Language Difficulty

[WeissRaben]

In your opinion what's the most difficult language?

I'll vote for German and Italian, Japanese rensemble english to me, alphabet apart...

 

[BlueScope]

My vote goes for Chinese (IMO the most difficult well-known language on the planet), Arabian (from what I know, it's kinda easy if you know it, but considering that you only learn it when you live in one of those countries that main the language, it might be kind of hard to find someone teaching you), and others like the hundred forms of african tribe languages or just the ones that aren't documented at all, like indian languages... well, I know German can be hard to learn, but the question was what I consider to be hard, and since I always was the best German speaker in any classes or groups I attended, it's not really hard to me ^_^

 

[WeissRaben]

well, i would have meant what languages do you think are the most difficult in general...I'm italian, but I picked italian (because is quite hard)

 

[Ceroscuro]

I haven't tried to learn all of those languages, so voting would be making an uneducated decision.

Also, the language that is "most difficult" would absolutely differ from person to person.

 

[Rye]

I believe the languages that would be the hardest is the ones that aren't close to your original language. Spanish and German come very easy to me if I actually study them, but things like Chinese, or Japanese is hard. More so because of the fact you have to learn a whole new alphabet (and in Chinese, you don't even get an alphabet O.o)

 

[Rhazdel]

I voted for Chinese. From what I understand, structurally, Chinese is the most like English (which is actually a difficult language to learn because of our complex structural rules), but I voted for it also because a lot of it is emphasis on pronunciation.

Two words can be spelled the same and pronounced just slightly differently and have two very different meanings.

So, it gets my vote

 

[BlueScope]

English (which is actually a difficult language to learn because of our complex structural rules)

Umm... fine, I know I'm probably not the right person to post the following, considering almost every single one of my sentences has a grammar error somewhere, but for real now... English is an easy language to learn, hands down... you're the first person I hear saying something contrary to that.

 

[Mega Flare]

yeah i have to say enlgish, been speaking it for most of my life now and still dont understand it XD

 

[rataime]

English isn't hard : a quite simple grammar, words with a precise meaning...

Compare that to French (welcome to Grammar Hell, enjoy your stay) or German (I hate those declension enough to speak English as fluently as I don't speak German. So much for the France-Germany reconciliation.)

But Chinese seems awful to learn, with all those sound-quite-the-same-but-are-completely-different words.

 

[Roman Candle]

I voted for English. Pronunciation and spelling are massive irreglar, (or fiendishly regular, if you want to look at it that way). In fact, I still can't really, (and probably will never be able to) spell English.

Grammar's ok. The way I look at it, vocabulary is a nightmare to get right, although most non-native learners would never realise it. Because so many different words from different languages have come into English, they have all simly become specific, (small example - apple and fruit originally meant the same thing. Once fruit entered the language, apple changed to mean, specifically, an apple). In other langauges, (the best example I can think of is ancient Greek, but only because I'm a classicist), lots of words are vauge or conceptual. For instance, phrenas in Homeric Greek can mean: Chest, heart, mind, state of mind, emotion, wits, opinion. The precise words you use have a strong influence on your tone in English.

Also, we speak extremely fast and swallow a lot of sounds completely. And that's in proper English - modern langague or slang are even worse. Although inflection doesn't change the litteral meaning of words, like it does in Chinese languages, it essentially decides your entire attitude and meaning. People underestimate just how important inflection is in English.

I'm told that Japanese it quite easy, and is apparently very regular. Latin is also very regular, but the grammar can be an absolute nightmare. Ancient Greek is just horrible, (but quite fun ^_^). I never really enjoyed French, but I now suspect that was only because I was forced to do it and take exams in it. Now I'd quite like to go back and learn more.

Edit:
Well, we don't have genders for words. That's one thing in English's favour. And Japanese has lots of rules on what words acompany what attitude. For instance, a lot of men learn Japanese from their girlfriends and end up speaking a very effeminate, submissive form of the language, I'm told XD

 

[WeissRaben]

Uhm...I think english, compared to italian, french, spanish or other languages, is veery simple...there is the pronunciation question, that's right, but there are no genders, only three or four verbal forms (only one really useful in case of regular verbs), and little verbal tenses...

