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Usenet Posted 22 years ago
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Difficulty of learning english..?
G'day everyone..
As a native English speaker, I'm often reminded of the how in the English language there seem to be so many exceptions to grammatical rules, or of strange methods of spelling, for example cough, versus rough, versus plough..
or
wright, versus rite, versus right,..
Because of this, we're told that English is a difficult language to learn.
I'm just wondering how hard non-native speakers found English to learn. Does the lack of a gender system make it easier / harder? Are the inconsistencies in spelling / grammar difficult? What about irregular verbs...
My feeling is that all languages would have these inconsistencies to some degree...(wasn't it Mark Twain who said that in German there are more irregular verbs than regular verbs???), and in fact English is not necessarily an especially difficult language to learn.
Firstly, I'm interested in the thoughts of European (French, German, Italian, Spanish etc etc) speakers on this, and..
especially of other languages (Asian, African, Native American etc etc)
Thanks all, Stupot
As a native English speaker, I'm often reminded of the how in the English language there seem to be so many exceptions to grammatical rules, or of strange methods of spelling, for example cough, versus rough, versus plough..
or
wright, versus rite, versus right,..
Because of this, we're told that English is a difficult language to learn.
I'm just wondering how hard non-native speakers found English to learn. Does the lack of a gender system make it easier / harder? Are the inconsistencies in spelling / grammar difficult? What about irregular verbs...
My feeling is that all languages would have these inconsistencies to some degree...(wasn't it Mark Twain who said that in German there are more irregular verbs than regular verbs???), and in fact English is not necessarily an especially difficult language to learn.
Firstly, I'm interested in the thoughts of European (French, German, Italian, Spanish etc etc) speakers on this, and..
especially of other languages (Asian, African, Native American etc etc)
Thanks all, Stupot
Top answer
Does the lack of a gender system make it easier / harder? Are theinconsistencies in spelling / grammar difficult? [/nq] I'm not commenting as a native speaker but as a teacher of EFL.
- Does the lack of a gender system make it easier / harder?
- Are theinconsistencies in spelling / grammar difficult?
- [/nq] I'm not commenting as a native speaker but as a teacher of EFL.
- With regard to irregular verbs, often they don't even come into the equation as they just don't get used in any tense apart from present simple.
- I'm talking here about learners whose native language doesn't have a tense system such as ours, in particular (in my experience)Chinese and Japanese.
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23 Answers
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[nq:1]I'm just wondering how hard non-native speakers found English to learn.Does the lack of a gender system make it easier / harder? Are theinconsistencies in spelling / grammar difficult? What about irregular verbs...[/nq]
I'm not commenting as a native speaker but as a teacher of EFL. With regard to irregular verbs, often they don't even come into the equation as they just don't get used i
I'm not commenting as a native speaker but as a teacher of EFL. With regard to irregular verbs, often they don't even come into the equation as they just don't get used i
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Three things learners of English find mind-boggling:-
~ Phrasal verbs. Take a common verb - say, 'get', and add one or more prepositions - get off, get away, get over, get off with, get with it, get through, get in with, and a million others, each of which functions as a semantic verb in its own right and may have little connection in meaning with the base verb. Students are sometimes tol
~ Phrasal verbs. Take a common verb - say, 'get', and add one or more prepositions - get off, get away, get over, get off with, get with it, get through, get in with, and a million others, each of which functions as a semantic verb in its own right and may have little connection in meaning with the base verb. Students are sometimes tol
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[nq:1]~ articles - The Atlantic Ocean, but not *The Everest, Modern Society but The permissive society etc ad infinitum[/nq]
No - articles don't cause a problem - they just don't get used!! I've had advanced Polish/Russian/Finnish as well as Asian students who completely ignore them in speaking. Even immigrant Eastern Europeans who have been here since after the war and can otherwise speak goo
No - articles don't cause a problem - they just don't get used!! I've had advanced Polish/Russian/Finnish as well as Asian students who completely ignore them in speaking. Even immigrant Eastern Europeans who have been here since after the war and can otherwise speak goo
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[nq:1]The Japanese have a problem with yes/no in reply to a negative question or statement, e.g. Have you ever seen ... the film Romeo and Juliet? Yes. It seems as though the Japanese agree with the speaker rather than the fact.[/nq]
That's how it works in Japanese. For example:
Don't you know who he is?
Yes, I don't.
whereas in English, we expect 'No, I don't.'
That's how it works in Japanese. For example:
Don't you know who he is?
Yes, I don't.
whereas in English, we expect 'No, I don't.'
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[nq:1]G'day everyone.. As a native English speaker, I'm often reminded of the how in the English language there seem to ... to learn. Firstly, I'm interested in the thoughts of European (French, German, Italian, Spanish etc etc) speakers on this, and..[/nq]
I was relatively young (around 15) when I learned English, and I found it to be very easy to pick up. My native language is Latvian (it ha
I was relatively young (around 15) when I learned English, and I found it to be very easy to pick up. My native language is Latvian (it ha
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[nq:1]Enlish spelling has never given me problems[/nq]
If you say so.
Mike Nitabach
If you say so.
Mike Nitabach
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[nq:1] Enlish spelling has never given me problems, [/nq]
Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.
\\P. Schultz
Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.
\\P. Schultz
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[nq:2] Enlish spelling has never given me problems, [/nq]
[nq:1]Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.[/nq]
Oh, and also Cincinnati and Albuquerque.
\\P. Schultz
[nq:1]Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.[/nq]
Oh, and also Cincinnati and Albuquerque.
\\P. Schultz
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The Grammer Genious filted:
[nq:2]Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.[/nq]
[nq:1]Oh, and also Cincinnati and Albuquerque.[/nq]
Put me down for harrassing and Massachusetts..
It's those **** double letters is what..r
[nq:2]Me neither, except for license, judgment, concomitant, discrete, desperate, Quran, and Delaware.[/nq]
[nq:1]Oh, and also Cincinnati and Albuquerque.[/nq]
Put me down for harrassing and Massachusetts..
It's those **** double letters is what..r
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I think that's common to people who speak oriental languages in general, not only Japanese. I work mainly with ESL students and it took me a while to catch on.
GFC
GFC
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