Lynn

What European country's language was hardest AND easiest for you to learn, prior to your travels? Did you stick to learning just basic questions/phrases or really delve into it?

Maira

French was the worst. I am ashamed to admit to this as I speak Spanish and they are both romance language (latin origin). I actually was able to say more things in German than in French....

anne

German was the hardest for me. Followed by French, which has become easier the more I study. I've studied it the most, followed by Italian (am fluent in Spanish - so that has helped with the romance languages). Learning some of the language has been such a plus to our travels - and working on the language for the next trip adds to the anticipation!

dan

I have had the most success with speaking German, but I read French far better than any other foreign language. I took four semesters of German in college, but I read French for most of my masters thesis and had two courses in reading French. I guess that explains that. French and English have many cognates, so that helps with reading. German sentence structure is also radically different from English. I am working on improving my German reading and French speaking skills. I have also studied some Spanish (a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away - but I did ok in Mexico last year with the basics). I have also played around with Italian a little and found that similar enough to Spanish and French that it wasn't too hard - I hope to take a course in it next year. <BR> <BR>I generally have good pronunciation skills, since I have studied several languages formally. What I have found most difficult are languages that are very different from what I have studied, such as Czech, Hungarian, and Chinese. I ended up showing the words in the phrase book to people in China because they obviously could not understand my butchering of the words, as hard as I tried. <BR> <BR>When I travel, I always study the language, but this is quite difficult if you are going to several different countries.

Beth

well, no contest... Greek is the hardest. First you have to learn a new alphabet that keeps looking like mathematical equations! For me, French was easiest, but I studied that in high school. I took German in college and found it far more difficult than French, but not as hard as Greek. Now I'm trying to learn enough Italian phrases to get by. <BR> <BR>I figure for travelling you need a few basic phrases and questions, plus all the numbers, and all the food words. As long as you can order off the menu and know how much it costs you should be okay

jim

Spanish - straightforward grammar and easily understood if not spoken too quickly. Proper use of verbs can be challenging. <BR> <BR>German - easy to distinguish (i.e. understand) words but very difficult to speak grammatically perfect (particularly noun genders and prepositions with verbs) <BR> <BR>French - the most difficult to understand. One word seems to flow into another and many words sound similar. Grammatically easier than German but prepositions are still a challenge. <BR> <BR>No substitute for time in learning a language.

Samantha

Without a doubt.....Hungarian, Hungarian, Hungarian is THE hardest!

Martha B

Greek was without a doubt the hardest European language for me. Learning the alphabet was the easy part. The hard parts were the declension of nouns, the four syllable words with identical prefixes, and the complicated verb tenses. I learned enough to carry on conversations, but never got fluent. <BR>Spanish and Italian were the easiest, since I speak fairly fluent French, and the Italian and Spanish pronounciation is straightforward. <BR>French and Portuguese have similar vocabulary to Spanish and Italian, but the pronounciation is harder. (In French, the vowel sounds are more important than in English, so changing an "oh" to an "ooh" can completely change the meaning of a sentence.) I got far enough in Italian, Spanish and Portuguese to be polite, get a room, order from a menu. <BR>For German, I have a mental block-- my husband speaks it, so I don't have to. I can say the polite phrases, then he takes over. <BR>In Danish, I got nowhere. Like French, the words are run together. <BR>As to the most useful language to learn, I'd say French is the most commonly spoken after English. French is also useful in Martinique and in parts of Africa. New World Spanish is useful in Spain, in spite of the differences in pronounciation. <BR>If you're not going to stray very far from the regular tourist sites, many people will speak English, so it's perhaps better to learn the polite phrases in the language of every country you'll be visiting than to concentrate on just one language.

