Comics!

[TechnicalBarbarity]

oh. I've heard Anonymous is a pretty good source.

I heard it was the hardest, but that's a pretty difficult thing to determine. My friend learned Finnish and talked endlessly about how hard that was for her, I tried learning Mandarin at one point but gave up.

I just googled hardest languages to learn and it doesn't even crack the top 20 in any of the lists that popped up on the first page. Didn't go any further.

I live in California and this place is filled with foreigners, most of them learn how to speak English very quickly.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

you think English is easy to learn? think again

https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/2018/01/why-learning-english-is-difficult-10617/

Why Is English So Hard to Learn?

The difficulty of learning any second language, as an adult, depends on what languages you already speak, especially your native language. It is not difficult to learn a language that is closely related to your mother tongue. The more dissimilar the target language is from your own language, the more difficult it will be. English is not a difficult language to learn for Dutch or Danish or German speakers, but it would probably be more difficult for Japanese, Arabic, or Mandarin speakers.

Why English Is Such a Difficult Language to Learn | Psychology Today

What makes the English language so hard to learn? - New College Manchester

5 Things That Make English Difficult for Foreigners to Learn | Mental Floss

90% Of People Can’t Pronounce This Whole Poem. You Have To Try It.

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

Yes because we have so many dutch, danish and german immigrants out here in California.

I bet you look like this right now ...

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

did you even bother to open any of the links??

like seriously just read the last 2

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

you also posted a random quote from "anonymous", so no i didn't. I could have also posted you a 100 links to pages that didnt have english listed as one of the harder languages to learn. And to add to that i live in a state that has more immigrants than anywhere else in this country. And most learn how to speak english very quickly. And 99% of them are not dutch danish or german either btw.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

sometimes immigrants learn English in preparation for coming to America
sometimes immigrants are bilingual adults that learned English when they were little kids
but the adult immigrants who don't learn English until after they get here usually have extreme difficulty learning English
and here's why 5 Things That Make English Difficult for Foreigners to Learn | Mental Floss

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

sometimes immigrants learn English in preparation for coming to America
sometimes immigrants are bilingual adults that learned English when they were little kids
but the adult immigrants who don't learn English until after they get here usually have extreme difficulty learning English
and here's why 5 Things That Make English Difficult for Foreigners to Learn | Mental Floss

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

 

[CiG]

I just googled

You win, then.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

You win, then.

can't tell if that was an endorsement of google or a sarcastic way of saying google is crap
way to go on the ambiguity

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

i just read this

 

[Burkhard]

it's one of the easiest if it's your first language, it's one of the hardest if you are learning it as a second language

It would be interesting to get to know which languages are considered easier (or the easiest) by those who claim English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Out of the five foreign languages I've learned thus far, I found English to be the easiest one - maybe with the exception of Norwegian (Bokmål, to be more precise) -, whereas I found Latin (which was my first - though dead - foreign language at school) as well as French and Spanish definitely more difficult to learn than English. Nowadays, I only practice English and Norwegian and I've forgotten most of what I've learned in Latin, French and Spanish. In English, unlike in German, you don't have to bother about different forms of the verb (with the exception of the 3rd person singular present tense) or different endings of nouns, their preceding definite/indefinite articles as well as adjectives depending on their gender and whether it's nominative, genitive, dative or accusative case.

 

[CiG]

What order did you learn those languages in by the way?

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

It would be interesting to get to know which languages are considered easier (or the easiest) by those who claim English is one of the hardest languages to learn. Out of the five foreign languages I've learned thus far, I found English to be the easiest one - maybe with the exception of Norwegian (Bokmål, to be more precise) -, whereas I found Latin (which was my first - though dead - foreign language at school) as well as French and Spanish definitely more difficult to learn than English. Nowadays, I only practice English and Norwegian and I've forgotten most of what I've learned in Latin, French and Spanish. In English, unlike in German, you don't have to bother about different forms of the verb (with the exception of the 3rd person singular present tense) or different endings of nouns, their preceding definite/indefinite articles as well as adjectives depending on their gender and whether it's nominative, genitive, dative or accusative case.

