Quote:
Originally Posted by sunikem
I'm not sure, I know from my research that Hungarian is considered the most difficult, I think this is because of pronunciation rather than the letters themselves. Even though I speak very little Spanish my pronunciation of Spanish is much better than my Hungarian. I've been slowly learning Hungarian for just over 2 years ( my girlfriend is hungarian) and I've been learning Spanish for about 5 Months. It would be interesting to hear from someone who has or is learning Russian.
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I find what both you and Crotalito say very interesting, and even though I have very little theoretical information about the subject, my practical knowledge, after teaching EFL for exactly half my life, and having been a student of foreign languages for even longer, is a bit wider. I love reading what linguists have to say on the topic of language acquisition, and I partly believe their findings, even if sometimes they are quite contradictory.
All the same, I think that when you speak about languages and humans you can never generalize. There are too many factors to take into account: ability, motivation, genetics, background, lifestyle, location,character...
But that's the beauty of it. Languages are full of unexpected surprises, and each and every learner has a unique experience (although there are, of course, common attributes when you consider, for example, a group of Spanish learners).
And (this one is for you, Sosia
) here comes my egocentric moment: people say you learn a second foreign language through your mother tongue: I can assure you I have learned both French and the little bit of German I know through English.
(Sorry, David, I took the liberty of adding my little show-off, to prevent possible future attacks by my lovely forum friends...Wouldn't want to give any names...)