэ
Wow, they have their own nazi-sounding idiom, almost congruent to classics. I'm rather surprised.

flamarina
Wut. This is not a nazi idiom.

I mean, it means a different thing. It's about preferences, not entitlement.

Ok, ok. Let's believe :-)

p.s. OMG, I so seldom quarrel in English. So refreshing!