Hardest 2nd language to learn?
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Chinese isn't that difficult to understand if you're coming from english. Sentence structure is the same as in english and they write from left to right. I don't know that from experience, only from talking to people that are fluent in a number of different languages, and there was a survey done that supports you in saying that Chinese is more difficult two to one. It might just depend on the person though because I cannot imagine coming from english, learning Japanese, Russian, or the like. Syntax has always been more important to me than semantics. (In opposing you, I am not necessarily disagreeing with you.) Side: Chinese
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Only formal Japanese use Kanji though. It is very rarely used in day-to-day life. However Hiragana and Katakana have alphabets and the Japanese language is fairly easy to understand if you give it time. It doesn't take you your whole life to learn like Chinese does. Side: Chinese
I don't know if this would be the hardest 2nd language to learn, but has anyone ever tried learning tagalog, or attempted to try writing in it ? lmfao. my mom tried teaching me and one of the words had 4 "a"'s in a row. xD I imagine it's still easier than chinese though. Side: Tagalog
It depends on what language you speak in the first place. For a lot of non-Americans, English is hard to learn because we have so many exceptions to the rules. Just think about past tenses: clean -> cleaned, mean -> meant, awake->awoke, burst->burst. Since English is such a melting pot, we have all kinds of strange words and grammar from a lot of different places. Side: English
English is a pain in the ass, and it's my primary language since birth. Here's why: I found out I Had a hearing loss at age 6, that was also when I started First Grade and was learning english basics. How you say words, how they're typically spelt, so on. Since I couldn't necessarily "hear" people saying words in a sense that I'd say it the way they say it, I taught myself to speak english based on what I learned. The main thing I learned was like, the vowel is strong if followed by an e... amongst other things. So I taught myself by sounding them out the way they looked. Here's the fuck-up: 15 years later I was told I was saying practically every english word wrong. Apparently the shit I learned a piece of shit lesson. Basically, it felt like you don't learn english by anything you read, but you learn it by pronouncing it all exactly the way everyone else says it. Because it seems almost every word breaks the rules of standard english. Pain in my ass. But I'm sure it has something to do with us taking so many of our words from other languages and deciding they're "english." Psh. Side: English
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Hard to say. There are a lot of languages I've never attempted to learn. Welsh looks fairly difficult, as does Chinese, Korean, Japanese, and Arabic. Having done a quick google search, it seems that Korean is the hardest to learn, at least in terms of native speakers becoming fluent, as children typically do not master use of the language until the age of 5. I should think it also depends on what your native language is. Side: Hard to say
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Chinese is a language which has been over rated.Despite its so called relative usefulness to one in the future due to China's rise to prominence,it's a pretty difficult language to master in terms of written skills.Take for example if we simply paraphrase an English essay over to Chinese,it won't sound right at all.People who are severely handicapped in Chinese and strong in the mother language-Usually English would find it difficult to even get past the one page mark. Worst still,when you have utterly pathetic Chinese teachers who can't teach and pick on strong English speaking students who are poor in their second language,it doesn't help the cause of those who desire to master this second language successfully.Such teachers are a waste of government resources and taxpayers money. Furthermore,many countries emphasis on teaching Chinese only without having translations in textbooks.Many believe that teaching Chinese through one's strong language such as English will result in one being over reliant on English instead on strengthening one's grasp in Chinese.Hence,I believe that Chinese is in my opinion the hardest second language to master. PS I'm a Chinese shame on me -.- Side: Chinese
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Ah, hi Ronald. First of all, you said that Chinese is 'a pretty difficult language to master in terms of written skills.Take for example if we simply paraphrase an English essay over to Chinese,it won't sound right at all.People who are severely handicapped in Chinese and strong in the mother language-Usually English would find it difficult to even get past the one page mark.' Yes, like as if I will even get past one paragraph when dealing with Tamil, Arabic or Mongolian. As if paraphrasing an English essay over to Sanskrit directly makes more sense than Chinese. Honestly, being able to write Chinese characters with your eyes closed deserves less applause than being able to scribble Arabic characters. Secondly, you stated that Chinese is hard to learn because of inefficient teachers who are incapable of helping those with a desire to master Chinese. First, dear Ronald, do you even have the desire to learn Chinese? From your tone, I guess not. Well it's not really a guess anyway. And you said 'such teachers are a waste a government resources and taxpayers' money'. Maybe you can be more precise and say ' I absolutely loathe Cheena and hence throwing me into TLF's hands is an utter waste of government resources and taxpayers money, and it would be better off if this money ended up in the hands of my mom who deserves some pay for doing a fantastic job with my hair.' Lastly, you argued in disgust that 'many countries emphasis on teaching Chinese only without having translations in textbooks.Many believe that teaching Chinese through one's strong language such as English will result in one being over reliant on English instead on strengthening one's grasp in Chinese.' You are not wrong, but you are assuming this only happens for Chinese. Furthermore, are you assuming that if there is emphasis on teaching another language like Greek only without having translations in textbooks, it will be easier than learning Chinese? Maybe some languages but definitely not all. In conclusion, the only statement which I agree with is: PS I'm a Chinese shame on me -.- Side: Chinese
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