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Ironically the only thing complicated about Chinese is its tonal pronunciations and writing system. It's grammar and vocabulary are markedly easier than English

Ironically the only thing complicated about Chinese is its tonal pronunciations and writing system. It's grammar and vocabulary are markedly easier than English. Additionally, English has some horrific consonant/vowel clusters and minimum pairs.

sametmax 8y ago
Agreed but you can't change any of this.
torstenvl 8y ago
I'm struggling to think of minimal pairs that are particularly difficult. Maybe those involving liquids, for East Asian learners? French's minimal pairs involving [u] vs. [y] are terrible. Beaucoup vs. beau cul, au dessous vs. au dessus, etc.
- sametmax 8y ago
  French, all in all, is a terrible language for ease of communication. Don't get me wrong. It's a great language to write a novel in. Make an argument. Describe a country side. But it's slow, convoluted and error prone. All languages have weird stuff. Even English, while being incredibly easy, have many quirks, like in the joke: "Yes, English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though. But french is more about learning exceptions among a few rules.
pouetpouet 8y ago
The alphabet is a phenomenal invention. I mean the alphabet in the large sense, be it the Latin, Greek, Russian alphabet or any alphabet, abjad, abudiga or syllabary. The Chinese writing system is a notable exception (along with Japanese Kanji and some others). The only complicated thing about Chinese is pronunciation and writing system. So half of it is complicated. If a language can be characterized at least by phonology, writing system, grammar and vocabulary. Then Chinese is difficult. Not that any language is easy. There will never be an agreement for the whole world to speak Chinese.
- sametmax 8y ago
  The alphabet, and punctuation. Omitting punctuation, or using some meta language for it (e.g: in thai, repeatiting a word can mean "!") makes reading some text extra difficult.

sametmax 8y ago

Agreed but you can't change any of this.

torstenvl 8y ago

I'm struggling to think of minimal pairs that are particularly difficult. Maybe those involving liquids, for East Asian learners? French's minimal pairs involving [u] vs. [y] are terrible. Beaucoup vs. beau cul, au dessous vs. au dessus, etc.

sametmax 8y ago
French, all in all, is a terrible language for ease of communication. Don't get me wrong. It's a great language to write a novel in. Make an argument. Describe a country side. But it's slow, convoluted and error prone. All languages have weird stuff. Even English, while being incredibly easy, have many quirks, like in the joke: "Yes, English can be weird. It can be understood through tough thorough thought, though. But french is more about learning exceptions among a few rules.

pouetpouet 8y ago

The alphabet is a phenomenal invention. I mean the alphabet in the large sense, be it the Latin, Greek, Russian alphabet or any alphabet, abjad, abudiga or syllabary. The Chinese writing system is a notable exception (along with Japanese Kanji and some others). The only complicated thing about Chinese is pronunciation and writing system. So half of it is complicated. If a language can be characterized at least by phonology, writing system, grammar and vocabulary. Then Chinese is difficult. Not that any language is easy. There will never be an agreement for the whole world to speak Chinese.

sametmax 8y ago
The alphabet, and punctuation. Omitting punctuation, or using some meta language for it (e.g: in thai, repeatiting a word can mean "!") makes reading some text extra difficult.