K.T.: Yes Becca is definitely an American. You can spot it out by the "I give props" phrase. I'd venture to guess she's from the West Coast.
English is the hardest language to learn
Yet another guest: You have clearly not studied German. The grammar is quite different--I would say very different. Yes, the vocabulary is similar, but that's about it. If you're going to argue this point, then why not make the claim that all of the European Languages are practically the same? After all, they're all Latin influenced. If you are going to generalize, then generalize 'aight?
There is no Gender. Most people can get by with a 60 word vocabulary. You don't have to master it in order to speak it. Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, etc. learn it very quickly. I can easily understand people from England, Ireland, Australia, etc. I don't need an interpreter. One person I know, that was born in Mexico, went to Spain for 1 year to LEARN SPANISH! Cuban Spanish is also different than Mexico Spanish. Spanish is not an easy language to master.
From what I've seen mostly from gaming and being around the southern U.S. border English isn't the hardest to get by with. Perhaps to master it is a different story but for survival I've seen people catch on pretty quick. Although my language skills only branch into bits of Spanish and basic Japanese, I've been told from people who learned English as a secondary language that our grammar and spelling can be a tad bit messed up when compared to other languages. I think a big part of it is how you learn the language, as in whether or not you are taking actually classes in it or being self taught. I'm tired so I'll start rambling on soon...if I haven't already so I'll close this up. No I don't think English is the hardest language to learn. But that's just my opinion which prolly shouldn't count since I was brought up speaking it. XD
BTW: I am a native speaker from East Texas(so don't kill me if my grammar is off. =P), and currently trying to learn Japanese but my accent makes this rather hard for me. T.T
BTW: I am a native speaker from East Texas(so don't kill me if my grammar is off. =P), and currently trying to learn Japanese but my accent makes this rather hard for me. T.T
Just listen to a lot of Japanese and tape yourself. Japanese (spoken) isn't hard to imitate and it has the same vowels as Spanish. We all come to foreign languages or English with our own "accents", so I think you should stop viewing your native accent as a handicap and listen closely in order to match the sounds.
English is an easy language, pronounciation takes practice, and punctuation becomes more structured, given time. The hardest part of learning english is simply building up your vocabulary; as long remember enough words to uphold a conversation, you catch on to the gist of the language relatively quickly.
English is only difficult if it is a language which you do not like, or really do not want to learn, but you're learning anyway because so many other people speak or know it.
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There are several other languages which are a lot more difficult to learn.
English is only difficult if it is a language which you do not like, or really do not want to learn, but you're learning anyway because so many other people speak or know it.
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There are several other languages which are a lot more difficult to learn.
"English is only difficult if it is a language which you do not like, or really do not want to learn, but you're learning anyway because so many other people speak or know it. "-Felidire
I agree. I was going to write something similar.
When there is a significant language problem (without a physical cause) and access to the language (even internet) is available, I start wondering if resistance to the culture or perception of the people who speak the language natively is the real problem.
I agree. I was going to write something similar.
When there is a significant language problem (without a physical cause) and access to the language (even internet) is available, I start wondering if resistance to the culture or perception of the people who speak the language natively is the real problem.
<<Most people can get by with a 60 word vocabulary.>>
It'd be interesting to see this list of 60 words :)
It'd be interesting to see this list of 60 words :)
60 words wouldn't cut crap, rofl. Unless you're refering to people using 1 word, like: "help." or "direction.*points on map*" - in which case it isn't really 'speaking' a language as opposed to quoting survival words/phrases.
500 words would be hard enough to get along with, let alone 60. Considering any basic english speaker, with a basic 10,000-20,000 word vocab, will at some point fumble on their sentence, and it does happen rather often.
Simply, If you can't paraphrase using 60 words, you're screwed.
500 words would be hard enough to get along with, let alone 60. Considering any basic english speaker, with a basic 10,000-20,000 word vocab, will at some point fumble on their sentence, and it does happen rather often.
Simply, If you can't paraphrase using 60 words, you're screwed.
Japanese has not the same vowels that Spanish, it has the Spanish ones plus some different, everyone who speak Spanish and ever listened a person speaking Japanese knows this.
Spanish speakers don't have trouble pronouncing Japanese (generally speaking).
