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21 reasons why English is hard to learn
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message 1:
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Ruth
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Dec 31, 2012 10:30AM
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I would hate to have to learn English as a second language. It is full of double meanings like these. I admire others who have become proficient in reading, writing and speaking it.
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Examples below: #1, 2, and more....
Ruth wrote: "I never noticed until I married a non-native English speaker that many English words that are the same are pronounced differently depending on whether they're being used as a noun or a verb.Examp..."
Same here ,Ruth. We just take it for granted.
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It's okay, it's not as difficult because you would learn from listening first and spelling well isn't anyone's very first goal when learning the english language in their first time. These mostly come by ear.
Although it is very difficult to learn to speak English with style and aplomb, English is one of the easier languages to learn to speak understandably.Verb conjugation is more often simple than in most other languages, none of that feminine/masculine question about nouns.
None of that crazy tonal stuff that many Asian languages have.
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Verb conjugation is more often simple than i..."
The tonal stuff would be the end of me, though I do enjoy pronouncing my French (words like "Sartre") as if I am choking in the back of my mouth on the "-re." I'm told it sounds wonderfully French, or at least wonderfully what people imagine French to be.
Here in New England we can blame the Quebecois influence. Theirs is a very different French from Parisian. And they are a very different animal from Americans. It's quite a mix when they descend on Maine for vacation each summer...
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How about pronunciation of the "ough" words: e.g., through, rough, fought, trough, plough, etc.?
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At least that suffix is silent, one good thing!!! :)
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Newengland wrote: "Now if only more people made like suffixes!"Are -ue sure -ue would want that?
Don't you mean: silent suffixes? There must be other silent suffixes.
Jane wrote: "Although it is very difficult to learn to speak English with style and aplomb, English is one of the easier languages to learn to speak understandably.Verb conjugation is more often simple than i..."
How about Ablauts? e.g.,: Eat, ate, eaten.
Ablauts are being lost. They have goed the way of the dodo, been eated by the general loss of literacy of the populace, and their back has been breaked by their elimination from the scripts that have been writed, of late, for TV. I'm afraid I have throwed in the towel and gived up the ghost on this losed battle.
The heavier dialects of Belfast and Glasgow are more or less unintelligible to people from elsewhere in the British Isles. So I always smile when foreigners learn to speak English in these place.
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Every day, it seems a language dies. I'm glad the Welsh have held on to theirs and I've read the people in Cornwall are trying to hold on to theirs.
Gabi wrote: "Blood Bone and Muscle wrote: "It's okay, it's not as difficult because you would learn from listening first and spelling well isn't anyone's very first goal when learning the english language in th..."I learned to spell on my own because our schools didn't teach us but our schools are not English schools, thus your point really stupefies me.
Newengland wrote: "Jane wrote: "Although it is very difficult to learn to speak English with style and aplomb, English is one of the easier languages to learn to speak understandably.
Verb conjugation is more often ..."
I'd love to hear Cajun French, I've never heard it before yet the background is so cutting.
My French is a bit closer to Quebecois, maybe not exactly that. Here our small towns all have different accents so that those with good ears can name the region they began their life in or even what family they're from.
Blood Bone and Muscle wrote: "Gabi wrote: "Blood Bone and Muscle wrote: "It's okay, it's not as difficult because you would learn from listening first and spelling well isn't anyone's very first goal when learning the english l..."You can hear a story in Cajun at this link.
http://m.youtube.com/index?&deskt...
The link doesn't seem to work.
It's sent from a mobile desktop. Do you by any chance know the name so that I may look it up?
Go to youtube and search for Mr. Sonny's stories, Cajun French with English subtitles.
Thank you, Carol. It's really nice. One day I want to visit Louisiana, it's on my bucket list. ^^
You should listen to gullah. It is from the low country in South Carolina.http://m.youtube.com/index?&deskt...
Unfortunatley there are no subtitles.
Gullah storyteller Carolyn White
Yeah, unfortunately. She sort of reminds me of Liberian English although I'm sure I'm wrong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3aJ5K...
Probably, because Gullah is a combination of African dialects, English , French and American Indian. You might recall that a large portion of former slaves were repatriated to Liberia after the American Civil War, so they took the language with them and adapted it over the years.
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http://m.youtube.com/index?&deskt...
Unfortunatley there are no subtitles.
Gullah storytell..."
I get no sound.
Ruth wrote: "Carol wrote: "You should listen to gullah. It is from the low country in South Carolina.http://m.youtube.com/index?&deskt...
Unfortunatley there are no subtitles.
Gu..."
Hmmm, try going directly to youtube and search the title. It works on my tablet.
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Yes, I wish I could also. It sounded like a funny story. I think the duck kept telling the pig not to go to the pond ,knowing he would, and the farmer kept chopping little pieces off the pig feeding bits to the duck. But not really sure.
I think pronunciation should drive people crackers. For example, place names such as "Worcester", or "Leicester". Native speakers are done pronouncing that in half a time it would take somebody just starting out learning the language... :-).
