English as a second language?

[ThurinEthir]

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

[LeonardMart]

id say very easy. my native language is spanish, and started learning english at 5th grade, but i got a good skill at languages anyway. but still, english has easy grammar and the ortography is very simple. also consider that we live in a world where websites, videogames, etc are in english, you learn or you learn, theres no other option

[Natasa777]

my mother language is Croatian and English was really easy to learn

[ortiz9471]

My mother teaches several ESL classes at a community college, and the students have lots of trouble. Maybe I only have that perspective because I was brought up as the son to an English teacher and have high standards on your level of English. Maybe it's because it's a community college and they don't care. Maybe I have no clue what I'm talking about :-w

[zach312]

Seeing as English is my first language, I can't really have a stand here. But since I'm in my third year of an Italian class, I would say English is very overrated in terms of difficulty. Compared to so many other languages, English is pretty simplistic, I mean come on, we don't even use accents! (Technically the umlaut is a part of the English language, but it's never used, it was only really used in old English.)

[Sumpta]

Well, actually, I'd go for number 4.

 

 

 

I'm from Belgium, English is my third language after Dutch and French. I have a knack for the Germanic languages, which include English, so after a few very easy years of English language study at high school, I went on to study Dutch and English at university.

 

 

 

And boy oh boy, was I in for a suprise. It's true, the basics of the English language are easy to grasp. The main difficulty would be the spelling, which is so very different from the pronunciation. But when you start to dig in deeper into the grammar, things get quite complicated. Especially the English verbs. I've only encountered one verb system that was more complicated and that's the Ancient Greek one. Although the French verbs get a vote in the top 5 as well :-)

 

 

 

Anyway, everybody here who is claiming that English is oh so easy, is very welcome to one of my course books in English Linguistics for some brain torture. It's easy to grasp the basics, because it is the Lingua Franca of our time. Most of us are exposed to the language in our early years, which makes it easier to learn.

[BlueLancer]

English is my 3rd or 4th language depending on the method of measuring it, but in early childhood I only knew some words I'd seen on TV programs and ads.

 

 

 

Later it was very easy to learn English, it's grammar etc. even without the help of my school.

 

 

 

Given that the languages my parents speak have nothing to do with English I'd conclude it's an easy language. :) Probably because you see the language all around you.

[____]

Having English as my first language... I really can't comment on how hard it is to learn. But it's rather simple to understand the basics of. The only hard bit about it is slang. And even then it's not that hard to understand.

[Zonorhc]

Seeing as English is my first language, I can't really have a stand here. But since I'm in my third year of an Italian class, I would say English is very overrated in terms of difficulty. Compared to so many other languages, English is pretty simplistic, I mean come on, we don't even use accents! (Technically the umlaut is a part of the English language, but it's never used, it was only really used in old English.)

 

... What?

 

 

 

Pronunciation aids (accents, umlauts, etc.) suddenly make a language more complex?

 

 

 

English is a downright terror to learn as a second or third language, as it was in my case, because it has too many damn exceptions.

 

 

 

And yeah, there's always Mandarin for the linguistic masochists among you.

[BlueLancer]

 

English is a downright terror to learn as a second or third language, as it was in my case, because it has too many damn exceptions.

 

 

 

 

Depends on how you learn it :P I have a hard time grasping/remembering what's an adjective, what's an exception, conjunction, bla bla... I just learned the stuff by myself, mainly by speaking to english speakers, later on the internet, newspapers, etc...

 

 

 

But hell do I agree with

 

 

 

And yeah, there's always Mandarin for the linguistic masochists among you.

 

 

 

I feel like giving up.. I also got told by a chinese guy even he himself doesn't know all the characters, and for gods sake he was born in China and speaks the mandarin dialect which is the largest.

 

 

 

How the heck am I, someone with absolutely no hint about asian accents and characters going to learn it then? :lol: Think I'm going to continue with Japanese... Mandarin is hell, the only reason I want/ed to learn it is because so many people speak it...

