Spelaeus
100+ Head-Fier
- Joined
- May 12, 2010
- Posts
- 190
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- 39
Quote:
I am American. Born and raised here. Caucasian. Yes, I have had an English class all through school, but that doesn't change it from being on of the hardest languages in the world. Many things that we say today are actually improper for English, but because we commonly say them we think they are right. This may not be an example, but just pointing it out I guess.
I'm trying desperately not to go on a language rant. But first off, the "English is the hardest language to learn" bit that you frequently hear in school is absolutely false. Is it harder than, say, Spanish or Italian? Sure. Is it harder as a second language than Cantonese or Mandarin or Korean or Japanese or Arabic? No. How about Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, Finnish, or Estonian? Nope, English is still less complicated. And of course, "English is difficult to learn" only comes into effect if it's your second language and you're attempting to speak like a native. Learning to speak English fluently though not idiomatically actually makes it a pretty easy language. You don't even have grammatical gender. And as a first language, it's certainly not an excuse.
And as to hearing loss... Loss is a noun. Lose is a verb. Hearing describes what sort of loss it is. After you lose something, you have experienced loss.