Difficult or not?

[writeletters]

Was English harder for you to learn than any other language? If English was your first language then do you think it was difficult for someone around you to learn? English is pretty complicated, probably much more than French or Spanish, to be honest. I just want to know what you guys think.

[lizbeth19hph]

English is our second language in our country and children learn it in preschool about the age of 5-6. I did not have difficulty learning the language since it has been my favorite subject until now. Some of my Korean students tell me that learning Chinese is more difficult to learn compared to English.

[charahome]

English was not difficult to learn, what I found difficult was their phonics system. There are sounds that are so similar. It took me years to train my ears to differentiate certain pronunciations, and realize that I was not saying them correctly.

When my kids attended kindergarten and started learning phonics, that is when I really got the hang of it. My daughter would sit with me, and practice her phonics with me.

[caparica007]

I learned English as a kid, but I recall a time that I was finding it difficult, but that was probably kid's stuff. Today I think it's one of the easiest languages to learn because it has a really simple structure.

[Alfonso]

Being raised in an English speaking house, I remember English coming very naturally for me.  Later in life, around the age or 6 until about 10, I learned how to speak and write English correctly which was somewhat more difficult. I think its a lot easier to learn the English language since you a lot media in English, movies, music, TV, books, etc. I think English is the easiest language to learn because of the resources available for learning it.

[Daimashin]

English was actually the easiest to learn compared to the other language I'm forced to learn due to it being a compulsory subject at school. Of all the subjects in school, I always scored the highest in English.

[Astdua]

Not hard at all, but then again I began learning it when I was 5 or 6, and every young mind experiences rapid progression with all things that are studied, but especially so with languages. You often hear people saying how easy it was, and that English is not a difficult language at all, but I am willing to bet that most of them either learned it at a very young age, or had a native language that was close to it, but mostly a combined of the two.

[Rosa]

I've never really heard anyone say English was much harder to learn than French and Spanish. I'm very sorry to hear that you found it complicated . Somehow I think that if emphasis is placed on what is puzzling to an individual,like phonics and gramma, then it becomes less complicated .

[Eudora13]

Someone had asked this same question (cant recall who). My mother tongue isn't English but sadly I speak it better than the former. I was put into an English school when I had just about learnt to string two words together. So it hasn't been hard for me at all. On the contrary I have had to work hard to learn my mother tongue and the national language of my country, which I'm painstakingly making efforts to do because it's a shame not to know your own language!

[devilishomar]

To be honest, with the right amount of commitment in the initial stages, it is pretty easy. My native tongue is Urdu and I can say, without any doubt, that my English is MUCH better than my Urdu. It's odd how the brain works, but I would say it's mostly because I think and speak, whenever possible, in English (especially on the internet).

So I would say it would not be as difficult as you may think. Just remember, nothing is too difficult to learn! And the more you know the better!

[andre-nunes]

Wow I disagree completely, I think that English is the easier language to learn. At least to me it was... I guess that when you grow up watching Cartoons and playing video-games in English since a very young age that you pick up some vocabulary. After one year of learning English in school, not sure when but I could speak English pretty well.

Even while being a native Portuguese speaker I can tell that Portuguese is a lot harder to learn, as we have some concepts strange to English speakers, like objects having gender for example. 

[PSLoveCharli]

If English is the native language for a person, answering this question can't always be accurate. Of course we'll think that it's easier. A few hispanic kids (ages 5-6) that I work with everyday, pick the English language up fairly quickly.

[rodserd]

There's a chart somewhere I cannot find that lists languages into four categories with English (and Romance languages) on one side, and Chinese and Japanese (and similar languages) on the other, with others in between.  Every step through the chart you took was a degree harder, so in the same category was the easiest, but learning Japanese as an English speaker was considered hard (Mandarin was the hardest I believe).

[pandandesign]

English is my second language, which I have learned it when I was in elementary school. I think English isn't difficult to learn because I have learned the concept and rules. It is the easiest language I have ever learned comparing to Chinese and French. I think once you've known and learned the basis of English, it is not hard at all.

[CrownedClown]

Well in my country it's pretty much compulsory to learn a second language and probably 80% from the kids choose English as their first foreign language to learn. Probably because I've studied it since I was young it seems a lot easier compared to some of the other languages I've studied.

Of course when I say easier I mean talking, not the full grammatic part of it, because if we take that into account I'd have to say that English is one of the hardest languages.

Also if we take into account whether you want to have a distinct accent or not it can be both hard and easy. I don't know about others, but I'm having hard time having a whole sentence pronounced in British accent.

There is however 1 thing that is definitely easier compared to other languages. Due to the fact that English is used in most professions daily learning words is a lot easier since you usually have heard most of the popular words already in one way or another.

[Alfonso]

A lot of people think English is the easiest language to learn but that might not be the case for everyone. You have to consider that English is everywhere and its hard, even subconsciously, not to pick it up. If you would imagine Spanish or German to be as wide spread in all forms of media as English is, I'm sure people would think that Spanish or German were the easiest languages to learn. Do you get my point?

[fredkawig]

Being a Filipino, at first, since it was not our mother tongue, It was a bit complicated but eventually I learned and have mastered it in a good way. English being the global language is a skill that people have to dwell in in order for them to learn and master the language. I have been exposed to cartoons ever since I was young and I give cartoons credit for enabling me to speak English very fluently. I also learned English through songs and am continuing to learn new words everyday.

[tenzijth]

I think English is a particularly difficult language to learn because of all the irregular verbs and because of some pronunciation. For many ESL students, the "th" sound is impossible to make so it's often pronounced "d". What makes it an easy language to learn is that there are resources EVERYWHERE to improve your skills and many people speak it so it's easy to find a conversation partner.