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Why is Spanish singled out as easy lang? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4656 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 9 of 55 24 April 2012 at 2:25pm | IP Logged | ||
I don´t disagree with the FSI classification at all. Compared to the likes of Russian, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Thai, etc. Spanish is much easier to learn and objectively requires less time than and level 4 or level 5 language. However, what I don´t agree with is the popular perception that Spanish is somewhat easier than its neighboring Romance relatives or Germanic languages. I don´t believe Spanish is inherently easier than the other Romance languages. But neither no I think that it is inherently more difficult. So for that reason I don´t think it is fair to single it out as the "easy language". 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5047 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 10 of 55 24 April 2012 at 3:12pm | IP Logged | ||
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Unlike French and Italian, Spanish actually uses all its verbal forms in oral speech, so
one has to learn the difference between all of them. I wouldn't call a language with such a complex verbal system as easy. It has also as all the Romance languages complex pronominal system. Edited by Марк on 29 April 2012 at 10:31am 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Solfrid Cristin Heptaglot Winner TAC 2011 & 2012 Senior Member Norway Joined 5325 days ago 4143 posts - 8864 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, Spanish, Swedish, French, English, German, Italian Studies: Russian | Message 11 of 55 24 April 2012 at 4:23pm | IP Logged | ||
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I doubt that people who call Spanish an easy language have learned it to a high level themselves. In my
opinion Spanish is a language which is very easy in the beginning, but if you want to speak it very well it is quite difficult. Fortunately people here think of Spanish as an exotic language, so I never get those comments. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Quinn Senior Member United States Joined 6314 days ago 134 posts - 186 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French, Italian, Spanish | Message 12 of 55 24 April 2012 at 5:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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I suspect that some people have an unconscious cultural bias against Spanish, because they perceive it as being the language of poor laborers. Of course, there are also many middle class and wealthy people who speak Spanish, but due to political tensions around immigration, the media and political discourse tends to focus on those at the bottom of the social strata. Perhaps there's a flawed logic at work that "if so many uneducated people speak it, it must be easy?"
This might help to explain why learning Spanish is perceived by some as being less of an accomplishment than learning other Romance languages that are more often associated with the cultured upper classes such as Italian or French. This issue really goes to the heart of why we choose to learn languages. Personally, I find Spanish to be a very beautiful and fascinating language and, as the second most widely spoken native language on the planet, it's also extremely useful. Whether it is thought to be as chic as other languages is completely irrelevant to me. In fact, if Spanish actually were easier than other languages, I would see that as a plus, as I want the highest return on my investment of time and energy! However, that's me and everyone has different priorities and motivations for learning. 9 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4679 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 13 of 55 24 April 2012 at 6:00pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, living in a city with over 10% Spanish speakers (and numerous neighborhoods with over 50% Spanish-speakers), being surrounded by Spanish-language media, and growing up with a Spanish-speaking parent (one of those rare non-native advanced proficiency Spanish speakers, actually), Spanish certainly never seemed exotic to me (nor likely to most of the US residents here). But that's not to say we don't mostly know better than to make those kinds of comments! 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| geoffw Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4679 days ago 1134 posts - 1865 votes Speaks: English*, German, Yiddish Studies: Modern Hebrew, French, Dutch, Italian, Russian | Message 14 of 55 24 April 2012 at 6:16pm | IP Logged | ||
I think that those biases may also help to reinforce the perception of the language generally, based on the specific examples of it that people experience. For example, when I see Spanish-language newspapers in my town (abandoned on the Subway, e.g.), I usually can read them ok (I don't know Spanish very well at all), partly because they are written at an easy level. Naturally, advanced texts exist too, but I'm not generally exposed to them in public. Similarly, many non-Spanish-speakers may only notice those Spanish speaking people in public who are less educated (and thus also tend to be worse at English), while having limited exposure to the well-educated people who speak Spanish. Similarly, my German is much more advanced than my Yiddish, but it's slightly MORE likely that I will not know a word in a German newspaper than a Yiddish paper. My guess is that the secular papers are written with learners and out-of-practice speakers in mind these days, while the haredi papers are written for communities that forbid secular higher education. That could give the impression that Yiddish is "easier" than German, but strictly speaking I don't think that's true. 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Itikar Groupie Italy Joined 4660 days ago 94 posts - 158 votes Speaks: Italian* | Message 15 of 55 24 April 2012 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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In my experience all the people whom I met and who said "x language is easy" either:
-Didn't speak that language at all. -Had a poor or at least very basic knowledge of it. -Spoke as native language a language closely related to it. (i.e. Many Italians claim Spanish and French are easy, but they are not "easy", they simply share many features with Italian) On the other hand educated native speakers of most languages will eventually say that their language is very hard! So likely, as other posters before me have written, the key point is that person's perception. :) 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5264 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 16 of 55 25 April 2012 at 2:49pm | IP Logged | ||
I think this is pretty spot on. In my school, the children of the snobbish better-off parents took French and the rest of us took Spanish. I took Spanish precisely so I wouldn't conform to the snobbish notions that pervaded the cultural milieu of my parents and/or grandparents. Spanish sets off with an inferiority complex in posh N. American and European circles. It's like it needs to prove it's a worthy language by emphasizing things like Cervantes' opus, and glories of culture like the stunning cathedrals and great artists of Spanish history. Another factor is that Spain's relationship with L. America is on a much more equal footing than France's with francophone Africa. The result is that the Spanish language is seen as much as a reflection of Mexico, Colombia, Peru, etc. as of Spain...whereas French remains associated with France and perhaps Quebec and only very secondarily with Cote d'Ivoire or Rwanda. And to be blunt, L. America is looked down upon by many N. Americans and Europeans. Regarding my own view of Spanish, I find it a refreshingly efficient language, with so few of the fossilized formalities that plague French. Contrast (the first line is from French Assimil): Qu'est-ce que vous mangez ? (literally "what is it that you eat?") = ¿Qué come? aujourd'hui (literally "to the day of today") = hoy 5 persons have voted this message useful |
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