first there's this

sometimes immigrants learn English in preparation for coming to America
sometimes immigrants are bilingual adults that learned English when they were little kids
but the adult immigrants who don't learn English until after they get here usually have extreme difficulty learning English
and here's why 5 Things That Make English Difficult for Foreigners to Learn | Mental Floss

seriously
if i'm looking face-2-face at a person talking to me in English outloud, i can always, always, tell whether or not English was their mother tongue
sometimes i'll surprise someone by blurting out "what's your first language?" when they think that they're speaking exactly like a native English-speaker

second
the list of which languages are easiest/hardest to learn as a second-language is largely dependent on what your mother tongue is

Portuguese is similar to Spanish
Italian is similar to French
Russian is similar to German
the Asian languages are all kinda similar to each other
Nigerian is similar to the other African languages
Farsi is similar to Arabic

 

[Burkhard]

What order did you learn those languages in by the way?

1. Latin (5th until 10th grade)
2. English (7th until 13th grade)
3. French (9th until 13th grade)
4. Spanish (11th until 13th grade)
5. Norwegian (I started learning it "properly" at an adult education centre 7 years ago, though I already translated some Norwegian lyrics with the help of some dictionaries and after reading a Norwegian textbook for beginners to get a grasp of Norwegian grammar way back in 1997)

if i'm looking face-2-face at a person talking to me in English outloud, i can always, always, tell whether or not English was their mother tongue

You mean you ask each and everyone you're talking to what their first language is? If not, how can you tell that your assumption that English was a person's mother tongue is correct?

sometimes i'll surprise someone by blurting out "what's your first language?" when they think that they're speaking exactly like a native English-speaker

How do you know that they think they are speaking exactly like a native English-speaker? Can you read other people's minds?

the list of which languages are easiest/hardest to learn as a second-language is largely dependent on what your mother tongue is

No objection from my part.

Portuguese is similar to Spanish
Italian is similar to French

All of these four are, as you probably know, Romance languages, thus derived from Latin. So it's no surprise they have some things in common.

Russian is similar to German

That's obviously an "alternative fact", i.e. total and utter rubbish. I wonder what source you got that information from.

the Asian languages are all kinda similar to each other

You mean because of the weird signs several of them use? Seriously, in which parallel universe do you live?

Nigerian is similar to the other African languages

A language called "Nigerian" does not exist, though lots of other different languages. Even if you should have had in mind that the official language in Nigeria is English and that this is also the official language in some other African countries, your statement shows that you have absolutely no clue of what you are talking about.

Farsi is similar to Arabic

OK, they share more or less the same alphabet, but that's about it. The same goes for Finnish and English (apart from the fact that the Finnish alphabet has another 3 letters which the English alphabet does not have) - does that make Finnish and English similar?

 

[TechnicalBarbarity]

"farsi is similar to arabic"

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

You mean you ask each and everyone you're talking to what their first language is? If not, how can you tell that your assumption that English was a person's mother tongue is correct?

what i meant was, that if someone is fluent enough in English, i can catch that English is not their mother tongue quicker than other Americans

How do you know that they think they are speaking exactly like a native English-speaker? Can you read other people's minds?

i'm specifically talking about the specific people who are actually trying super-hard to sound like a native-English-speaker, where they are actually surprised when i notice that English is not their mother-tongue

That's obviously an "alternative fact", i.e. total and utter rubbish. I wonder what source you got that information from.

the phrase "Russian is similar to German" was a quote from a website i was looking at

You mean because of the weird signs several of them use? Seriously, in which parallel universe do you live?

the Asian languages being "similar" thing was a reference to a "language-family-chart" thing i was looking at a few months ago

A language called "Nigerian" does not exist, though lots of other different languages. Even if you should have had in mind that the official language in Nigeria is English and that this is also the official language in some other African countries, your statement shows that you have absolutely no clue of what you are talking about.

the official language of Nigeria even becoming English to begin with has to do with the fact that all the people living in Africa were already multi-lingual right before the British came, there is no "official" Nigerian language because the specific Africans that still today can't speak English are people who each speak 4 or 5 different languages

OK, they share more or less the same alphabet, but that's about it. The same goes for Finnish and English (apart from the fact that the Finnish alphabet has another 3 letters which the English alphabet does not have) - does that make Finnish and English similar?

