Thread: "Английский язык -- самый трудный в мире".

Привет всем! У меня маленький вопрос для вас. Ваши мнения будут мне очень интересные.

Я американец, так что английский язык -- родной для меня. Здесь в Америке часто говорят, что английский -- самый трудный язык в мире для тех, кто не знает. Я не уверен, что это можно с уверенностью сказать. То есть, много языков похожие на английский, или наоборот. Французский, немецкий, шведский, нидерландский -- так много похожих слов, правил грамматики, и т. д.

Думаю, что большинству японским людям трудно из-за непохожих грамматики и произношения. Кажется, что у многих мексиканцев/других носителей испанского языка тоже трудности с произношением. Лично у меня сейчас никакой идеи -- я даже знаю русскую женщину, у которой почти нет акцента. Она мне один раз сказала, что она находила как изучающая английский язык очень легко!

Я знаю хорошо, что это непростой вопрос. Однако, как вы думаете? Вы находите английский язык сложный, или нет? Спасибо всем за ответы!

Привет, russiafreak17. Ты задал интересный вопрос.

The easiest languages for a Russian speaker are (obviously) Slavic languages, particularly Ukrainian and Belorussian, and to a lesser extent Polish, Czech and others. They have a lot of similarities with Russian.

In regard to non-Slavic languages I'd say that English is one of the easiest (along with Spanish and Italian which are even easier to learn). The trickiest parts are probably articles and tenses (Future Perfect Continious and such.. I'm still unsure what it's for ) English pronounciation differs a lot from Russian, but most Russians (if they try) can easily overcome common obstacles like rolling Rs, and usually their accents are not so strong as Hollywood leads us to beleive. French pronunciation is much harder to learn, for example.

All of the said above my personal opinion, of course. I do not speak any other non-Slavic languages, but I tried to learn some, and I found German and Chinese to be exceptionally hard. I never felt like this about English.

Я не думаю, что он самый сложный. Но он и не самый простой. Английская орфография, например, создает самые большие проблемы для начинающих, независимо от их родного языка. А для меня, например, французская орфография ещё хуже Мне кажется, что если я научусь говорить по-французски, это никак не поможет мне на нем писать, и наоборот. Действительно, самые лёгкие языки - это похожие на родной язык изучающего. Мне, например, польский даётся очень легко, хотя он и считается одним из сложнейших языков мира.

Ill disagree with replies above.
Не изучал углубленно ничего, кроме английского, но по поверхностным представлениям скажу, что он один из простейших. Очень маленькие слова, относительная простота с грамматикой, плюс большое количество слов-иностранного происхождения облегчает понимание.

Русский довольно сложный. Помимо падежей тут еще масса нестандартных словосочетаний и оборотов. Поэтому выражаю большое уважение изучающим славянские языки.

Originally Posted by Bumblebee

Ill disagree with replies above.
Не изучал углубленно ничего, кроме английского, но по поверхностным представлениям скажу, что он один из простейших.

Так в чем именно ты disagree? По-моему, все пока согласились, что английский несложный язык.

it can't be that hard, it's spoken in every corner of the world.

Originally Posted by sperk

it can't be that hard, it's spoken in every corner of the world.

Are you talking about English?

Well it's not surprising: People HAVE to speak it to have a professional career in many parts of the world. They will do whatever it takes to learn! English prepositions, colloquialisms are hard to master. Sometimes I forget how hard I struggled with English in my teens, and how awkward and embarassing it felt to first start speaking it with native speakers. I kept thinking I sounded like a parody of my own nationality, or like a small child, making countless grammatical mistakes.
I can only imagine that it is much harder for Russian speakers than it was for me, since Russian is more distant from English in every way.

As for Russian; very, very hard! I don't know if the difficulty is what makes it interesting, cool and challenging... Or whether I would prefer if a simpler language (like Spanish, yeah!) was spoken in Russia so it would be easier to learn. With the amount of time I've put into Russian now, I could have learnt a non-slavic European language almost to fluency.

I have met Polish and Bulgarian people who have said that they can speak Russian and that it was easier to learn than English, and they speak it better - probably because the grammar and words are more similar (?)

