Why English is so difficult to learn...

[The Vagabond]

As for the English language, it's really cool: versatile, rich and flexible. In the computer age, English found itself at a huge advantage over other classical languages: short, no noun declensions, verb forms are pretty simple, no gender, etc.

[ranskaldan]

Your first point is answered.
Besides, Chinese has a lot more homonyms than English. But that's beside the point - each languages has its own quirks where humour can be found.

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
What's wrong with creating a single word for fear of spiders?

Nothing wrong with it. But it adds nothing to the richness or descriptiveness of English. That was my point in the first place - a large vocabulary does not mean that language is any richer. Just because Spanish may have 40% or 400% of the English vocabulary doesn't say anything about the richness of either English or Spanish.

[ranskaldan]

Originally posted by The Vagabond
As for the English language, it's really cool: versatile, rich and flexible. In the computer age, English found itself at a huge advantage over other classical languages: short, no noun declensions, verb forms are pretty simple, no gender, etc.

Explain to me the subtle differences between
"As we were saying"
"While we were saying"
"Although we were saying"
"Even though we were saying"
"Since we were saying"
"When we were saying"
"While saying"
"In saying"
"By saying"
"Through saying"
"Though saying"
"Since saying"

when Latin has just one word for all of the above.

Then tell me that English has an advantage over Latin.

[Kontiki]

The two biggest problems with learning English are the aforementioned homonyms (your, you're, etc.) and rediculous letter combinations that produce different sounds (ph, th, sh, gh, au, ai, etc, etc, etc). We have a very unphonetic alphabet.

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by ranskaldan
...when Latin has just one word for all of the above.

I doubt that. Perhaps you confused Latin with Esperanto?

[monolith94]

In my french class I've certainly seen some clever puns…
That said, I'd really like to add that I love the word 'puissance'.

[Asher]

Originally posted by ranskaldan
when Latin has just one word for all of the above.

Then tell me that English has an advantage over Latin.

I'm not sure what you're getting at -- the fact that there are so many ways to express a similar idea is an advantage of English as far as I can see. Or is that what you were saying?

[ranskaldan]

v:
I don't. The gerundive, I think, is used normally to express all of those forms.

a:
Well depends on how you look at it -- Vagabond just mentioned simplicity as an advantage. But is complexity an advantage instead?

[ranskaldan]

m:

Yes... I learnt "puissance" in French class too... though I still prefer the rawness of "power".

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by ranskaldan
Well depends on how you look at it -- Vagabond just mentioned simplicity as an advantage. But is complexity an advantage instead?

This depends on how you look at it. Simplicity on a small scale helps to create a wonderful complexity on a large scale.

[ranskaldan]

Fractals.

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
English is a wonderful language. It is the best language for poetry and humor, because of it's huge vocabulary. It's the largest language in the world, with almost half a million words, not including technical and scientific jargon.

No, I will have to go with Chinese as the best language for poetry.

[The Vagabond]

ranskaldan, would you agree that English suits for computers much more than any other major language?

[ranskaldan]

Yes.

Because the keyboard was designed for English.

[The Vagabond]

This has nothing to do with the keyboard.