“My college teacher told me that I would have to learn English before I could study in America, but it is such a beautiful language. How do you say “thank you” in English?”
To this, we said, “I hope you like the question.”
We hope that the answer to this question provides some insight into why English is so difficult to learn.
As an English learner, you might be wondering whether it is difficult to learn English. The fact is that learning a language like English can be a very challenging experience. However, if you are prepared and determined to learn, you will definitely find it easier than you think. Here’s how one young entrepreneur learnt the language in under two years and what he has done with his new-found skill set. See also how to learn English.
Why Is English Hard To Learn?
* Not all of these points constitute why English is hard to learn in its entirety, but are the major obstacles according to the author.
There are various factors that affect how easy it is for you to learning a new language, not just English and some have less effect on your ability than others. See also, is English easy to learn.
1. Families of Languages:
In the world of languages, English is easily placed in Post-Grammatical stage because of the fact that it has been around since 1582 while no other countries speak more than one language. The fact that Spanish and French have only been established as official languages across their territory for a little over four hundred years are also grounds on which to put down some hard facts about why learning a foreign language can be difficult if you start young.
2. Some Things Are Nonsensical:
Yes, learning a language is hard. However, no one wants to admit that it can be harder than they expect since their expectation of any activity could always go higher than what they are truly prepared for so why should anything else not? Listed below is some of the facts that will make you think again about being able to speak another language
- Speaking English without understanding your mother tongue: If someone doesn’t understand English when talking with an individual who does , what makes you think that he or she will be able to understand the question being asked in his or her mother tongue?
- Skills learned during education: Being abroad and having never heard of a trigonometric equation has absolutely no bearing on how far away from language learning you are. Only those who were taught their SBC curriculum to AS level connected things like figures, shapes and size with linear measurements as well as used boiling water without hesitation would be able to come up with such a list.
- Concentration span: We all know how nerve wrecking it is when you don’t concentrate on what was just said, so why do we expect our kids not to? The point of learning another language is, firstly and primarily , understanding something that others are saying at the moment therefore concentration span becomes important as English speakers will find their mental lack of focus more unsuccessful than other expats who spoke the other language from school.
3. English spelling is arbitrary and changeable
like many other languages. It’s not as hard as some people might think for Korean speakers to learn English spelling rules. Rules are simple in general, but exceptions can be confusing at times so it’s a good idea to study through an alphabet book or look up commonly misused words on the internet if you need more help with spelling English.
4. English verb forms are one of the most confusing subjects.
To a non-native speaker, it sometimes sounds like there is randomness happening in the language and totally nonsensical ways to form verbs. For example, “Pineapple” has nothing to do with apples or pineapples but it is still part of verb conjugation which means that all verb tenses use this word as its parts (like a lot of other words) because all English verbs have rules for how they inflect or change.
Why English Verbs are so confusing: They behave in any and all ways except the way you think they should; like Korea, short a is pronounced different from long a and high schoolers learn this gender rule as well here, despite there being no reason for it but because of some old grammatical rules which have been carried on up till now. A-Rs in both languages have almost same meaning (I’t s is the same as it in other languages) for example, A doesn’t look like English R or J because there are a lot of words which have a unique and random pronunciation.
5. It’s challenging to learn english language
because it is not only difficult but also has many different meanings. English can be hard for native English speakers too, especially when they have to speak with non-native English speaking persons or people who don’t understand the language perfectly. When natives are communicating with non-natives, there will always be a feeling of “between worlds” and that is what some call gap between learning languages (eg: Chinese being more preferable than French). A lot of people have a misconception about whether learning English as a second language is something easy or not. They make assumptions without knowing the facts like this one: “it’s just another language that you learn to speak”. But actually, the best languages are challenging for others to master it because they have unique things present in them which other languages do not and this makes their meaning deeper. For example, if all words from English could be in English, would it be easier or hard to learn? Definitely, easier means easy.
6. The grammar in English is seemingly very complicated
with a tendency to change over time. The rules are complex and difficult to understand at first sight, but it’s not too hard if you keep them simple. Below we listed some of the most common grammar mistakes that make learners confused: All these grammatical errors are simple mistakes and can’t be comprehended by non-native English speakers. If you have already made one of these common grammar mistakes, I suggest that you change your ways well before speaking to someone like your mom, dad or friends on a regular basis because if it’s an obvious flaw in the grammar which is taken for granted, you will definitely get ignored!
All in all, I would like to emphasize that the language is really easy and not difficult at all, the difficulty lies in mastering it. In conclusion, learning English as an ESL student is not hard and there’s nothing impossible in it except the number of hours you need to learn new grammars correctly. And I hope that this post will open up your eyes on how easy spoken English really can be!