If English is not your first language - ...?

Question

When did you learn English, and how? How well do you think you speak it?

Also, do you think English is an easy or difficult language to learn, and why?

Answer 1

English is one of the most difficult languages in the world because it is not consistent, it makes no sense. For instance, the plural of goose is geese, the plural of moose is moose. I have so many examples but I'll save everyone the boredom.

By the way I am a natural English speaker but I wish I spoke more languages.

Answer 2

English is my second language, Spanish in my mother tongue. I started learning English when I moved from Mexico 11 years ago; I was barely 12 and attending 9th grade. I took ESL (English as a Second Language) for two years while taking regular classes in English.

Going to school was my best way to learn it; I had to interact with the students and had no other choice but to speak it, and because most of my ESL classmates did not speak English we helped each other with assignments and homework so pretty much one learned from another, not to mention our wonderful teacher (she was great!).

I cannot say my English is great but it's not bad either, I've been out of school for 4 years now and I want to go back to college to finish what I started, I do need a good "soaking" though. Speaking English is not the same as writing it and grammar is not my best "forte".

Difficult?...anyone has difficulty learning a language...any language! but it's the lack of time and effort put into learning a language that's makes it difficult.

Answer 3

My mother tongue is Greek and I live in Greece.
I had been studying English since I was 8 years old, as a second language (by the way, the third language I speak is French).
Last year (I was 14), I got the top certificate in English, the Proficiency Certificate. With it, I can teach English in my country (when I become an adult).
So, I think I can speak English (British and American) quite fluently, and I can write almost as well, especially concerning subjects from the daily life. However, I think I wouldn't be able to take part in a conversation concerning political, medical and philosophical issues in English.
In my opinion, English is one of the easiest languages to learn. The grammar is very simple, and I think the vocabulary can easily be handled.
Of course, I came to that conclusion after comparing English with other languages which I consider as more difficult to learn: German, French, Greek.
Believe me, Greek is reeeaaally complex (both its grammar and its vocabulary). That's why the English people use the phrase "it's all Greek to me"!

Answer 4

My first language is Spanish, in Spain we learn English in school but not much, we only have three hours at week to study this language.
But the level is lesser than in another countries, and I learn English talking with people by msn and watching a lot of movies in English with subtitles in Spanish.
My level isn't much raised because during the day I've to speak Spanish with everybody, in my city I don't have friends from countries where speak English.
I think is more easy for me because since I was born in my family we are speaking two languages at the same time: Spanish and Mallorqui (the native language), and Mallorqui have the same pronunciation than English, is more easy to talk.

Answer 5

English is actually my third language and probably the best language I speak. IMO, it's really easy to learn and get the hang with. Although I was corrected many times before, now I am the one correcting people who have English as their first language. xP Dumb. -cough- Yeah, anyway, I started learning when I was about 7-ish. I came to this country as a fob. T_T No knowledge whatsoever. I learned from school of course, and I think I speak it better than most people here. Honestly.. egh. Even type/write better than them. ~_~ I can look at a word I don't know and remember how to spell it forever (if I get the pronunciation too) even if I don't know what it means.

Answer 6

My first language is spanish. I learned English when I moved to England when I was almost 15. Now, I speak it just as good as I speak spanish. I don't think English is a difficult language to learn, it's pretty basic to follow. I think it's more difficult for an English speaker to learn Spanish than vice versa.

Answer 7

I learned both languages English and Spanish at home, my parents spoke the two of them, so somehow it became something very easy to me. Since I live in México and I was raised here, I speak Spanish more often, I believe that if you learn a different language while you are young it will be easier for you to use it when you get older.
Greetings!★

Answer 8

I started learning English when I was 13 years old at junior high school. I learned the basic there. And now l'm learning it here.

I think English is not so difficult because it's basically a spoken language. In writing system of English, you need to memorize only 27 letters of the alphabet. We Japanese should memorize tons of kanjis or Japanese characters.

Answer 9

I came to the USA in 2002. So, I started learning English since my freshman year in high school. And trust me when I say this, it is not easy to learn SECOND language and culture at the same time. For me, it was like born again and start to count a, b, c, like little child when I was already a teenager. Everything i said, did or saw was FIRST TIME thing for me. It is good thing known two language but the same time makes u angry when you Miss-communicate with people or they misunderstand you.

so, for me, YEAS English is difficult language to learn bast on what your first language is. anyway, its long story. I hope u got my point!

Answer 10

English wasn't my first language. I first came in contact with it when I was about say, three years old. I was born in Hong Kong in the years when Hong Kong was still a British colony, so I had to learn it. Since I was still a tiny kid, I didn't think much about the language, I just learned what the teachers taught. Then when I was about five, I immigrated to Canada, and i picked up the language. I went back to Hong Kong after four years and came back to Canada five years later, I never lost the Canadian accent, and lol, it was rather funny/ embarrassing when I spoke Cantonese and Mandarin, my classmates always said that I had an accent. Then after those years in Hong Kong, I had no problems with the two languages, I'm still lacking a bit Mandarin, but I can make myself perfectly understood. Since I picked it up, it wasn't really hard, nor easy to learn. But those years in Hong Kong showed me how non- native speakers struggled with the language and rather detested it. I don't blame them though. The language is rather complicated and hard if you have to go through all that tense and grammar. The pronunciation is also hard because we don't have certain sounds in Cantonese that are present in English. I think I am quite lucky to be quite fluent in all three languages, but now I'm learning German and am thinking about Japanese, but I think German is quite okay, because the teacher is really patient. It think a lot has to do with the teacher too.

Answer 11

I've been learning English since kindergarten and I think I speak it fairly well.
I think it's just as easy or hard as any other language. If you want to learn it and practice then it's not difficult at all but if you do nothing and complain then you might as well give up.