An explanation for why I consider French to be a very difficult language

[STEED]

CREEPY.

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by Mikhayl

By the way, most Frenchs also consider French as a very difficult language

Damn right. As soon as you start writing it.

Participe passé, anyone? Seriously, I don't think I ever understood what was going on with those things. I just conjugate them by look / out of habit, don't ask me to explain...

I remember grammar class in elementary school, where we'd use four or five colors to explain the conjugation in a single sentence... I'm not sure what the POINT of that was anymore.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by Etienne

Damn right. As soon as you start writing it.

Participe passé, anyone? Seriously, I don't think I ever understood what was going on with those things. I just conjugate them by look / out of habit, don't ask me to explain...

I remember grammar class in elementary school, where we'd use four or five colors to explain the conjugation in a single sentence... I'm not sure what the POINT of that was anymore.

I really wonder what language is considered to be more difficult to learn for foreigners who speak none of them: French or German. Compared to any of these, English is relatively easy, especially the grammar.

[Respenus]

I agree with SOME of you guys here. French is a hard language to master when you begin with it. Trust me, after 3 to 4 years of hard work with it (read 4 lessons per week + old school teacher=great progress) you'll be pretty high. I did by B2 exams in February, but failed the C1's (damn, that's hard). As to how the French think about their language, they had to put subtitles to some guy on a reality show I used to watch. Well, it's the same thing with Slovenian dialects.

I'd recommend to any beginner, do not try to sound like the Franch do. I tried to do more than I could handle for 2 years, guess the results. FAIL! Do what you know, you'll eventually learn from your mistakes and advance must faster. Trust me on this one. Maybe a month in a French language school in France would also do a world of good.

Now try to learn Slovene. Christ, we have our A level exams this year, the grammar is HARD. Chech it on Wiki. You'll run mad in a couple of minutes. Yet it's my mother tongue, thus I can only say good things about it. I've always considered literature to be a more important than grammar that kills the mind (although one must learn it to read in the first place).

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I really wonder what language is considered to be more difficult to learn for foreigners who speak none of them: French or German. Compared to any of these, English is relatively easy, especially the grammar.

I'm not so sure of English being 'easy'

Hell....there are parts of Britain wher I don't understand the dialects

[Biggles]

Originally Posted by Janus

French is a disgusting language, it sounds awful to me

French isn't disgusting, although this chap doesn't really help to improve it's reputation...


Still think that's the best interpretation of the french though:rotfl:

[Etienne]

Originally Posted by jimbunaI'm not so sure of English being 'easy' [IMG

http://img98.imageshack.us/img98/1817/thinkbigsw1yo4.gif[/IMG]

Hell....there are parts of Britain wher I don't understand the dialects

If we're talking stricly written language, English is way, way easy. Seriously, the one thing they kept telling us in English class, over and over is "Don't make it more complicated than it is! Stop conjugating!" You guys have what, four or five verb tense? Easy pie.

Oral English... Yeah, I guess some accents are pretty bad. But then, it's the same in every language - When I was in France, I had to talk in what I considered my parody of a parisian accent to be understood.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Skybird

I thought the same at school, and maybe that is why I did not try harder to learn it. Today, I really regret that I am not as fluent in French as I am in English.

I had the same thing with Sweden (Yeh, we finns are forced to learn the frigging language because a) we were under Swedish rule somewhere around when baby Jesus learned to walk and b) "we are a country with 2 languages" Right, the only swede only ppl leave in the coast, big deal, learn some finnish before moving in or better yet, let's blow that part out of Finland so they can merrilly sail away with their part of Finland to.. I dont know.. Sweden??), tho I still dont feel bad about my extremely low grade on it.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Dowly

I had the same thing with Sweden (Yeh, we finns are forced to learn the frigging language because a) we were under Swedish rule somewhere around when baby Jesus learned to walk and b) "we are a country with 2 languages" Right, the only swede only ppl leave in the coast, big deal, learn some finnish before moving in or better yet, let's blow that part out of Finland so they can merrilly sail away with their part of Finland to.. I dont know.. Sweden??), tho I still dont feel bad about my extremely low grade on it.

You never cease to amaze me how good your command of written English is

Oral....now the jury is still out there

[Biggles]

Swedish is amongst the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

And the most useless one.

So I'm proud of the fact that you finns have to do it. We sure as hell don't learn finnish over here!:rotfl: :rotfl:

[Gorduz]

Swedish, thats not hard :p And its not useless, I have some finnish friends here (I'm studying one year in germany) and swedish is usefull to know if you meet other scandinavians (danes, swedes and norwegian). Sure we all talk english and german together but sometimes its nice to be able to explain a word in you mothertounge(Norwegian).

As for french I not a huge fan of the way the language sounds, but I think im going to take a french course next year anyway as I finally mastered german after 6 months in Germany. But french girls speaking english, thats cute

[Kapitan]

I understood all of about 3 words of that.

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Swedish is amongst the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

And the most useless one.

So I'm proud of the fact that you finns have to do it. We sure as hell don't learn finnish over here!:rotfl: :rotfl:

LOL :rotfl:

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Swedish is amongst the most difficult languages in the world to learn.

And the most useless one.

So I'm proud of the fact that you finns have to do it. We sure as hell don't learn finnish over here!:rotfl: :rotfl:

Aye and I'm proud of my low grade. My dad used to give me a pat in the back and some rude joke about you guys when I showed him my exams. :p

Originally Posted by jimbuna

You never cease to amaze me how good your command of written English is

We start to learn it early here in Finland. From 3rd grade, atleast back then, all the way to 9th and then, when I went to study to be a welder, some more.

[Kapitan_Phillips]

I actually thought German was pretty easy to learn, as its pretty close to English in terms of sentence structure and words. French just annoys me.