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Spanish: A wolf in sheep’s clothing | ||
Tags: Difficulty | Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| kidshomestunner Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6193 days ago 239 posts - 285 votes  Speaks: Japanese | Message 49 of 73 11 July 2010 at 9:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
But certain nouns differ in gender... Radio is masculine or feminine depending on where the Spanish speaker is from.... Spanish words ending in ma which come from classical Greek roots are masculine... la flor is feminine alerta, cometa, dia, insectida, manana, mapa, mediodia, planeta, tranvia, vodka, yoga, and others which end in a are masculine. some nouns have different meanings depending on gender... capital colera coma cometa corte cura frente and papa. Feminine and masculine with papa makes the difference between a potato and a pope in Latin America... Spanish noun gender is quite difficult. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5218 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 50 of 73 13 July 2010 at 3:06pm | IP Logged | |||||
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As I follow this debate I can't asking myself, "Is there an easy language?". Of course, some languages are closer to our native language than others and therefore are easier to approach. I use the word "approach' because I think that is what we really mean most of the time when we speak of easy languages. But to master any language at a high level requires a lot of work and usually a period of living in the language. At the same time, it's interesting to note that that by age six, children can master the basics of any native language regardless of the so-called difficulty.
Although I agree that there are some objective difficulties of certain languages relative to one's native language, the real problem in my mind is finding the right approach and making the effort to learn the language. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Andrew~ Groupie United States howlearnspanish.com Joined 5056 days ago 42 posts - 67 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Japanese | Message 51 of 73 13 July 2010 at 5:50pm | IP Logged | |||||
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The ease of learning a second language depends, more than anything I think, on what your native language is.
If it's Portuguese or Italian and you're trying to learn Spanish, or vice-versa, then everything should be smooth sailing for you and you'll have very few problems. Essentially, speakers of any Romance language will find learning any other Romance language far easier than speakers of any non-Romance language will. Scandinavian languages, for another example, are notoriously easy for English speakers to learn because of their extremely similar grammar and syntax and relatively easy pronunciation. Oh, by the way, I'm learning Spanish right now, and no, it's not easy (not if you actually want to get fluent), but it's certainly not so difficult that it really troubles me or makes me think it's going to take an inordinate amount of time (I expect to be fluent inside of 6 months from now, probably less if I'm honest) to learn to the level of proficiency that I'm aiming for. Edited by Andrew~ on 13 July 2010 at 5:51pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| L1539 Diglot Newbie United States Joined 5146 days ago 27 posts - 55 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish | Message 52 of 73 13 July 2010 at 6:15pm | IP Logged | |||||
This is a commonly made argument. But I don't entirely agree with it. Obviously, one's native language is an important factor in how difficult learning another will be. But there are many other important factors as well. These include: how motivated the learner is, the learner's individual aptitude for languages (let's face it, some people have far more talent for learning another language than others), the quality of the resources available to the learner, and how the learner feels about the people and nation(s) associated with the second language. French is far closer to English than Hindi. But that doesn't mean that French will automatically be easier for a particular English speaker than Hindi will. I think what can truthfully be said is that if one English speaker is learning French, and another Hindi, the one learning French will have an easier time if all other relevant factors are equal. But all the other factors are rarely equal in real life. Furthermore, I disagree with your statement that if a language is very close to your native one (for example, Portuguese to Spanish), you should automatically find learning it a breeze. In fact, it appears that languages can sometimes be so close that their similarity starts to become an obstacle for a native speaker of one learning the other. I've heard this said about Spanish and Portuguese. 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5218 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 53 of 73 14 July 2010 at 1:21am | IP Logged | |||||
I would certainly agree that the similarity of native and target languages is only one factor in the speed or perceived ease of learning a language. Nobody is suggesting that similarity is a guarantee of success. However, it is a very important factor. Here in Montreal, Canada, it is quite striking how Spanish-speaking immigrants have a much easier time learning French than do Asian immigrants. It is certainly true that linguistic similarities are a major potential source of problems. This includes what is usually called "false friends". "faux amis" or "falsos amigos". i.e. words or expressions that may look alike or analogous in different languages but have different meanings. Or one may simply transpose a grammatical structure from one language to the other. Sure, it's a problem. But, frankly I think that it's not such a bad problem to live with. A Spanish speaker may tend to mix up Spanish and Portuguese because in many areas the two languages are similar. But the key point here is that the Spanish-speaker has a huge advantage over the English-speaker when learning Portuguese. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| aarontp Groupie United States Joined 5055 days ago 94 posts - 139 votes | Message 54 of 73 14 July 2010 at 2:57am | IP Logged | |||||
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I tend to think speaking a closely related language gives you a huge advantage over
someone who speaks a very different language. Just based on my experience with intelligent Asians who have spent years in the United States vs.intelligent Latinos or Eastern Europeans who have spent years in the United States. The latter groups seem to have a substantially easier time learning English. I'm willing to bet I could make faster progress learning a Nordic language (with which I have no experience) than most other native English speakers who are smarter and more proficient at language acquisition than I am learning one of the more difficult Asian languages (Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Thai, ect.). Albeit, there are some freaks who would blow past me regardless. Edited by aarontp on 14 July 2010 at 3:00am 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tractor Tetraglot Senior Member Norway Joined 5241 days ago 1349 posts - 2292 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English, Spanish, Catalan Studies: French, German, Latin | Message 55 of 73 14 July 2010 at 12:09pm | IP Logged | |||||
Spanish speakers learning Portugeuese and Portuguese speakers learning Spanish can make the jump from zero to an advanced or intermediate level fairly quickly. They can manage this without laborious and systematic study. Since they never put any real effort into learning the language they will make mistakes that others won't. Likewise, as a native speaker of Norwegian I could probably start speaking Swedish right away and do so with greater fluency, larger vocabulary and better pronunciation than most foreigners who have studied the language for years. Still, I would make a lot of silly mistakes and any Swede would instantly be able to tell that I'm Norwegian. Edited by tractor on 14 July 2010 at 12:33pm 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5218 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 56 of 73 14 July 2010 at 3:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Tractor's post about Norwegian and Swedish reminded me of a film on the great Norwegian writer Knut Hansun. The film was shown at a film festival in Montreal quite a few years ago, and the director introduced the film, calling it a typical Scandinavian collaboration. If I recall correctly, the actors spoke in their native languages even though the film supposedly took place in Norway. Max von Sydow, playing Hansun, spoke Swedish. His wife spoke Danish and his children spoke Norwegian. Nobody seemed to have a problem with this. I remember saying to myself at the time, "Where else in the world could you have actors playing members of the same family and speaking three different albeit related languages?"
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