The hardest language to learn

[TheAnachronism]

This is quite a difficult question to answer, especially since it relies heavily on personal experience and perception.

As someone who speaks both English and German, I'd say that the hardest western, European language is Icelandic.

I've been trying to learn a bit for months, and the only thing I can say is andskotann and heyvagn.

I've never tried any oriental languages, however.

 

[Radrook]

I think other is the most difficult to learn. As much as I have tried, I flounder miserably when trying to speak other. Maybe it's the syntax requirements, or the irrational inconsistency of its grammatical rules. Or maybe I was introduced to other too late in life. Language is easier for the young, and other is no exception. In any case, learning other from my perspective is the pits and I do not recommend it.

: )

 

[Crundy]

Not sure about learning to speak, but I think Traditional Chinese is meant to be the hardest to learn to read / write. The example I read in one of my cantonese books is that if you spent an hour a day learning to speak cantonese then you would be able to have a good conversation with someone after 6 months. If you studied for an hour an day then it would take two years for you to learn how to read a local newspaper written in traditional chinese.

Hence the reason China invented simplified chinese, because even chinese people couldn't read and write it!

 

[Sickly Crypsis]

My grandparents worked in Hong Kong and my family went there for a while when I was 3 and apparently I soaked up a lot of it and I could order my meals in Mandarin and understand a lot of what was said to me.

I remember a few words and my grandmother can still speak a fair bit of it.
( I can even ask if some one has an attractive older sister )

Anyone know esperanto?

 

[Crundy]

Is esperanto the made up language that everyone was meant to be speaking by now?

Heh, did you use to watch Red Dwarf? Rimmer tries to insult Holly in esperanto and ends up saying "Could you please call for the hall porter, there appears to be a frog in my beday"

 

[Sickly Crypsis]

Is esperanto the made up language that everyone was meant to be speaking by now?

Heh, did you use to watch Red Dwarf? Rimmer tries to insult Holly in esperanto and ends up saying "Could you please call for the hall porter, there appears to be a frog in my beday"

Thats the one, it was supposed to be a universal second language but i think like only 2 million people speak it.

I didn't see that red dwarf episode but William Shatner made the movie "Incubus" which was filmed in esperanto. I have a feeling that it would be lousy, despite its best efforts.

 

[SoBitter]

I don't think I can give a good opinion as I've only mastered English and almost mastered Spanish. I'm working on Japanese currently, and it's not that hard. It's a lot of memorization, but the pronunciation is fairly easy, and sentence order is just something you get used to.

Someone else made the point early in the thread that you can really know Spanish but when you hear someone speak incredibly quickly and with accent and slang thrown in, it is a lot more difficult. I can read something written in Spanish with ease and carry on a slowly paced conversation. If I listen to a conversation between two native speakers I'm lost within a sentence or two.

 

[ChrisH]

Klingon is a bit of a bugger...

nuqDaq 'oH puchpa''e' --- Where is the bathroom?

 

[Crundy]

Someone else made the point early in the thread that you can really know Spanish but when you hear someone speak incredibly quickly and with accent and slang thrown in, it is a lot more difficult.

I think that's true of all languages. Wasn't the film Trainspotting subtitled in America, because a lot of Americans couldn't understand the strong Scottish accents?