Why such a desire to judge it as easy or difficult?
Recently, I have seen a lot of posts about this. Everybody is asking the reason why Spanish or English is so difficult to write, to understand, to pronounce... Why should it be easy? A language is not something that one single brain can invent by itself. The rules, the fact that they don't have a rule, the conjugation, idioms... All these things are a part of it being in certain order.
Of course, the connection with the language spoken by a person can change the difficulty level, but it's never easy nor difficult. I'm tired of seeing questions like "Is there an easy way to...." The only answer to those questions is: if you are asking it, there is no easy way for you. If it were easy, you would see it already.
I never judge languages. But yes, I say: "Well, I can understand a lot of French sentences." Because I am familiar with some words just because I speak English, Spanish and Turkish. Saying simply "in the country x it's more difficult to understand people" doesn't make any sense. It depends on a lot of things but the country itself. What is the problem? The fact that some Spanish people pronounce the letter c lispily? Okay, now you know that they do. From now on it's not that difficult at all, is it? Or the fact that in Argentina they use "vos" for the personal pronoun "you" instead of "tú"... One can learn saying "vos" as easily as they do with "tú".
So, what I want to say is, is there an explanation for this passion that I don't know of?
13 Answers
In answer to the last sentence of your question, yes there is a reason for this.
I can't speak for other English speaking nations, but in England the level of language education (including our very own!) is extremely poor. I honestly do not personally know of one single English person who can fluently speak a foreign language. Unlike many of the other European countries, it seems, we are not properly taught languages. Indeed I'm embarrassed at times to admit that my English too really is poor. In fact by trying to learn Spanish, I had to first learn what a noun, pronoun, verb etc was!! Honest I am not joking here!
English people hear foreign people speaking excellent English all the time! So, perhaps, we start to think to ourselves.........."well if others can learn excellent English, is there is catch to this? You know, any techniques etc that we can try to grasp and use in our learning"??
I am not lazy, I want to learn Spanish because at some stage in my life I want to part-live there. I have tried night school classes and to be quite frank they have been extremely poor. Therefore, I have been teaching myself for about the last 8 months. I am spending perhaps 4 or 5 hours a day on average trying to learn the language. I am really happy with my progress and am really enjoying the experience. I've found this site to be an extremely useful source of help and inspiration at times. However, I can honestly understand why some English people may think there is a particular technique (or easy) way to learn. For me though, I will plod along and enjoy the ride 
Culé, I have never asked a question like the ones you are talking about because I already know the answer (No!). But in my fantasy world I would take a pill and wake up tomorrow using all the object pronouns and subjunctive tenses and other things I haven't even thought about yet. Maybe people are hoping for a hint, thinking there might be some secret besides hard work. Nobody really likes hard work very much.
I think Billygoat has the best idea and the most realistic attitude. No fantasy for him.
For me though, I will plod along and enjoy the ride.
You responded to my question about whether it is easier for someone who is learning Spanish to understand spoken Spanish in some countries/regions/etc. than in others with a similar, seemingly annoyed response. I understand that there will always be inherent difficulties in trying to understand anything new. I was not looking for some magical way around that. I was simply wondering if the pronunciation in certain places would be easier to understand for someone who is learning Spanish. For example, I have heard speakers from certain places regularly leave the endings off of words when they speak. For someone who is learning Spanish, I think this can be very difficult to understand because someone who is not fluent in a language must really focus on every sound that he or she hears in order to understand what is being said. So if some of the sounds of a word are left off in speech, it can be very difficult to guess what someone is saying. That is all I was referring to.
I judge that this question is very difficult, and that makes me unhappy. I think you should restrict youself to easy questions, such as "¿cómo se dice Te amo en inglés?"
My life is complicated enough as it is! 
I don't think people believe that there's a magic way to learn a new language. When this ask "What's an easy way to...." they simply want to know the best or most efficient way to conquer a difficult task.
For example: Someone washing a floor with a toothbrush may ask "Is there an easier way to do this?", so you hand them a mop, and make their lives a bit easier.
The same applies to beginners in Spanish.
Nicely written, Culé!
The only answer I can come up with is that the people wanting the learning process to be easy are basically lazy.
¿Por qué no puedes hacer una repuesta facíl, como lo demás? 
Me gusta tu mensaje.
I was simply wondering if the pronunciation in certain places would be easier to understand for someone who is learning Spanish. For example, I have heard speakers from certain places regularly leave the endings off of words when they speak. For someone who is learning Spanish, I think this can be very difficult to understand because someone who is not fluent in a language must really focus on every sound that he or she hears in order to understand what is being said. So if some of the sounds of a word are left off in speech, it can be very difficult to guess what someone is saying.