Когда народ говорит, что английский – легкий язык, вспоминается Крамаров в «Джельтменах удачи»:
«Пойду на крайняк работать переводчиком, английский то я знаю».

So how many percent of the population of Russia would be able to understand an American film without subtitles/dubbing?
How many would be able to understand the messages here?
Does it vary a lot between bigger cities and rural area?

There are a lot of English (or sounds like English, but taken from, for example, Latin) words in Russian language. Much more than you can imagine. Computer, file, forum, site, freelance, startup, chat, blog... in short almost all computer terms... tank, machine, automobile, stand, crystal, label, brand, summit, telephone, calculator, astronomy, philosophy, mathematics, manager, director, design... And this is only off the top of my head.

Concerning a most difficult language in the world, I think it is Japanese.

Yeah... I have noticed that... those words are easy!

I think a lot of those words may have come from German or French though.. but they happen to be something similar in English (there is a LOT of English words that are almost the same as a French word).

I don't think either Russian or English are the hardest languages to learn. Apparently Korean is harder to learn than both Japanese and Chinese.

In Europe, Finnish is an incredibly hard language; the grammar is as hard as Russian and it constantly makes up one word to say something that other languages would use two or three words from. Also the words are not similar to the words in any other European language apart from Estonian. Even though I went to uni there for almost a year, and it's my neighbouring country and I know tons of Finns, I can only understand a few words here and there. Luckily they also speak Swedish there.

From what I came across, Finnish words can take FIFTEEN cases. That's just like the most horrible nightmare for its learners. And also I heard, misusing Finnish cases in most instances causes real embarrassment for you're gonna be understood, but in a completely wrong way!!!

Hanna, what about your Swedish? Is it really easy to learn? Is it MUCH easier than Finnish?

Originally Posted by Eric C.

Hanna, what about your Swedish? Is it really easy to learn? Is it MUCH easier than Finnish?

Hm... well I think the general consensus is that it is a waste of time to try to learn Finnish unless you plan to live there. I know a couple of people of Finnish origin in Sweden, who were not able to learn it at all and gave up.

Some of the native Swedish speakers there, don't actually know it well at all.
It's a language of "the (common) people" though; in Finnish history, the elites of the society there have been speakers of Swedish (mainly) and also Russian in the past. It's a Finno-Ugric language. Somewhere far into Russia is another Finno-Ugric language (people) that is somehow related to Finnish, along with Estonian and Hungarian.

Swedish has a few grammatical difficulties that English doesn't have, but it is a Germanic language so you get a lot "for free". For people who live and work in Sweden there is not the same degree of leniency with grammar and vocabulary as there is in English. This makes things hard for immigrants. There are some sounds that do not exist in English, mainly rolling R and and a sound like x in Russian. Plus three more letters in the alphabet.

Originally Posted by Hanna

So how many percent of the population of Russia would be able to understand an American film without subtitles/dubbing?
How many would be able to understand the messages here?
Does it vary a lot between bigger cities and rural area?

It's hard to tell. 10-15%, maybe? I guess more people will be able to understand written English, as part of the problem (listening skills) disappear. I know quite a lot of people who can spell certain words, but who have no idea how they are pronounced.
And it's general consensus that more people know English in cities (there's more motivation to study foreign languages and more exposure to people from different countries), than in rural areas.

But I must admit, it's a weird situation.
Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation. I guess there's not enough exposure to English, after all. Moreover school program rarely prepares learners for real life situations. When I was a kid we spent crazy amount of time learning abstract vocabulary, but no one knew how to ask where we could wash our hands. It means that even those who do put effort into studying are often unable to use English when they need it.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

It's hard to tell. 10-15%, maybe?

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .

Originally Posted by Hanna

In Europe, Finnish is an incredibly hard language; the grammar is as hard as Russian and it constantly makes up one word to say something that other languages would use two or three words from. Also the words are not similar to the words in any other European language apart from Estonian.

AFAIK Finnish is also related to Hungarian and also to the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation. I guess there's not enough exposure to English, after all. Moreover school program rarely prepares learners for real life situations. When I was a kid we spent crazy amount of time learning abstract vocabulary, but no one knew how to ask where we could wash our hands. It means that even those who do put effort into studying are often unable to use English when they need it.

