4 ms·

I’ve heard similar things about English being among the harder languages to learn. I think it depends more on what kind of language you already know.

inciampati 8y ago
It's regular-ish grammar helps. It has simple conguation rules and almost no declensions. Its irregular pronunciation rules do not, but in practice they only make the speaker sound foreign, and do not make them unintelligible. If English isn't an easy language, what is? Is there any language that is universally easy?
- tonyztan 8y ago
  Esperanto[1] is an attempt at this, but I am not aware of any significant adoption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto
  - dwrodri 8y ago
    While it's not "widely adopted" in comparison to other languages in the world, it's still the most successful constructed language in the world. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto I think that our collective understanding of how constructed languages could influence study is very lacking, but could probably take some hints from our experience with computer programming languages. Some languages could have grammars that lend themselves more easily to technical writing while others lend themselves to casual conversation. Historically, this took the form of having technical writing in Latin in English-speaking countries. History also shows us that a world with "domain-specific human languages" might be a little too idealistic. Our minds cannot simply download the latest linter for Latin/Esperanto/English to keep the language consistent. However, the rise of the dictionary, and spellchecking/grammar software could be what prevents us from repeating history.
    - stochastic_monk 8y ago
      I wonder how Klingon compares. I once read an amicus brief with a substantial amount of Klingon.
- antod 8y ago
  I've heard English described as "fault tolerant". Sure it's hard to get completely correct, but people can still communicate usefully even while messing it up quite badly. Which helps makes it useful as a de facto standard. Probably because even most native English speakers don't know how to get it completely correct either (I count myself in that group).
  - sonnyblarney 8y ago
    English is the HTML of languages. 'Hello World' is easy. Even hacking your way through something is possible. Even if the rules are weird and nobody seems to get it totally right.
- yorwba 8y ago
  > It's regular-ish grammar helps. It has simple conguation rules and almost no declensions. Its irregular pronunciation rules do not, but in practice they only make the speaker sound foreign, and do not make them unintelligible. Are you talking about Chinese or English here? It would apply to both. The hard part in learning Chinese is the script, which simply requires a lot of time spent memorizing. If you're willing to settle for the literacy of an uneducated villager, learning Chinese isn't that difficult.
oh-kumudo 8y ago
English CAN be easy for several reasons: 1. Very analytical, wake in inflections. 2. No genders for nouns.(As an Eastern Asian, I have serious problem understanding the motivation of introducing such concept into a language.) 3. Reasonable number of tenses comparing with rest of European languages, with the exception of probably present perfect tense, which can be fairly confusing. It CAN be hard for the following reasons: 1. Huge amount of French/Latin borrowed words that don't follow the orthodoxical way of word construction in Germanic language family, unlike German. This leads to a lot of cognitive overhead having to memorize those words since they tend to appear more often in advanced writings. 2. Related to the first argument, English pronunciation CANNOT be reliably inferred from its letter representation. Again leads to a lot of mistakes and force memorization. I think English is easier as a language for everyday use. But to read and write academic text, it still requires years of training. Personally, it takes me about 10 years to reach a certain level of confidence in writing and conversation, for speaking it is even longer.
- pvaldes 8y ago
  3. Use of four or five characters to express a single sound with the rest mangled or silent. But one single character often represents two sounds, just because.
cauldron 8y ago
The basic grammer is kinda hard if you aren't exposed to similar languages or didn't learn it in school, but after that I'd say it's one of the easiest.

inciampati 8y ago

It's regular-ish grammar helps. It has simple conguation rules and almost no declensions. Its irregular pronunciation rules do not, but in practice they only make the speaker sound foreign, and do not make them unintelligible. If English isn't an easy language, what is? Is there any language that is universally easy?

tonyztan 8y ago
Esperanto[1] is an attempt at this, but I am not aware of any significant adoption. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto
- dwrodri 8y ago
  While it's not "widely adopted" in comparison to other languages in the world, it's still the most successful constructed language in the world. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esperanto I think that our collective understanding of how constructed languages could influence study is very lacking, but could probably take some hints from our experience with computer programming languages. Some languages could have grammars that lend themselves more easily to technical writing while others lend themselves to casual conversation. Historically, this took the form of having technical writing in Latin in English-speaking countries. History also shows us that a world with "domain-specific human languages" might be a little too idealistic. Our minds cannot simply download the latest linter for Latin/Esperanto/English to keep the language consistent. However, the rise of the dictionary, and spellchecking/grammar software could be what prevents us from repeating history.
  - stochastic_monk 8y ago
    I wonder how Klingon compares. I once read an amicus brief with a substantial amount of Klingon.
antod 8y ago
I've heard English described as "fault tolerant". Sure it's hard to get completely correct, but people can still communicate usefully even while messing it up quite badly. Which helps makes it useful as a de facto standard. Probably because even most native English speakers don't know how to get it completely correct either (I count myself in that group).
- sonnyblarney 8y ago
  English is the HTML of languages. 'Hello World' is easy. Even hacking your way through something is possible. Even if the rules are weird and nobody seems to get it totally right.
yorwba 8y ago
> It's regular-ish grammar helps. It has simple conguation rules and almost no declensions. Its irregular pronunciation rules do not, but in practice they only make the speaker sound foreign, and do not make them unintelligible. Are you talking about Chinese or English here? It would apply to both. The hard part in learning Chinese is the script, which simply requires a lot of time spent memorizing. If you're willing to settle for the literacy of an uneducated villager, learning Chinese isn't that difficult.

oh-kumudo 8y ago

English CAN be easy for several reasons: 1. Very analytical, wake in inflections. 2. No genders for nouns.(As an Eastern Asian, I have serious problem understanding the motivation of introducing such concept into a language.) 3. Reasonable number of tenses comparing with rest of European languages, with the exception of probably present perfect tense, which can be fairly confusing. It CAN be hard for the following reasons: 1. Huge amount of French/Latin borrowed words that don't follow the orthodoxical way of word construction in Germanic language family, unlike German. This leads to a lot of cognitive overhead having to memorize those words since they tend to appear more often in advanced writings. 2. Related to the first argument, English pronunciation CANNOT be reliably inferred from its letter representation. Again leads to a lot of mistakes and force memorization. I think English is easier as a language for everyday use. But to read and write academic text, it still requires years of training. Personally, it takes me about 10 years to reach a certain level of confidence in writing and conversation, for speaking it is even longer.

pvaldes 8y ago
3. Use of four or five characters to express a single sound with the rest mangled or silent. But one single character often represents two sounds, just because.

cauldron 8y ago

The basic grammer is kinda hard if you aren't exposed to similar languages or didn't learn it in school, but after that I'd say it's one of the easiest.