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Name:____________________________
The hardest language
People often ask which
is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because
there are many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a first language
the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally,
so the question of how hard a language is to learn is only relevant when
learning a second language.
A native speaker of
Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native
speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish,
while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second
language. The greater the differences between the second language and our
first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many people answer that
Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of
learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does
appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for Japanese
speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning
writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman
alphabet.
Some people seem to
learn languages readily, while others find it very difficult. Teachers and the
circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as
well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a language
because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than
people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.
Apparently, British
diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language
is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language
that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which has 35
cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive,
etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for
everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to
learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian
language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats
had to learn it.
Different cultures and
individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult.
In the case of Hungarian for British learners, it is not a question of the
writing system, which uses a similar alphabet, but the grammatical complexity,
though native speakers of related languages may find it easier, while
struggling with languages that the British find relatively easy.
No language is easy to
learn well, though languages which are related to our first language are
easier. Learning a completely different writing system is a huge challenge, but
that does not necessarily make a language more difficult than another. In the
end, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most
difficult language in the world.
Questions
Q1 - The question of how hard a language is to learn
is relevant to both first and second language acquisition.
TrueFalse
Q2 - Portuguese is definitely easier than Chinese.
TrueFalse
Q3 - A Japanese speaker may well find the Chinese
writing system easier than a speaker of a European language.
TrueFalse
Q4 - The Hungarian alphabet causes problems for
British speakers.
TrueFalse
Q5 - Hungarian is the hardest language in the world.
TrueFalse
Q6 - Hungarian has as many cases as Tabassaran.
TrueFalse
Q7 - Many British diplomats learn Tabassaran.
TrueFalse
Q8 - The writer thinks that learning new writing
systems is easy.
TrueFalse
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