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by jjmarr 32 days ago
English is one of the most difficult languages to learn, because there's so many irregular sentence/word constructions + irregular pronunciations due to vowel shift + foreign loan words like French/Latin that must be pronounced differently.

Mandarin eliminates all of these problems. The tones and characters are difficult, sure, but questions and answers being grammatically identical along with consistent pinyin is a lifesaver.
3 comments
amanaplanacanal 32 days ago
Most of that is due to weird spelling, not inherent to the spoken language.
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jjmarr 32 days ago
The hardest part about Chinese is "weird spelling" because the written language is a separate language than the spoken one.

If you're using pinyin it's already easier than English.

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_DeadFred_ 32 days ago
English is the best language for this because it easily incorporates quirks/foreign loan words. It will always win over more perfect languages because it just absorbs new concepts. It's purpose/existence from the start was to absorb cultures/concepts. It IS the embodiment of joining cultures + move fast/break things over entrenching/codifying.
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hn_throwaway_99 31 days ago
> English is one of the most difficult languages to learn

I'm curious if this is just an opinion, or if there is data on this. As a native English speaker, I would have thought this to be true. But I have literally never heard this from people who learned English as a second language, and I was always surprised when these folks said they thought English was pretty easy to learn. My guess was that the "loosey goosey" rules of English are a double edged sword. Yes, there are tons of irregular sentence constructions and exceptions to the rules, but at the same time, most native English speakers (at least in the US) don't actually care all that much if you get all the exceptions right, so if you follow the general rules, people will understand you and respond. I mean, tons of native speakers mix up lay/laid/lie/lied (or sometimes throw in a layed for good measure) all the time, and people don't really care.

This is in contrast to other languages where people will give you blank stares (or worse, take offense) if you get one verb conjugation wrong.

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