Ask a Question

(Create a thread)
Go Back   Spanish language learning forums > Other Languages > Other Languages


Difficult languages

 

Being the language lovers that we are... A place to talk about, or write in languages other than Spanish and English.


Reply
 
Thread Tools Display Modes
  #21  
Old August 31, 2008, 11:10 PM
ElDanés's Avatar
ElDanés ElDanés is offline
Pearl
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 318
ElDanés is on a distinguished road
I don't think the grammar of languages is the hardest to learn, as it simply requires lots of practice. What I think is hard is idioms and sayings, and alike, and to learn how real natives speak the language. I'm from Finland myself, so I know a lot of Finnish, and on some points it's very different from Danish, English or other languages. A funny thing, in my humble opinion, is that you say you're going into the toilet, and not on the toilet, when you're going for a pee (minä menen vessassa).

But it's true of course, the grammar is a factor. I have only briefly looked at Hungarian once, and I can't say if it's harder than Finnish or not. Personally do I think that some of the hardest languages to learn are Native American languages, or some other languages by indians (Mayan, etc.) They have a complex grammar-system, and many sentences have a bit of supernatural things in them, caused by their old religions, etc. Also, most of them are agglutinative languages, which can be quite confusing sometimes.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Rusty
and Finnish (8)
15.
__________________
¡Correcciones son muy bienvenidas!
Reply With Quote
   
Get rid of these ads by registering for a free Tomísimo account.
  #22  
Old September 01, 2008, 02:03 AM
María José's Avatar
María José María José is offline
The Rebel Fairy
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Madrid
Posts: 1,765
Native Language: Spanish
María José is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by ElDanés View Post
I don't think the grammar of languages is the hardest to learn, as it simply requires lots of practice. What I think is hard is idioms and sayings, and alike, and to learn how real natives speak the language. I'm from Finland myself, so I know a lot of Finnish, and on some points it's very different from Danish, English or other languages. A funny thing, in my humble opinion, is that you say you're going into the toilet, and not on the toilet, when you're going for a pee (minä menen vessassa).

But it's true of course, the grammar is a factor. I have only briefly looked at Hungarian once, and I can't say if it's harder than Finnish or not. Personally do I think that some of the hardest languages to learn are Native American languages, or some other languages by indians (Mayan, etc.) They have a complex grammar-system, and many sentences have a bit of supernatural things in them, caused by their old religions, etc. Also, most of them are agglutinative languages, which can be quite confusing sometimes.


15.
You made me think that even though the grammar of English is quite simple, my students (most of them are Spanish, but not all) have lots of problems with idioms and prepositions and with the fact that, in their opinion, English is not logical at all.
They also have great trouble understanding. We use films, soaps, documentaries... quite often, and most of them (and they are advanced students - C1 more or less in the European Framework) feel lost without the subtitles, even the ones who have lived in England or the States for a year or more still have problems understanding 100 %, mainly because of the pronunciation and intonation .
You also mentioned culture and religion, and that is true of modern languages too. When we watch comedies there are many jokes I have to explain or that they try to guess together, unless I've given some explanations beforehand, because most of them lack the cultural background or don't know the pronunciation of a brand, who a famous person is...
P.S. Just an afterthought: here in Spain most films both on telly and at the cinema are still dubbed.Most of my Latin American students are quicker at listening because in their countries they watch O.V.s with subtitles.
__________________
"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
from Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie

Last edited by María José; September 01, 2008 at 02:12 AM.
Reply With Quote
  #23  
Old September 01, 2008, 04:08 AM
ElDanés's Avatar
ElDanés ElDanés is offline
Pearl
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 318
ElDanés is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by María José
with idioms and prepositions and with the fact that, in their opinion, English is not logical at all.
I can only agree with that. I'm still facing lots of problems with idioms and prepositions. But reading a forum such as this one helps you learning it. Slowly you figure out where you use "on," "at," etc.
__________________
¡Correcciones son muy bienvenidas!
Reply With Quote
  #24  
Old September 01, 2008, 09:44 AM
Rusty's Avatar
Rusty Rusty is offline
Señor Speedy
 
Join Date: Aug 2007
Location: USA
Posts: 11,299
Native Language: American English
Rusty has a spectacular aura aboutRusty has a spectacular aura about
I heard once that there were 8 Finnish noun cases, and I believed what I heard. With your help, and looking on-line, I now know that there are 15. Thanks, ElDanés!
Reply With Quote
  #25  
Old September 01, 2008, 10:27 AM
ElDanés's Avatar
ElDanés ElDanés is offline
Pearl
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Posts: 318
ElDanés is on a distinguished road
You're welcome.
__________________
¡Correcciones son muy bienvenidas!
Reply With Quote
  #26  
Old September 01, 2008, 12:52 PM
María José's Avatar
María José María José is offline
The Rebel Fairy
 
