Learning a Language

[Drake Tungsten]

He who knows only one language knows no language at all, or so they say.

That's bull****. Learning a new language sucks and I would recommend against it to anyone.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

He who knows only one language knows no language at all, or so they say.

That's bull****. Learning a new language sucks and I would recommend against it to anyone.

just a matter of how good you are at it. perhaps you're more talented with numbers...

I know brilliant students able to solve all kids of difficult math problems, yet at the same time they're not able to learn French basics

[Drake Tungsten]

French? French is child's play. I'm talking about real language learning.

[Traianvs]

okay then, what's a real language for you
it's not american, that I know!

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten
French? French is child's play. I'm talking about real language learning.

Japanese is much easier than French. The only difficult thing in Japanese is the learning curve at the beginning, as there are basically 4 several languages to learn if you want to understand anything. Also, although they could write anything in Kana, they insist in writing in Kanji. As a result, it is often easier for the beginner to express himself in Japanese than to understand what he's told.

But grammar, vocabulary (no feminine or masculine) and sonority is outrageously easy to get in Japanese. Once the learning curve stops to be steep (quite quickly), there are infinitely fewer headaches than in French.

[Drake Tungsten]

Japanese is much easier than French.

Grammatically, yes. Throw in the writing systems (kanji ), however, and it's really no contest.

Once the learning curve stops to be steep (quite quickly)

God, how I wish this were true...

[Mr. President]

Indonesian is fairly easy as Asian languages go. It uses the Roman alphabet, the grammar is very regular, and all the words are pronounced the way they're spelled.

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Japanese is much easier than French. The only difficult thing in Japanese is the learning curve at the beginning, as there are basically 4 several languages to learn if you want to understand anything. Also, although they could write anything in Kana, they insist in writing in Kanji. As a result, it is often easier for the beginner to express himself in Japanese than to understand what he's told.

But grammar, vocabulary (no feminine or masculine) and sonority is outrageously easy to get in Japanese. Once the learning curve stops to be steep (quite quickly), there are infinitely fewer headaches than in French.

wooot te fook!

French is, in fact child's play... I'd rather not get into Japanese btw

[Mr. President]

For speakers of English, French is quite easy indeed. Ditto other Romance languages and German.

[Spiffor]

Originally posted by Trajanus
French is, in fact child's play... I'd rather not get into Japanese btw

Do you know how to use the imparfait du subjonctif properly? For that matter, do you know how to use the subjonctif properly at all? Can you distinguish between "il finit" (present tense) and "il finit" (past tense)? Do you know the plural of "amarante"? Can you hope to ever say "ornithrynque" properly if you're a foreigner?

These kind of problems do not happen in Japanese becuse grammar is streamlined, the pronunciation is simple save for their horrible l/r, and the vocabulary is not that plentiful.

[Drake Tungsten]

These kind of problems do not happen in Japanese becuse grammar is streamlined

Yes, although the large amount of inflection and the differences between casual, polite, humble and honorific forms of words are difficult for speakers of English.

the pronunciation is simple save for their horrible l/r

Yes. The l/r sound isn't even that bad.

and the vocabulary is not that plentiful.

I don't know about that.

[GePap]

I want to learn French- I studied it as a small kid, so I still have the ability to pronounce it well-with a good six months of intensive training I think I would do pretty well.

[Monk]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Can you hope to ever say "ornithrynque" properly if you're a foreigner?

Certainly.

ORRNITRÃ…Ã…Ã…Ã…HNKK, Spiffor!

I added you to my buddy list. I don't know what it's used for and I constantly hit that button by mistake, but hey... you seem like somebody who's worthy of buddiness, which can't possibly be a real word.

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Spiffor

Do you know how to use the imparfait du subjonctif properly? For that matter, do you know how to use the subjonctif properly at all? Can you distinguish between "il finit" (present tense) and "il finit" (past tense)? Do you know the plural of "amarante"? Can you hope to ever say "ornithrynque" properly if you're a foreigner?

These kind of problems do not happen in Japanese becuse grammar is streamlined, the pronunciation is simple save for their horrible l/r, and the vocabulary is not that plentiful.

Mais bien sur, Spiffor, old chum. What was amusing was getting our French assistant Sylvain to try to pronounce squirrels and dwarves, and latchstring and thirty three and two thirds. And getting him acquainted with the multifarious gradations of English tenses- all of the equivalents he knew in French, but sorting out the English ones was very frustrating. And let's not get into the vexed matter of English orthography not even approximating English pronunciation.

Through though bough enough cough thought sough bought thorough nought hiccough chough.

How to make a French assistant implode. I miss not using French- such a supple, graceful flowing language, with many beautiful sonorous felicities.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Japanese is much easier than French.

I thought CIA (or some other US agency) rated Japanese as one of the most difficult languages at grade 5 (or something like that), together with Chinese and Arabic?