Vic

To me when I hear a French person speak it sounds as if they are talking while holding a large amount of marbles in their mouths. <BR>

gregoire

cool to be a french-speaking person, it seems... <BR>Vic, you know what ? French people feel that american speak like they are chewing some gum, or mashmallow. Tip : As a result of this, if you want to be considered as a polite personn in France, speak slowly, and pronounce each word clearly, that'll sound great, just because the french will understand you and feel proud of that. <BR>You know how we are : everything that is not french is vulgar to us. Greak people reacted the same towards Romans, 2000 years ago : only their culture was civilized, the rest was barbaric practics. Still, Romans had the palaces, roads, and the empire. Just like today americans have the money, the airlines, etc... Now let's bet who will play the same roles in Y4K : Tibet & China ? New-Zealand & Austalia ? What a small world. <BR>Now to come back on the subject, I'd be curious to know why Lynn is interested buy such a subject ? Did you bought the mail adress just to ask this question ? <BR>

Lynn

Gregoire - I've never traveled to Europe, but enjoy reading this site and the many experiences/advice of those who have. I just thought I would put out the question. Is that okay with you? ;-). By the way, it's not a crime to use a fake email addy, is it? ;-)

wes fowler

Lynn, <BR>I've no fluency in any European language other than the basic greetings and polite phrases. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the eccentricities of British English, which as different as it is for Americans must be highly perplexing for a non-English speaker. How do you reconcile pronouncing "Chumley" for a word spelled "Cholmondeley". Why is castle "Belvoir" pronounced Beever?

john

British English is English! The language was, and still is, ENGLISH. I think Americans really need to respect other nations and their cultures a great deal more than is expressed in some of the replies here. <BR> <BR>John

cheryl

Anyone who spends much time on this forum knows that no one has more respect for other cultures than Wes Fowler. Since both countries speak English (although some in the UK may disagree), I see no problem with distinguishing between them by referring to them as British English and American English. I believe Wes is correct, that to, for example, a french-speaker, Belvoir would be pronounced differently. And Americans would tend to pronounce it the French way. No insult in making the observation. <BR> <BR>Back to Lynn's original question, I have studied French, Italian and German (I'm an opera singer and studied them in the conservatory), and for me, of the three, German was the hardest. However, I once had a chinese roommate, and I would have to say that no language I'm familiar with is anywhere near as difficult as that. Not only does the pronounciation need to be correct, but there is a sing-song quality which must also be learned. I couldn't even really learn to say her name properly!

elvira

I speak passable French, but I've NEVER passed for a native speaker! "are you American?" is the usual response to my opening barrage. That guttural "r" is a killer. and euil as in fauteuil makes me use facial muscles I didn't know existed. The corollary in English is "th"; the poor French have a horrible time with that one. <BR>I think the easiest language, so far, for a native English speaker is Dutch/ Flemish. The pronunciation is similar, the words are familiar. <BR>I like Italian; I grew up with a bunch of Italian kids, and they taught me all the naughty words. I also learned all the food words. Italian always sounds like opera; the lilting phrases are very musical. The plural nouns get me, though. <BR>British English vs American English: mostly, it's like learning local idioms. I come from an area of the U.S. that calls it "soda". Now I live in a part of the country that calls it "pop". And then there are submarines, hoagies, heroes, and poor boys. Eesh...so if we can't agree on ONE name for a sandwich, why not expect that other parts of the English speaking world will also have different names for stuff? I personally am fond of "sleeping policeman"....

up

!!

wes fowler

Thank you, Cheryl, for your defense. English, whether ENGLISH English or AMERICAN English is hardly English at all! <BR>Think about this language of ours and its derivitives: we "loll" (medieval Dutch) about in our "pajamas" (Persian), try not to appear "chauvinistic" (French) while considering the "brotherhood" (Sanskrit, for heaven's sakes) of "nations" (Latin) and "try" (medieval English) to become fluent in a language skill (old Norse). <BR> <BR>Think of the poor immigrant who must cope with English (whether American or British). How does one master the sounds of "through", "enough", "trough" and "though"? Where are the rules of pronunciation? George Bernard Shaw once pronounced "ghoti" as fish! ("gh" as in enough; "o" as in women and "ti" as in addition. In Pygmalion he wrote: "The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it…It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth, without making some other Englishman despise him. English is not accessible even to Englishmen." Or Americans either, I might add. <BR> <BR> <BR>Consider this:englishre

Diane

I think the key is patience. In any language. While I am not fluent in any other than English, I pushed my kids to learn languages. My daughter studied German in grades 7-11, took Spanish in college, and is finishing up with a summer in Costa Rica. I think being in a non-tourist situation is probably best for learning a language, and having foreign friends or business colleagues so that you don't "forget" is a real plus. It's not like riding a bike. Me, for now I stick with basic phrases, and politeness.