[aoe325]

Extremely easy, im from Quebec (A french province in Canada) and lived with both all my life. I rate it extremely easy since I learnt the bases in video-games :

[Runeman231]

I was born in the United States so I feel a little left out on this topic, but there is something I think contributes..

 

 

 

I've noticed that most other countries in the world require you to learn English(and several other languages as well), where as here in the US learning other languages doesn't start until 11 at the earliest, and it isn't required. I'm irritated by this, and the fact that we can only take one foreign language at a time. If I could learn any language I wanted I'd learn Dutch, it just seems like a cool language. anyway I'll stop now... :-#

[ThurinEthir]

 

And yeah, there's always Mandarin for the linguistic masochists among you.

 

 

 

I feel like giving up.. I also got told by a chinese guy even he himself doesn't know all the characters, and for gods sake he was born in China and speaks the mandarin dialect which is the largest.

 

 

 

How the heck am I, someone with absolutely no hint about asian accents and characters going to learn it then? :lol: Think I'm going to continue with Japanese... Mandarin is hell, the only reason I want/ed to learn it is because so many people speak it...

 

+127894612487216

 

Born in Taiwan, lived there for a few years, go back every year, raised in a Mandarin speaking family, gone to Chinese school since forever, etc.

 

And I still suck at it.

 

I think Chinese wins my vote for hardest language largely spoken. (I don't know how you guys learn, but if it's with Zhu-Ying-Fu-How [Or something like that] then try Cantonese. None of that. I'm not even sure if there's even Pinyin for it.)

[BlueLancer]

 

I think Chinese wins my vote for hardest language largely spoken. (I don't know how you guys learn, but if it's with Zhu-Ying-Fu-How [Or something like that] then try Cantonese. None of that. I'm not even sure if there's even Pinyin for it.)

 

 

 

Yeah, that's Zhu-Ying-Fu-Hao (Or pinyin as you said which is chinese in western letters). Most western people or people in general with no experience about asian languages learn that first, because it's the phonetic chinese alphabet and language. That's how I learned basic stuff.

 

 

 

Sadly learning it wont enable you to read any chinese newspaper or stuff that actually matters because they are almost never written in pinyin. Only a few chinese websites offer 'simplified' (ZhuYing) versions of their website.

[ThurinEthir]

 

I think Chinese wins my vote for hardest language largely spoken. (I don't know how you guys learn, but if it's with Zhu-Ying-Fu-How [Or something like that] then try Cantonese. None of that. I'm not even sure if there's even Pinyin for it.)

 

 

 

Yeah, that's Zhu-Ying-Fu-Hao (Or pinyin as you said which is chinese in western letters). Most western people or people in general with no experience about asian languages learn that first, because it's the phonetic chinese alphabet and language. That's how I learned basic stuff.

 

 

 

Sadly learning it wont enable you to read any chinese newspaper or stuff that actually matters because they are almost never written in pinyin. Only a few chinese websites offer 'simplified' (ZhuYing) versions of their website.

 

Meh, I use that, however you spell it. Not to mention I learn traditional...More insults to injury...

 

Not like I can read Chinese newspapers in the first place, but yeah...They don't bother to put anything on there that would help people that don't know Chinese extremely well. No PinYin, no [However you spell it, I don't feel like copy and pasting...].

 

And I love hearing Western people attempting to speak Chinese. It's hilarious...

[Darkluniux]

Frysian isn't a language! :P

 

 

 

Wat is Frysian? :-s

 

 

 

Dark, moderately, or extremely easy?

 

 

 

I think extremely...

[zach312]

... What?

 

 

 

Pronunciation aids (accents, umlauts, etc.) suddenly make a language more complex?

 

 

 

English is a downright terror to learn as a second or third language, as it was in my case, because it has too many damn exceptions.

 

 

 

And yeah, there's always Mandarin for the linguistic masochists among you.

 

 

 

To me, yes, pronunciation aids suck. I'd rather remember the rules than look at a Hungarian or Czech word with 5 letters, two of which have 2 dots over them, 2 have single slashes, and the last one has a freakin' circle. WHY MUST THERE BE A FREAKIN' CIRCLE?!!??!?!?!?

