why is learning different languages so easy for us but english is harder for them?

Question

my friend has a lot of trouble learning english but when i learn a different language it is easy

Answer 1

I would say you either have a special aptitode for languages or have learned some of the easier ones (do you speak Mandarin?). That said, English is a language cobbled together from at least half a dozen other languages, some of them extinct, and is generally regarded as one of the hardest to learn. Think about the sentence " Their journey there was rough as they ploughed through the slough until the leader said "They're tired enough".

Answer 2

Im from india & I learned 3 languages before I was 6.

1 due to my area & 2 in school - hindi & english.

When I came here I didnt have a hard time adjusting. I just had to get over my shyness.

Well I guess its due to you only knowing 1 language & learning a 2nd is easy. Since you arent really learning the EXACT way to pronounce words & stuff.

I took 2 years of spanish in highschool & forgot most of it now. Learned some french from this software I had, which I also forgot.

English is pretty easy, I guess its just the trouble with words like bat(the animal & the wooden bat that kinda confuses people) & past & present tenses.

Answer 3

1. Icelandic 2. Russian or Mandarin 3. Arabic 4. Mandarin 5. Hungarian 6. English 7. Hindi 8. Cantonese 9. Chinese 10. Tamil

Answer 4

Well you're a lucky one aren't you?
Come down to eg South Africa and learn "Xhosa"... (can you pronounce that?)...Google it and try learning it and how to make the click sounds...

Not every english speaking person can speak other peoples languages fluently or learn as quickly as you do. Some non english speaking people at least make an effort... but its hard when you didnt grow up speaking a specific language or get the right training or education...

Answer 5

Well, because you're a rich yuppie who has the time and money to spend on studying a new language. While Jose, in contrast, has to get his @ss up to work at 5 in the morn, just to make 2.50 an hr. Or did you want me to praise your brilliance, and exclaim that English is the hardest language to learn?

Answer 6

You are very lucky then. You must have good memory skills. One of the toughest things I have ever done was to take 2 semesters of a foreign language. My mind is not set up to only memorize things. I learn by doing. If I were to submerse myself in the language I am studying I would learn much faster and more permanently.

Answer 7

a friend of mine from finland had troubles with little stuff. in finland, there is one word for he/she/it, so that threw her a bit when she was learning. plus take a look at our language one time, there are a lot of words spelled the same that mean entirely differant things. i wish i could find this paper i found online where it wrote a paragraph and it was entirely gramaticly correct, and spelled properly but if you tried to read it too quickly you screwed up because you would come to a word and pronounce it one way, but you were ment to pronounce it another to fit the way it was used in the scentance. its actually more complicated than it looks. i am like you, i have an easy time picking up other languages but i know other people who struggle with it the same way i struggle with math.

Answer 8

English is really a combinaton of many different languages with roots in Latin, Greek and German. English has more exceptions to its grammatical rules than most other languages and this makes it very difficult to become fluent.

Answer 9

It is different for different people. One reason that English is hard to learn is that because we borrow words from so many different languages that there are few consistent rules to follow when spelling and conjugating.
e.g.: nose dose lose - they don't rhyme
We also have a larger number of words from which to choose, and consequently more to remember.

Answer 10

The english language is the hardest language to learn...........