What do you think is the hardest language to learn and why?

Question

just curious . . .

Answer 1

I've taken a lot of language classes. One comment was often said in each of these classes- English is the hardest language to learn. Mainly, because we have rules that are often broken.

An example: Pluralization. If the plural form of cat is cats, then why is the plural form of mouse indeed mice? Shouldn't it be "mouses"? Or the plural form of goose is geese, but the plural form of moose is moose. Again, shouldn't it be "meese"?

One thing that was drilled into my head growing up was that the letter "i" is to always come before the letter "e". But of course, except after "c". So, if that's the case, then explain- "weight" or "neighbor".

These are only two examples. But think about it. For anyone who grew up speaking English, it really doesn't matter. We just accepted the rules and went about our way. But for others trying to learn the English language, it's all too confusing how we have one rule, but we don't follow it!

Answer 2

I've studied a lot of different languages, and I would have to say the hardest is Basque. It's not related to any other existing language and its structure is very different from that of the Indo-European languages around it. There are no prepositions, but rather a complicated system of suffixes that determine the relationship between the words in the sentence. When it comes to transitive verbs, there are different conjugations depending on whether or not the direct object is singular or plural. So it's plenty complicated... :)

Here are a couple examples, in case you're curious to see what it looks like.

Josuk liburu bat eman zidan.
Joseph (the -k indicates that NORK case, meaning that Josu performs the action) gave me a book. "Eman" is "to give" and in its infinitive form it can be combined with a helping verb to form the past tense. "Zidan" is NOR-NORI-NORK for "him to me" with a singular direct object. If you wanted to say "Joseph gave me the books", it would be:
Josuk liburuak eman zizkidan.
The -zki in the middle of "zidan" indicates that the direct object is plural, and the "-ak" on the end of "liburu" is the plural definitive.

Answer 3

I'd group Korean, Japanese, CHinese, and Arabic into the "hardest languages to learn" group.

Chinese has fairly easy grammar (once again, for native English-speakers), but the tonal changes and the reading/writing system is hard.

Korean and Japanese both have sentence structures different from that of English, and it's very difficult to acclimate. Korean, more than Japanese, has sounds most English-speakers have trouble pronouncing at first, but Korean also has an easier writing system. However, both would require the study of Chinese characters (hanja/kanji) to read fluently (in this case, more Japanese than Korean).

Personally, I know nothing about Arabic, but I did read about a tudy that was performed. The studies measured how long it took for a child to master their native alngague. Most European langauges took about 3-7 years, but Arabic took a whoopin' 12 years! If it takes that long for a native speakers, imagine someone who wasn't.

Answer 4

I'd say studying Korean is particularly handy as Hangeul(or Hangul) is alphabetic. But I wager you are European or American, then it could be particularly complicated so that you can be trained Korean considering the fact that of the exceptional tradition, grammar and so forth. According to the up to date research of the US Government Accountability Office, Korean is labeled as a superhard language in conjunction with Arabic, Chinese and Japanese. BUT you realize, while you care to do whatever, you simply experience it! So if you are thinking about finding out Korean, you'll be able to most commonly experience it and be trained it rapidly. And I believe Korean is an excessively tasty language. One of my Vietnamese peers as soon as instructed me that she proposal the Korean language had an excessively lovely sound, mainly whilst she heard fanatics talking with each and every different. Of path, it is her opinion...At any price, should you begin to be trained Korean, I wish you experience it! (BTW, I've on no account heard Korean talking persons announcing chokilrit or teipoo rakoda or chaejoo/jahjoo. They often say chokoret/chokollit, teipeu rekodeo/rekoduh and jaejeu once they say the ones phrases in Korean. Maybe the man or woman who wrote approximately this proposal the identical with me however perhaps simply considering the fact that of the exceptional methods of the romanization of the Korean language....:-))

Answer 5

Eastern languages because there are many different pronunciations and meanings for words that are spelled the same

Answer 6

NONONONONO, it must be a general misunderstanding.

I think Chinese is simplest. :-)

You just put some of its characters together, and then it reallly works! forget the grammar, it appears to me there is no gramar in Chinese. I am a Chinese. :-)

Answer 7

Chinese. I guess since it sounds complicated and I really don't notice an accent to it!

Answer 8

Cantonese...because of several thousand characters

Answer 9

Anything with tones, I'm tone-deaf, could never pull it off.

Answer 10

apparently is japanese- the average japanese person is 21 before they can read a newspaper. apparently icelandic is particulary tricky as well.