Is English Difficult Or Easy To Learn?

http://books.google.co.th/books?id=iEff_YCrGpgC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false

This is the googlebook version of the second book, it may allow you to peak more into it.

Well, actually what you’re saying is making an awful lot of sense – up until now nobody has put to me this particular way that if German got rid of the gender system, things all of a sudden wouldn’t be much harder than in English because I have to agree that indeed there are plenty of specific prepositions going with particular English verbs and nouns so it can indeed be perceived as verb conjugation or noun inflection.

Thanks for the discussion as well! 😉

Regards,

Robby

By “irregularities” I meant everything – inflection, exceptions, irregular verbs – everything (the good AND the bad stuff!)

Basically if we compare the English language and German, there’s more things that change depending on the gender, case etc. in German – I guess we all have to agree on it.

Bottom line – I’m not going to say German is more difficult – as I said, it’s a matter of perception – but I’ll never agree with the original author on English being more complicated than German.

Personally I’ve had experiences with 5 languages and I can only judge their perceived difficulty based on what I’ve gone through myself.

Latvian is my native language so obviously it’s easy-peasy for me.

Russian is my second language so I “feel” its grammar without even questioning it – it’s the so called “gut feeling” I’ve also developed for the…

English language which is my third language, but the point I’m making in this article is that it’s always been much easier to construct English sentences even prior to achieving fluency in this language – and the reason for that is the lack of inflection.

I studied German for 7 years and I always found it hard to use the right articles and conjugate the verbs while at the same time I had no such issues in my English class. Yes, I agree that if I learned the German language in a natural setting mainly by speaking, I would have acquired all the grammar contextually (just what I preach on my blog here), but it just hasn’t happened for the simply reason that I haven’t had the chance to use German – I moved to an English speaking country instead! 😉

I also picked up some conversational Romanian – and it happened in quite the opposite way to my German studies – I learned it in real life by speaking with Romanians and as a result I picked up grammar and conjugations naturally so the perceived difficulty was next to none.

So yes, I agree – it’s all a matter of perspective and lack or presence of inflection doesn’t necessarily signify complexity of the language in question.

Still, I don’t agree that the author of the original article was correct in saying that English is more difficult than German.

If we simply compare the number of irregularities in the language, there’s way more of them in the German language!

On the finishing note – speaking of who’s causing the loss of inflection – sure enough, it’s the PEOPLE speaking the language!

Hi Cenk,

By the way – English verbs are conjugated, as a matter of fact:

I do,
You do,
He, she, it doES

Even more than than – back in the day they used to be conjugated an awful lot more:

I do,
Thou doST,
He, she it doTH

So basically over time the English language has become more simplistic as it’s been losing its infection, and that’s the point I’ve been trying to make in this article.

I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say in your comment – are you agreeing or disagreeing with my opinion or you’re just complaining about the unfairness of other languages being way more difficult while English is being relatively easy?

Regards,

Robby

Benny is a guy who could speak more languages then you could ever hope to speak yet to don’t bother to understand his reasoning. What the hell was that thing above about Chinese syntax anyway? You must of seen the wikipedia articles claiming it has complicated syntax when in reality it uses constructions similar to that of English. You can’t imagine that such a language that is called hard could have simpler grammar than English! Chinese can’t be a pidgin, it must somehow make up for it’s near lack of inflection somehow! but not English lollol whatever. Is learning to add the prepositions after a noun instead of before it to indicate definiteness or indefiniteness in Chinese child’s play compared to learning the irregularities of past tenses in English? Whatever!

To add, languages go in morphology cycles. Fusional to Analytical to Agglutinating. English like many asian languages is analytical. Analytical languages are easier to communicate in basic speech. But in the end English is just as grammatical

“We’re all crammed together on one tiny island.” Say what? There are a few hundred million of us anglophones on the other side of the Atlantic, too ;).

