Scribd Logo
Upload

Welcome to Scribd!

  • 114 views

    Are Some Languages Harder To Learn Than Others

    Uploaded by

    Jose Rattia
    The document discusses whether some languages are inherently harder to learn than others. While rankings may show that some languages require more time to reach proficiency, many factors related to the individual learner are more important determinants of difficulty, such as their native language, prior language learning experience, age, learning environment, motivation and approach. No language is equally difficult for all learners. The perceived difficulty depends more on the individual than properties of the language itself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Are Some Languages Harder To Learn Than Others

    Uploaded by

    Jose Rattia
    114 views2 pages
    The document discusses whether some languages are inherently harder to learn than others. While rankings may show that some languages require more time to reach proficiency, many factors related to the individual learner are more important determinants of difficulty, such as their native language, prior language learning experience, age, learning environment, motivation and approach. No language is equally difficult for all learners. The perceived difficulty depends more on the individual than properties of the language itself.

    Original Description:

    LEARNING ENGLISH FASTLY

    Original Title

    Are Some Languages Harder to Learn Than Others

    Copyright

    © © All Rights Reserved

    Available Formats

    DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Did you find this document useful?

    Is this content inappropriate?

    The document discusses whether some languages are inherently harder to learn than others. While rankings may show that some languages require more time to reach proficiency, many factors related to the individual learner are more important determinants of difficulty, such as their native language, prior language learning experience, age, learning environment, motivation and approach. No language is equally difficult for all learners. The perceived difficulty depends more on the individual than properties of the language itself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    114 views2 pages

    Are Some Languages Harder To Learn Than Others

    Uploaded by

    Jose Rattia
    The document discusses whether some languages are inherently harder to learn than others. While rankings may show that some languages require more time to reach proficiency, many factors related to the individual learner are more important determinants of difficulty, such as their native language, prior language learning experience, age, learning environment, motivation and approach. No language is equally difficult for all learners. The perceived difficulty depends more on the individual than properties of the language itself.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 2

    Are Some Languages Harder to Learn than Others?

    Whats the easiest language to learn? Why is Chinese harder to learn than Spanish? How hard
    would it be to learn Icelandic? Considering that I spend most of my day lurking through the depths
    of the language-learning communities on various social media networks, I see a lot of questions
    about the relative difficulty of learning different languages. My answer to every single one of
    them: its not about the language, its about the learner.

    For those of you who have your WTF face on, lets take one ranking scale for example. The
    Defense Language Institute provides instruction in 24 languages, each ranked by difficulty into one
    of four categories. To reach the same level of proficiency, you would have to study a Category I
    language (such as Spanish) for 26 weeks, a Category II language (think German) for 34 weeks, a
    Category III language (something like Thai) for 48 weeks, and a Category IV language (Im looking
    at you, Arabic and Mandarin) for 64 weeks. Thats all well and good for DLI, considering that the
    majority of their students are native English speakers. But on the most basic level, it tells us
    nothing about how hard each language is to learn.

    After all, what makes a language easy or hard? Is it the writing system? Grammar rules like
    adjective agreement? The arbitrary use of genders for nouns? Dont even get me started on cases
    and declension! I would argue that it is none of those things (or perhaps all of those things!) More
    important than any one facet of a language is the perspective from which you look at the
    language. What is your native language? How many languages have you learned? How old are
    you? In what environment are you learning the language? All of these factors play a role in how
    challenging we may find a specific language.

    An infant learns Chinese in roughly 2-3 years with seemingly no effort at all (so unfair), whereas I
    studied French formally for nearly 10 years before I felt any sense of proficiency in the language.
    Does that make Chinese easier to learn than French? I think most of us would argue certainly not.
    It depends on the learner. A native Arabic speaker attempting to learn Portuguese on their own in
    the Egypt will face an entirely different set of challenges than a native Spanish speaker who has
    moved to Brazil to learn Portuguese, dont you think?

    So what actually makes a language hard to learn? Certainly having no prior experience with
    learning languages will make the journey a tad more difficult for you. Learning a language in your
    home country without native speaker assistance presents difficulties in comparison to immersion
    learning, of course. Having no motivation or desire to learn a language will also put a damper on
    your progress.

    So, my advice to those wondering how difficult it will be to learn a language: dont worry about
    the language choice, worry about yourself and your own plans to learn. Dont get caught up in the
    Arabic is the hardest language EVER nonsense, and do not be discouraged by anyone who says
    learning Italian was so freakin easy. Set your own language goals, work at a comfortable pace,
    find resources you enjoy learning from, find someone to help you through the difficult parts, and
    stick with it. The truth is every language is only as tough to learn as you make it out to be!

    What do you think about the difficulty of various languages? Are some languages truly more
    difficult than others?
    Vocabulary:
    1. Those
    2. Declension
    3. Argue
    4. Seemingly
    5. Unfair
    6. Roughly
    7. Whereas
    8. Journey
    9. Damper
    10. truth
    11. Discouraged
    12. Freakin
    13. stick

    You might also like