I once saw a Michael Palin documentry where he quoted Finnish as one of the hardest world languages to pick up. Not sure if this is true.

english isnt it ;)

Something link Hindi or Arabic looks pretty hard!

Geordie is difficult

As daft as it seems, french is quite hard when you consider all the tenses, the infinitive etc. No wonder so many people in my class find it hard!

Mind you, some french words are the same as english words, but you just have to remember to pronounce them differently :wink:

Some say that the hardest language to learn is the one that's most different from your own.

English is supposed to be difficult to learn because of all the rule-breaking ambiguities.

I reckon Vietnamese would be very hard to learn - they have seven different tones that can change the meaning of any given word.

Korean is also supposed to be incredibly difficult.

I would say English - even English speakers have problems with it - both spoken and written word.

Moon Maiden

What about sign language?

I tried to learn Czech and Russian and failed.
Russian - different alphabet.
Czech - many rule breaks and grammar changes.

The thing with English, I can see your argument for saying its hard to learn because of some of the exceptions to rule. However, you will find that when foreign people speak it with an accent and the wrong tenses, you can normally understand them. e.g if they said 'I make like this' and blow their nose, you know what they mean. Ok they meant 'I went like this' but you can understand it. another e.g. 'I go yesterday to the shop' 'I am go to the shop tomorrow' again you can understand it and it doesn't matter if it is said with a really strong accent. You (as an english speaking person) try speaking another language without putting on an accent...they will normally give you a complete glazed over blank look because the accent is so important to the understanding of the language. So in that respect I would say English is reasonably easy to learn for foreign people as they can get away with odd accents and incorrect grammer.

Sign language is pretty easy, I picked it up dead quickly, and even if you don't know it all you can normally communicate with a deaf person using actions and facial expressions. Its a language that is back to basics and if you have a good memory for the signs its easy to learn.

I personally think Maltese/Gozitan is one of the hardest languages I've ever learnt. The rules are odd and the pronounciation is very hard and the accent is so important for them to understand you. Its based on arabic.

French, german, spanish and italian I personally found easy to learn the basics.

:D

btw, what really annoys me is how we English speakers in the UK get criticised for being lazy at learning languages all the time. Its not our fault that so many other countries learn english. There needs to be a common language otherwise how else would a dutch person communicate with a spanish person. I get annoyed when I do go to another country and try to speak their language. I make an effort only to be answered back in English! And on top of that they correct your pronounciation and tell you 'no we don't say it like that' all the time. This winds me up so much, I never correct someones English when I am talking to a foreign person, I appreciate that they are making an effort to speak my language. Why can they not do the same to us? They should be happy and encourage you to speak their language.
Moan over!

Originally posted by "Foxxx"

You (as an english speaking person) try speaking another language without putting on an accent...they will normally give you a complete glazed over blank look because the accent is so important to the understanding of the language. So in that respect I would say English is reasonably easy to learn for foreign people as they can get away with odd accents and incorrect grammer.
I disagree that accent is that important... look how many people speak English in this country with (for example) an Indian accent or even just regional accents. You can still understand them no problem, so I reckon if a foreign person has blank look when you talk to them, it's because you're not saying the correct words. :wink:

I think you have totally misunderstood what I said and are infact agreeing with me! :D

I said that people can speak English with any accent and you can usually understand them you used an Indian accent as an example and this is exactly what I was saying, you can understand the english with an indian accent as you can with a spanish, greek, newcastle, sheffield, london etc etc accent. However when you try to speak a foreign language (other than english) if you don't get the accent right the person native to that language can't understand you. I wasn't talking about speaking english to a foreigner. I am saying e.g you try speaking Maltese in an english accent...they will give you a blank glazed look. However, you speak it with a maltese accent and they will understand. Many foreign languages are very dependent on the pronounciation of the letters in the words. You say it slightly differently and you totally change the meaning of the word. Generally speaking English isn't affected like that.

Does that clarify it better for you? :D

Prolog was tough though not as bad as Lisp.

Originally posted by "maxt"

Prolog was tough though not as bad as Lisp.

