Off topic: Tricky languages and how to learn them Thread poster: Mark Hemming
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Mark Hemming 
United Kingdom
Local time: 03:55
Slovenian to English
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| esperantisto
Local time: 05:55
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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SITE LOCALIZER | About nothing | Apr 3, 2020 |
The article is about nothing. Its summary: in order to learn a language, you have to learn a language. Did you not know that? It looks like the only goal is to advertise Memrise. OK, but there are other options such as Duolingo or Busuu.... See more The article is about nothing. Its summary: in order to learn a language, you have to learn a language. Did you not know that? It looks like the only goal is to advertise Memrise. OK, but there are other options such as Duolingo or Busuu. Just for the sake of objectivity. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | The modern way | Apr 3, 2020 |
This is just self-promotion. Advertising. SEO. Advertorial. Whatever. The modern way, I guess.
It would be nice if it could contain a morsel of useful information.
And anyway, if Chinese is that hard, how come so many people can speak it?
| | | | | "Difficult" languages | Apr 3, 2020 |
And anyway, if Chinese is that hard, how come so many people can speak it?
Love this. As an ESL teacher, I was always fascinated by the question of whether it's harder for monolingual Chinese students to learn English or monolingual English students to learn Chinese. If you have any thoughts on this (or the same thing in your own working languages), please share!
Language difficulty really is a matter of perspective. Even ranking the difficulty of different languages for a native English speaker is tricky (usually based on average number of study hours it takes to reach a certain degree of proficiency, from what I've seen). I studied Russian alongside Chinese in college and when people find this out, they often ask me which one is harder. The truth is that they both have aspects that can cause major headaches for English-speaking students. What is fairly simple in one may be frustratingly complicated in the other.
Many students of English worldwide don't get near as much credit as they should for their achievements, particularly if they are native speakers of the languages in this article. Always been a sore spot for me.
Anyways, interesting topic, would probably make a great discussion post on its own!
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 05:55
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
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| Different alphabets | Apr 4, 2020 |
I wonder if Polish or Czech are easier for Western Europeans than Russian or Bulgarian because of the alphabet. I studied Russian 6 years but still found my reading much slower than in Latin-scripting languages.
| | | | P.L.F. Persio
Netherlands
Local time: 04:55
Member (2010)
English to Italian
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| Polish vs Russian | Apr 4, 2020 |
Hi Heinrich,
I'm Italian and I've studied both Russian and Polish. In my experience, although Polish uses the Latin alphabet, phonetically its sounds are harder to pronounce, writing is more difficult, and even its grammar is more difficult than Russian, and that's saying something.
Having said that, you're a native German-speaker who translates from Finnish, thus you know a thing or two about difficult languages.
As much as I love German, and sometimes I translat... See more Hi Heinrich,
I'm Italian and I've studied both Russian and Polish. In my experience, although Polish uses the Latin alphabet, phonetically its sounds are harder to pronounce, writing is more difficult, and even its grammar is more difficult than Russian, and that's saying something.
Having said that, you're a native German-speaker who translates from Finnish, thus you know a thing or two about difficult languages.
As much as I love German, and sometimes I translate from it, I can't get my head around the fact that in sentences like I want to eat an appel, Germans say Ich will einen Apfel essen, and that's an easy one.
Whenever I try to speak German, or its close relative Dutch – since I live in the Netherlands – I feel the urgent need to say all my verbs straight away, which puzzles people. So I keep schtum, following the motto: Even a fool is thought wise if she keeps silent, and discerning if she holds her tongue.
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
I wonder if Polish or Czech are easier for Western Europeans than Russian or Bulgarian because of the alphabet. I studied Russian 6 years but still found my reading much slower than in Latin-scripting languages. ▲ Collapse
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