OT: ESOL

My particular least favorite non-primary-language usage item is the tendency of (I think primarily) German-speakers -- I assume it's based on that language's grammar -- to say "since $DURATION", as opposed to the English-standard "since $TIMESTAMP"; you might hear "since a couple weeks" instead of "since last month".

Since it's often the case that this sounds like a simple missing "ago", I tend to have Garden Path Syndrome reactions to it, waiting for that "ago" while I barge forwards into an entire new sentence.