You must be as much of a geek as me... I actually "know" both those languages. :oops:

Originally posted by "Foxxx"

Does that clarify it better for you? :D

Yes, sorry :) I agree with you... except sometimes I do pretend that I don't understand my girlfriend when her Leicester accent turns into a Brummy one! "Blank glazed look" normally does the trick to bring back her "normal" (albeit non-Northern) accent :lol:

Originally posted by "Tony Ruscoe"

Prolog was tough though not as bad as Lisp.

You must be as much of a geek as me... I actually "know" both those languages. :oops:

What car do you drive then Cdr Ruscoe? (Sorry, it's a joke you need to be geeky to understand)

ROFL

Originally posted by "maxt"

What car do you drive then Cdr Ruscoe?

:lol: :roll:

/me hangs head and shakes it in shame

I can speak two languages fluently, english and south yorkshire, a few words of german, french, and danish after that I have to use sign language.

Seriously though, in the old days there was a universal language developed called "Esperanto", but sadly it never caught on, but something like that is what is needed for the whole world to use.

I started learning sign language a long time ago... at primary school to be honest, carried on learning for a while... got the basics. But how the hell do I get on to a course?? Halevan... where did you learn?? I find it easy to pick things up quickly and really loved learning Sign Language. I'm also going to be qualified as a nursery nurse in July, so I'm sure it would come in handy somewhere there! Any help anyone??
Chloé

How about Chinese?
It is my native language. I personally think it is beautiful on writing and in poems. But Chinese in China usually write simplified characters, maybe more efficient but look like some defects for me.

I think English is easy to learn basics, but hard to master.
I wish people here can correct my accent, but usually they just say "no, no, you speak very well" :roll:

Sorry Chloe,
I was speaking with tongue in cheek, I meant that I would point to things in order to comunicate
when I ran out of words.

:oops: Sorry, not my fault am blonde!
LOL
Chloé

Originally posted by "Chloe"

I started learning sign language a long time ago... at primary school to be honest, carried on learning for a while... got the basics. But how the hell do I get on to a course?? Halevan... where did you learn?? I find it easy to pick things up quickly and really loved learning Sign Language. I'm also going to be qualified as a nursery nurse in July, so I'm sure it would come in handy somewhere there! Any help anyone??
Chloé
There is a self learning CD you can buy to help you learn sign language.

Thanks kindly, DB!
Chloé

French, Portuguese, SPanish all easy. HATE German, though, just can't get my head around thew sentence structure.

:) I (as a Chinese) totally agree with Foxxx, that the pronounciation is very important in some language. Chinese as a example, many different words share the same pronounciation, e.g, / shu / means 'book', also means 'tree' or etc..., but in English, / buk / only means 'book'. I think that's why they
" give you a complete glazed over blank look ", because they misunderstand due to your wrong pronounciation.

There was recent news on BBC about 'why Chinese is one of the most difficult languages in the world', they said that Chinese use two sides of the human brain to speak while many others just use one side. :o But I can not feel that one side of my brain stops running when I speak English.

Actually , I personally think how difficult a language is to learn depends on the leaners from different countries. For you maybe it's easy to learn French, German.. but not for us.

i agree with geoffbowen....being an indian...i can understand how difficult it is to learn hindi or sanskrit...if u know only english....but since i knew sanskrit....german was pretty easy to learn since the grammar bases of both are almost similar..!!!

As a student of the English language and fluent in the Sheffield language, I think that ALL languages are difficult to learn.

Seriously though, Chinese, Japanese, and the like, also Russian must be diabolical to get your head round.

However any language can be easily learned by a child, is this significant? and why should a baby be able to speak any one of them.

There doesn't appear to be a website detailing this but I know they provide sign langauge lessons. They run courses during the day time a few afternoons a week. I cannot be sure if it still going though. Give them a ring and they will point you in the right direction.

Sheffield Central Deaf Club
2 Surrey Place, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 2LP
Telephone: 0114 275 5307

As you leave the Library main entrance in town centre, look to the left and the building on the corner is what you are after.