The Hardest Language?

[hoosier88]

Apache...that's why the enemy never could figure out the audio messages sent between our Apache speaking radiomen.

Are you sure you're not talking about the Navajo Code Talkers.

(My bold)

There were Comanche code talkers in WWII. & other languages were also used, in WWI & in WWII. See Code talker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Navajo code talkers are the best known in the US.

There are always surprises in the World.

 

[Unkotare]

Let's not forget that the Code Talkers didn't just send and receive messages in their native languages. They communicated in "code" that would decipher from and into their native languages. The relative obscurity of these native languages (to our wartime enemies) is what made them so effective. The fact that many of these languages have complex grammatical structures also made them difficult to decode.

 

[Unkotare]

Learning English: Johnson: How hard is English? How weird? | The Economist

 

[boedicca]

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

Engish has a huge amount of words and pronunciation can be difficult as letter combinations are not consistent (i.e., ghoti = fish).

Chinese is hard for westerners due to the characters instead of an alphabet. I have a few friends who have their kids enrolled in Chinese schools in order to learn fluent Mandarin. They are convinced it will become a dominant global language for business and diplomacy.

 

[Unkotare]

I have a few friends who have their kids enrolled in Chinese schools in order to learn fluent Mandarin. They are convinced it will become a dominant global language for business and diplomacy.

I would say it's a good idea to learn Mandarin, but I don't know about that last part there.

 

[LoneLaugher]

I've heard japanese is the hardest to learn how to write.

It isn't easy. I topped out at about 750 characters that I could write on demand...and I could read a couple hundred more. But....I was more interested in speaking than writing. There is a lot of English all around in Japan....so writing kanji is not necessary to get by.

On learning language......Rosetta Stone has it right. Learn the same way you learned your first language.

Listen
Listen
Listen
Repeat without comprehension
Finally.......listen and repeat with comprehension.

Ask any baby.

 

[Unkotare]

Gotta love those "Learn Any Language in 10 Days!" ads you see everywhere. What a scam.

 

[LoneLaugher]

As for other languages, it would appear to me that Chinese might be very different as it depends so much on intonations.

I have read in more than one article, in the past, that Chinese and English are the most difficult languages to learn to speak.

Engish has a huge amount of words and pronunciation can be difficult as letter combinations are not consistent (i.e., ghoti = fish).

Chinese is hard for westerners due to the characters instead of an alphabet. I have a few friends who have their kids enrolled in Chinese schools in order to learn fluent Mandarin. They are convinced it will become a dominant global language for business and diplomacy.

This guy ( owner of Rakuten )does not agree with your friends.

Japanese firm decrees 'Englishization' as nation seeks new place in global marketplace - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Careful....ya might learn something.

 

[Unkotare]

On learning language......Rosetta Stone has it right. Learn the same way you learned your first language.

Listen
Listen
Listen
Repeat without comprehension
Finally.......listen and repeat with comprehension.

Ask any baby.

Unfortunately, it's not nearly that simple. Nobody shelling out the $ for Rosetta Stone is a baby (not that I'm particularly opposed to their product), and anyone over the age of say 14 or so cannot learn a second language the way they learned their first. Doesn't work that way.

 

[Meathead]

English is, in fact, not a difficult language at all. There is very little inflection and there are no cases. It is however very difficult in spelling. In my experience, Czech with extreme inflection and no less than 7 cases is the language from hell, even more so than other Slavic tongues.

 

[Unkotare]

English is, in fact, not a difficult language at all.

It is however very difficult in spelling. .

...........................................................

 

[Meathead]

English is, in fact, not a difficult language at all.

It is however very difficult in spelling. .

...........................................................

You do understand the difference in learning a language and spelling it I trust.

The alphabet English uses was not designed for the language, it is Latin after all. We have no letter dedicated to "sh" one of the most common sounds of the English language. Have you ever paused to of how many different ways there are of representing it?

 

[LoneLaugher]

On learning language......Rosetta Stone has it right. Learn the same way you learned your first language.

Listen
Listen
Listen
Repeat without comprehension
Finally.......listen and repeat with comprehension.

Ask any baby.

Unfortunately, it's not nearly that simple. Nobody shelling out the $ for Rosetta Stone is a baby (not that I'm particularly opposed to their product), and anyone over the age of say 14 or so cannot learn a second language the way they learned their first. Doesn't work that way.