I agree that English may seem easy in the early stages, but mastery is difficult. What I think is the hardest thing (besides our insane spelling, which in turn makes learning pronunciation difficult) is the abundance of verb-adverb combinations – to get on, to get over, to get down, etc. – which look like variations of the same verb but functionally are different verbs in their own right. Many English learners struggle to distinguish them, because in their own languages, each one is entirely different.

(And yes, your “innit” thing is so weird!)

I always remember one example phrase that drove my students crazy: “Visiting aunts can be a nuisance”! Also the use of modals, using Mandy Rice-Davies’ court speech in the Profumo scandal: “Well he would, wouldn’t he?” I tried, at advanced level, to get them to leave their grammar books at home, but they couldn’t give them up! At this level, there are no rules – only the “best fit” rule for context and syntax. That’s why so many students give up at upper intermediate level. Hey ho!

I taught EFL for a long time many years ago. I’m English too. All I can say is that we English don’t learn grammar like kids in other countries. In fact, we don’t learn grammar at all at school! Ask an average English person what an adverb or a relative clause is and they’ll have absolutely no idea! The points made above are true – English has few inflections, etc. So, to begin with students make good progress. Think of grammar as the machine that helps you pump out meaningful language, so others can understand you. As students progress to say upper-intermediate level, they start to realise that knowing English grammar is only a tiny part of the story! It’s not going to help you communicate in a subtle way or understand us fully. English is all about obfuscation – zones of exclusion. We’re all crammed together on one tiny island. We must be subtle and use the right language for the right context. That’s the difficulty right there, and why English is so fiendish to learn at an advanced level. We have one of the largest vocabularies of any living language. And it gets bigger and bigger every day! Don’t be too obsessed with grammar. Sure, it’s important, but be sure to read, read, read! To advance further you’ll need to be able to access our incredibly rich vocabulary and put it to good and appropriate use. Learn your phrasal verbs, read Harry Potter, devour our literature – whatever you have to do. It’s the only way to access the secrets of our language. But take heart! Even the English don’t speak the language well, innit?

I have liked this article , I am learning English , and my English course use only grammar and rules , I’d like learn more vocabulary .

With all due respect, I don’t agree.

You’re saying any language is BASED on grammar. Well, yes, grammar is what binds words together, determines how they’re organized and how sentences are structured. To say that a language is BASED on grammar is, however, an overstatement. 

I personally think that grammar is inseparable from spoken language and we shouldn’t put emphasis on grammar at any stage of language acquisition. When we learn to speak correctly, we learn correct grammar along the way.

Unless you are going to have ample opportunity to practice the speaking aspect of English, it is far better to learn grammar first.  This way, you have a solid basis of knowledge about the language.  After all, the language is based on grammar and vocabulary, not a few random phrases.  That said, if a student CAN speak the language regularly, it is good for them to learn situational conversations.  After all, for anything someone says, there can only be so many (logical) responses.

I have a degree in English and still constantly spell words wrong- so do many English speakers.u00a0 I catch educated people speaking the past tenses of English incorrectly.u00a0 To speak English without mistakes is impossible, and English has one of the most extensive vocabularies.u00a0 Let’s hear this guy speak.hmmmu00a0 The more English you know, the more you realize how much you don’t know!

You’re wrong. Just because English may be easy for YOU, doesn’t make it an easy language. For example, I learned Mandarin Chinese extremely fast, and I find it to be one of the easiest languages to learn. However, other people find it near impossible to learn. On the flip side, I find Russian impossible…even though you found it extremely. You see my point? There is no easy or hard language.. different languages are easy/hard for specific people…but to say that one language is easy or hard for EVERYONE, is misguided.u00a0

