Learning a foreign language can be one of the most
satisfying or frustrating experiences.
Success depends on age, environment, motivation, innate skill and the
language itself. The latter is relevant
because not all languages are equally difficult, with several factors
influencing the “challenge” factor.
A.
The first aspect a learner
notices is the visual one, the alphabet.
Psychologically, unfamiliar alphabets seem quite daunting. While they do require some effort, most
alphabets can be mastered in terms of sound identification within a month using
a decent book and some practice. The
most difficult system is the traditional Chinese (used to a certain degree in
Japanese) character writing, which is strictly speaking not an alphabet at all
since the pictures has no relevance to the pronunciation. Even native speakers of Chinese require years
to attain a decent vocabulary. So, a strange
alphabet can quickly become comfortable.
B.
Spelling is a complicated
issue. The easiest languages to read and
spell involve few letters, consistent pronunciation and minimum opportunities
for error. Italian is a wonderfully easy language to learn how to read. The rules of pronunciation and therefore
spelling are simple, based on consonant/vowel combinations (co = /ko/
while ci = /chi/) and no letters with the same sounds. Other languages
are not as easy. Polish consonant use
may be consistent but the combinations (cz, dz, etc) are confusing to foreigners. It demonstrates by counter example how efficient
the Slavic alphabet is, i.e. one letter for each sound. French is also very consistent with its vowel
pronunciation but has too many ways to make the same sound, such as the long “a”
sound, which can produced by ai, é, ais, ait, aient,
et al. Standard Hebrew avoids the latter problem by mostly not inserting the
vowels and trusting the speaker to figure it out. On the other hand, Hebrew has many letters
that once were pronounced differently
but are less and less frequently being distinguished now, including tet
and tov, alef and ayin,
and het and hof, to name a few, complicating spelling for the
foreigner. English is the monster of the
group, failing in all aspects. There are
many letter combinations, many of which are completely different than their
component parts, as in the ti in the word “vacation”, pronounced sh. It is famous for lack of consistency. Try explaining how to pronounce “gh” in the
words enough, though, and through. The reasons are historical but that does not
help the latter. Worst of all, it offers almost endless ways to make the same
sound and confuse the foreign learner.
Thank god for spellcheck!
C.
Verb tense structures vary
from language to language and require different amounts of time to master. The easiest ones have only three tenses:
past, present and future. Semitic languages are a breeze in that respect. Latin languages muddy up the waters by
distinguishing meanings within those times and constructing complicated forms. The ability to understand and produce these
various tenses forms does take some time and instruction but learning time is
quite finite. Slavic languages are
deceivingly simple, only having two tenses but at least two forms (perfect and
imperfect aspect) of each verb, creating all three tenses. The catch for the foreign learner is in the
past form, where both aspects can work. It takes years to understand what a
native speaker grasps intuitively in regards to the difference between the
forms. For example, depending on which
form is used in the past, perfect or imperfect, if I closed the window,
the window is now either open or closed.
So, the complexity of the tense structure does help determine the time
and effort required to learn the language.
[To be continued]
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