Well....it is how I learned. 90 minutes per day in the language lab.....just listening and repeating. No translation into English. Worked for me.

 

[asaratis]

You appear to be singularly obtuse here. There is most certainly a gradation in the difficulty of language learning. Therefore there exists a most-difficult-to-learn language. Simple logic.

It is not logical, nor accurate. The fact is that difficulty in acquiring another language is relative to a great many factors, not the least of which is what L1 a language-learner is starting from.

Quite simple in fact. If there is the slightest bit of difference between the difficulties of learning any two languages, the harder to learn of the two is the more difficult. Add a third to the mix and you will definitely have a most difficult to learn. I cannot believe that you would disagree with that. You are an intelligent poster...or have been heretofore.

Apache...that's why the enemy never could figure out the audio messages sent between our Apache speaking radiomen.

Are you sure you're not talking about the Navajo Code Talkers.

(My bold)

There were Comanche code talkers in WWII. & other languages were also used, in WWI & in WWII. See Code talker - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Navajo code talkers are the best known in the US.

There are always surprises in the World.

My bad. At least I remembered that they were American Indians!

Let's not forget that the Code Talkers didn't just send and receive messages in their native languages. They communicated in "code" that would decipher from and into their native languages. The relative obscurity of these native languages (to our wartime enemies) is what made them so effective. The fact that many of these languages have complex grammatical structures also made them difficult to decode.

and to learn...and the obscurity enhances the difficulty of learning.

 

[Unkotare]

English is, in fact, not a difficult language at all.

It is however very difficult in spelling. .

...........................................................

You do understand the difference in learning a language and spelling it I trust.

I understand that it is part of the written language. I also understand that there are many aspects that make up any language and its use, such that "harder" or "easier" are meaninglessly relative terms in any practical sense.

 

[Unkotare]

On learning language......Rosetta Stone has it right. Learn the same way you learned your first language.

Listen
Listen
Listen
Repeat without comprehension
Finally.......listen and repeat with comprehension.

Ask any baby.

Unfortunately, it's not nearly that simple. Nobody shelling out the $ for Rosetta Stone is a baby (not that I'm particularly opposed to their product), and anyone over the age of say 14 or so cannot learn a second language the way they learned their first. Doesn't work that way.

Well....it is how I learned. .

I understand how you feel, but it is not how you 'learned,' and what you did was to start learning a language. That's how all these "Learn any language in X days!!" scams work. When you are first exposed to a language and you make any progress at all you feel as if you are mastering it, but the real story is a very long one...

 

[Unkotare]

You appear to be singularly obtuse here. There is most certainly a gradation in the difficulty of language learning. Therefore there exists a most-difficult-to-learn language. Simple logic.

It is not logical, nor accurate. The fact is that difficulty in acquiring another language is relative to a great many factors, not the least of which is what L1 a language-learner is starting from.

Quite simple in fact. If there is the slightest bit of difference between the difficulties of learning any two languages, the harder to learn of the two is the more difficult. .

Languages are very complex and composed of many different aspects. Language A may have more variation in one aspect and Language B may have more variation in another, all of which is still relative to the learner's L1. "Difficult" is always going to be relative. Do you see what I mean?

 

[Unkotare]

The relative obscurity of these native languages (to our wartime enemies) is what made them so effective. The fact that many of these languages have complex grammatical structures also made them difficult to decode.

and to learn...and the obscurity enhances the difficulty of learning.

For whom?

 

[asterism]

There isn't one. Really.

But here's an interesting article anyway:

The Economist explains: What makes a language difficult? | The Economist

When I was in the military, some intelligence jobs required you learn a language. In order to qualify you had to take a test called the DLAB (Defense Language Aptitude Battery). Different languages required certain scores in order to qualify. Russian required the highest score back then.

When was that?

When I was at DLI Russian was a Cat 3 Language. Arabic and Chinese were Cat 5 languages.

 

[asaratis]

The relative obscurity of these native languages (to our wartime enemies) is what made them so effective. The fact that many of these languages have complex grammatical structures also made them difficult to decode.

and to learn...and the obscurity enhances the difficulty of learning.

For whom?

People that do not live near someone willing and able to teach it.