Why do Americans think that English is a hard language to learn? It definitely is not!!!?

Question

where does this misperception come from? English is very very easy if you learn it!

Answer 1

It's very complex and there are extremely specific ways of conveying a meaning of certain phrases and there are many litteral words and phrases which sound logical in translations but in practice do not work.
While it's true that there are very easy aspects of English to learn, there are many confusing ways to learn how to communicate in the language and a lot of exceptions to the rules of English.
It's one of the world's hardest languages.

Answer 2

There are no easy languages. There are no hard languages. The ease of learning a language is dependent on your first language and simply on your own thought process. Languages of the same family such as German and English or Spanish and Italian are considerably easy to jump between, while a native speaker of Chinese may find it very difficult to pick up English due to the great differences. Also, some languages naturally make more sense to one person than another. It is different for every person.

In my study of languages I'd say that one of the hardest things in english by comparison to other languages is the spelling and pronounciation. I never had a big problem with either, but I certainly think that it is a lot less logical than MOST other languages that I've seen. But as I said, it may make perfect sense to you even though I think it is random. Everybody's mind works different.

Answer 3

Part of it probably has to do with the fact that many native speakers of English have a hard time spelling and speaking it correctly. The spelling thing goes for more than just English, definitely, but I think maybe the grammar problems that a lot of English speakers have are more unique to English than some other languages. We make grammar mistakes all the time without even realizing it (I'm sure I've made a few in this answer). In Spanish, at least, I haven't noticed these mistakes nearly as often from native speakers (though I sometimes sound like a small, slightly retarded child when I speak Spanish because of grammatical mistakes).

Also, it seems like we have more exceptions to the rules than we have rules, when it comes to spelling and pronunciation. Because Spanish is often the first language that many English speakers learn as a second language, English just seems like it must be insanely difficult to learn in comparison because of the grammatical reasons and because of the spelling/pronunciation reasons.

Just a note: my generalizations about English speakers' grammatical problems are definitely referring more to Americans. (I'm American, so I have more experience with American English. I don't want to imply that the same goes for people in other parts of the world.)

Answer 4

Personally, English is my first language, and so I don't think it was difficult to learn, because I never really had to "learn" it. I've heard that English is very difficult if it is not your first language because there are many words that have double or even triple meanings. For example, when I did an exchange trip to Spain, my host sister told me that she hated learning English because the word "Mean" can represent the definition or something, or can be an adjective describing someone who is not a nice person. I also added in that there is something called an average mean. She just loved that. Anyway, there are many of examples of this, and every international person I know (and I know a lot), has told me that English is the hardest language for him/her to learn.

If you are wondering why many Americans can't speak their own language correctly and complain about it, then I can tell you that the education system in the United States right now is very poor, and many people speak in a regional dialect that oftentimes is constructed with improper grammar. These people will find (and do find) it very difficult to get good jobs in the United States.

Answer 5

English is considered difficult to learn simply because there are multiple uses for words which are spelled or sound the same. It's not exclusive to English, I'm sure (as I'm attempting to learn Dutch). Also, English is one of the few languages that has no gender to its words; It makes it difficult to create a visualization of the item being described.
And Americanized English is "chock full" of slang! I don't even know what the origin of that one is, but I know it means that something is "filled with"...perhaps someone once drew a line on a barrel with chalk, and the objective was to fill the barrel to the chalk mark, but the slang usage has altered the spelling - See what I mean?

Answer 6

Ok, well people from the United States aren't going to think it is as hard because it is their native language. But people who didnt grow up are going to have a tough time with English because of all the letters that sometimes aren't pronounced, but then other times are pronounced. For example: rough, through, ghetto ... the gh sound is different in every word. Then we also have words like: Their, there, they're.. and two, to, too. It is just a confusing language in that aspect.

Answer 7

All of the people who have told me that English is a hard language to learn are not native speakers of English. I've never heard a native speaker claim it was hard for them personally to learn their native language. Given that, I'd have to say native English speaking Americans like me at least think it's hard to learn because people who learned it as a second language tell us it is.

I just can't resist this. "English is very very easy to learn if you learn it" I think I'm going to use this as an example sentence in my class this Fall.

Answer 8

Yeah
I studied French German and I am Italian and I think English is easy
It is a charming language but it's not that hard compaired to for instance German
my previous boss, who is Irish, had many difficulties in writing his own mother tongue....I was always correcting his mistakes
Ps: I guess the hardest language is Latin....but I don't think you will hear that very often hehehe

Answer 9

English really is easy. I learned it before I was two! Most kids here in America do too. Japanese, Spanish, French, Russian- those are hard. I have to study like crazy just to say broken sentences.

Answer 10

You must be a quick learner. Is English your second language? They say English is a difficult language bc there are no true absolute rules. In Spanish, a word is written the exact way it's pronounced no if's and's or but's, not the case in English. For example, the word might, should be spelled "myt" or "mite". Then theres there their and there; where, were, wear, and ware; to, two, and too. I before E except after C, but not if it's 'their'. Geese, not gooses; mice not mouses; cacti, not cactuses...etc, etc, etc. Show me a language that is this complicated.