To those who are multi-lingual...a question for you.

[Shadow Wolf]

Speaking Japanese is relatively simple for me but it has a very complex writing system and you need to remember the correct honorifics and the particles.

I've always felt the Japanese write the way the Germans talk. No breaks, no pauses, just everything run together as one big huge mega-word.

 

[Kenny]

What is/was the most challenging language for you to learn? I keep reading and hearing that many people feel English is the most challenging. What do you feel is the hardest language to become fluent?

When you learn a language (or two) as a child... none are really challenging. You become fluent in both.

Of course, I don't know Chinese, it is possible that it happens that my statement is true only for the Spanish/English equation.

 

[Jumi]

When you learn a language (or two) as a child... none are really challenging. You become fluent in both.

Probably works like you think. Of course it's easier if they're closely related languages like Spanish and English.

 

[Mock Turtle]

Who needs a foreign language? Lazy English blighters just have to wait.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/27/english-language-global-dominance

 

[Jumi]

Who needs a foreign language?

English is a foreign language.

 

[Estro Felino]

TThe real difficulties in English is the amount of rule exceptions and pronunciations not matching the writing.

They take it for granted ...they don't know that in our languages we have stable pronunciation rules.
I remember when in high school I thought bear was pronounced like fear...
they both end by -ear, after all

 

[jonathan180iq]

I'm more of a pragmatist, so I'm only fluent in Spanish and English. The Spanish helps me get the gist of most conversations in Italian and French. But that's about it.

I took German through High School and was able to use it quite a bit while in Frankfurt and Austria - but that was years ago. I do remember it being quite easy to pick up.

 

[Deidre]

German has never interested me. I guess we tend to gravitate to languages we might have a connection with like for me, learning Italian, and arabic is near to my heart.

 

[illykitty]

I've always felt the Japanese write the way the Germans talk. No breaks, no pauses, just everything run together as one big huge mega-word.

Yeah it can be the case. Maybe because Japanese has no spaces in their sentences?

Hungarian can literally be one huge megaword, which can translate to long sentences in English. It's because it has a ton of prefixes and suffixes to indicate all sort of things.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

Well, out of Spanish and American Sign Language that Im still learning, ASL is the hardest. It uses a total visual grammar system

So instead of saying: Im going to the store to by cookies,

Its (glossished)

Store
There (point to where the store is)
I-go-in
Shelves (left or right)
Shelf (1-2-3)
Shelf 3. Cookies. There.
(I-take)
Buy

I was going to be an ASL interpreter. The language also is culture sensitive. English not so much.

I pick up spanish easily. If I went overseas, Id be fluent already.

I took a couple years of ASL and the hardest part was signing with confidence for me. I sign in a small bodied way that came across as whispering, because closer, looser gestures is easier to do fast and less tiring. It's basically a world apart in communication. And I would consider it far more difficult than the six years of Japanese I took.

 

[ADigitalArtist]

I've always felt the Japanese write the way the Germans talk. No breaks, no pauses, just everything run together as one big huge mega-word.

Yeah it can be the case. Maybe because Japanese has no spaces in their sentences?

Hungarian can literally be one huge megaword, which can translate to long sentences in English. It's because it has a ton of prefixes and suffixes to indicate all sort of things.

Also Welsh road signs:

 

[Valjean]

Translation: No Left Turn.

 

[Estro Felino]

Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas

longest Finnish word

 

[illykitty]

Also Welsh road signs:
View attachment 23377

Yeah, I've seen a few though not as crazy as this one. I'm moving there, so it's going to be fun! I'll keep an eye out...

Welsh often looks like someone just randomly mashed a keyboard.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

I took a couple years of ASL and the hardest part was signing with confidence for me. I sign in a small bodied way that came across as whispering, because closer, looser gestures is easier to do fast and less tiring. It's basically a world apart in communication. And I would consider it far more difficult than the six years of Japanese I took.

Yeah. One Deaf person said I "stuttered" when I signed. I bet I can do it if I was always in an Deaf environment. I have hearing issues myself; more of auditory processing rather than sound. If I were in a Deaf environment, Id pick up it fast.

Japanese, hmm. Where I live, we have a lot of people who speak Korean. I try to learn that a bit.

 

[Spiderman]

arabic is near to my heart.

When did Arabic become near to your heart? For me it was when I was 16 in a correctional facility reading a copy of the Qur'an that had the Arabic next to the English.

Around that time i also studied Arab Israeli conflicts.

 

[Shaul]

I speak or have rudimentary knowledge of several languages. I never learned Chinese, even when I lived there, and found it most difficult to learn. Its use of tonality and pictographic writing makes it a difficult language for most to learn. Russian has additional declensions, such as the dative case which takes getting used to. Its Cyrillic alphabet isn’t really so bad once you’re used to it. It also uses polysyllabic words a lot. Hebrew is quite elegant with its use of three letter root words. Spanish I found to be quite easy to learn. Although I find the idiomatic slang and poor grammar of many native speakers annoying.