Also people from CIS countries are known by their extremely weird accent. =))

Originally Posted by Basil77

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case. I know English better than most of my aquaitances, but still, when I watch an American movie without subtitles/dubbing I understand less rhan 50% .

Really? But you write it really well! Maybe people think it's just more trouble than it's worth? Or - just lack of opportunity to practice?

Some people on the forum have good/bad days with English.

I am reading a British-American guidebook on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and one of the things they do for every chapter, is make snidy comments about local peoples ability to speak English, the standard of translated menus in various restaurants, museums etc. If they see this as a problem, they should mention it once, and then stop banging on about it. It's rather arrogant and presumptious. There is lots of other irritating things about this book too.

Originally Posted by Basil77

AFAIK Finnish is also related to Hungarian and also to the languages of Finno-Ugric minorities in Russia.

Thanks! I was thinking of one particular people that I heard of in the 1990s but I couldn't remember the name. From your article, it was the Maris. Witch people! There was lots of interest in these Russian "Finno-Ugric" people in Finland while I studied there - lots of TV features and articles about them. I remember watching a really interesting programs on Mari El and the Maris.

Originally Posted by gRomoZeka

Allmost everyone in Russia and CIS studied English at some point of life (it's a foreign language #1 at schools), but few can really keep a conversation.

I don't think that's unusual. I "taught" English at a college in Thailand and the 3rd and 4th year students majoring in English could barely sustain a broken conversation for more than 2 or 3 sentences. I've heard of people getting Phds in French but who can't follow a conversation on the street.

Are you joking? My guess - less than 5%. In big cities maybe 5-7% in the best case.

I guess I was overly optimistic. )) Anyway, I tried to include everyone who supposedly can understand at least 80% of what's said on screen. I doubt there are many people who are absolutely fluent and can understand 100%. I can't. And I know English pretty well, comparing to other people I know.

Originally Posted by sperk

I don't think that's unusual. I "taught" English at a college in Thailand and the 3rd and 4th year students majoring in English could barely sustain a broken conversation for more than 2 or 3 sentences. I've heard of people getting Phds in French but who can't follow a conversation on the street.

Yes, it's very common. Most people after 5-6 years of English classes master only basics. There must be something wrong with the way we are taught. then. =/

Originally Posted by Hanna

I am reading a British-American guidebook on Russia, Ukraine and Belarus and one of the things they do for every chapter, is make snidy comments about local peoples ability to speak English, the standard of translated menus in various restaurants, museums etc. If they see this as a problem, they should mention it once, and then stop banging on about it. It's rather arrogant and presumptious.

Menus and signs are endless source of jokes here too. I agree that it's somewhat arrogant to expect that everywhere you go people MUST know your language (in this case, English), and they must know it well, otherwise they are stupid. But I believe that in real life (authors of this guide aside) people are much more tolerant, English-speaking tourists included.

Local specific is that people do not especially care about "englicizing" their services. These horrible menu translations were probably made by a waitress or owner's schoolkid, or even online tranlsator. Why bother? It's not like there are throngs of foreigners milling around.


BTW, this happens everywhere. Russian tourists find menus in Russian just as hilarious.

"Onion взрывает баранину" (Fried mutton with onion), "Суп сладостной мозоли" (Sweet corn soup), and much more:
Русский язык по-турецки - Приколы на ЯПлакалъ
Меню тайского ресторана в переводе на русский язык.. Комментарии : LiveInternet - Российский Сервис Онлайн-Дневников
DoUpadu.com - Китайское меню для русских

Originally Posted by Hanna

Really? But you write it really well! Maybe people think it's just more trouble than it's worth? Or - just lack of opportunity to practice?

I can write something understandable in English only thanks to this forum, when I came here 4 years ago I couldn't write a simple sentence without constantly refering with on-line translator. And yes, the lack of opportunity to practice is the main reason I think, at least in my case: I never spoke to a native English speaker in my life and have very little listening practice due to the lack of free time.