SR V: To boldly go where no room has gone before

Raff wrote: English is NOT easy to learn, as attested by the millions of people who mangle it every day. As a matter of fact, it is easy to learn only in its most basic form. Mastering English properly requires a lot of study and practice. You, Pablo, were lucky because you learned it as a child (when learning languages is way easier than as an adult) - but I can tell you that, the older you get, the harder it becomes. As to Spanish, I know for a fact that Spanish teachers in Italy are very frustrated by the fact that Italians think Spanish is only a v ariety of Italian with 's' put at the end of every word.

Sorry Raff, I didn't mean to offend you. But saying Spanish is a easy language to learn, is as "false", as to say English is a easy language to learn.

And not saying this because I live in Argentina, eh!

Well, here in Argentina, in the TV news, it's awful to listen to the reporters how they speak! Not sure how they got the profession....

Okay, guys, you're all bombarding me, let's make a tie in which both, english and SPANISH are difficult languages to learn, okay?

BTW: The underlined and bold means superiority and more difficult to learn

I know a girl who has a German family but she speaks English.  She can speak German amongst her family but cannot write in German or apparently understand it outside of her family group.

That sounds weird to me.

When I was taught French at GCSE level, I could spell the majority of French words correctly but did not always fully understand what I was saying. 

It's gesunder Menschenverstand at the end of the day.


Edited by James - May 25 2009 at 17:23

It's not weird at all. Of the basic 'four skills' that make up language competence, writing is usually the hardest to acquire, and some people never master it completely. If you think that there are many people who can't really write in their own mother language, you wouldn't be so surprised. As to the girl's problems with listening comprehension, since she lives in a mainly English-speaking environment, she is only used to hearing German spoken by a restricted number of people, and is now familiar with their accent, vocabulary, and such. Other German speakers may have a completely different way of speaking, which is very likely to throw her off big time.

KoS wrote: cacho wrote: James wrote: I know a girl who has a German family but she speaks English.  She can speak German amongst her family but cannot write in German or apparently understand it outside of her family group. That sounds weird to me. It would be weird if she could write German, but not understand it Now seriously, did you mean to put a ''doesn't'' in the part of "understand it outside"... If so, yeah that's a bit weird... Anyway, I got something *a bit* funny to tell you when I was a kid. When I went on holidays to Spain, back-then I was living in England, in a restaurant we were asking for food, and I spoke to the waitress in english, in which he didn't understand, so my parents had to translate it, but the funny thing was, I knew spanish, just that I wanted to talk in english You should have gone to England. My brother is actually going to tutor Spanish kids this summer. If it's cool, then I will go next summer. It pays well too.

Huh? I went to England...

Raff wrote: It's not weird at all. Of the basic 'four skills' that make up language competence, writing is usually the hardest to acquire, and some people never master it completely. If you think that there are many people who can't really write in their own mother language, you wouldn't be so surprised. As to the girl's problems with listening comprehension, since she lives in a mainly English-speaking environment, she is only used to hearing German spoken by a restricted number of people, and is now familiar with their accent, vocabulary, and such. Other German speakers may have a completely different way of speaking, which is very likely to throw her off big time.

Oh I understand not being able to write in a second language is probably quite common but not being able to fully understand others was a bit harder to fathom.  However, what you said makes perfect sense.

It is like me not being able to understand a Scouser.   I have a Scouse friend and she speaks quietly and I only catch a few words.  It always causes consternation.

James wrote: Your waitress was a man?

it was a typo, or however you call it


I meant a waiter who was a girl


Edited by cacho - May 25 2009 at 17:39

^thanks for the tip lesson!

Edited by cacho - May 25 2009 at 17:43