As a native English speaker, I would like to make my comments heard.nnIf English is so easy learn, then why do so many non-native speakers of English make so many mistakes?u00a0The contention that English is an easy language to learn is a commonly-held falicy. Although it is true that English is relatively easy to learn at the very beginning, the more one learns, the more difficult the language becomes.u00a0However, please don’t take my word for it, but rather listen to the experts instead.u00a0Two Expert OpinionsTwo of my non-native English speaking friends agree that English is a difficult language to learn. One friend (Slovene) is a linguist who is fluent in 20 languages. And my other friend (German) has a Masters degree in English and over 20 years of very close relationships with native English speakers. Both friends said that learning English is quite different than learning many other European languages.u00a0Very Rich VocabularyAlthough German has a complex grammar, once one learns the rules and exceptions (this might take a full-time language student well over a year), it becomes easier to learn new vocabulary. Moreover, German pronunciation and spelling rules are infinitely easier than that of English. Conversely, English can be spoken effectively (but not necessarily correctly by any means) with a very limited vocabulary and while ignoring rules in grammar – and the native speakers still understand what the learner is (sometimes trying to say) saying.u00a0Very Tolerant Audience (Native Speakers)Because many native speakers of English are very forgiving when people make mistakes in English, many non-native speakers falsely believe that they speak English quite well. Of course English can be mastered as a foreign language. I will not refute this. However, English has one of the richest, if not the richest vocabularies of any language in the world. To complicant things, although English is considered to be a West Germanic language (our language just would not work without those Geman prepositions such as durch – became through; u00fcber – became over; unter – became under, etc.) only about 25% of English words come from Germany; whereas more than 28% of English words come from Latin, and nearly as many English words come from the French language. This makes learning English vacubulary relatively complex in comparison to learning German vocabulary. This is because in German, words are often formed in a veryu00a0rudimentary manner, as compound nouns are very common in German. So it becomes comparitvely easy to guess what compound German words mean, while English vocabulary can often be very abstract. It must be stated, however, that Engish vocabulary is easier learned by French and Italian speakers, than speakers of Germanic languages.u00a0English PronunciationTake English pronunciation as an example:”Always another apple” – although this is not a logical sentence, the letter “a” at the beginning of all three words is pronounced slightly differently (i.e. three unique “a” sounds) – something that a native English speaker will be able to hear. However, many learners of English will not necessarily hear the difference. Hence, they will have to learn how to pronounce many words in English in school – as there are no strict pronunciation rules in English. Moreover, spelling is also very difficult (even for native speakers).On the easy side, English rules regarding plural are relatively straight forward when compared to German.u00a0English comma rules are very complex. Moreover, adverbal placement in English can be very tricky. u00a0Many German speakers have major problems with English verb tenses:u00a0For example, they might often say: He’s smoking – Instead of He smokes.u00a0And for some unknown reason, I have noticed that many non-native speakers of English somehow prefer to say I am instead of I’m – or We have – instead of We’ve got – in spoken English, i.e. they don’t feel comfortable usingu00a0contractions.It is true that learning German noun gender can be very difficult, there are patterns to follow, e.g. words enging in “ion”, “eit”, “e” are (usually in the case of “e”) fem.Language Name Endings: English vs. GermanArabic – ArabischDanish – Du00e4nischDutch – Niederlu00e4ndischEnglish – EnglischFrench – Franzu00f6sischItalian – ItalienischThai – Thailu00e4ndischNorwegian – NorwegischSlovene – SlowenischCroatian – KroatischIcelandic – Islu00e4ndischPortugese – PortugiesischRussian – RussischCzech – TschechischI count roughly ten diffrent endings for the English-spelled language, and only one for German, i.e. isch.In closing, I would say that German is difficult and the word that comes to mind is COMPLEX. However, English is the easiest languge to begin to learn and this gives one a false sense that the language is easy to master. On the contrary, English is a very sophisticated language and I hope one day to master it. However, I will spend the rest of my life learning the vocabulary, which grows by over 5,000 words per annum.

english is easy to learn, very few conjugations and easy grammar, try arabic or russian or chinese, now THOSE are hard!!!!!! lol lol

