Teach Yourself English

[running with Dutch windmills]

Incredible job. Again, kudos to those who have learned English, one of the toughest languages to master (it's level 5/5 in language difficulty).

You've never tried to learn Dutch , the grammar is very very difficult , people say.

I'm crap in French , why would you say , because English / Dutch /German are " Germanlike" languages and French / Italian / Spanish are "Romanlike" language , in other words the differ quite a lot , altough some words have crossed each others paths.

Some learn languages easialy were others struggle.

[Seva]

*has a lot things to say but desperately waiting for OE's verdict on the topic*

SEVA.

[Orthography Enthusiast]

Let's see... I'm fluent in Spanish, I've studied German and Latin and a little bit of Finnish... all those languages, but especially Finnish, are easier in a way to pronounce than English, because they're more regular. Once you learn the rules and learn to wrap your mouth around the strange sounds that aren't found in your native language, you're good to go. German, Latin & Finnish have a very complicated grammar, but even the irregularities follow SOME rules. I've still gotta go with English as the hardest language to learn as a second language, because English has such a complicated history. It started way back when Anglo-Saxon (a Germanic language) got into a terrible traffic accident with Norman French (a Romance language), a situation made worse by classical scholars who felt that the resulting amalgam ought to be forced to fit into Latin grammatical categories whether it wanted to or not, and then dozens and dozens and dozens of other languages have been contributing new words to English ever since, so that I think we have the largest vocabulary on earth. And the result is that in English, NOTHING is regular. The language is an absolute thorn-bush of exceptions, irregular uses and pronunciation idiosyncrasies. And the spelling is unspeakable. I have a deep admiration for anyone who manages to learn English fluently.

[Driew_La_27]

I have a deep admiration for anyone who manages to learn English fluently.

Like you?

[The Sporkman]

While English so liberally borrows from all other languages, the opposite is also occurring: everyday French is becoming more and more English-like by the second with all these instances of franglais, such as "week-end," "hot-dog," and "faire du jogging."

[Orthography Enthusiast]

I have a deep admiration for anyone who manages to learn English fluently.

Like you?

As a SECOND language, smartypants!


If you want to feel deep admiration for me for learning Spanish fluently, though, go right ahead.

[Seva]

While English so liberally borrows from all other languages, the opposite is also occurring: everyday French is becoming more and more English-like by the second with all these instances of franglais, such as "week-end," "hot-dog," and "faire du jogging."

Umm... not exactly. You see, we Russians also do have words such as "week-end" (уик-энд) and "hot-dog" (хот-дог), but that definitely doesn't mean that we have Rusglish nowadays, don't you think? But yes, you got the point. The situation becomes more complicated since France is the country where English is definitely not a popular language to speak; the result is a terrible mess of wrong-pronounced English words combined with French endings - truly horrible!
Never thought that English would be such a hard language... 'til I became an Al fan. Today, I still couldn't forgive myself those mistakes I was making at the beginning, mistakes that are still popular among foreigners - concourse instead of contest, the eternal mix-up of stay and stand and so on. I'm also very annoyed of people who thinks that English is a very easy language because of those silly pop songs floating around Europe, while many lyrics of them are written even by non-English speakers. >:S Man, that sounds stupid! Grrrrrrrrr...Yep OE, you pretty well explained the situation of English language development. Nothing to add.

And I'm still very impressed and interested in the differences between American English and British English. Any comments on this? No offense, butI've heard you Americans are very likely to poke fun at British one! And what version do you prefer, RWDW?

Yeah, and folks... any admiration for me who learned Czech?.. and Bulgarian?.. and Polish?.. and German?.. and Irish?

SEVA.

[The Sporkman]

And I'm still very impressed and interested in the differences between American English and British English. Any comments on this? No offense, but I've heard you Americans are very likely to poke fun at British one! And what version do you prefer, RWDW?

One of the primary difference between the two varieties of English is the spelling of the "or" sound: an American says "humor" and "neighborhood" while an Englishman says "humour" and "neighbourhood" -- the redundant U is inserted/removed depending upon which way you look at it. Also, there is difference in relation to words ending in an "er" sound: Americans say "theater" and center" while the English say "theatre" and "centre." Americans also seem prone to pronounce more syllables than the British, e.g. the word necessary is pronounced "nec-ess-ar-y" in American English and "nec-ess-'ry" in British English. Certain English people also seem utterly incapable of pronouncing the initial H and the mid-word T sounds; they'll pronounce "have" as "'ave" and "British" as "Bri'ish." And I haven't even touched upon the differences in slang terminology!

Umm... not exactly. You see, we Russians also do have words such as "week-end" (уик-энд) and "hot-dog" (хот-дог), but that definitely doesn't mean that we have Rusglish nowadays, don't you think?

My point was that nowadays, a Frenchman would be more inclined to use English-based words such as "week-end" and "hot-dog" as opposed to the French-based phrases "le fin de la semaine" and "le saucisson chaud." By the way, franglais was a term actually coined by the French; I'm not responsible for it.

[modular]

Another big difference between US English and UK/Irish English is that Americans say organize, etc. while here we say organise, etc.

[Driew_La_27]

As a SECOND language, smartypants!


If you want to feel deep admiration for me for learning Spanish fluently, though, go right ahead.
[/quote]

Oh.....

But I do admire you for learning Spanish.