 

[Prexus]

English is a very, very easy language to learn. Both to write, and read.

It has a massive ruleset, making it very defined.

It would be common to say that while English has many rules, it also has many exceptions. And while this is true, in a general sense, if you keep in mind that many of the exceptions are because the words involved are not English in nature, but come from other languages.

English is a hybrid of Latin, French, and German. The Germanic words generally have a rude, or negative connotation due to the political state of England at the time. (Rome had taken England over from the Germans, who had pushed the Celts out. Because Rome was in control, the Latin (and thus the French) words were the ones spoken by the nobles, and thus had a positive and regal connotation, whereas the Germans would have been farmers/shit haulers, and words spoken by them were instantly considered rude and negative by the roman nobles.)

It is the words that come from languages outside of those three that make up the majority of the languages exceptions.

But I digress. As I said, there are many rules in English that make it a very easy language. However it takes time and practice to understand the exceptions to the rules.

I voted for Chinese, btw.

 

[Draken]

I don't think Arabian is a language, but it's Arabic. I've been taught it before, but about like 5-7 years ago.
From what I remember it was really difficult to write with, due to writing from right to left instead of left to right. It's so weird (Well, obviously to me as I have spoken English all my life).

French is easy to learn IMO, but its always the grammar that gets to me.

 

[alexia]

I feel that English is the most difficult language to learn in terms of consistency. For every rule, there seems to be an exception. We have too many letters in the alphabet for one thing. Why do we have "c" when we have "s" and "k"? And even with all of our letters, they behave differently depending on the context in which they are used. English is a borrowed language. A lot of our irregular spellings are due to words that have been taken from other languages. And another thing, why isn't there a word to represent "his/her"? I hate typing/writing "his/her" or "their" when referring to a single person of unknown gender.

 

[Ellie]

The most difficult language I've tried to learn is Japanese. I've only tried English, German, and French other though. But the main thing is, with Japanese, you have to not only learn the language, but a whole different alphabet and way of writing and talking.

 

[kimpoy2006]

Well for me french and german are very hard. Especially when it come with pronunciation! (and the slang)

 

[arcthemonkey]

I've heard fairly consistantly from foreigners that English is the most difficult language they've learned (and are still trying to learn 5 years later!)

I can't say how one can say it's well defined, since exceptions seem to be the rule, and slang terms and poor grammar are used more commonly that the correct versions. Words like whom, healthful, and a million others are almost never used, while words like Ain't, which I've heard described as a contraction of "Ain't" and "Not" are every bit as common as not.

Never mind things like the words "cause" and "effect" which are synonyns when they are nouns and antonyms when they are verbs.

Pronunciation is anything but consistant as well.

Other languages cause problems, but English is simply cobbled together, and it shows.

As for languages I've studied, Japanese and Spanish were about tied. Spanish was easier because of all the cognates and my previous knowledge of the language and the latin roots, but Japanese is much easier for me to pronounce for some reason, and my handwriting in japanese is better than it is in english. I write japanese pretty fast too.

I dunno - as far as German being hard for people who speak English to learn, I was under the impression it was 70% word replacement.

 

[Cruelty]

I only speak English, and never bothered to try to learn another language. Me still don't does it right, either.
..athf joke. please laugh =[

 

[Rhazdel]

I agree with Arcthemonkey. Most non-native English speakers will tell you that English is the most difficult.

For example, how do you pronounce "a"? Does it say it's name, like in "Okay", is it drawn out like "apple"? Is it more subdued, like in "rant"? Does it sound like an "o", like in "lawn" (which has a silent 'w' in it, too)? Is it silent, like in "algae"?

In most foreign languages, sentence structure is very well defined and letters almost always make the same sounds.

In English, the verb can technically come either before or after the noun, almost every rule has exceptions and it is just, in general, grammatic hell.

Millions of people in the world speak English and I'd say probably 80% of them honestly don't know how to speak it properly.

 

[WeissRaben]

Well, I think english is quite simple...but I'm studying it from 9 years (and I'm 17...)
And Rhazdel, look at the italian verbs, then we can talk about the english ones