Which language is easier to master? (General discussion) Language Learning Forum

Which language is easier to master?
Tags: Indonesian \| Difficulty \| Spanish
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Language Learning Forum : General discussion

15 messages over 2 pages: 1 2

tmp011007
Diglot
Senior Member
Congo
Joined 6070 days ago
199 posts - 346 votes

Speaks: Spanish*, English
Studies: French, Portuguese

Message 9 of 15

20 February 2011 at 5:40pm | IP Logged

idle and meaningless...

well Juan, life is like that most of the time

Juаn wrote:

To be sure, for different reasons (writing system, remove from one's own language and culture), some languages certainly require far more work than others to get started, but this is something distinct from intrinsic difficulty, and beyond this initial, lengthy stage they reach a point from which reaching mastery entails just as much "difficulty" as those ostensibly easier ones.

so in short: there are easy languages
4 persons have voted this message useful

Lucas
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
Joined 5168 days ago
85 posts - 130 votes

Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian
Studies: Mandarin

Message 10 of 15

21 February 2011 at 4:10pm | IP Logged

@juan

Every languages have the same level of "intrisic difficulty" (a concept that actually
doesn't exist)...what makes a language easy or not is the amount of work required "to get
started" as you say.

The myth of "intrinsic difficulty" has been invented by Spanish of English speakers upset
of hearing that "english is easy" or "spanish is easy" (what is objectively true).

1 person has voted this message useful

CS
Groupie
United States
Joined 5129 days ago
49 posts - 74 votes

Speaks: English*
Studies: Icelandic, Latin, French

Message 11 of 15

21 February 2011 at 5:45pm | IP Logged

Lucas wrote:

@juan

The myth of "intrinsic difficulty" has been invented by Spanish of English speakers upset
of hearing that "english is easy" or "spanish is easy" (what is objectively true).

Meh. Right now I'm staring at a ~200 page book called A Modern Course in English Syntax by H. Wekker and L.
Haegeman. Sure English was easy for me, since I'm a native speaker - although I'm still learning technical or
poetic words. It is arguably a *relatively* easy language for speakers of Germanic or Romance languages, but it's
still not that easy.

Edited by CS on 21 February 2011 at 5:47pm
2 persons have voted this message useful

Lucas
Pentaglot
Groupie
Switzerland
Joined 5168 days ago
85 posts - 130 votes

Speaks: French*, English, German, Italian, Russian
Studies: Mandarin

Message 12 of 15

21 February 2011 at 6:26pm | IP Logged

CS wrote:

Lucas wrote:

@juan

The myth of "intrinsic difficulty" has been invented by Spanish of English speakers
upset
of hearing that "english is easy" or "spanish is easy" (what is objectively true).

Meh. Right now I'm staring at a ~200 page book called A Modern Course in English
Syntax by H. Wekker and L.
Haegeman. Sure English was easy for me, since I'm a native speaker - although I'm
still learning technical or
poetic words. It is arguably a *relatively* easy language for speakers of Germanic or
Romance languages, but it's
still not that easy.

"It is not that easy" is an invalid argument...one can write 200 pages of "A
Modern Course in Syntax" and learn technical and poetic words for every language of the
world!
:)

1 person has voted this message useful

vilas
Pentaglot
Senior Member
Italy
Joined 6961 days ago
531 posts - 722 votes

Speaks: Spanish, Italian*, English, French, Portuguese

Message 13 of 15

22 February 2011 at 8:57pm | IP Logged

tmp011007 wrote:

mr_chinnery wrote:

I have no experience of either but I thought Spanish is considered the easiest language
to learn, assuming you speak an Indo-European tongue.

spanish? I thought it was Italian

You thought it was Italian because your mother tongue is Spanish.
I thought it was Spanish because my mother tongue is Italian
1 person has voted this message useful

Raчraч Ŋuɲa
Triglot
Senior Member
New Zealand
Joined 5819 days ago
154 posts - 233 votes

Speaks: Bikol languages*, Tagalog, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Japanese

Message 14 of 15

23 February 2011 at 7:51am | IP Logged

vilas wrote:

tmp011007 wrote:

mr_chinnery wrote:

I have no experience of either but
I thought Spanish is considered the easiest language
to learn, assuming you speak an Indo-European tongue.

spanish? I thought it was Italian

You thought it was Italian because your mother tongue is Spanish.
I thought it was Spanish because my mother tongue is Italian

LOL! Nice one.
1 person has voted this message useful

Raчraч Ŋuɲa
Triglot
Senior Member
New Zealand
Joined 5819 days ago
154 posts - 233 votes

Speaks: Bikol languages*, Tagalog, English^C1
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Japanese

Message 15 of 15

23 February 2011 at 7:57am | IP Logged

iguanamon wrote:

The Indonesian word for “sun”, mata hari (the famous female spy was
known as the “sun” of Asia) literally means “eye of the day”.

In Tagalog, "mata hari" would mean "eye (which is a) king".

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