English Audio: Speech and Pronunciation

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 13:28:41 GMT

I'm really impress of how you write very well in English, of course, you are a teacher.
Can we keep contact?

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From Brazil

Regards,

Leandro Takeda

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:29:13 GMT

I'm a native English (American) speaker, and I have heard that English is easy to learn at a basic level. However, becoming fluent or speaking like a native speaker is difficult because, frankly, the language makes little sense even to those of us for whom it's a first language. Luckily for anyone out there who thinks their English is not good, your meaning is usually understood even if your grammar is imperfect, and no one really cares. In fact, although I have do know proper grammar, in most informal situations I intentionally use a more relaxed, even sometimes incorrect, dialect because it sounds far too formal to speak so perfectly to one's friends.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 21:30:34 GMT

As a native English speaker (well perhaps not entirely native, I was born in Russia and immigrated to the U.S. at the tender age of 7) I would have to say that apart from the obviously difficult aspects of the English language such as tenses, an unorthodox phonetic system employed in the language and infuriating exceptions for just about every single rule, the two most puzzling features are the Verb+Participle+Preposition combinations and the sheer vastness of the vocabulary. Observe the former...

come+up+with

come+down+with

come+foward+with

come+out+for

come+down+to

Five different constructions which would be clear as day to any native speaker, are nevertheless mind-boggling to someone who is learning the language. Notice how they all start with "come", and then imagine that sort of illogical word-scrambling applied to every verb. Daunting, isn't it? Don't know how to break it to you folks, but I haven't even scratched the surface.

Now as to the latter, I am more than happy to have dictionary.com present proof of this phenomenon in my stead. Let's take a look at the word "jump". I mean, how many possible synonyms could there be for this word? Well, one simple search can help us find out. Here's the link:

http://thesaurus.reference.com/browse/jump

40 entries for the first definition alone. FORTY. Forty different ways to say jump. But when you break it down, do all 40 words have the same meaning? Of course not! Nosedive means to jump into something headfirst, as in a pool of water or (if you're very unfortunate) onto a hardwood floor. To spring is to jump up energetically, with an almost almighty "lurch" (another word for jump right there :P) whereas to "bob" means to make jumping motions without every actually taking your feet off the ground. The list goes on and on. No other language I'm familiar with has such variety when it comes to synonyms, be it for seemingly uncomplicated actions or deep philosophical concepts.

Although English is my native language, I am also a nearly native speaker of Russian (I give credit to my parents for preserving the language of the "motherland" and passing it on to me) and fluent in German. I find Russian to be an incredibly expressive language with just as many (if not more) nuances as English, and its ability to convey feelings of dislike, anger or downright hateful fervor (i.e. swearing) is, in my experience, unmatched. German is an incredibly logical language, and once grammar constructs are mastered, relatively straightforward in its application. Mastering German grammar is a challenge however, and word order is an utter nuisance in some situations.

Just my two cents.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 18:34:01 GMT

Hello, another English teacher here. I have been teaching English in China for about 2 and a half years now and also speak fluent French, decent Spanish and am learning Chinese (not as hard as you may think once you get the hang of those tones, easy grammar). Now I'll start off by saying that English seems to be an incredibly easy language to communicate with (and by this I mean to give the general idea of what you're trying to say). However, if you want to learn English like a native speaker then it's a completely different story. The pronunciation CAN be difficult to learn depending on your native language and also the age you attempt to learn it at. Training your tongue and mouth to move the same way a native speaker does can be difficult to do, especially if you're like many of my students who got their start at an older age or didn't have good teachers. I've also noticed that my younger students are able to mimic my speech much easier than the older ones speaking, both of whom are studying at the same level. I started learning French when I was 4 years old (Quebec French, I'm Canadian) and because of the quality of my teachers and my young age I was able to become quite good with my pronunciation. With my Chinese because I'm learning from scratch from native speakers my pronunciation is also decent (notice I said decent, not great, although when speaking Chinese I'm always understood). Native language has a lot to do with it too as the sounds you use in one language may be very different for another. I've taught in both the north and south of China and find that the people all have the same problems. Chinese people have problems with s (they often pronounce it as a sh sound) and with closing their mouth for the letter m ("sometimes" is a nightmare for them and they often say it like "suntine"). L and R can also be troublesome. One can't forget sentence stress as well as well as linking words together to make it go smoothly.

The vocabulary can also be a pain. Someone here mentioned 150,000 words in the English language but the number is actually much higher. The Oxford English Dictionary (2nd edition) contains over 600,000 definitions. Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged contains 475,000 main headwords and it is believed the language grows by 25,000 words a year. Don't believe me, check Wikipedia. There's also the difference in spelling and vocabulary between the different forms of English. British English and American English use different words and the words that are the same can be spelled differently. American English and Canadian English essentially share the same vocabulary to a large degree but the spelling of Canadian English in many ways is closer to British English. British English is pretty much the English form most Asian and European countries will learn but American pop culture will also have an influence, not to mention the American economy and it's impact. This can all be very confusing. To the person saying they are tired of using "well" as in "well, then..." there are many substitutes you could use.

The grammar is also a nuisance. It's not the hardest of things but certainly isn't the easiest. Sure French has a gender attached to all of it's nouns (which I hated when learning it), but English still has more exceptions to it's rules that need to me memorized. So many even native speakers have trouble with it. A language like Chinese that may seem hard to speak actually has very simple grammar. For example if you wanted to ask someone where they are you would say "ni zai na li" or simply "ni zai nar" (you where?). To ask a question in Chinese you merely ad "ma" to the end of a statement. "Ta hui shuo zhongwen" is "he/she speaks Chinese whereas "ta hui shuo zhongwen ma" is "does he/she speak Chinese?". Also in Chinese as there are no forms of he or she.

