What do you find the hardest about learning other languages?

[purplepoppy]

Some people pick up languages easier than a drunk slut picks up guys, but for most people they don't come easily. So if you're learning a new language or perhaps already know another one, what part of getting to grips with a new language do you find the most difficult.

The writing system

The grammar

The pronunciation

Idioms/sayings

Dialects and accents

[NathanDavis]

since I actually had to learn English... I would say the worst is the grammar, because it lacks structure and it doesn't have rules... at least not in the sense of what a rule should be, there's so many exceptions, inconsistency and contradiction that you just have to keep memorizing it all in sets till you're familiar enough with all of it...

I could have said that pronunciation is the absolute worst while trying to learn English because it is even more bonkers than the grammar and because pronunciation is the one thing people around the world struggle the most but, in my case it was just easier to get familiar with it

[NathanDavis]

this punctuation puzzle, for example...

~ James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher ~

[goaded]

I don't think that makes sense in any language!

You need more space between Fish and and and and and Chips in that sign.

The British don't update their spellings like the Germans (I think there's a powerful dictionary lobby), but German's still double Dutch to me.

[NathanDavis]

@goaded hints...

# The sentence refers to two students, James and John, who are required by an English teacher to describe a man who had suffered from a cold in the past. John writes "The man had a cold", which the teacher marks incorrect, while James writes the correct "The man had had a cold". Since James's answer was right, it had had a better effect on the teacher.[5]

The sentence is easier to understand with added punctuation and emphasis "

I think the reason why English does not update anything is because there is no institution in the first place, that will be in charge of consensus

there is an institution for Spanish, and it is called the Royal Spanish Academy (in Spain, of course) which is part of a network for institutions all around the world, there is one in each country and nation that speaks Spanish (Association of Academies of the Spanish Language) and they exists since the 1700's... and the rules for the Spanish language are so established that if I remember correctly, there has only been two updates needed in the last 300 years... lol

[goaded]

James, while John had had "had", had had "had had". "Had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.

Your teachers are evil.

Have you seen this one?

“Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: opinion-size-age-shape-colour-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest you’ll sound like a maniac. It’s an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out.”

www.bbc.com/.../20160908-the-language-rules-we-know-but-dont-know-we-know

[purplepoppy]

I think in English as long as you put the noun at the end it usually makes sense. A little old French green rectangular whittling knife still makes sense. When we all know the noun should be at the start of the list.

[NathanDavis]

@goaded yes, I have seen that one lmao... and I really like it

because someone, it really just makes sense to me, and I had been using it that way before I even knew it was a thing, so that's quite interesting

[goaded]

It may make sense, but it doesn't sound right. I expected something like "person" after "A little old French..." I'm not going to even attempt to understand Welsh.

Donaudampfschiffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän is bad enough.
Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch? Nah.

[purplepoppy]

It's no different to thecityofnewyorkinamerica, it's just words run together, it's easy to pronounce, remembering the order is the tricky bit. Welsh grammar is easy because hardly anyone in Wales understands it so we're all to scared to correct each other. Unless you put a sign up then suddenly everyone's a grammar nazi

[goaded]

"Danube steamboating association captain". People tend to avoid the word Nazi over here, grammar or otherwise. But I did have one old man tell me about his mate who was at D-Day: "he woke up one morning and the sea was covered in ships..."

[HighlyVolatile]

Grammar and formal rules like verb conjugations, when to use masculine/feminine forms with languages at have them, etc. I somehow excelled in pronunciation when I took French and Spanish.

I think my exposure to English and Japanese gave me enough of a range to adapt to pronunciations easily including rolling r's and trills. But I struggle a lot with grammar and formal rules.

I suspect when I'm learning a new language that I sound like this in English: "Me want go store. Where store? Thank you so very much!"

[HighlyVolatile]

* [...] when to use masculine/feminine forms with languages [that] have them [...]

[HighlyVolatile]

Also even though English is my second language and one I learned fairly young, the grammar rules still confuse me like past participles and subjunctives and so forth. I tend to learn by talking to people but I'm slow with the textbooks. Verb conjugations especially trip me up in new languages.

[HighlyVolatile]

I also understand almost 0% of this! That's such a heavy accent!
https://youtu.be/pit0OkNp7s8

[purplepoppy]

I've noticed people who learnt a second language often follow the grammar rules more strictly than native speakers.

[HighlyVolatile]

I still learned English at an early enough age that I don't think I do that so much. I started with British English though so I didn't understand how sayings like, "I can't said the ant" would rhyme (soft "a" followed by hard "a"). Now I can barely pronounce it the British way and might have even acquired a tinge of a Southern American accent.

[Sour-rose]

How to say it and mainly "Why". Why do I say it like this and not that? Like uuuh quick example of my french classes

je voudrais vais 'a la metro. = I would like to go to the metro.

You probably thinking what's the "to"? Is it vais or-No. It's been wiped from existence. No need to put it there. :) But why? I don't know.

