in your opinion , what is the toughest language to learn?

[chrisd]

I'm pretty much effluent at many languages

 

[Blue in Munich]

I'm pretty much effluent at many languages

Fluent in profane when on the course as I remember……

 

[Deleted member 18645]

There are a few people on this forum on the Brexit/Scottish Independence threads who have successfully mastered a second language in talking out of their arse.

 

[chrisd]

Fluent in profane when on the course as I remember……

Speak it like a native!

 

[Golfmmad]

My daughter has students, most of which are Swiss. Talking to one of them over dinner this evening she said that English is much more difficult to read and understand than it is to speak it. She said that last night she could only manage to read six pages of her book because she had to keep interpreting the words and phrases she couldn't understand.

Other students that I've spoken to in the past, who can speak other languages have said that English is the more difficult to learn.

 

[SocketRocket]

My daughter has students, most of which are Swiss. Talking to one of them over dinner this evening she said that English is much more difficult to read and understand than it is to speak it. She said that last night she could only manage to read six pages of her book because she had to keep interpreting the words and phrases she couldn't understand.

Other students that I've spoken to in the past, who can speak other languages have said that English is the more difficult to learn.

Thats correct. English (Anglo Saxon/Old English) was a Germanic language that used Germanic grammar. After the Norman invasion Norman french became the official language for the ruling classes while the rest still used Anglo Saxon but as it was no longer the written language in Law and Commerce it lost it's grammatical rules and many words were replaced by their French equivalents. This produced the Middle English we read in Chaucer that has modified into what we use today. So, it is difficult for people to learn English due to the difference in the grammatical rules but it also has the ability to express with flexibility and a rich manner that other languages cannot do.

 

[Backache]

Non Indo European languages are meant to be more difficult than the Indoeuropean ones for their speakers
Basque , Hungarian Estonian and Finnish are the only ones in EUrope of which Basque is not really related to anything else.
Some American Indain languages are meant to be very difficult to learn.
Personally the language which I have had most difficulty with is Cantonese,it is tonal with nine tones and a written form very difficult to read for most Europeans.

 

[USER1999]

German was tough, French less so, mandarin Chinese, flipping impossible.

 

[bernix]

i have an understanding for all of you who regard German as a difficult language - i think it is.
i tried to learn Slowenian but did not come to grips with it. Spanish is not too difficult but i had problems because my Italian was quite good and Spanish is similar so i routinely use the Italian word or phrase which is sometimes totally wrong

 

[wrighty1874]

English is the hardest language to master.

 

[delc]

At least German and Spanish are reasonably phonetic, as long as you know how to pronounce the letters. I have always found French difficult because it isn't. I would imagine that English is quite difficult for foreigners to learn.

 

[williamalex1]

Latin and French, unus impleatur annus perdito tempus , odivi eam. non merci !.:rofl:

 

[MarkZ91]

Korean, probably. All eastern languages sound for me weird.

 

[USER1999]

English is the hardest language to master.

It must be, looking at some of the rubbish posted on the forum.

 

[Sharktooth]

Cantonese

 

[williamalex1]

Cantonese

Number 28 and 36 easy.