It's impossible to say which language is easy and which is hard when compared to each other because there are so many things that need to be taken into consideration. Let's just say that English has it's easy parts and it's ridiculously difficult parts as well. Speaking at a native speaker level can be done and I know people who have done this, but it takes a lot of hard work, good instruction, and a good learning atmosphere. I hope all that made sense, I stumbled onto this site a 2 in the morning and am quite tired.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Einmalige Narizsse — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 03:53:16 GMT

Well, maybe I'll say, where and with things I have difficulties.

Firstly and it's the most important: tenses. In my mother tongue, we don't have so many freaking tenses
Secondly, this problem is with every new language. The way you think and make sentence. Sometimes I translate from my language to english. and it makes no sense. Or more correctly, it would be: i used to translate.
Thirdly: "a/an" and "the"- of course, you can get used to it and learn, but i really hate it
Moreover: prepositions and phrasal verbs
And last but not least: English pronunciation: huge, Hugh, hug- I know, maybe for you, it's clear, but for me it's silly ;D and "woman" and "women" (by the way, I love English idioms, they're so funny)

But there's is one thing I have to add. Honestly, I think, that there are more difficult languages, for example Hungarian, Hebrew (especially, alphabet. I've been learning it for 2 months and I know just few letters ) or Polish. Even German- have you ever seen adjective? and the way you have to inflect it?

Regards,
Einmalige Narzisse

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:49:54 GMT

english is not the only language that contains this.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:49:26 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Hmmm. If you think that english is difficult - YOU ARE WRONG!!! It is the easiest language! I'm Pole, have you ever tried to say the simplest word in Polish e.g Åazienka (bathroom) I'm sure that 90% of English wouldn't be able to pronounce it correctly!!! Or meaby something from German: einhundertfunfundzwazig (125) - this is correct spelling, there shouldn't be any spaces!!! It is normall that you are not as fluent as natives - it is impossible, there are always differences in pronunciation or in degree of complexity of vocabulary. Only thing which can cause real problems are pronunciation such vowels as 'th' (thing, those). These "dentals" don't occur in other european languages at all. The other things are tenses - twelve of them - most languages have only 3 (past, present and future)... But all of it is not important!!! We learn foreign languages to comunicate, we are able to communicate in English if we know 1000 words. IT IS THE EASIEST LANGUAGE!... The language of the future.

take care
Adam

I agree. Many natively english-speaking people think/assume that english is one of the most difficult languages to learn, but its not.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:45:43 GMT

HaffiezMike wrote:
Hi there!
Im not sure if I can answer your question correctly but i can tell you that MAYBE it is because of the PRONUNCIATION itself and because of the complexity in English.

21 Reasons Why The English Language Is Hard To Learn:

1) The bandage was wound around the wound.
2) The farm was used to produce produce.
3) The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
4) We must polish the Polish furniture.
5) He could lead if he would get the lead out.
6) The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
7) Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was
time to present the present.
8) A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
9) When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
10) I did not object to the object.
11) The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
12) There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
13) They were too close to the door to close it.
14) The buck does funny things when the does are present.
15) A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
16) To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
17) The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
18) After a number of injections my jaw got number.
19) Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
20) I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
21) How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Funny but TRUE

many languages have homonyms. Many of those languages; i.e. Japanese or Chinese, have many more than english does.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sun, 06 Jan 2008 01:38:43 GMT

that isn't really a good example. People who know english make that kind of mistake all the time. I thought it was "learned" until I read what you wrote.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 03:33:24 GMT

English is so difficult to learn because there are so many words that sound alike but then have different spellings and meanings, such as "there","their" and "they're", also other words such as: "clothes", "close"," "weather", "wheather". Or how about "tear" such as tear drop, or ''tear me apart". Also the word "close" has two different ways of pronouncing it, such as "close the door" or "close to my heart". Another tough one is saying "loose" as in my shoe strings are loose or don't "lose" your shirt.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 20:03:38 GMT

Then, there are words like "knight" (though I'm convinced once upon a time it really was pronounced "kuh-ni-git"

Actually, you are correct. "Knight" comes from the Old English word "cniht". The 'k' sound was pronounced.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 02:46:01 GMT

I think this is not our language

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Bldudas — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:56:27 GMT

Not to be rude, but are you talking to me? Not to be rude again. Sorry. I understand almost everything people from Britain and Austraila say. I watch British shows and I even had a British teacher for one school year. Sure, they use words that are different from the ones used over here, but I know what they mean. That is true of any language. People from different places are going to have different words, but I did not mean that. I meant that most of the words are not common everyday words people use.

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Anonymous — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 17:48:36 GMT

That seems pretty harsh. Perhaps you think this because the American ways are so different that you can't really understand them--and you don't even know it. And I'm sure this is pretty true for all "versions" in English. I don't know about comparing British English to Australian English, but when comparing American English to either of them, I notice that people word things differently. But why is American English the one that is considered "butchered"?

Re: What makes English so difficult to learn?

Bldudas — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 02:09:54 GMT

"According to Websters English language dictionary ( or so I have heard so feel free to research) there are like 150,000 words in the English language and only 75,000 in French. The good news is . . . if English speakers continue to talk the way they do now and watch E! Entertainment television there will only be about 4,000, which will be considerably easier to master."

Most of the 150,000 words are medical terms and are unknown to many people. There are really only a few hundreds words people use everyday. And most of these are of Germanic origin.