Arabic and Farsi are similar enough that there are a huge amount of 50-year-old people that speak both Arabic and Farsi without learning English

Finnish is prolly close to Swedish if you were looking at a language-family chart, which i'm too lazy to do right now

 

[Burkhard]

what i meant was, that if someone is fluent enough in English, i can catch that English is not their mother tongue quicker than other Americans

1. Why don't you say what you mean in the first place?
2. What do you mean by "other Americans"? Each and every other American? The majority of Americans? You're so vague. And how can you tell that you are quicker than other Americans at finding out that English is not someone's mother tongue?

the phrase "Russian is similar to German" was a quote from a website i was looking at

Which one? "Foreign for advanced ignorants"?

the Asian languages being "similar" thing was a reference to a "language-family-chart" thing i was looking at a few months ago

the official language of Nigeria even becoming English to begin with has to do with the fact that all the people living in Africa were already multi-lingual right before the British came, there is no "official" Nigerian language because the specific Africans that still today can't speak English are people who each speak 4 or 5 different languages

What kind of drugs does one have to take to come up with such a sentence? If you have got this "information" from a website, please do share the link.

Arabic and Farsi are similar enough that there are a huge amount of 50-year-old people that speak both Arabic and Farsi without learning English

This sentence doesn't make any sense at all. What does the number of 50-year-old people who speak two different languages without learning English have to do with the similarity of the two languages in concern? By the way, while it is at least debatable whether "amount of" should be used in connection with "people", "a huge amount" is still singular, therefore it should be "there is a huge amount of...".

Finnish is prolly close to Swedish if you were looking at a language-family chart, which i'm too lazy to do right now

Is this you, Donald? People who assume this also might believe this.

Seriously, I recommend to check out the CD-booklet of Hedningarna's album "Trä" which contains the lyrics printed in Swedish and Finnish, and then explain what makes you assume that Finnish is "prolly close" to Swedish. In this specific case, even just "looking at" the words should cause serious doubts.

 

[Blurry_Dreams]

What do you mean by "other Americans"? Each and every other American? The majority of Americans?

the specific dumb-ass americans that hang out with me

i was in a hurry when i was writing what i meant was Russian is similar to Ukrainian and German is similar to Dutch

What kind of drugs does one have to take to come up with such a sentence? If you have got this "information" from a website, please do share the link.

the thing about Africans being multilingual came from a language documentary about how Africa has way more languages than any other continent

the thing about Arabic and Farsi being similar was based on the alphabet
the thing about multilingual people in the Middle East that can't speak English was't Arabic and Farsi
i'm getting languages mixed up with each other
Farsi-speaking people would only learn Arabic to read the Koran in Muslim countries

Is this you, Donald? People who assume this also might believe this.

Seriously, I recommend to check out the CD-booklet of Hedningarna's album "Trä" which contains the lyrics printed in Swedish and Finnish, and then explain what makes you assume that Finnish is "prolly close" to Swedish. In this specific case, even just "looking at" the words should cause serious doubts.

i meant Swedish is close to Danish
Finnish is close to Estonian
when i said Finnish is close to Swedish, i was getting the language Finnish mixed up with Danish

 

[Burkhard]

Looks like you have finally done a bit of research, but your excuses "I was in a hurry" and "i'm getting languages mixed up with each other" sound as convincing as "The dog ate my homework".

Now to get this topic back on track, I'd like to continue with a few examples of another one of my favourite Norwegian comic series, which I've already mentioned earlier in this thread, namely Nemi. So far, five books have been published in English and it seems that some English strips are also published on the official facebook-page every once in a while. This is also where the following examples are taken from: