Learning English..

[Mark]

Yes I know,, I probably should :p :p

This is a question for anybody who doesn't speak English as their first language and has had to learn it for themselves, and if you can read this it means you've suceeded, so well done :D

How easy is English to learn compared with other languages? From an English point of view other languages such as French, Italian etc can be difficult because of words which can switch their spelling depending on their context (e.g. masculine / feminine) which just isn't an issue in English. But since I'm a native English speaker I wouldn't be aware of any quirks of English which makes it difficult to master.

So my question is, if you've learned English, what was the most difficult aspect of it to understand?

[pino]

Compared to danish (took me 10 years to learn it) wasn't too difficult for me to learn english, but then my english isn't that good :p : I also speak french and spanish but being italian that was very easy to learn ( grammatic is very similar ) and had the advantage of living in these 2 countries. My biggest problem about english is understanding people from the North, Mark can confirm this ;) Spelling isn't a problem really...no matter how i spell, people understand me anyway :p :

[GridGirl]

My dad's first language is French. When it comes to past, present and future tenses of words, he can often slip up and use the wrong word. I don't really see it as a problem though as he speaks better English than most English people I know.

What I dont get is how he managed to study Shakespeare in French when he was at school. Its hard enough to read Shakespeare in English. :s

[Erki]

The only thing I find that I sometimes struggle with is the order of words. Like "Yesterday, the weather was real good and I thought I'd go for a walk" or "The weather was real good yesterday and I though I'd go for a walk" - which way is right? Also, now to think, are the "the"-s there needed or not?

To me, English is way easier than German.

[Mark]

The only thing I find that I sometimes struggle with is the order of words. Like "Yesterday, the weather was real good and I thought I'd go for a walk" or "The weather was real good yesterday and I though I'd go for a walk" - which way is right?


Both are entirely correct. Although 'really' is better than 'real'. 'real good' is a bit of an americanism and not entirely correct, people may think you are trying to be cool :p



Also, now to think, are the "the"-s there needed or not?


Yes, otherwise it would look wrong, but still understandable.



To me, English is way easier than German.

I was talking to pino about this before and he said German is very difficult.

[Erki]

Both are entirely correct. Although 'really' is better than 'real'. 'real good' is a bit of an americanism and not entirely correct, people may think you are trying to be cool :p

Yep, you're right. :) But it wasn't because I wanted to be cool or anything, I don't know why I put it that way... I blame NASCAR!

[Brown, Jon Brow]

My biggest problem about english is understanding people from the North, Mark can confirm this ;) Spelling isn't a problem really...no matter how i spell, people understand me anyway :p :


Bah! whats wrong with northern peoples accents? :mad:
We speak proper good.


The hardest thing when learning a new language is the word order.

[pino]

Bah! whats wrong with northern peoples accents? :mad:
We speak proper good.




Sure you speak good but not clearly enough :p :

[gadjo_dilo]

In comparison with other foreign languages English is probably easier. However I find difficult the sequence of tenses. And there is that tense, future in the past...Senteces using this tense are hilarious in translation.

[Storm]

Compared to danish (took me 10 years to learn it) wasn't too difficult for me to learn english...no matter how i spell, people understand me anyway :p :

:laugh: not too difficult ? Ok I believe you...........NOT !

As for us having no problems with your English because all of us here are just too nice and accomodating ;)

For me English has been really easy to learn but then perhaps its because I started when I was 3/4 yrs old, I listen, read and speak it on a daily basis since then....I only use my mother-tongue more (to speak/read but I hardly ever write in it..) so probably I use English the most in my life so its almost like my 1.5 language now.

btw German isn't too difficult Mark....nice to see you are taking pino's rambling as facts :p :

Spanish is though, especially the grammar!

I do think its easier for many Indians to learn/speak other Indo-European languages as our languages have almost all possible sounds/vowels/consonants so its easier in terms of pronunciation and it really helps if we know Sanskrit (which is kinda like the Latin for Indian languages) and its grammar is tough but many European languages use similar grammar (German for one).

[tinchote]

My native language is Spanish, and I'm also fluent in English (well, at least I manage to teach classes, so somehow the students do understand me ;) ).

Besides, I've been in touch with Latin, French, German, and I would say that English is the easiest to learn of all the lot, at least for basic communication. The verbal structure is way simpler than in most languages, so it is easier to learn.

The quirks in English start at a more advanced level, when you start finding entire words that are written the same but pronounced different (like read, lead, row, etc.), or letter combinations whose pronunciation depends on the context (tough-though-thought; blood-door-doom; wind-winding; cycle-cyclic, etc., etc.). Another typical issue for non-native English speakers are phrasal verbs: get up, get on, get off, etc.

