I have to say out of all the languages of the world, I'm glad my native language is English. I say this because I doubt I would ever get to the level that I am now by learning it in school. English is a hard language with many different rules that sometimes don't make any sense at all. It was extremely hard for me to learn to read and write in my language due to my Dyslexia. I wonder if I was growing up in a language like Spanish where all the letters have the same sound (no short or long sound) and you pronounce them all, would I really have the same problems.
Its interesting to come to this conclusion. I was watching different Brazilian TV shows trying to pick up the language when I would hear "the garden" or "sold out" being placed into the language. Clearly, there are Portuguese ways of saying these words, but if I was a native speaker I wonder if I would understand them. I think about this in Spanish too. I watch a novela where the rich yuppie girls put English phrases into their Spanish. Of course at times, they then translate it into Spanish soon after. If I didn't speak English as my native language, would I ever learn it all?
I'm glad I know English because so many people use it. It is one of those languages that people use as a common language if the two don't speak each other's native language. It is clearly the unofficial lingua franca today. I'm glad I know it, even though, so many peoples make fun of our ugly American accent on other languages. When I was younger and learning Spanish this really effected me. So now I speak Spanish with a great accent and horrible grammar. Today learning Portuguese, I know my accent will be so out of control so, Insh'Allah, this time around my grammar will be better. ;~)
I guess if God allowed me to control my own destiny, I would grow with both English and some other language in my household like most of my friends have. Then I wouldn't feel so behind, today. Let's hope I can learn Portuguese by 30 and then, of course, I'll have to pick up another. Language is the door to a whole new world that I would never learn about if I only knew English.
Oh, how I love them all!
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Well, my mother tongue is Danish, and since so few people speak it, you basically have to learn English. I reckon about 90% of Danes are able to make themselves understood and understand most English (wanting to is a different question). And about half of all Danes are comfortable speaking English.
Although I do consider myself fluent in English, it hasn't helped me with other languages though. I speak some French and some German, though not enough to feel at all comfortable holding a conversation in either language. Maybe I ought to consider picking it up again?
English is a mixed language which loves to steal from other languages. I heard it is kind of close with German, but in reality will most likely not help you learn any other language. I think thats why the majority of native English speakers are monolingual.
I also heard French out of all the romance languages is the hardest to learn. Although if you already know one romance language, it will be easier to learn to learn another.
Learning a language is kind of like having a baby. Sometimes you will love that baby and sometimes you will hate it, but you gotta stand by it until he/she is at least not considered a minor anymore. By that time, you'll be fluent or at least advanced.
English is affected by the Germanic languages and French (by Germanic it is not German as such, more so the root of German and the Scandinavian languages, and actually dates back to when England was taken over by the Vikings).
Totally agree. The German professors at my old uni used to always try to persuade us to learn it by using words like house. Its interesting to see how French was influenced by German too. Maybe thats why ppl thinks its so hard. It has elements to it that aren't a part of the romance language structure.
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