 

 

 

*ahem*

 

 

 

Sorry, I just see those "aids" as nuisances at the very least.

 

 

 

Agreed on the bit about Mandarin though.....why make up thousands upon thousands of symbols when you can make about 25 characters and just rearrange them a bunch of times?

[kelem_ryu]

How would i know how easy or hard english is to learn? I'm only able to communicate in two languages and i'm native in one of them (german). I could compare it to latin, wich i "learned" at school, but i never really grasped that one (since i wouldn't call sitting an hour or two over a short text with a dictionary and a grammar table, trying to translate it, grasping a language.)

 

 

 

However i'd say it's fairly easy to learn day to day conversation in most languages. Even most natives never come close to mastering their language. So learning a language and mastering are two different things. I'm quite capable of understanding most written text in english and when i went to us when i was 13 (~10 years ago), some people were amazed about those little teen able to communicate with them more or the less fluently, but when i first picked up a book by say E.A. Poe, i just couldn't understand a single sentance without consulting the dictionary.

 

 

 

Since it is Viktor who made up the thread, i want to add this: There is little to no need to learn a foreigne language at all, when you are already fluent in english, unless you want to stay somewhere for an extended period of time (years), or you are interested in languages per se (I have the feeling, you are more interested in cultures in general, than in languages inparticular.)

[Viktorkrum77]

Both.

 

 

 

Plus, learning a language gives you x100 respect.

 

 

 

And English kinda sucks, I hope it doesn't become anymore international than it already is.

[kelem_ryu]

Plus, learning a language gives you x100 respect.

 

 

 

And English kinda sucks, ..

 

 

 

 

 

I don't know about others, but i met a German living in England on Rs and we just kept talking english once we found out, because we both like writing english. Hm.. thinking about it, i can't remember meeting a non german native speaking german, so i just don't know, how i would react.

[transcript80]

Frysian isn't a language! :P

 

 

 

Wat is Frysian? :-s

 

 

 

Dark, moderately, or extremely easy?

 

 

 

Frysian is an accepted secondary language in the Netherlands. Rumor has it, that it is actually kind of related to english in a strange, weird Dutch way... :P

 

 

 

Anyway... I think, 3: moderately. To understand basic english is easy, I agree on that. But to really master the language, both in writing and in speaking it, that's quite easy, I have to credit our Belgian friend for that. Sure, English TV helps a great deal, but take a look at these fora for example. Some really bad English is written down on these boards. Sure, I add my share of spelling and grammatical errors, but even native speakers make errors beyond comprehension. Sure, for a part because they don't care, but still.

 

 

 

My native language is Dutch, however I come from a province with a dialect of its own, so basically Dutch is my second language I learnt. I also speak/write to some degree German and Frensh, as the were touigh for some years at high school.

[Lovelydude]

I'd just like to say that without the things in society that make English much easier, getting full understand of the language would be more challenging.

 

 

 

Also, words would be far more confusing.

 

 

 

Example.

 

 

 

A word could turn from:

 

 

 

close (proximity)

 

 

 

to

 

 

 

close (as in shut)

 

 

 

to

 

 

 

clothes

 

 

 

to

 

 

 

cloves etc.

 

 

 

Hard when you're trying to learn words without complete grasp of the language. English is everywhere so you pick it up much faster.

[mcneilp]

Being scottish, there are loads of regional dialects to the english language which would make it difficult for a foreign person learning english in scotland to understand. English itself is fairly easy, its the regional dialects you have to watch out for... :anxious:

 

Also plurals: Theif-Theives

 

Sheep-sheeps <---LOL

 

silent letters: Ballet

 

know

 

 

 

Suppose it aint too bad :-k

[One Too Far]

i would say its extremely easy(wel its not moderatly easy but also not totaly extremely easy) , im dutch 13 years old and english is my the first other language, and i have had about 6 years of almost only english games,tv programs and other stuff.

[How2PK]

It's relatively easy. Dutch is my first language, and a lot better than my English.