[masaegu]

Originally Posted by KyleGoetz

Well, it's been a few months since my last question! I recently was able to visit a Japanese bookstore near Chicago and bought an essay book by Murakami! I'm now reading through a short essay called "CAN YOU SPEAK ENGLISH?" and translating it to English.

Now I'm stuck at this sentence:

I understand the pieces separately, but I'm having difficulty fitting them together into a cogent sentence.

ところが
However,

世の中の多くの人は〜ように見える。
It seems as though, for many people in society, ~

外国語会話というのを後天的に身につけることのできる 純粋な技術として
as a genuine skill of being able to acquire foreign language conversation [ability after birth/a posteriori]

捉えて
perceive/grasp

考えている。
consider/think about

But I can't figure out how to incorporate the 捉えて考えている into the rest of my translation to fit it together.

Help?

Thanks!

"(They) seem to think of 外国語会話 on the (false) perception that it is a 後天的に身につけることのできる純粋な技術", if this helps your understanding.