[BTCC2]

Sure you speak good but not clearly enough :p :

How insulting :D !!!!

Personally I have trouble understanding people from the south.

I have previously attempted to learn French and Spanish, but they were to difficult and I gave up.

[Viktory]

I had to learn English, because I moved to England (moved back to Sweden in 2001) I was about 8 when I moved, very good age for learning languages, so it wasn't that hard for me. Took maybe a month before I decided not to be a coward anymore and talk to some of them in my class. English is an easy language to learn in my opinion. French is way harder, of course it would help to live in a country that speaks the language. Finnish or Chinese must be pretty hard to learn. Finnish is a language I would want to learn but I'm way too lazy for that. Learning through osmosis would be nice....

[Woodeye]

I think it is much easier to learn English because of the fact that nowdays you cannot avoid hearing it everywhere. I mean, if you turn on the TV it is 50-50 chance that you hear English instead of Finnish. (And this concerns Finland obviously) You grow up hearing English and by the time you start learning it in school you know many of the words already. This isn't the case with Spanish or Italian for example.

[Brown, Jon Brow]

Excellent :D English is set to become the worlds language.

[donKey jote]

Another typical issue for non-native English speakers are phrasal verbs: get up, get on, get off, etc.

putón... :p :

[BDunnell]

I believe that language learning abilities depend to a very great extent on the individual concerned. There are elements of different languages that make them more difficult than others, but on the most basic level one person may find German, Spanish, French etc really easy, and another really hard.

However, there is no doubt that the language skills of European kids are vastly superior to many of their English counterparts, thanks to the differences between the education systems (and the fact that, like it or not, English is a very important second language to have for non-native speakers).

[Erki]

Another typical issue for non-native English speakers are phrasal verbs: get up, get on, get off, etc.

Yep, that's the hardest aspect of English. Those there-their-they're things aren't that bad put all those "put"-s are pretty hard, maybe that's why I avoid them... .-)

[BDunnell]

Yep, that's the hardest aspect of English. Those there-their-they're things aren't that bad put all those "put"-s are pretty hard, maybe that's why I avoid them... .-)

You and a lot of native speakers...

[J4MIE]

My biggest problem about english is understanding people from the North, Mark can confirm this ;)

I think Pino gave up on me a long long time ago... :p :

One thing I regret now is not spending enough time doing languages when I was younger at school. As it is these days I hardly have any spare time, never mind time to spend learning anohter language, would dearly love to though :(

[tmx]

The grammars and always will be. I probably made some grammar mistakes already. English grammars and rules are vast and tend to go against physics and contradict themselves, even my american friend agreed with me. Words like olive and aunt caught me out a few times. Secondly is figuring out the meaning behind the proverb and sayings.

Long ago, whenever someone asked me, "do you mind?" I always said yes.

[pino]

I think Pino gave up on me a long long time ago... :p :

One thing I regret now is not spending enough time doing languages when I was younger at school. As it is these days I hardly have any spare time, never mind time to spend learning anohter language, would dearly love to though :(

Hey your italian is almost perfect...don't give up just now ;)

[tinchote]

putón... :p :


:D

[Storm]

putón... :p :
:erm:

[Eki]

I do think its easier for many Indians to learn/speak other Indo-European languages as our languages have almost all possible sounds/vowels/consonants so its easier in terms of pronunciation and it really helps if we know Sanskrit (which is kinda like the Latin for Indian languages) and its grammar is tough but many European languages use similar grammar (German for one).

And still you all speak English like Apu Nahasapeemapetilon :p

http://z.about.com/d/animatedtv/1/0/F/9/apu_small.jpg

[Mark]

From speaking to my friend who comes from Colcutta, he says that there are a few different languages spoken in India, but while people in different regions can speak a different first language, everyone also speaks English, so it's English which allows people from different parts of India to communicate. Would you say this is accurate?

[Storm]

Quite accurate I would say....Hindi is another option to communicate with other people who speak a different first language but in some parts people do not speak Hindi but do speak English.

and yes we have about 20+ states/regions and almost as many major languages :)

Eki.....who? - I didnt say all of us had good accents while speaking English LOL..especially people from the south have horrible accents..really thick but people from my state generally have neutral accents.

[Donney]

This is a tricky question since every language has irregular aspects. Some more than others i.e Spanish is highly irregular in many aspects, much more than English, which is not exactly perfect.

