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My language is the most difficult | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Philological Room |  | |
| Shusaku Senior Member United States Joined 7100 days ago 145 posts - 157 votes  1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese | Message 9 of 67 10 August 2005 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
True. There are very, very few people who (as adults) learn to speak good idiomatic English to a near-native speaker standard. But I suspect this is the case for most other languages too. It has been said that English does have an enormous amount of vocabulary, much of it of foreign origin, with many similar words that only differ in very subtle ways. I wonder if this aspect makes it any more difficult than other languages? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Giordano Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 7174 days ago 213 posts - 218 votes 3 sounds Speaks: English*, Italian*, French Studies: Cantonese, Greek | Message 10 of 67 10 August 2005 at 8:50pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think the imagined difficulty of one's native language comes from never really knowing how it works.
When you learn another language, you are prepared to actually learn it. Our native tongue, we expect to be imbued in us from birth. Of course, it isn't. We learn it like we learn any other language, although the task may be easier in infancy. Native speakers are hardly ever really thoroughly explained grammar and the various rules and systems our language follows. Because it remains foggy or mysterious for many speakers, they get the impression that their language must somehow be very difficult. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7238 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog | Message 11 of 67 11 August 2005 at 8:08pm | IP Logged | ||
Yes, I seem to have fallen in that gap. Born 20 years earlier or 20 years later, I would have learned Hungarian from my grandfather. I feel robbed. :( 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| epingchris Triglot Senior Member Taiwan shih-chuan.blog.ntu. Joined 7028 days ago 273 posts - 284 votes 5 sounds Studies: Taiwanese, Mandarin*, English, FrenchB2 Studies: Japanese, German, Turkish | Message 12 of 67 07 September 2005 at 6:43am | IP Logged | ||
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We learn our native tongue and foreign languages in different ways: we learned our native tongue almost completely by immersion, mimicking, influences of the environment. With foreign languages, it's often true that we don't start off by these methods, but rather by listening to tapes, reading texts, learning phrases, grammars, vocabulary independently.
I think only one, and one incredibly awfully hard aspect of English is the spelling. I have learnt English for at least six years, and French one year, but I can guess how to pronounce French words that I've never seen before better than English words, even though how to write properly in French is tricky...... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| KingM Triglot Senior Member michaelwallaceauthor Joined 7191 days ago 275 posts - 300 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Russian | Message 13 of 67 09 September 2005 at 9:09am | IP Logged | ||
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One reason that we might overestimate the difficulty of our own language is that we've heard so many foreigners speaking it badly.
Addressing English specifically, I'm a native English speaker and a professionally published writer, yet my Spanish spelling is superior to my English. Spelling in English is a bear, no question about it. Also, there are sounds that are difficult for foreign speakers to reproduce. The 'r' in particular (and especially the American version of same) gives many people a lot of difficulty. On the other hand, the sheer volume of English resources provides a tremendous advantage. You should never lack for language input, nor people with whom to practice. English grammar is also much, much easier than that of most other European languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tuffy Triglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 7034 days ago 1394 posts - 1412 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, German Studies: Spanish | Message 14 of 67 27 September 2005 at 8:55am | IP Logged | ||
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I sometimes get a little frustrated when people tell me "Spanish is easy". Sometimes those people don't even speak the language themselfs. As a newbie I can only say it's not easy, maybe easier than French but it still takes a lot of hard work every day. To me English and German are easier but that's also because I'm surrounded by these languages. I gues that also plays a role. Edited by tuffy on 27 September 2005 at 8:55am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cheemaster Newbie Canada Joined 7045 days ago 35 posts - 35 votes | Message 15 of 67 27 September 2005 at 6:25pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is also possible that people wish to believe that their language is harder than it really is, to fulfill their high egos. This may be moreso true for monolingualists than those who speak multiple languages. However, I think that the reasons already stated would play a more significant role in such misled beliefs.
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| dadafeig Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6986 days ago 82 posts - 83 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Dutch | Message 16 of 67 11 October 2005 at 4:50pm | IP Logged | ||
Sure Spanish takes a lot of hard workd to learn but doesn't every language? To me Spanish has been easier to learn than German has. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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