How difficult is it to learn another language?

[Fran]

Wish I was a linguist.

I couldn't finish Finnish.

It's a language for cunning linguists.

Yeah, but you could always become an expert BBQ-ist. You know, a master baster.

Yes! or an excellent fisherman as a master baiter!

I had a friend several years ago - Johnny Bates.

The teacher always called him Master Bates.

[Jazz Kat]

My rich friend's name is Charles Bates, his butler calls him 'master bates.' Kinda changed it up a little.

[marcoliv]

I have a friend who is South African, his mother was from Portugal and he can speak Portuguese.

I am impressed by you range of languages.

Che,

brazilian people don't speak their language properly and they don't even try!!

thanks

Marcus

[Jazz Kat]

When people ask me how many languages I speak, I say two. English and jazz.

[Guest che]

I have a friend who is South African, his mother was from Portugal and he can speak Portuguese.

I am impressed by you range of languages.

Che,

brazilian people don't speak their language properly and they don't even try!!

thanks

Marcus

Just finished a book by Melvin Bragg which is a kind of story about how we in England came to speak English. Now 300 years or so ago we would have spoke French or Norse (from the Vikings).

There are some who may say that I, who was born in the North of England, does not speak 'proper' English

Che.

[JohnJ]

JohnJ

If it makes you feel any better I've been speaking Japanese for over twenty years and although I have no problems with daily life I still get bewildered trying to follow complex news stories like the current Nippon Broadcasting Live Door business.

I'd say a lot depends on your age and attitude, the early stages are sheer hard work and grit.

Thanks kinuta. I still take my so called advanced classes twice a week but unfortunately neither age nor aptitude are on my side.

Actually, recent lessons have been about the Livedoor versus Nippon Broadcasting saga. Very interesting but, as you say, hard to follow in Japanese.

[Jazz Kat]

Learning two languages is hard. It comes in handy, when you least expect it.

[JohnJ]

Learning two languages is hard. It comes in handy, when you least expect it.

It comes in handy when you most expect it too.

[Jazz Kat]

Personally, I havent had to use it at all yet.

[jazzypaul]

I had it (kinda) easy learning french in high school. Half of my dad's family is of pied noir decent (french algerians, back when there was such a thing), and when they moved to France after the Algerians kicked them out, they moved into a community of pied noirs. Who spoke a different dialect of French than the rest of France, by the way, and continue to do so.

Anyway, during my sophomore and junior years in high school, it just so happened that almost all of them ended up coming over here, in two month jaunts. So, for two months, I had my aunt, then my cousin, then a couple of uncles, and so on and so forth. When they found out that I was taking french class and doing pretty well, they stopped speaking english. And when I spoke parisian french, they didn't catch some of what I was saying. So I had to adapt to the algerian accent and dialect. By the end of my aunt's stay, I was thinking almost exclusively in french, putting adjectives after the nouns, speaking in french tenses and speaking overly formally (for US standards). Once in gym class, when asked a question by my teacher, I answered in French without even thinking about it.

So, I knew the language, but ended up passing French junior year with a B- because I was confusing the teacher who didn't know the algerian dialect and assumed I was making words up. When I explained the situation, she said that she was teaching parisian french, and other dialects didn't matter within the four walls of her classroom. That wench!

Senior year, I only needed 3 classes to graduate. French was on the list of classes that didn't make the cut.

Now, if I hear enough French, I can kinda understand it, but for the most part, outside of a few key phrases here and there, I've forgotten most of what I learned.

A lot of it is immersion. As many other people have stated, if you really want to become fluent in a language, you'll need to surround yourself with people that speak that language.

[Guest che]

I try and listen to Finnish radio which helps me with the language.

Che.

[jazzmessenger]

As far as speaking goes, I think Japanese is an easy language to learn. There are only a, i, u, e, o if you know what I mean. But learning grammer is another thing. There are way too many exceptions that don't follow rules.

English, on the other hand, is more difficult to speak than write/read. I have no problem writing/reading scientific articles or watching TVs, but I can never speak "perfect" English no matter how long I live in the U.S.

[John L]

Speaking any language perfectly is extremely difficult, even for natives.

Once you reach a certain level of proficiency in a foreign language, the marginal returns start to decline very fast. Most people who move to foreign countries with a new language as adults never completely master the new language. The problem is that native speech requires native thought processes. The part of the brain that allows a person to assimilate native thought processes closes steadily in youth.

I started to learn Russian when I was 20, worked very hard at it, spent a lot of time in Russia, and now speak it almost natively - almost. And it will always be almost, no matter how hard I would work at it. I have learned to live with that fact.

Edited March 24, 2005 by John L

[Jazz Kat]

As far as speaking goes, I think Japanese is an easy language to learn. There are only a, i, u, e, o if you know what I mean. But learning grammer is another thing. There are way too many exceptions that don't follow rules.

English, on the other hand, is more difficult to speak than write/read. I have no problem writing/reading scientific articles or watching TVs, but I can never speak "perfect" English no matter how long I live in the U.S.

I'm sure most English teachers will tell you that most, no one, speaks perfect English. Hey, this is where I got to be where I'm at!