English as a second language?

[Viktorkrum77]

Ok, I am interested in how people who speak English as their second language rate English as far as difficulty goes to learn and use. The opinions seem to be very widespread, so I'm looking for the most accurate idea I can get from the Tip it community who visits the Off Topic forum. Just for an idea.

 

 

 

So if you have experience with ESL would you please mark its difficulty level on a scale of 1 to 5 (I'm using a small scale in hopes of better accuracy).

 

1-Extremely easy- |||||||||

 

2-Moderately easy- ||||

 

3-Medium- |||

 

4-Not too hard but hard-

 

5-Extremely difficult-

 

 

 

And might I ask you list your birth language/mother tongue and any previous languages you learned in addition before English. This could alter results because of grammar similarities and differences, etc.

 

 

 

Thanks! Dank! Kiitti! Tack!

[Meesy]

Apparently English isn't an easy language, in theory at least. But since so many people grow up with English television, English games, English music, forums, comic books etc, that makes it a lot easier.

 

 

 

I myself am Dutch, and I must say personally I speak both languages equally (that could be in the negative or positive sense ^^).

 

 

 

So I'd say, thanks to the conditions, English is moderately easy.

[Bauke]

Well that's also because we get good English education at school. English is my 3rd language though. First is Frysian, then comes Dutch, and then English.

[Meesy]

Frysian isn't a language! :P

[Darkluniux]

Well, my native language is spanish, and I can say that the english language is something easy to learn.

[Viktorkrum77]

Frysian isn't a language! :P

 

 

 

Wat is Frysian? :-s

 

 

 

Dark, moderately, or extremely easy?

[ThurinEthir]

Okay...Erm...

 

I started learning English at age 4. The basic concepts were moderately easy. But ever since...It's gotten a little harder. I'd say right now, between medium and moderately easy.

 

I first mainly learned all the stuff most regular Americans would learn before Kindergarten through TV, but I probably was still a little behind. Ever since, being so commonly used everywhere, it's become a little easier. (Yeah, I'm contradicting myself. Who cares, it makes sense to me...A little...Just say that I found it moderately easy...)

 

And you probably know, my first language was Mandarin Chinese. I doubt it really helped that much.

[dread_rasta]

I agree with Meesy there. English has established itself around the world due to most medias being English.

 

 

 

I myself didn't find learning English hard at all, but some of my friends have had problems learning it. I'd rate it moderately easy, seeing that it must be easier to learn the basic conjucations of English than it is with, for example, Finnish. In Finland and English is being taught from the age of nine in our elementary schools which I think is too late to master a language. I'm from Finland if you didn't figure that out by now.

 

 

 

Off topic: you misspelled 'kiitti', just caught my eye :wink:

[Echofish]

Extremely easy for me. My first language is tagalog (or filipino, whichever way you want to call it) and I've been speaking English since I was 3 or something (for my american cousins)

[Achilleus]

Id say moderte evenu thouhugh i am englisa :shock: No beig serius and all verey easyi

[StrOwez]

3-Medium-

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Language of birth/mother tongue is Russian, started learning English when I was 10 so i picked it up quite easily. However the grammar was somewhat tricky at times.

[rocketman089]

Pssht, English was a piece of cake to learn. I already starting speaking it by the time i was 18 months old, and by 6th grade I had nearly mastered the basics.

[jak722]

1 - extremely easy

 

 

 

In my birth country, english was already a major language and mostly everyone can understand it.

 

 

 

Thing is, I still speak with an accent. But I can read and understand english perfectly.

 

 

 

 

 

When I first took ESL classes, the teacher one day actually removed me out of the classroom after a test we had and placed my in another class, which was a regular english class, just like that.

 

 

 

I was afraid I was gonna get into trouble at first lol.

[Viktorkrum77]

Jak, what country?

[Lovelydude]

5

 

 

 

As someone coming from Australia, one must note that man's best friend; the dog, tends to have a firmer grasp on English than your average Sydney native.

 

 

 

After almost fourteen years of learning English, I am yet to grasp many of the grammar and spelling properties which most of you consider easy.

 

 

 

D:

 

 

 

Seriously though, most Kiwis have worse English than even me. Or at least they sound that way. :lol:

[highlanders]

French as my main language.

 

I'd say 1

 

English is a joke compared to French. In French there's many many grammar/spelling rules, and many exceptions to each rules, it's just a complete mess.

 

 

 

The most difficult languages in the world are japanese/chinese/korean(languages with large sets) and in second position latin languages spanish/french/italian that require extreme precision.

 

 

 

English, pff, so easy. It's a complete and utter joke.

[hellbellz]

I don't understand how English is a joke? :|

[xvillexvalox]

Everyone quit complaining about your hard languages, I learned Lithuanian, which is definately one of the hardest languages ever, and english at the same time.

 

 

 

For me it was easy, though for the first year of speech I mixed the two languages alot.

 

 

 

I vote moderatly easy, only because my parents didn't speak it.

 

 

 

 

 

Info on Lithuanian language:

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithuanian_language

 

 

 

A ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ã¢ââ¬Ã¾ B C ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ãâ¦Ã¢â¬â¢ D E ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ãâ¹Ãâ ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ã¢ââ‰â¬Å F G H I ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ãâî Y J K L M N O P R S ÃÆââ¬Â¦Ãâà T U ÃÆââ¬Â¦Ãâò ÃÆââ¬Â¦Ãâê V Z ÃÆââ¬Â¦Ãâý

 

a ÃÆââ¬Å¾Ã¢ââ¬Ã¦ b c ÃÆââ¬Å¾ÃâÃ

[katha610]

1 - extremely easy

[Fortress2000]

My native language is Scottish Gaelic, though I was brought up being taught English too, I haven't had any problems.

[T-Roach]

English is my 2nd language, but ive lived in the US so :S

[knight10071]

Extremely easy. I'm dutch, and you pick up a lot of English from television, games etc. I'm also in a bilangual stream (all subjects except for languages in English, but the school is Dutch) and that really helps! :D I even find it easier to explain feelings in English because of the extreme adjectives (exhausted, terrific, etc.)

 

 

 

Edit: Next to English, I'm also learning French, German and Latin and Old-Greek (no I don't speak them :XD: )

[woopidoo2]

I am dutch also, and I have to say Number I also.

 

I started learning it when I was 11, and had no trouble with learning the language at all.

 

(This could be because I am very bad at maths :) )

 

 

 

Dont know if Runescape helped me with learning english, but who knows :)

[IGoddessI]

I have a suggestion, if you would like to hear it.

 

 

 

Having a poll could produce more accurate results than postings in forums. I'm not sure if your aim is to construct a collaborative discussion on the topic or for stat purposes. It could indeed even be both!

 

 

 

I will not feel offended if you disagree or do not use my suggestion, it was just an idea intended to help you.

 

 

 

Good luck on your topic; it certainly is an interesting and creative topic!

[vmser]

Third language here, and compared to the others I had to learn it's by far the easiest.. Probably due to a considerable part of the media / the internet being in english so it's by far the easiest to pick up on vocabulary and stuff...