Join Date: Jun 2008
Location: Madrid
Posts: 1,765
Native Language: Spanish
María José is on a distinguished road
I'm learning lots of things here too. And not only related to languages... I'm a tiny bit less scared of my computer now and I also have a lot of fun. Thanks, everybody.
__________________
"When the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies."
from Peter Pan by J.M.Barrie
Reply With Quote
  #27  
Old March 07, 2009, 05:56 AM
curadebt curadebt is offline
Banned
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Posts: 4
curadebt is on a distinguished road
I am 30 years old and wanted to learn chinese. Can you tell me what is the best way to learn it?
Reply With Quote
  #28  
Old March 07, 2009, 07:45 AM
Tomisimo's Avatar
Tomisimo Tomisimo is offline
Davidísimo
 
Join Date: May 2006
Location: North America
Posts: 5,664
Native Language: American English
Tomisimo will become famous soon enoughTomisimo will become famous soon enough
Quote:
Originally Posted by curadebt View Post
I am 30 years old and wanted to learn chinese. Can you tell me what is the best way to learn it?
Please start your own thread in the other languages forum.
__________________
If you find something wrong with my Spanish, please correct it!
Reply With Quote
  #29  
Old March 07, 2009, 10:20 AM
CrOtALiTo's Avatar
CrOtALiTo CrOtALiTo is offline
Diamond
 
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Mérida, Yucatán
Posts: 11,686
Native Language: I can understand Spanish and English
CrOtALiTo is on a distinguished road
Wlecome Curabet.
__________________
We are building the most important dare for my life and my family feature now we are installing new services in telecoms.
Reply With Quote
  #30  
Old March 30, 2009, 07:00 PM
chanman's Avatar
chanman chanman is offline
Pearl
 
Join Date: Mar 2009
Location: Nueva Jersey
Posts: 124
Native Language: Hablo inglés y chino nativamente.
chanman is on a distinguished road
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ramses View Post
Well, there are 'only' 4 tones to master, and it's not THAT hard. Yes, learning the Hanzi can be a challenge, but it's also great fun when you get the hang of it. And yes, the vocab is totally different, but the grammar is just so straight-forward and at times easy, so that makes a lot better.


Depends on the languages. For example; French and Spanish. At the same time it'll confuse you. But for example Spanish and Turkish (like I do at the moment)? I think it's perfectly possible because the two languages are so completely different.
It depends on the teacher and student; Some are taught 4 (like in Mainland China), while others are taught 5 (like in Taiwan). Where 5 tones is taught, they consider words like ma, and ba, and the end of questions and sentences (In other words, particles), to have a "dot" tone. Also, when a word is repeated twice it also has a "dot" tone.

Oh, and if you think Mandarin is hard because of tones, trying learning Cantonese. 6.

Grammar of Mandarin is actually relatively easy; relatively little conjugation compared to Indo-European languages, no cases, and very easy to modify words, making them adjectives, nouns, adverbs, etc. The hardest would probably be the writing system, which requires the memorization of every single character. Chinese is also slightly phonetic though. For more complex characters, there is the part called the "radical", which gives the basic idea or meaning. Then the other part can help with pronounciation.

For example, 铃. The left side is the "metal" radical, while the right side itself (令) would be pronounced "ling". This character is also pronounced the same way ("ling"), but it means "bell", as a bell is made out of metal.
There are also "top" radicals, like in the word 宇 (yu). The top is the "protect" radical (宀, it is not a radical by itself, but is derived from the word 保 [bao]). The bottom (于) is pronounced "yu". This word together is also pronounced in the same way, but together with 宙,it means universe. (宇宙)
__________________
¿Puedes corregir mi español, por favor? ¡Muchas Gracias!
Reply With Quote
Reply

Tags
language learning, por vs para, vocab comparison, vs

 

Link to this thread
URL: 
HTML Link: 
BB Code: 
Thread Tools
Display Modes

Posting Rules
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
BB code is On
Smilies are On
[IMG] code is On
HTML code is Off
Site Rules

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Creole Languages... hypnotik1 Other Languages 10 September 30, 2010 11:39 AM
Other languages you would like to learn Zach Other Languages 89 September 06, 2009 11:07 PM


All times are GMT -6. The time now is 05:57 PM.

Forum powered by vBulletin® Copyright ©2000 - 2024, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd.

X