What was difficult for me was to understand how it works and to assimilate the differencies, for example the necessity to always have a subject for each verb, something we don't do in Spanish, or the uses of do as an auxiliary and as a verb, or the modal verbs and of course the already mentioned phrasal verbs which are the hardest thing to master ever.

Overall English is easier, IMHO, thanks to a very flexible verbal system which once you get to understand the basics is very easy to use and predict.

I know Russian is incredibly hard and not just for the alphabet, whereas French, and pressumably Italian, are easier for speakers of Roman languages.

The key to learn languages, at least in my case, apart from necessity and motivation, which are paramount, is to keep an open mind and never give up when you consider some of the language usages absurd or impossible to understand.

[Eki]

Eki.....who?
The Kwiki-Mart owner from Springfield. Could Apu Nahasapeemapetilon really pass as an Indian name or is it totally made up?

[millencolin]

my hint when it comes to english speaking: basically if you want to learn proper english... dont learn from an australian :p :

[oily oaf]

my hint when it comes to english speaking: basically if you want to learn proper english... dont learn from an australian :p :

Or Hotbikerchic :fasttalk: :disturb:

[Erki]

Or oily oaf. :) (serious here, most times it's nearly impossible to understand him and dig out the point he's making)

[oily oaf]

Or oily oaf. :) (serious here, most times it's nearly impossible to understand him and dig out the point he's making)

There's a very good reason for that Borat. It's because you are not what we English call the sharpest chisel in the toolbox.

Why not try an Estonian forum where you can earnestly discuss the failure of this years beetroot harvest and how to make attractive body jewellery from hollowed out potato husks. :D

Carry on

[Eki]

Or oily oaf. :) (serious here, most times it's nearly impossible to understand him and dig out the point he's making)
What ever the point is, the cat always suffers :(

[J4MIE]

Hey your italian is almost perfect...don't give up just now ;)

Grazie amore mio :D

[J4MIE]

Or oily oaf. :) (serious here, most times it's nearly impossible to understand him and dig out the point he's making)

Oily speaks English now?????? :eek:

[Erki]

There's a very good reason for that Borat. It's because you are not what we English call the sharpest chisel in the toolbox.

Why not try an Estonian forum where you can earnestly discuss the failure of this years beetroot harvest and how to make attractive body jewellery from hollowed out potato husks. :D

Carry on

Pleasure is mine. :s mokin:

[Storm]

The Kwiki-Mart owner from Springfield. Could Apu Nahasapeemapetilon really pass as an Indian name or is it totally made up?

Its possible..but I doubt it......I have never come across either the first name or last name ...but you never know. We have all sorts of weird names.
Even Eki could be a name I guess...infact Eki means unity in Marathi :o

[Eki]

Even Eki could be a name I guess...infact Eki means unity in Marathi :o

Cool. Apu means aid or help in Finnish.

[Erki]

Apu(actually hapu, but the h doesn't get much emphasis) means sour in Estonian.

[Donney]

I can confirm it has no meaning in Spanish. :D

[schmenke]

...Apu means aid or help in Finnish.

Isn't is also the name of a magazine?
I think my mom used to read it.

[dchen]

Just to give my 2 cents as a Mandarin and Taiwanese speaker, with English as my 3rd languague (not sure which was my first). English is definitely easy to pick up, but not easy to perfect because of the grammar. I have been to the State 16 years now, and I think I am generally okay with the language. Only time I run into problem is when I try to write reports, as I often make stupid grammar errors (as I probably have in this post). Mandarin is somewhat difficult to pick up, though the most difficult thing about it is the writing. The word are pretty easy to pronouce, but the writing is difficult, because there are hundres, if not thousands of "roots" to construct the words. And Chinese is one of those things that once you learned it, it's easy to speak and read, but hard to write if you don't practice often. Taiwanese is just hard, even after nearly 30 years I am still having problem pronouncing the words. And I don't even know how to write in Taiwanese, even though it is the main language in my family and in Taiwan (though I am in US now).

[Eki]

Isn't is also the name of a magazine?
I think my mom used to read it.
Yes, the magazine was started during the 1930s depression and they hired unemployed people to sell it to help them get some money, hence the name.

[schmenke]

Yes, the magazine was started during the 1930s depression and they hired unemployed people to sell it to help them get some money, hence the name.

Interesting. Thanks Eki :up:
Is it still in circulation?

[jens]

The hardest part to me in learning foreign languages is listening. :p : At school I was always in huge trouble, when I had to try to understand tapes...

[Eki]

Interesting. Thanks Eki :up:
Is it still in circulation?
As far as know, it is. I don't read it myself.

