Why The English Language Is So Hard To Learn

[Mahucharn]

Saw these, made me laugh, couldn't find it posted before with the search. Old? Yes. Funny? Absolutely.

"1) The bandage was wound around the wound.

2) The farm was used to produce produce.

3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4) We must polish the Polish furniture.

5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.

8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10) I did not object to the object.

11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13) They were too close to the door to close it.

14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.

19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.

20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?"

Source: http://boriko-superspa.blogspot.com/2010/07/why-english-is-so-hard-to-learn.html

 

[Ninja_sheep]

Quite funny.


Excuse me for ranting though.
From my expirience everybody wants their language to be the hardest to learn (don't ask me why :>).
Or at least Americans (I don't know many other English speaking people, so I can't really say anything about other nations)

English just is one of the easiest languages there is.


When I talked to some people about that subject they always say 'there are words with multiple meanings wich makes it so hard to learn'.
This is a difficult part of the language. Agreed. But it's just such a small fraction!

In German you have to learn a different article for every word. In French you have a crazy amount of different forms and tenses of a verb. Much harder then that.

I'm done.

 

[13lade619]

English just is one of the easiest languages there is.

Yeah. English is kind of easy because every word is somewhat unique in a sense.

Think about Eastern/Asian languages where the word structures are more complicated.
i.e. Japanese/Chinese/Korean where syllabication is more important
and are overall harder to speak/read.

Maybe we move this to the debates section..

Lol I just noticed this is wrong.

21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?"

 

[Whitesock]

Yeah the last one is trying to say imitate and intimate.

I think english is easier to grow up learning, but learning it as a second language is more difficult than others.

 

[13lade619]

Well, I guess I'm "naturally" trilingual (Dialect/National/English) in a sense
because I grew up using the three equally.

 

[Sim]

It depends on the level you're aiming for.

Starting to learn English is easy. Sentences are constructed simply. There are no conjugations, no genders, so the learning curve is smooth.

However, as progress advances, the many exceptions and random rules knock in and thus, reaching the highest levels of English is hard.

 

[ElderKingpin]

maybe its because the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian) are the second most spoken languages (Spanish specifically) are in a different group from English which is a Germanic language. I don't know. But to me English seems to be the only language where you can have an accent of sorts, accents doesn't seem so obvious in other languages (in mine at least).

 

[13lade619]

But to me English seems to be the only language where you can have an accent of sorts, accents doesn't seem so obvious in other languages.

Because different languages have different standards for pronunciation the accent is carried on if you try to speak a different one.

i.e. An American would say that a Japanese speaking English would have an Japanese accent.
The same way a Japanese would say that an American speaking Japanese would have an American accented Japanese.

 

[ElderKingpin]

but i cant tell if someone is speaking an accent in my language <_>

 

[ReVolver]

maybe its because the Romance languages (Spanish, French, Italian) are the second most spoken languages (Spanish specifically) are in a different group from English which is a Germanic language. I don't know. But to me English seems to be the only language where you can have an accent of sorts, accents doesn't seem so obvious in other languages (in mine at least).

Spanish has more accents than English >.> Mexico alone has about 30 different Spanish accents...

Talk to someone from Mexico and then talk to someone from Cuba, then go to Argentina... then go to Spain... and you'll see what I'm talking about.

[YOUTUBE]SLyaXkzAfTE[/YOUTUBE]

 

[ElderKingpin]

but is that accent or dialect, i guess it is an accent.

 

[ReVolver]

but is that accent or dialect, i guess it is an accent.

When Spain came to the new land they didn't speak Spanish Mexico has an accent because they spoke Nahuatl first, and so on...

 

[Zakyath]

English is a very easy language - of course I make errors from time to time, but I've spoken with people from England and the States who make even more mistakes than I do. What I think is the hardest thing is reaching that last step when it comes to the accent, I still have some issues with the th-sound (when I'm not thinking about it, that is).

 

[Monsterous]

Personally, i've never had the TH sound. I say Think as Fink.
People know what your saying, i find it just redundant.

 

[Zakyath]

imo, if you're going to learn a language you should learn it properly and overcome the problems you have with it... otherwise you really haven't learned the language, have you? If you just say "no, I can't say that" you're not making any progress at all

 

[Ninja_sheep]

I agree, getting the 'th' right is pretty hard.

I actually recorded myself and tried to get it right, but I just couldn't get it quite right.

 

[Zakyath]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pronunciation_of_English_th

=)

 

[UndeadDragon]

I personally think that speaking English in a non-fluent way is very easy, as unlike most languages word order is not very important. You can almost just throw out some words that should go into a sentence and it could probably be made sense of.

 

[ReVolver]

I personally think that speaking English in a non-fluent way is very easy, as unlike most languages word order is not very important. You can almost just throw out some words that should go into a sentence and it could probably be made sense of.

This is true like Japanese, all you need is the particles in the right place.

 

[Flare]

Hmmm... now I want to find that article (I think it was an article) making fun of the plural forms of similar words :3

EDIT: Wahey, found it

Lol I just noticed this is wrong.

Yeah the last one is trying to say imitate and intimate.

I think english is easier to grow up learning, but learning it as a second language is more difficult than others.

Er... intimate works just fine as the verb in that sentence - definition

verb (used with object), -mat·ed, -mat·ing.
1. to indicate or make known indirectly; hint; imply; suggest.
2. Archaic . to make known; announce.

And, tbh, most (if not all) languages are difficult to learn (IMO) if they aren't your native language

Hmm, serious discussion about silly things from the English language in the Humor section, never thought this'd happen