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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| patuco Diglot Moderator Gibraltar Joined 7016 days ago 3795 posts - 4268 votes  Speaks: Spanish, English* Personal Language Map | Message 41 of 54 11 October 2006 at 4:10pm | IP Logged | ||
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Why not use 1 to 10 rather than 1 to 5 with half values?
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| unlocked87 Groupie United States Joined 6621 days ago 42 posts - 44 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Spanish, Japanese | Message 42 of 54 11 October 2006 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Am i the only one that thinks that German is easier to learn than Spanish for native English speakers?
German and English are both Germanic languages after all. Dutch and Swedish are even easier from what I've seen while "tasting" languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kronos77 Groupie United States Joined 6740 days ago 78 posts - 81 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 43 of 54 11 October 2006 at 10:17pm | IP Logged | ||
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Am i the only one that thinks that German is easier to learn than Spanish
for native English speakers? NO. I'm with you on that. Dutch is great language for an English speaking person who lacks confidnce in their language learning ability. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 44 of 54 11 October 2006 at 10:59pm | IP Logged | ||
Let's just say that yours is a minority viewpoint. According to Foreign Service Institute estimates, German takes more hours than Spanish. Edited by frenkeld on 12 October 2006 at 12:43am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Alijsh Tetraglot Senior Member Iran jahanshiri.ir/ Joined 6623 days ago 149 posts - 167 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Persian*, Spanish, French, English Studies: German, Italian | Message 45 of 54 11 October 2006 at 11:01pm | IP Logged | ||
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How do you say that?!!
German has 4 cases; noun, article and adjective declension. They are not found in Spanish. also German has one more gender than Spanish and learning genders is harder in German. In German, making plural is classified in 8 groups whereas in Spanish you simply add (e)s to make plural. The majority of German prepositions change the case of sentence. So German seems to be harder for an English speaker, not speaking about the speakers of many other languages. Edited by Alijsh on 12 October 2006 at 3:11am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lengua Senior Member United States polyglottery.wordpre Joined 6685 days ago 549 posts - 595 votes Studies: French, Italian, Spanish, German | Message 46 of 54 11 October 2006 at 11:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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Hmm...German v. Spanish.
Pronunciation: Spanish. The only potential difficulty is the rolling R. Orthography: Spanish. Hands down, next question. Grammar: Spanish. 2 v. 3 noun genders, similar tenses to English, easy plurals, optional pronouns, etc. I don't think I need to mention V2. Vocabulary: Spanish. Plenty of cognates in both, but the ones in Spanish are easier to recognize. In German, you've got consonant shifts and pronunciation to wade through. In Spanish, you've got Latin as a common well. Out of the two, I wholeheartedly see Spanish as the easier language for a native English speaker. English is a Germanic language, but it owes about as much of its roots to things of Romanic origin. These are some of the reasons why Esperanto and other artificial languages look more like Spanish or English than they do German. At the moment, I'm working through the Michel Thomas German course, and it is a different beast from the French course. I consider French to be slightly more challenging than Spanish. Right from the beginning, he had to spend a little time explaining different 'quirks' of the language, a la the consonant shifts, the second verb movement, and so forth. With French, he just started. In the French, Spanish, and Italian courses, one of the first things he does is to give students an idea of how transmutable the vocabulary is among the four languages (the three, and English). He shows how simple suffixes can give you a base vocabulary of thousands of new words. He does not do that with German - and how could he? It is impossible to directly convert English words into German ones simply by adding "mente" or other such suffixes to them. This alone offers an insight into the inherent differences between the popular Romanic languages and the popular Germanic ones. That said, I do not believe either language is 'difficult' for an English speaker, as far as languages go - but if I were to advise someone of neutral opinion which language to start first, I would recommend Spanish as a confidence booster before moving on to German...particularly if it were his/her first language. Of course, if there were a clear preference between the two, I would suggest following the heart, and not the 'comparison of difficulty' chart. Edited by lengua on 11 October 2006 at 11:25pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kronos77 Groupie United States Joined 6740 days ago 78 posts - 81 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Russian, Dutch, Mandarin | Message 47 of 54 11 October 2006 at 11:47pm | IP Logged | ||
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The only thing harder about German is the unfamiliarity of the case system.
Once you clear that hurdle, it isn't very difficult for an English speaker. Our spoken language, which is what we know best and use the most, is rooted more in Anglo Saxon than our written language. Also, German syntax is like 17th century English. Just watch one of those movies about the Pilgrims and you'll get the hang of it. No doubt, for me, as a native English speaker, Germanic languages are easier than Romance languages. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6944 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 48 of 54 12 October 2006 at 12:19am | IP Logged | ||
If one is to believe the FSI data, that little hurdle seems to require 150+ hours. Here is the table: http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectation s.html So, it is harder, although probably not enough to stop someone who wants to learn German instead of French. Edited by frenkeld on 12 October 2006 at 12:45am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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