I haven´t seen your original question, but you make a good point here. For eample, if you are in Cuba, Venezuela, DR, PR, etc learning the language, then the "eating the Ss" and other sloppy pronunciations won´t be a problem because this is how you will always hear the language being spoken. But if you are not in a Spanish-speaking country and you are studying the language by taking a proper course, then yes, it can be difficult to understand the Carribean pronunciation.
I once saw a Cuban film with a Mexican friend in the USA, and afterwards he told me he had to read the English subtitles to understand it. And his English skills were not very advanced at that time.
I have seen several examples of people asking questions on here, and getting angry responses about them asking the question. Seriously, I am not picking on anyone. I don't understand the anger. Why not just click on another question and ignore the ones you don't like?
Sometimes I get the impression that there is some great loss if a question is asked that someone has asked before. I am not specifically speaking to you as the poster of this question. I love it when someone posts a link, or directs the questioner to previous posts that answer the question.
I am glad you asked this because it is of interest to me, and I can get a feel for what others think about this by reading the answers.
I don't think people believe that there's a magic way to learn a new language. When this ask "What's an easy way to...." they simply want to know the best or most efficient way to conquer a difficult task. For example: Someone washing a floor with a toothbrush may ask "Is there an easier way to do this?", so you hand them a mop, and make their lives a bit easier.
To ask "What's an easy way to...." implies that there is/should be an "easy" way. This, in turn, implies that either a) the person believes that teachers (and textbooks) have entered into a general conspiracy to make life more difficult for the student but that someone out there knows the secret (magic bullet) that will unlock the mysteries of a foreign language. b) that other languages are essentially quite similar to English (or whatever the questioner's language is) and that all that one need is the "magic key" to be able to decode them.
Despite all the advertising hype, if someone actually did have a method for learning a language in three weeks (or whatever), he could become rich overnight (strictly speaking, "in short order" ["overnight" is typical of the exaggeration so often used by advertisers]).
The simple truth is that languages differ in many ways. If one insists in believing that ones own language is "logical" and should be the standard by which all other languages should be measured, then one is doomed to frustration.
All natural languages display a considerable degree of illogicality and (even when they are internally logical/consistent they almost certainly follow a different logic from other languages).
Questions about differences in pronunciation display a similar insensitivity to the real world. Except for postage-stamp sized countries (such as Monaco) any country with more than a million, or so, inhabitants is likely to display differences in pronunciation and idioms. To be unaware of this (especially in the case of English speakers) displays an astonishing lack of sensitivity to language.Differences in pronunciation among regions is the norm not the exception.
The rules of the forum suggest doing a search for previous answers before asking a question. These are not simply rules but, rather, good suggestions. A week does not go by without someone asking "How do I say 'I love you' in Spanish", "How to use 'ser' 'estar'"?, "What's the difference between the imperfect and the preterit?", "I don't understand direct/indirect object pronouns", "What are 'reflexive' verbs?", etc..A search (despite the inadequacies of the search engine) will turn up dozens (perhaps, scores or hundreds) of previous threads dealing with the topic. It is extremely frustrating for the person who has taken the trouble to craft a response to this same question a dozen times, to find the question repeated. Perhaps, some really dedicated pedagogues would simply repeat a previous answer (however many times asked) but many normal people would simply respond "Asked and answered!.(If you want to know, get up off your b*tt and do a bit of research!."
I agree with Felix. I was thinking the same thing while reading Culé's "question".
Perhaps many of us use the term "easy" too often, or it isn't what they really mean to say. There are ways to help us learn things that are difficult to remember, i.e., acronyms to help remember when to use Ser or Estar.
I agree Culé, learning a second language is VERY difficult! When you think about it, it takes a baby/child a long time (years) to learn their FIRST language. Many of us never learn correct grammar for our first language (thanks to an inadequate education). I have also found that this is a hinderance to learning a second language.
Wow , its getting thick in here .I'm going to flashcards.
arh1 said:
For example, I have heard speakers from certain places regularly leave the endings off of words when they speak. For someone who is learning Spanish, I think this can be very difficult to understand because someone who is not fluent in a language must really focus on every sound that he or she hears in order to understand what is being said.
I have run into to this difficulty while visiting a certain region and it can be frustrating. After memorizing words and phrases for a really long time and then trying to communicate with people who leave the endings or certain sounds out of a word can cause a real dive in one's confidence.
However, I have heard from Spanish speaking friends struggling to learn English that the same thing occurs for them. One Dominican friend can not understand a single thing that is said in the southern U.S. A Chilean friend said that she was taught English by British nuns. In her opinion, people from the U.S. shorten everything and she is never quite sure what we are saying because she doesn't consider it to be "proper" English.
I guess this is just a phenomenon that anyone learning any language will have to face to some degree or another. To be honest, I find it difficult to understand English speaking people from different regions and I'm sure many would be unable to understand me. 
