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I actually thought his article was pretty terrible. It's a fun, casual read for a rant, but I wouldn't hold it as much evidence of anything. "If you don't beli

I actually thought his article was pretty terrible. It's a fun, casual read for a rant, but I wouldn't hold it as much evidence of anything. "If you don't believe this, just ask a Chinese person. Most Chinese people will cheerfully acknowledge that their language is hard, maybe the hardest on earth. (Many are even proud of this, in the same way some New Yorkers are actually proud of living in the most unlivable city in America.) " Ha, German people told me the same thing about German when I was in Germany. Guess it depends who you ask. Grammatically, I think Mandarin is pretty simple. Pronouncing it and writing it is another story. Grammatically, I think Japanese is tougher than Chinese, writing is just as hard when using Chinese characters (maybe harder, because many kanji have different, dissimilar readings), but easier when using the kana, and the pronunciation is easy as can be. On another tangent, having sampled various metropolises, I think NY is actually very livable. English, my native language, has plenty of bonkers exceptions.

pantalaimon 12y ago
Well German is only hard if you want to get all the grammar right, but grammar is not crucial to intelligibility.
- ama729 12y ago
  The point is that everyone say that about their own language, I've encountered French, Dutch and Hungarian proclaiming their language is the hardest.
  - anon4 12y ago
    It's not properly hard until the verb system has all the necessities to fluently express every time-travel scenario. Also known as HG-hard. Most languages can only describe time-travel scenarios using related concepts - this is called HG-complete.
- ithkuil 12y ago
  well, I guess some grammar is crucial to intelligibility, not necessarily the prescriptive grammar. When a lot of people make the same mistakes, they share a new code, new intelligibility expectations, a new grammar. I think many people forget that when talking about how the newest generation mistreat their language, or whether foreigner's mistakes can be understood. heck, sometimes it's funny when a native speaker tells me that I speak X very well (I don't), just because I use some prescriptive form correctly.
threatofrain 12y ago
Of course, every language has bonkers exceptions. But Chinese is actually quite bad. For example, if I tell you "mao mi", and you had never seen the characters before, you have about no chance to figure it out. Conversely, if I show you the characters, but you've never seen them before, you have absolutely no clue what character it is. Sure, there are radicals. Don't count on them to tell you anything remotely useful. Sure, some characters do tell a proper story with their radicals, but it's laughable to count on them to tell you anything.

pantalaimon 12y ago

Well German is only hard if you want to get all the grammar right, but grammar is not crucial to intelligibility.

ama729 12y ago
The point is that everyone say that about their own language, I've encountered French, Dutch and Hungarian proclaiming their language is the hardest.
- anon4 12y ago
  It's not properly hard until the verb system has all the necessities to fluently express every time-travel scenario. Also known as HG-hard. Most languages can only describe time-travel scenarios using related concepts - this is called HG-complete.
ithkuil 12y ago
well, I guess some grammar is crucial to intelligibility, not necessarily the prescriptive grammar. When a lot of people make the same mistakes, they share a new code, new intelligibility expectations, a new grammar. I think many people forget that when talking about how the newest generation mistreat their language, or whether foreigner's mistakes can be understood. heck, sometimes it's funny when a native speaker tells me that I speak X very well (I don't), just because I use some prescriptive form correctly.

threatofrain 12y ago

Of course, every language has bonkers exceptions. But Chinese is actually quite bad. For example, if I tell you "mao mi", and you had never seen the characters before, you have about no chance to figure it out. Conversely, if I show you the characters, but you've never seen them before, you have absolutely no clue what character it is. Sure, there are radicals. Don't count on them to tell you anything remotely useful. Sure, some characters do tell a proper story with their radicals, but it's laughable to count on them to tell you anything.