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If I hear "Spanish is easy" ONE more time | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| dolly Senior Member United States Joined 5789 days ago 191 posts - 376 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Latin | Message 1 of 137 29 May 2010 at 9:08pm | IP Logged | |||||
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God only knows the number of people who picked Spanish because they've heard it's easy, and then they face the Hydra with 2,000 heads: irregular verbs.
"Easy" is usually meant as "easier than", and French is usually the other language in the comparison. But this is debatable. In Spanish, dropping the subject pronoun means that you have to memorize verb conjugations. But in French the subject pronoun is rarely dropped (even in informal speech), and French has fewer verb tenses than Spanish. My complaint here is about using the word "easy" at all. Language learning is TOIL. There are enjoyable moments along the way, but that is the satisfaction of accomplishing something difficult. More difficult/Less difficult would be a more realistic scale to use, and beginners wouldn't be led down a garden path. Edited by dolly on 29 May 2010 at 9:35pm 17 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vikramkr Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6068 days ago 248 posts - 326 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese | Message 2 of 137 29 May 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I agree that it's uncalled for to call Spanish an 'easy' language, especially when the people calling it such are monolingual. However, I feel that it is easier for an Anglophone to learn Spanish, than it is for (s)he to learn French.
Additionally, it's interesting how people often forget that Dutch and Scandinavian languages may indeed be easier for them than Spanish, if their goal is to learn the 'easiest' language. Edited by vikramkr on 29 May 2010 at 9:16pm 6 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| chucknorrisman Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5447 days ago 321 posts - 435 votes Speaks: Korean*, English, Spanish Studies: Russian, Mandarin, Lithuanian, French | Message 3 of 137 29 May 2010 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Shouldn't French be easier for Anglophones? Pronunciation is a bit more difficult and spelling is kind of irregular, but I feel like French should be easier because of, as dolly said, fewer verb tenses, fewer things to memorize, and plus it was French that English borrowed heavily from.
Maybe I'm biased because I already know Spanish, though. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| vikramkr Diglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6068 days ago 248 posts - 326 votes Speaks: English*, Portuguese | Message 4 of 137 29 May 2010 at 9:35pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I see your point, and it is hard for me to conclusively decide which language is easier. But all I know is that the kids in my school who learned French often pronounced the language in a manner which made me shudder...
3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Kinan Diglot Senior Member Syrian Arab Republic Joined 5565 days ago 234 posts - 279 votes Speaks: Arabic (Written)*, English Studies: Russian, Spanish | Message 5 of 137 29 May 2010 at 10:01pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Well, I chose to learn Spanish because i love it and i like how it sounds, not because it's easy.
But to state the facts, I know Arabic and Russian as they are my native languages, and then learned English "accidentally", so compared to those, I find Spanish is much easier, even easier than English, but also not easy enough to be called easy language. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| frenkeld Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6942 days ago 2042 posts - 2719 votes Speaks: Russian*, English Studies: German | Message 6 of 137 30 May 2010 at 2:24am | IP Logged | |||||
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For a speaker of English, it is easier to make rapid initial progress in Spanish than in any other common West European language, so it is "easy" in that sense.
This advantage does not persist beyond the intermediate stage. 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| LtM Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5859 days ago 130 posts - 223 votes Speaks: English*, French, Spanish Studies: German | Message 7 of 137 30 May 2010 at 3:36am | IP Logged | |||||
Thank you, dolly, for expressing my sentiments exactly (and for your wonderful title for this thread!). I can't count how many times people (monolingual every last one) have told me that "Oh, Spanish is eeeeasy!" Sure, learning greetings and tourist phrases may be a piece of cake, but no language is easy for an adult to learn to an -advanced- level. Conquering the grammar, acquiring a substantial vocabulary, and developing the ability to carry on a rapid-fire conversation with a native speaker takes a huge amount of time, work, and practice, no matter what the language is. Edited by LtM on 30 May 2010 at 3:37am 9 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Wise owl chick Senior Member Ecuador Joined 5317 days ago 122 posts - 137 votes Studies: English | Message 8 of 137 30 May 2010 at 12:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
In French you must know the verb conjugations also. Are you sure that French has fewer verb tenses? I thought that it's the inverse, excepted the prgressive, which Spanish has but French not.
Maybe it's easy to read a text, for example, but for sure to learn very well a foreign language's never easy. But, for the English-speakers, Spanish (or French) is easier as Arabic, Georgian or Russian. I agree that Dutch or the Scandinavian languages would be the easiest, but those are not as immediately transparent because of the orhtography and the English's vocabs which are spelled like in Spanish or French. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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