To All Bilingual People- Is English Really difficult to learn if you aren't born speaking it?

Question

I mean, if you speak german, spanish, italinan, greek, swedish, ect. and then learn English, is it hard? I was born in the United States speaking it, so it isnt hard for me. But if its your second language, is it hard?

Answer 1

extremely.



just wondering why people gave me thumbs down for expressing my difficulty?

Answer 2

I have heard that English is the hardest language to learn. I believe it is because of all of the slang used all over the US. Not too easy to teach a language when so many different translations can be found for the same statement. I speak English though and I thought learning French and Spanish were hard, but that is what I have always understood about the English language.

Answer 3

I personnally think english is a REALLY easy language to learn. It's not like any other language I spoke before learning it (i.e. french, romanian) so I must have been really easy because I mastered it quite fast. I started to study english when I was relatively old (about 10 years old) and now, 3 years later, I suppose I know enough to post in english forums and actually be understood. Really, all you need to do is practice a lot and study hard.

Compared to french (language I learned), romanian (my mother tongue), spanish and swedish (languages I am learning), it's really not difficult. The grammar is very easy, and so are the verbs (In french, romanian and spanish, you actually have a different conjugation for each pronoun). The only thing that's perhaps a little bit difficult is the spelling. But once again, it's nothing compared to french.

Answer 4

No language is hard if you start learning at a very young age. Difficulty in learning a foreign language also depends on the root of that second language. Learning to speak a second European language is much easier than if you try to learn two entirely different ones, e.g. English & Spanish vs English and Farsi.

Answer 5

not at all, i was born speaking spanish and was raised speaking it until i was 12 years old when I came to the United States, learning proper English only took me about 3 years, now i'm 17 and i can speak, read and write in English in an almost perfect way. I'm making mostly A's in school and I'm ready to finish 12th grade and go to college here in Georgia where I live. To me English is one of the easiest languages to learn. Nice question by the way.

Answer 6

My first language is Spanish. Learning English was a joke, I had to take English every year of school plus thorughout college. I also read a lot in English, and watched a lot of cable, so it was pretty much painless.

What was a royal pain in the *** was understanding the Southern US accent. The rest was easy.

Spanish, on the other hand, is hard even if you were raised in it. I got better grades in my English language courses than in my Spanish language courses. I pity the fool that is a native English speaker and is trying to learn Spanish, that has to be 20 times harder than what I had to do.

Answer 7

I'm mexican and learned english around 8 years old, it was very easy for me (maybe 'cause i like it a lot) and actually, it's easier to learn a new foreign language when you have already adquired a previous one (I'm currently studying japanese, italian and french, and knowing english has helped me a lot, though I'm not sure exactly why, but i feel like that ^^u and I've known other people that have experienced the same.) btw, among the languages I mentioned, I think french is the one that has given me the most hard time while learning.

But I guess it all has to do with each people interests; if you like it, you'll learn it without problems. Also cultural factors influence a lot, by example, in Mexico we are very exposed to english, you read it and listen to it everyday in movies, tv, radio, internet, etc, so that is definitely helpful.

Answer 8

I'm an Indian and my first language is Hindi. But i have grown up reading so much of English that it has made me become more fluent in English than any Indian language. I feel this is becase English is a relatively easy language to learn. Hindi and other Indian languages have much more complicated grammar and take a very long time to master.
Learning English has been a natural process for me as i grew up, as is the case with most educated Indians.

Answer 9

I'm not bilingual (I took "Spanish 1" for two years lol), but I do think the success rate when learning a new language depends on how young you are and how hard you work at it. As you get older it becomes harder to learn another language, but not impossible. It just requires more effort on your part. Also, being emerged in the language you are learning plays a big role.

Answer 10

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?
Let's face it - English is a crazy language:
There is no egg in eggplant, nor ham in hamburger; neither apple or pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren't invented in England, and French fries aren't French.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.
Quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea, nor is it a pig.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, two geese; so, one moose, two meese? One index, two indices?
Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends, but not one amend?
If you have a bunch of odds and ends, and get rid of all but one of them, what do you call it?
If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Answer 11

It depends. They say that if you start at a young age then it should not be that hard. Another factor is if you have the drive or desire to learn another language. If it would interest you. You may need it, but if you have no desire for it then it can be difficult. Another thing is if you already know a romance language. Say you know how to speak spanish then picking up french would be easy for you and also latin