[Jamie05rhs]

It's not " 'a "?

[Sour-rose]

@Jamie05rhs i have an old keyboard and don't know how to do the actual "a", sue me.

[Jamie05rhs]

@Sour-rose Lol. I wasn't picking on you. I was just asking a question, because I thought that " 'a " might have been the "to.". I hope that makes sense?

[Sour-rose]

@Jamie05rhs Oh... uuuh... you could say that. From what I know " 'a la" together kills the "to" and makes it as one with two words. you use those when you're talking about a location. like you're going home, to the office or somethin'.

So yeah, you could say that I guess

[Jamie05rhs]

Okay; cool. :)

I've never been formally trained in French. I just know a little bit here and there.

[DarkCarousel]

I’d say the pronunciation of words. I know I get embarrassed if I pronounce something incorrectly. But really if you think about the way children develop language, we all make mistakes that are corrected in time.

[AviatorTom]

The hardest thing for me is a combination of limited vocabulary and understanding what someone is saying. I can usually pick up pronunciation and writing, but my brain wants to translate what I hear into English (my native language) and that delay, coupled with my limited vocabulary, makes it hard for me to hear and understand what someone is saying. I can usually speak the language well enough to get my point across, using my limited vocabulary, but the reverse is hard.

[AviatorTom]

@purplepoppy I just noticed... In the "FISH" example, "pronounced" is misspelled as "PROUNCED", yet we still understand it... an interesting thing about language is that you don't always need all of its details.

[purplepoppy]

I didn't spot that. A good indication your getting to grips with a language is when you understand words even though you were never taught them.

[Andres77]

For me it's associated words.
Having read so much and being exposed to Spanish when I was young and then stumbling across Latin... when I studied Spanish I realized that there were some French and Italian and Portuguese and Romanian words that I understood.

[Andres77]

Actually, paying attention is the hardest. I responded with "what's easiest" and not "what's hardest", like in the question.
If it's a different writing system my brain has nothing with which to compare it so it just seems a bridge too far.

[purplepoppy]

It would be interesting to see how many words are so close they can be understood across several languages. Eg ffenestr, fenestra, finestra etc

[Andres77]

Dormir, dormi, dormiri, dormant, dormitory. Amor is easy.
Burgher, Burgess, burke, burgh (Edinburgh) borough (5 boroughs of NYC, Queens, Bronx, etc.), neighBOR, Pittsboro or Greensboro of NC (cities named by descendants of Scottish that didn't know how to spell borough or burgh).

[Andres77]

Kinda fun to identify as I dig into origins and roots. I like digging deep.

[integrale77]

In the English to American the one that bugs me is when us people in England call a vacuum cleaner a Hoover this is incorrect. Hoover is a brand name and not interchangeable with vacuum cleaner. Stop doing it people!

[purplepoppy]

Time to hoover the carpet with the Dyson

[integrale77]

Argh nooooo

[goaded]

Can you still buy a Hoover? They must have had a really good advertising campaign in the UK.

[purplepoppy]

Yes you can still get them. It doesn't matter what brand of vacuum cleaner you own people still call it a hoover. It really pisses salesmen off when you ask to see the Dyson hoovers.

[goaded]

I grew up with a real hoover, an aluminium tube with a pipe on one end. I expect the only place you'll see one like that today is in a museum.

[goaded]

Don't forget to bring a pencil and a rubber to your exams!

[EssenceOfLight]

In English it's pronunciation. English isn't exactly a phonetic language.
I think it differs from one language to another. Slavic languages are grammatical nightmare for foreigners, in other Germanic languages vowels tend to be forgotten to speak out by native speakers...

[Imsmurter1]

For French it's pronunciation for me. I just can't make the French sounds it all sounds the same to my ear.

For Turkish it's grammar. Verbs are at the end of the sentence and they capture all the inflections stated in the beginning of the sentence. It's like I have to remember everything I said when I say the verb haha. Oh yeah also vocab is completely different from Western European languages. Just everything related to Turkish is hard haha.

[Drooogie4]

Trying to learn a new language without trying to apply the rules of your native language is hard.

[Texaskid1]

Grammer.

I have been taking French for some time and I can hack my way through a decent conversation but the Grammer ( read verb conjugation) is a pain in the ass.

[Anonymous]

Umm, all of it! lol I don't know how people do it or remember it? Why can't the world use 1 language? lol

[Yucy_Gluttony]

None of those! The hardest is staying consistent!

[WhiteBoyChill]

Just the amount of stuff there is to learn. Not any one thing in particular. It just takes time to become fluent and I wish there were a quicker way

[hanony]

Conjugation is always the hardest for me.

[Avicenna]

Tones, by far. Grammar is usually little problem.

[Fuentes]

Well all USA words are better

[Debbie14217]

How to say words

[legalboxers]

pronunciation

[jimmy2]

Everything