Learning Spanish vs. English
Being a fluent speaker of English, I was wondering to all the fluent Spanish speakers if English is hard to learn? It seems to me that it would be very difficult. Spanish is so beautiful and the grammar makes more sense.
6 Answers
English seems to be very very hard to learn. I was teaching my friend from Spain, and I didn't even realize how confusing it was until then. I mean, we have soooo many different pronunciations for words, and weird idioms and sayings, and words that sound and look the same, but mean completely different things! Also, are grammar is pretty strange, and that's if you get it right, which many people don't.
My Spanish told me that English was extremely hard for him to learn and he does not get why we say some things the way we say it, etc. Especially being in Trinidad as we speak slang/dialect sometimes. He is always asking how us how to say certain things. For me being and English speaker learning Spanish, it has been easy since we are taught it at a young age here and also because it is very straight forward. Also, a lot of Spanish words are very similar to English words.
I was 14 when I first took English in high school and what I remember most is how frustating it was trying to read in a language that at the time seemed to lack the definite articles and prepositions that are a must in Spanish.
Stuff like the beginning of my sentence "I was 14 when..." it would seem to the English-beginner that it needs more clarification, e.g., in Spanish you would say "****Tenia 14 años de edad cuando**..." **
Now I understand that Spanish is more precise and full of details than English.
I would assume English is the harder language to learn due to these reasons:
Pronunciation does have patterns in English, but there are so many exceptions that it almost makes pronunciation purely about experience with the language. Why is 'dough' pronounced 'Doh' but 'enough' is pronounced 'enuff'?
There are almost MORE exceptions than typical word conjugation. I can think of more verbs in English with an irregular conjugation in the past tense than ones that are normal. 'Saw, ate, drank, swam, built, lit, etc.'
The difference between the word 'no'and 'not' would be incredibly difficult to figure out unless you're used to both of the words being used.-
The word 'do'. Using it in questions such as 'Do you think it's ready?' or 'Does he know?' seem very overwhelming to get used to instead of just saying 'Crees que está listo' or 'Sabe él'
And compared to other languages derived from Latin, I feel that English has by far the least words that are easily visible as cognates to other words, making it harder for a Spanish-speaker learning English to figure out what a word means without knowing it before-hand.
When your brain is crammed a fine lot of Spanish words, your poor head can´t find a single English word...
Then, you open your dictionary and there it is: arrangements!
Five days ago you knew its meaning, but today you don´t know.
Oh… on my table a lot of little papers…words,words,words...
And beside me a stranger word in English: “got off”.
“I got off the bus yesterday” ¿¿¿I got off...??? Damn!
And my head says : “ I did going down yestesday of the bus” je,je...
Phrasal verbs will kill me...I´m sure.
While my brain is crammed several Spanish words, my poor head can´t find a single English word .
Then,I open my dictionary and there it is: Five days ago you knew its meaning, but today you do not remember it.
In other hand : pronunciation .It´s a nightmare...
But... go ahead!
Lucamos, this a question that is often wondered and asked here. I was thinking that an even better question would be to those native to yet another country like India, Viet Nam, or Egypt. Everyone will think their native language is easier because they grew up with it but try to imagine learning English or Spanish from the bottom with neither of them clogging your brain signals. Now they are the people you really should be asking.
