In your opinion, what is the most difficult language to learn?

[TheOgreMan]

The most difficult language to learn is the one you have no desire to. This is why high school language classes (in the US) tend to be a joke. They are required by guidelines, no one wants to be there, and the teachers generally suck. I've been to 3 different high schools, in 3 different areas, and they are pretty much all the same.

I took Latin in high school and college so I have a pretty good grasp on that. Contrary to popular belief (also in this thread) being fluent in Latin doesn't help that much with Romantic languages because Latin isn't spoken. I'm learning Spanish now and the only part that Latin helps with is reading.

The biggest problem that I have with learning Spanish currently is that I don't have anyone to speak with. My girlfriend is Colombian but she gets too frustrated to teach me. I try to learn on my own and talk to her, and I get some things right and can get around (probably), but she speaks so darn quickly that I have to ask her to repeat herself a lot.

I have never really cared about Spanish because I'm lazy and I think that Mexican-Spanish is ugly sounding, but now I want/need to learn since her entire family speaks very rough or no English and it would be good to be able to communicate with her family if I want to stick around for a while.

[Leopold Stotch]

Wait, what? Do americans use Muzzy too? For learning what language?
We had Muzzy help us learning english the first three years of school, and we all thought he was awesome!
I like parking meters!

i remember when i was little and in the 90s ads for Muzzy. i kinda geeked out and was like, "ooohhh!" i didn't see it until i was in 10th grade, French 2 and we learned the basics like colors, adjectives (i lol'd hardocre when the queen was like, "Je suis grosse! Je suis grosse!!") and vowels (i really liked that scene). while me and my Bestest Friend were geeking out about it when we saw each other (she took French as well, diff classes. we'd talk in practice about it), all the other kids were like, "This is ***!" or "This is dumb!" or ""Time for sleep!" i enjoyed it very much (lol, esp. Albert. that guy was funny!), except when Sylvie multiplied 11 times. "Je suis Sylvie!" "Je suis Sylvie!" "Je suis Sylvie!" got old REALLY bloody fast! lol, it annoyed other people who didn't take French class! XXDD

i forgot who mentioned this (Ogre, maybe?), but yeah. a lot of kids in school only take the language class they need for grad. credits and don't really care. well, maybe. idk, i had a friend take Spanish 1 three ****ing times bcuz he would always be asleep (but then again, he always slept in class!). 90% of the high school would take Spanish, the other 10% would take French. and of those 10%ers, only 6 or 7% would take French three (grad. plan required three years of a foregin language), only .5% (if that!) go on with that last year. not a lot of kids sign up for it, from my understanding, and idk if there is a French 4 class in case someone did sign up for it. if anything, the school might throw them in with the small French 3 class and give them the French 4 credit (that's what happened with me, at least). and i am really glad i took French bcuz i actually learned from it. my two teachers were amazing women and taught it very well. the Spanish kids hardly learned anything, except how to cook. the Spanish classes ALWAYS seemed to be cooking or bs-ing around. i don't think the Spanish teachers were very good, at least one of them. im gonna go ahead and say it, she was the Coach Lane of Spanish. only at least Coach Lane seemed to like most of the kids and was laid back!

[trashX]

The gender of words is as old as the langauge. For me it seems rather logical that things have a gender. Its also much more poetic.
Picturing the sun as a "she" isnt this much more beautifull than just a boring "it"?

Old doesnt make it good does it? It's pointless and gives no added understanding to the word. Englisch gets by just fine with "the" instead of der die das for example. If you want to bring logic into this discussion, then the sun would be an it, just like rocks and houses and piles of poop. Or is the sun secretly a big burning vagina?

[Leopold Stotch]

Old doesnt make it good does it? It's pointless and gives no added understanding to the word. Englisch gets by just fine with "the" instead of der die das for example. If you want to bring logic into this discussion, then the sun would be an it, just like rocks and houses and piles of poop. Or is the sun secretly a big burning vagina?

yes, one day it'll explode and kill the Earth, since women are known to be crazy.

[Noodle]

Re: The Sun: Um, pretty sure Apollo's a guy. Don't know what kind of "science" y'all have been studying.

Having been raised by mockingbirds in the wild, I speak Ornithologian fluently, and can speak passable English, Spanish, and Drunk.

[krischan]

The gender of the sun and the moon is strongly influenced by ancient religion. In the Greek and Roman mytholgy, the sun (sol) is a he while the moon (luna) is a she. In Germanic languages it's the other way around, probably because of some gods or their minions. Sun and moon are of Germanic origin (Sonne, Mond in modern German), just like perhaps 60% of all English words. The English language took a few short cuts, many of them to the better (like removing the gender of articles and making all casi the same, except for the genitive and separating singular from plural), but they screwed up orthography quite heavily

[Leopold Stotch]

i have been told that English is hard to learn bcuz the language makes no sense half the time and contradicts itself. is it true for some of y'all? it makes no sense to me sometimes and it's my native tongue, lol!

[krischan]

I think that its orthography is clumsy for no good reason, as said. Maybe it came from the times where speaking French was en vogue. I don't mean to brag, but I'm particularly good at orthography (except for commas in English), so I've seen a couple of native speakers who are worse at it than me, although my vocabulary is typically more limited Correct me if I'm wrong, I can stand it.

[Leopold Stotch]

lol, it's cool, Krischan. i am not THAT great at punctuation, it confuses me sometimes. like, ok, i don't remember learning much abut punctuation when i was younger. i remember the basic rules, but our English classes here consist of writing papers and analyzing, in early classes (like 9th and 10th grade) they briefly go over grammar and punctuation. the higher English classes work on essays, SAT words (since a lot of kids are prepping for that), literature works, stuff like that. i think, at my mom's house, i have a grammar book and it helps with punctuation rules and stuff (like semi-colons. for the longest time i had no idea what they were used for, still kinda don't, but, yeah). i type as i talk on sites like these. in my papers/essays i do not. i try to be as proper and correct as i can be, same with formal messages.

edit: i think i use the comma too much! lol! apologies.

[trashX]

I think that its orthography is clumsy for no good reason, as said. Maybe it came from the times where speaking French was en vogue. I don't mean to brag, but I'm particularly good at orthography (except for commas in English), so I've seen a couple of native speakers who are worse at it than me, although my vocabulary is typically more limited Correct me if I'm wrong, I can stand it.

haha i guess every language has its faults doesnt it? most of the time native speakers are oblivious however because its so natural to them. There really should be an altered form of english, a "standard" language with all the little "bugs" taken out. I wonder why such a thing doesnt exist already. It's the world language already, so why not make it easier?

German recently got another Rechtschreibereform, and my teacher mentioned that never happens in english. I wonder why that is