what do you think are the most difficult aspects of learning a new language?

Question

it can be guite difficult to learn a new language.

Answer 1

Everything! :-)

The vocabulary is pretty difficult. There is so much of it and sometimes what you say in English isn't exactly the same as it is in another language.

Pronunciation is also difficult because there are sounds that are difficult to produce or even to detect!

And grammar is a whole new ball game. The language you learn may follow a different word order, have new tenses, and treat adjectives like verbs (like Japanese!).

Answer 2

The first contact I’ve had with the Italian language was through the cartoons (Sailor Moon, Lady Oscar...) and (the written language) through Mike Bongiorno’s “La ruota della fortuna” when I was 11. By the time I started studying it I was already dreaming in Italian…:)) Still, I have problems using the “passato remoto”, mostly because I don’t read much literature, and I don't live in Italy. But what I really find intriguing is your body language….Although I too have borrowed some of your gestures, they don’t…and never will…come naturally as they do for you.

Answer 3

Actually 'getting over' the fact that other languages are not some kind of secret code for your first language, but instead are very different. Once you can emotionally accept that 'they' don't compose their langauge that way just to be difficult or irritating, it becomes much easier.
Of the components of language (pronunciation/syntax/conjugation/orthography etc.), that all depends on the way you learn best. Different components of a language may be easier or more difficult for you depending on how you learn. But that huge mental hurdle is the hardest to overcome!

Answer 4

I reckon the grammar is difficult. Some languages have a very different structure to English.
Also, i find that when learning a different language, we learn each word individually and learn to put them into a sentence. But when someone speaks that language to you, you'd find that they speak too fast, that you can only make out every second or third word. Oh... and slangs too. They don't really teach you slangs.

Answer 5

Getting the tense correct, pronunciation, and putting sentences together with the words in the correct order.

At the end of the day the best thing you can do is practice.

Answer 6

i think a new language is sth like a new way of thinking
it's like different rules in mathematics

you have to grasp the mentality of the people and their civilization in order to achieve things, and this is the most difficult thing

languages shouldn't be viewed just as tools, but as live organisms, past of a whole culture...

Answer 7

grammar is hard in your own language because of all the different rules their are. its the same for another language. so many rules to learn. i learn french when i was 12 i dont think it was hard the actual learning but grammar its what makes you speak correctly in any language.

Answer 8

im fluent in english french japanese and spanish and i can tell you its writing and writing and writing. Especially when youre learning a new alphabet, youve gotta write all the characters down and learn them by heart.
It also helps to have friends who speak the language youre trying to learn

Answer 9

Thinking.

It is easy for a child to learn a language because they don't think about it. They just listen and repeat. Repeat and listen. Listen. Repeat.

Thinking slows one down. When one thinks one must translate.

Listen.

Repeat.

Answer 10

pronunciation and understanding the cultural usage of the language.