>But most people who think that Chinese (or Japanese, or Arabic, or another of "those exotic languages which are totally unlike anything in our experience after

>But most people who think that Chinese (or Japanese, or Arabic, or another of "those exotic languages which are totally unlike anything in our experience after you ignore all the ways they're pretty darn similar") I think you might be getting off track a bit - I specifically mentioned Hebrew in the comment that started this thread, which is very similar to Arabic. I also mentioned Tagalog (Filipino). I don't have some misperception that non-European languages are mystical and impossible for English speakers to learn. I just thought Chinese, in particular, was a special case.