English easier to learn than any other language?

Question

Why does it seem that everyone can learn English (from other countries) than it is for Americans to learn another language? Is this true? If you had to learn english, how hard was it?

I know that some other countries speak English too, I didn't mean to offend anyone. I'm just coming from an "American" stand point, I've never been anywhere else.

Answer 1

No language is, in and of itself, particularly easy or hard. Every language has its difficulties and its easy bits.

It does, however, make a huge difference what the native language of the person learning another language is. The more similar his L1 (native language) in to the L2 (target language), the easier it is to learn.

The reason that so many people learn English while few Americans (and other English native speakers) learn other languages is that English is, for better or worse, the current "world language". This started because of the British Empire, and is now reinforced by America's political and economical power (and, to a lesser degree, that of other English-speaking nations).

The world language is always the one that has the most power behind it. When the Roman Empire was at its peak, Latin was the world language. And if you want to go anywhere in life, you have to be able to speak the world language, and speak it well.

So people from other countries are much more motivated to learn English than English native speakers are to learn other languages.

(Of course, the fact that as an English native speaker, you can go pretty much anywhere and simply speak English and find someone who understands contributes to this fact.)

Answer 2

No, I found it easier to speak other languages. I am American. It seems to me however, even some English speakers can not write in the English language well. I have spoken French for four years, and plan to learn Spanish and Italian next. Remember. many countries are taught not only their own language, but up to three languages other than their own native language. I have heard many people tell me it is an more difficult language than their own. I should have learned Spanish first. It is difficult from the town where I live, to even hear very many English speakers (I'm not joking either). I worked at Wal-Mart and the majority of people did not speak English. French does not go very far when you are surrounded by Spanish speakers.

Answer 3

Well, I think every language is hard to learn for different reasons. I speak Italian, and Italian is hard to master because of all the grammar. Yet, I've heard a lot of Italians tell me they can't understand why English-speaking people write a certain way but speak another way (not pronouncing certain letters or in some cases it's pronounced a certain way and in other cases it's pronounced a different way). These are only 2 examples for English and Italian, but the list can go on for other languages as well.

Answer 4

A lot of times I meet people who have had english as a second language and say that is harder. like my mom. The reason why it seems like everyone can learn english is because if they live in america they are surrounded by it. If you lived in another country where they didn't speak english then you could probably learn it. My friend is born in america but then his mom moved to the philippines and he was able to learn their language in only a few weeks. SO I think that it just depends on what country you live in. I hope that answers your question

Answer 5

i am italian, i know my english is not at his top, but i thin is really the easier one to learn, this is because the grammar is very easy and simple, while other languages are more complicated. Itaian declination of the verbs are really hard and composite, and we have female and male nouns and adjective too.
germans have the neutral in addition and declination of verbs and nouns, japanese has a preposition for all grammatical cases afetr the words, spanish has the declination too, these are the language i tried to learn, but only with the english one i can let other understanding me, ever if i make some mistake
the usefull diffusion of this language is another point that really help to learn it
:)

Answer 6

English is easier for Western Europeans to learn than other Non-Western European languages.
But for, say, a speaker of Somali, another Afro-Asiatic language like Arabic would be easier.

Americans are bad at learning languages because we don't have a lot of exposure to them, and many Americans are overtly prejudiced against speaking or hearing a foreign language.

Answer 7

Anyone who says English is one of the hardest languages to learn is absolutely language-challenged. No language is easy to learn. I've learned (or I've tried to learn) a few already and English is the least difficult one to learn because its grammar is quite simple. Granted, the pronunciation is not easy because it is severely inconsistent. To claim that English hard because of 's and s' is laughable. OMG, you can't tell the diffrence between the two.

Answer 8

I don't believe it's easier. English, with its lack of adherence to reliable rules, is a difficult language.

I believe that other peoples have more will and desire to learn English than we Americans have to learn other languages. Why? Because we Americans, and the British before us, have dominated the world. To survive in this 21st-century world--or at least to thrive in it--they had better learn English, or else. Just like to thrive in the computer world, you had better have Microsoft, or else!

In fact, I recently read an article about America, the world, Microsoft, and the concept of empire. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the article nor who wrote it.

Answer 9

the difference between other people learning English and us learning other languages is motivation. We are lazy and have no real incentive to do so. If you felt that the best you could do for your children was get them out of your country and into another, you would suddenly find learning another language doable.

Answer 10

Your wrong its a fact that English is one of the hardest languages to learn. On 20/20 they showed how people from other countries get better education so it would be easier for them to learn. So basically most U.S. Americans are below average in intelligence so it just seems hard when it shouldn't be.