| Two most difficult languages to learn | |
|---|---|
| Sep 7, 2007 22:30 | #31   |
 | Come on, BUNKY13. |
| Sep 14, 2007 14:36 | #32 |
| To me, as a Finn, Chinese is very difficult language. I have studied Chinese only for two months, not learnt anything :) But if talking about the most difficult language for a foreigner to learn, I think Finnish is at the top. Try it ;) I speak English quite well, some Swedish, a very little Spanish, very, very little French. None of them is as difficult as Chinese. About Japanese, Korean, Arabic can´t say anything. Oh, and Cocney is very difficult to understand ;) |
| Sep 16, 2007 15:53 | #33 |
| Vietnamese has 7 tonal sounds (rather than the 4 [or 5 if you count toneless] in Chinese). Finnish has 15 verb cases. That has to be incredibly frustrating to learn. I've been told by a language expert that Icelandic is probably the most difficult language to pronounce correctly. It is said that it is impossible for foreigners to learn Icelandic because the tongue has to take shapes that can only be learned early in life. I don't know if I agree with that though. But Malaysian is hard too because they speak at 1000 miles per hour. And then there's the Basque language (Euskara). It is not related to any known language on Earth. Maybe it came from space aliens? Words change depending if it's a positive or negative statement, if it's a permanent or temporary idea, and so on. Ni gaixorik nago (I am sick) Philip gaxorik dago (Philip is sick) Ni gizona naiz (I am a man) Philip gizona da (Philip is a man) Naiz = Am (Perminent) Nago = Am (Temporary) But another western language expert who speaks both Arabic and Chinese told me that Chinese is harder than Arabic. He says that you can learn the entire Arabic alphabet in a couple weeks. |
| Sep 17, 2007 21:14 | #34 |
| GUEST00101 | I dont agree with you .in my opinon chinese is simple you can learn little words but you can express much means. |
| Sep 18, 2007 12:41 | #35 |
| I saw an educational television show some time ago that claimed Icelandic was the most difficult language to learn. Chinese is tough enough for me! |
| Sep 18, 2007 18:17 | #36 |
| I won't say Chinese language is the most difficult language in the world (It is a bit presumtuous to say so and languages are different espacially from one continent to another). First because it just requires memory (visual and auditory), second because the grammar is extremly simple. For Asian people it is easier to learn caracter based language once they know their native language because the conception of the language is merely the same: a symbol = an idea. In Europe it is the same, we have to compound different elements like a puzzle, puzzle which will change form according to the meaning we want to create. I personaly learnt Chinese in one year, my speaking is rather good but my writing is quite bad (this depends on the kind of memory that prevails for each individual, for me it is the auditory one), so of course I ll continue to learn. I'm French so I do speak French, English as you can see, but also Spanish and a bit of Italian, I learnt Latin and ancien Greek. European languages are not based on the same principle, it is an analytic language. The grammar is consequently much more complicated than the Chinese one, and the exceptions to the rules much more numerous. Of course the number of symbols varies from a language to another. But what is in common is that you have to arrange it in a specific way so that the sentence you make is clear and correct. It is easy for any foreigner to be understood, even if the grammar is completly wrong. For example: "I want to eat", if you just learned the words by heart and you don't now a thing about English grammar you can say: "I want eat", this is wrong but everyone will understand (English grammar being rather easy espacially to conjugate verbs). In Chinese it is as simple as this: 我要吃, 我 standing for I, 要 for want, 吃 for eat, but here it is correct because you just put ideas one after the other. For French or Spanish, which grammar is more complicated you'll say in French: Je veux manger but the way to conjugate verbs makes it more difficult. If you say ils veulent manger it means they want to eat. In English or in Chinese the verb will stay the same. In spanish it is the same Quiero comer/Quieren comer (quiero means I want, comer means to eat). I m not even talking about the sequence of tenses and other very interesting grammar subtleties (Latin or German needing to identify the grammatical position of the word to be able to pronounce it in a correct way. We usually talk about cases). The way to think is just different (that's why we don't use the same area of the human brain), and by itself it doesn't make people smarter. The environment (including the language, but it is very far from being the most important) makes you dumb or intelligent. Even if you grow up in another city but in the same country, the result on you can be completly different (the family is also extremely important, so is the social environement, the access to education and also some genes you may have). |
| Sep 18, 2007 18:17 | #37 |
| Then we can say that probably, because of their training Chinese people are better at remembering things and European are better at analysing... But I don't even think it is true: if you compare stupid and intelligent people from different nation, I assume the result is likely to be the same ;). |
| Sep 19, 2007 13:09 | #38 |
| Erencius, fine analysis. I think Chinese is a clever language. Simple is beautiful. If talk only to learn language to be understood, I think all languages stand at same line. To learn language well or perfectly makes the difference. Just like in French, in Finnish verbs are twisted. To use Your example in English - I want to eat, You want to eat, he / she wants..., we want---, they want... In Finnish - Minä haluan syödä, sinä haluat syödä, hän haluaa..., me haluamme..., he haluavat... Meaning of language is to get understood and to understand, why make it difficult? |
| Sep 19, 2007 17:04 | #39 |
| yes exactly ;) |
| Sep 25, 2007 11:57 | #40 |
| Being a Chinese...I have the privilege of being exposed to the language since young..so to me, it's not that difficult! =) |
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