English is the hardest language to learn

<Contents on this particular website are written by two non- native speakers and on top of that, they had not lived in any English speaking country for too long.>

Yep, but read carrefully their story: they've been willing to make considerable efforts to achieve their current level of fluency.

<<What a lame statement by you Jasper. Contents on this particular website are written by two non- native speakers and on top of that, they had not lived in any English speaking country for too long.

Open your eyes and brain.>>

Guest, perhaps I didn't make my feelings clear. I was referring to the fact that several non-natives have made the statement that "English is easy" while making some pretty serious grammatical errors.

In my own experience, true fluency--especially in writing--is very rare in non-native speakers.

<In my own experience, true fluency--especially in writing--is very rare in non-native speakers. >

That can be said for native speakers as well who don't write on a regular basis.

<<That can be said for native speakers as well who don't write on a regular basis.>>

Guest, that might or might not be true, but the topic of the thread pertained to how difficult (or easy) English is to learn for non-natives. ;-)

On the other hand, though, it is often very possible to be more fluent in a second language in writing than in speech, especially if reads (and writes) large amounts of content in said language but does not actually speak a whole lot in Real Life with native speakers of said language. One may have writing that cannot be recognized as having been written by a nonnative speaker in and of itself, yet said individual may have a very clear nonnative accent in speech.

Note that the same sort of thing is very often true with respect to standardness in the case of native speakers of a given language, as it is very common to be very fluent in writing in the applicable standard language, and yet one's actual everyday speech is significantly distant from the applicable spoken analogue of said standard, and one may be less able to follow such a spoken standard fluently than to follow said written standard. Of course, this is a different matter from fluency, but it is still analogous in nature.

In my expectations I belive That spanish(Spain) will be the country that most people should go if they want to learn the original way. That is why learning spanish in Spain is unique. My first language was spanish but I was raised in the U.S. Actually, that means that my spanish is a liittle off, however if I go to Espania for a while I might a chance to gain it all back. According what I seen in Canada or France will be the best countries to learn french.

attention please ! doesn't accent matter to because if you go through Mexico to Argentina then to Spain they may talk quickly . Think about it all folks. same thing happens to english and french. I think people in Europe, should know more than one language ,because i heard you could chose betwen any language throughout Europe. how come they can do that here in the U.S. At least french from Canda to be teached in middle school and spanish to be teached in high school here in the U.S?

Im pretty sure all of the people posting in English who have a different first language made so many grammatical mistakes. It shows how hard English really is.

English isn't really a difficult Language to learn, and all learners will make many mistakes as they travel along the path of it's learning process. That's how they eventually master it so long as they learn from their mistakes and try not to repeat them. In time they will eradicate them and end up speaking English better than many of the so called "native" speakers. It's a fact that people who learn English as a second Language (or third or fourth or whatever) do actually speak it more correctly than many of us "natives" as they aren't aware of all the colloquialisms and sloppy modes of expression. That may sound a wee bit "stuffy" and this "learned English" could be regarded as too clinical. Anyway, it's pretty certain that learners will also fall into the trap of picking up bad habits as time goes by merely by mixing in with the "locals" wherever that may be where English is the official Language. That's pretty much guaranteed - they just rub off and they end up cutting corners and speaking English just as "badly" as the rest of us - but that could depend on circumstances.

The main problem with English is its many inconsistencies - be it pronunciation or simple but maddening irregularities - like house/houses but mouse/mice and all that sort of caper. Grammar though is generally very easy and without all those gender based case endings, for instance, which can make many other Langiages a wee bit of a nightmare for learners.

All in all English is easy peasy lemon squeezy. You can learn to speak it like what I speak it if you're not careful.

I don't agree that non-native speakers tend to speak English better than we do. Maybe they do know more about the formal grammar rules, but a great many of them still make the kind of mistakes that natives never would, often even after having lived in an English speaking country for years.

I wouldn't say that English is the hardest language to learn, but it certainly isn't easy either. Personally, I think that the hardest thing about any language is the idioms.

The UK...on Channel 4 TV currently...Big Brother 8....a group of people are holed up together in this crazy house with absolutely no contact with the outside world and their every move and every word uttered is recorded live on camera and sound (with obvious decencies observed of course...I mean, nobody wants to see anyone on the loo). Of all the Housemates in there all are British except one.....a Greek guy....the lovely Gerry (Greek or not that's his name - it must be an Anglicised version of his real name!)

Guess which one speaks the clearest and most formally correct English and who has the most far reaching vocabulary, using words some of the others have never heard of before? Yep....you've got it!

I speak fluent English but thats only because i'm American.
And I always thought English would be the easiest to learn and speak for anyone. But thats just my opinion. I would think that Spanish is the easiest to learn other then English. If you think im wrong what would you say is the easiest language to learn?

>>I speak fluent English but thats only because i'm American.
And I always thought English would be the easiest to learn and speak for anyone. But thats just my opinion. I would think that Spanish is the easiest to learn other then English. If you think im wrong what would you say is the easiest language to learn?<<

English is only easy if you natively speak a Germanic language, and even then it has significant quantities of vocabulary which are foreign to other Germanic languages (from Old Norman, French, Latin, and Greek). While English does not have as much morphology as many other European languages, its syntax is often quite nontrivial, its usage of tense and aspect is quite complex (compared to, say, that in German), and the usage of things like verb particles and prepositions is in no fashion straightforward, especially if you don't natively speak a Germanic language. And that is not to even speak of English orthography, either...

I can't say I've paid much attention to how well BB's Gerry speaks English. I will listen more carefully next time I watch. Still I'd be surprised if he doesn't sometimes sound a bit awkward to native ears, and if he doesn't, he is the exception rather than the rule.

Still, I'm sure he, like most people, native or not, speaks it better than Charley, innit? lol