To the foreigners!

bigar

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118051506#Comment_118051506

This applies to all languages. All have many dialects and regional differences. I would say that in English they are quite OK.

riclad

I think learning English is easier than learning Irish. Irish is not good for the purpose of using modern technical words like the Irish word for modern items is usually maybe twice the size of the English word

Eg book is leabhar you can learn English piece by piece pick up a few 1000 words and there's plenty of subtitled tv programs to watch

And at least when you learn English it's useful eg it's the language of the Web and business and it helps you to get a job and there's people all over the world that speak English

beachhead

English is one of the most difficult languages to learn,chinese a close second.Tonal languages are also,difficult.

It's a very difficult language in my opinion. There are a hundred ways to say everything.

Tonal languages are a different kind of beast. The barrier to entry is so high, it kills of motivation for a lot of people before any progress is made. On the other hand, sentence structures and grammar in Mandarin or Vietnamese are basic so it you get the pronunciation and ear for them, they're fairly ok.

But they really are harder than people realise because we don't even have the ability to discern the tones without significant practice. It's remarkable when you start being able to hear differences in words you swore were the exact same before.

So pick your poison. Remember male and female for French, remember the ridiculous grammar of Spanish, remember a million different phrases and idioms in English, or be able to hear and pronounce those letters above or not be understood at all.

Tell me how

Think this little phrase displays the difficulties around learning English.

'To Do So'

Each word just two letters and starting with a different consonant and ending with the same vowel. Each word is pronounced differently and if you pronounce them all the same way as any one of the words you can say three different combinations of words most of which make sense in their own right, but not as a sentence when used with the other two.

• Pronouncing all 3 words the same as the 'To' = To duh suh
• Pronouncing all 3 words the same as the 'Do' = Too Do Sue
• Pronouncing all 3 words the same as the 'So' = Toe Doe Sow

Not to mention all the other words which are pronounced the same as various versions of the above (although spelled differently) and which have wildly different meanings including; Two, Tow, Due, Dew, Dough, Sew etc

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118061041#Comment_118061041

Is English though? Most non native English speakers on this thread say it isn't.

riclad

You don't have to learn local variations idioms just standard English I studied French for 5 years, it's an easy language to learn and a beautiful language that's quite logical apart from words being masculine or female of course the Americans use some words no one else use like sidewalk or gas for oil, petrol

I would think English must be pretty difficult to learn.

Finnish is allegedly an extremely difficult language to learn, yet it is one of the most straightforward languages,if you ask me. Learn the pronunciation of the alphabet, you can learn Finnish. Every letter sounds as it reads, no silent letters, no letters sounding different, no gender for anything. Even those really long words are just smaller words stuck together. Very straightforward, unlike English!

osarusan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118061651#Comment_118061651

Native speakers of a language are terrible judges of this though.

No language is hard to learn for native speakers, it is simply acquired effortlessly.

Sorry, I meant NON native speakers of English. 😂