Thought I’d tackle a few language myths I’ve heard people confidently reinforcing to each other. A common one I’ve overheard is that English is the hardest language to learn or that it’s one of the hardest languages to learn, or that it’s much harder to learn than French. I take a deep breath and begin…
Actually, it’s all relative: it depends on where you start. If the language you are learning is closely related to your mother tongue, you’re alright—that language won’t be hard to learn. If, however, the language you are learning is completely unrelated to your mother tongue (e.g., English and Mandarin), the language you are learning will be hard since you can’t transfer much knowledge over.
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Look at the Proto-Indo-European language tree here. If you speak Dutch and want to learn English, it wouldn’t be much of a stretch. If you were Dutch and wanted to Iroquois (a language not even in this family), you are facing a much greater challenge since those two languages are completely unrelated.
Uncomforable though it is, with language, there are no absolutes. If you like standards, there aren’t any. All languages are complex in their own ways and no one language can be said to be the most complex of them all. So no, English is not the most difficult language.Remind me to tell the people in front of me on the bus.
Yes, I agree some languages are similar. My parents are both Dutch and started to learn English on their own in their late 20's. They picked up the language by teaching themselves through the Ottawa Citizen, listening to CFRA radio and watching television shows.
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