There are not many Spanish speakers learning Japanese out there, this language is mostly studied by American geeks who are not so hard pressed to study useful languages like English. The fact is that Japanese has clearly more vowels than Spanish, despite they may be easily reproducible by an Spanish speaker (or not)
When I think of languages with different vowels than Spanish I always assume that they have more than just 5, but clearly this is not the case of Japanese. What I know is that it has a very characteristc vowel which sounds quite different than Spanish ones and it must be that /ΓΌ/ or whatever is its representation.
KT,
"Just listen to a lot of Japanese and tape yourself. Japanese (spoken) isn't hard to imitate and it has the same vowels as Spanish. We all come to foreign languages or English with our own "accents", so I think you should stop viewing your native accent as a handicap and listen closely in order to match the sounds."
Still, carrying a foreign accent is something I would prefer to avoid if I can help it. If the recommendation for it (by the Antimoon founders and alljapaneseallthetime.com, people who I have good reason to believe either speak the foreign language they learned with either very light accents or none at all) is to refrain from speaking while you listen, then I think that is the way to go.
A woman from Mexico I know who did not know any English until age 19 but got married and came over and who speaks with a very light Mexican accent (I suspect that, because she still strongly identifies as Mexican, she maintains that slight accent) told me that she would just listen and listen to the English spoken but for a long time (a few years at least) would not really speak, for fear of being made fun of for speaking poorly and she sat back and heard and heard and heard and constantly made efforts to understand and only when she was absolutely sure did she speak; today, about 10 years later, she has a very _flexible_ sense of grammar that is still correct; she is capable of spotting whether someone is speaking/writing with bad grammar; and she speaks very loosely and correctly.
She tells me that if you want to speak without an accent or sounding strange, you really need a chance to sit back and listen and listen and see the way they do things. These situations seem to lend support to the ALG method. It does seem, however, that many forget that the founders of this very website managed to learn English through input alone without every setting foot in an English-speaking county.
"Just listen to a lot of Japanese and tape yourself. Japanese (spoken) isn't hard to imitate and it has the same vowels as Spanish. We all come to foreign languages or English with our own "accents", so I think you should stop viewing your native accent as a handicap and listen closely in order to match the sounds."
Still, carrying a foreign accent is something I would prefer to avoid if I can help it. If the recommendation for it (by the Antimoon founders and alljapaneseallthetime.com, people who I have good reason to believe either speak the foreign language they learned with either very light accents or none at all) is to refrain from speaking while you listen, then I think that is the way to go.
A woman from Mexico I know who did not know any English until age 19 but got married and came over and who speaks with a very light Mexican accent (I suspect that, because she still strongly identifies as Mexican, she maintains that slight accent) told me that she would just listen and listen to the English spoken but for a long time (a few years at least) would not really speak, for fear of being made fun of for speaking poorly and she sat back and heard and heard and heard and constantly made efforts to understand and only when she was absolutely sure did she speak; today, about 10 years later, she has a very _flexible_ sense of grammar that is still correct; she is capable of spotting whether someone is speaking/writing with bad grammar; and she speaks very loosely and correctly.
She tells me that if you want to speak without an accent or sounding strange, you really need a chance to sit back and listen and listen and see the way they do things. These situations seem to lend support to the ALG method. It does seem, however, that many forget that the founders of this very website managed to learn English through input alone without every setting foot in an English-speaking county.
"Still, carrying a foreign accent is something I would prefer to avoid if I can help it"
I agree.
beneficii,
I can't agree or disagree about waiting it out on a language and listening first. In my case, I didn't have the luxury to do this. I HAD to learn the languages in the countries where I lived. People who are learning a language on their own or if they have a butler like Chibi Maruko Chan's rich friend can probably get the time in to do this. Perhaps it works, but I usually only learn languages for practical reasons: I need them to communicate, and I need them fast!
I agree.
beneficii,
I can't agree or disagree about waiting it out on a language and listening first. In my case, I didn't have the luxury to do this. I HAD to learn the languages in the countries where I lived. People who are learning a language on their own or if they have a butler like Chibi Maruko Chan's rich friend can probably get the time in to do this. Perhaps it works, but I usually only learn languages for practical reasons: I need them to communicate, and I need them fast!