[Erki]

The hardest part to me in learning foreign languages is listening. :p : At school I was always in huge trouble, when I had to try to understand tapes...

That was for me too, mainly because the tapes weren't all that high quality and there was always some hisssssssssssss soundtrack behind the talking. :\

[jso1985]

English was quite easy to learn for me maybe because as another forumer already posted I can hear English on TV whenever I want, my knowledge is far from perfect, and I make too many grammar mistakes when writing but otherwise I manage perfectly on it(I even managed to undestand Aussies!)
Swedish was also easy to learn, as living among native speakers is probably the easiest and best way to learn any language.
Depending on how close is the foreign language to your native one it also makes it easier I think. I have never taken a single Portuguese lesson yet I understand it quite well and I even can speak a bit of it, so I guess English is easier to learn for Dutch or Scandinavian people

[LeonBrooke]

The hardest part to me in learning foreign languages is listening. :p : At school I was always in huge trouble, when I had to try to understand tapes...

I always had trouble with French - they always talked so fast I couldn't understand anything.

[Donney]

They say the same about Spanish speakers. I know I speak fast but I think it is more related to the fact that Spanish generally uses words with three or more syllables, so if you don't know the language and don't where a word starts and ends, you may get the impression of a continuous blablablablabla....

[Storm]

They say the same about Spanish speakers......you may get the impression of a continuous blablablablabla....

No way :D Its a lovely language!

Anyways not that I understand fast speaking españoles, but south americans are even tougher to understand. I can understand when the kids speak though :p :

[Eki]

I can understand when the kids speak though :p :
I think kids, if they are small enough, say continuous blablablablabla.... no matter where they're from.

[Drew]

Whether or not a language is hard to learn depends on your ability to learn languages and what your mother tongue(s) is/are.

[Erki]

This most probably applies on all languages but still, it just nearly caught me out.
Example: "Ensure that time isn’t wasted by filling it up with enjoyable activities."
So, at first I read it as if time would be wasted by filling it up with enjoyable activities. But it actually meant that time would be wasted if you didn't fill it up with enjoyable activities.

[Mark]

They say the same about Spanish speakers. I know I speak fast but I think it is more related to the fact that Spanish generally uses words with three or more syllables, so if you don't know the language and don't where a word starts and ends, you may get the impression of a continuous blablablablabla....

I don't know, I think longer words would probably make things easier to understand. The trouble I'm finding with listening to French speaking is that many of the words seem to be spoken with less than one syllable, and many sound very similar to each other (even if the spellings are completely different). So I think even if I manage to understand it written down, understanding someone talking is a somewhat bigger task!

[Hotbikerchic33]

I used to work with alot from poland and Iraq and they all said English was very easy to learn and 99% of them spoke it very very well...

When in tenerife in January we got talking to some Germans and their english was superb and when i asked why it was so good they said english is so easy to learn!!!!

[Donney]

The trouble I'm finding with listening to French speaking is that many of the words seem to be spoken with less than one syllable

:eek:
That's an awesome feature from the French people :p

What I didn't mention was the stress pattern in words as in sentences is different in the assorted languages we can learn.

For example in the case French the stress falls on the last syllable making it therefore the most important one within every word, whereas in Spanish it falls in the penultimate and in English in the first syllable, that's one of the reasons why English words are shorter and many speakers do not pay much attention to the word endings, and sometimes they are lost in spoken English.

And then you should add the diferent intonation in the case of sentences, which as you might have noticed, markedly differs between the different languages.

Mix all that with many speakers, traditions and localisms, bring it to a boil for several centuries and voi la, there you have a language to learn.

Fascinating ain't it :dozey:

[Hotbikerchic33]

Para los miembros españoles en aquí hola y bueno a usted espera su aprender inglés bueno!
tenga de todos modos un día bueno y tome el cuidado ;) :) :D

[Donney]

That's a rather peculiar direct translation. :rolleyes:

[fandango]

I don't know, I think longer words would probably make things easier to understand. The trouble I'm finding with listening to French speaking is that many of the words seem to be spoken with less than one syllable, and many sound very similar to each other (even if the spellings are completely different). So I think even if I manage to understand it written down, understanding someone talking is a somewhat bigger task!

This is the main problem people have with English, jenowaimeen? :)

In Spanish, spelling is very consistent. They don't have spelling tests in school like English-speaking kids do because all the letters always have the same sound. There would be no challenge. So they find it hard to get their heads around the idea of learning the spelling and sound of a word separately, which is what we do in English. And the most common vowel sound in English doesn't even have its own dedicated letter to represent it. So it's odd that you have the same problem with French, but there you go.