As a native English speaker I agree with McKenzie in so far as “English is a mongrel language”.u00a0 However, my opinion diverges beyond that.u00a0 English’s mongrel pedigree is its STRENGTH!u00a0 There is no language on the planet that was developed scientifically to eliminate or reduce exceptions or other confusing issues.u00a0 What we have with English is a mish-mash of western European languages (including Latin) resulting from demographic upheaval and other factors.u00a0 The stuff that WORKED for communication was retained.u00a0 Clearly I’m a bit of an English chauvanist (if one can pardon the ironic use of vocabulary proving my point).u00a0 It is not perfect but its pretty darn good!u00a0 Thanks to Robby for the article.

Hello, Robby!

I’ve read a lot of things in your blog and I totally agree with your way of thinking.

However, unlike you, I’m a strong believer that if your goal is to achieve FLUENCY, no language can be labeled as more difficult/easier than another one.

From what I’ve read elsewhere in your blog, you’re a strong believer that languages are things we acquire naturally by exposure (etc), and not by grammar books. I couldn’t agree more, but with all due respect, aren’t you contradicting yourself when you say, for example, that what you’re required to “hammer into your brain” when learning German demands more effort than when learning English?

Take the phrase “stuck in traffic” in German. It’s “im Stau”, right? We say “im Stau” and not “in der Stau” because the dative case is required here. If we think about it that way, we’re definitely going to take much longer building the sentence in our heads. However, if we just learn the phrase “im Stau” without knowing WHY we use “im”, and repeat it several times, the correct grammar will settle in our minds without any effort.

The same thing applies for using the gerund with TO or the ING form of the verbs, described in that guy’s article. If we simply learn the sentences as they are, the reason why the grammar puts together the words won’t matter at all!

Hi, I’m just relearning German now and I have to disagree with your disagreement about “ich gehe” not having those translations! 🙂

If you say “ich gehe Morgen ins Kino”, to my understanding that could be read as either “I’m going to the cinema tomorrow” (i.e. future is implied) or “I’m going to go to the cinema tomorrow” (future is clarified), or even “I’ll go to the cinema tomorrow” (slightly different context, e.g. spontaneous decision, not expressed by werden in German).

Usually if the context is clear that it’s the future, “werden” wouldn’t be used and the present tense is preferred, so “will” would occur in English more than in German. Also, “ich gehe ins Kino seit 5 Jahren” would be “I have been going” OR “I have gone to the cinema for 5 years” (once again, it depends on the intended meaning). Once you add “seit” it’s impossible to use the two translations you gave (I go / I am going) with “ich gehe”.

As the author of the text states, it depends on the context. He is absolutely right that you can form various different tenses from that example. You can’t just translate the first two words of the sentence, ignoring the context 😉

You also said that “The German students from the article can’t be objective”, but you were doing the same thing with Latvian! In Irish (Gaelic), we also have masculine & feminine without any help from articles as in German / Spanish etc., but that doesn’t mean that you essentially you have to memorize “EVERY” noun’s gender. There are very straightforward patterns; word endings, vowel formations, categories like workers/objects in nature etc. I don’t know any Latvian but I’d be extremely surprised if it didn’t follow similar patterns. The work involved in getting familiar with those patterns and any others could theoretically be the same as for getting used to English’s own difficulties, depending on a huge amount of factors, especially the learner’s motivation.

I agree with you that ultimately any language can be simple, but then you contradict that by stating how difficult German is and clarifying that English is one of the easiest ones. I was an English teacher and I agree with several points of that other article in how English is harder than a lot of people with casual knowledge of it make it out to be.

However, I overall disagree with both you and the author of the other article. I think randomly assigning ANY language as easier or harder is pointless and ultimately unhelpful.

In the end, I’m with your final thoughts that focusing on grammar points rather than your motivation to speak the language and the context that it’s spoken in will always make any language seem hard – English, German, Spanish, Japanese etc.