For all native english speakers.

[Rhox]

I'd just like to commend all native English speakers for a great job for learning English first.

[aysiu]

Huh?

[tgm4883]

I would just like to take a moment on the behalf of all native English speakers to say thank you. It wasn't easy to begin with, it did take a few years, but in the end our first language was English. Thank you.

[macogw]

Huh? We had it easy because of immersion. Native Japanese and Russian speakers probably don't have too much trouble with their languages either, but they're HARD for us. Okay, actually, I have had one Russian lady tell me that they still need to be careful spelling things out in high school in Russia because their letters (with the soft signs and the o's and a's that turn into other sounds) are weird. Japanese just requires way too much of being able to infer all that is left unsaid (if the word's not completely necessary they leave it out).

Besides, I wouldn't say most native English speakers know English very well. A large chunk would've written that as "know English very good" because they can't figure out the difference between adverbs and adjectives like well and good. Spellchecker is what makes a lot of us look smarter than we are too. Most of us have just as much trouble spelling English words. The rest are spelling bee champs :p

[aysiu]

Any language you pick up before you're five years old probably didn't involve much effort.

[macogw]

Any language you pick up before you're five years old probably didn't involve much effort.

However, with the languages I mentioned, SPELLING and READING (which come after 5) are the hard parts.

[aysiu]

However, with the languages I mentioned, SPELLING and READING (which come after 5) are the hard parts.
Meaning the congratulations from the OP is undeserved in most cases... unless "learning English" refers only to colloquial speech.

[PrimoTurbo]

I think English is a fairly technical language but it's quite easy to pick up. My first language is Russian and I agree by far it's much harder then many other languages, it has a smaller vocabulary then English but the words change depending on the action, time, female/male/other, etc. Unfortunately my knowledge of English has far surpassed my native language since I have been living in the west so long.

[justin whitaker]

Are you certain the OP was not being sarcastic? :p

[LaRoza]

English doesn't make sense on its face, but its history is fascinating. Its oddities once made sense.

One thing I like about it, is that it doesn't assign gender to every noun.

[macogw]

I think English is a fairly technical language but it's quite easy to pick up. My first language is Russian and I agree by far it's much harder then many other languages, it has a smaller vocabulary then English but the words change depending on the action, time, female/male/other, etc. Unfortunately my knowledge of English has far surpassed my native language since I have been living in the west so long.

Everything has a smaller vocabulary than English :) Largest vocabulary of any language, more than if you combined French and German

Russian just happens to make something like 21 words out of every verb (is that right? 3 genders * 6 subjects + 3 past tense versions....and there's probably future and past perfect and participle and all that crap I forget from English class and never learned in Russian class)...oh and then the 6 cases for nouns...y'all are nuts ;) Я не очен понемаю Русский язик. <-- and I probably spelled something wrong in there

LaRoza, the way English takes from so many languages actually makes it easier for me when I'm studying another language. Native English speakers seem to resist learning other languages and call them hard (not sure why...certain ones are harder, yes, others are much easier than English), but if you speak English and have a large enough vocabulary, you'll notice tons of words in Spanish that sound like their less-often-used-but-make-you-sound-smart English counterparts. If you study French after that, you'll feel like most words are just modifications of either English or Spanish. After 10 years of Spanish, it felt like "funny English" to me, and now I can look at some Latin words and figure out what they mean based on their similarities to either English or Spanish words. I haven't used Spanish much in the last 4 years, so I can't speak/listen too well (if it's very slow, I'm okay), but when you see it written, you see strings of letters that resemble ones you see in English, and they mean the same thing. Knowing English gets you something with resemblances to German or any Latin-based language, so learning any of those after English becomes easier.

[Brunellus]

Everything has a smaller vocabulary than English :) Largest vocabulary of any language, more than if you combined French and German

Russian just happens to make something like 21 words out of every verb (is that right? 3 genders * 6 subjects + 3 past tense versions....and there's probably future and past perfect and participle and all that crap I forget from English class and never learned in Russian class)...oh and then the 6 cases for nouns...y'all are nuts ;) Я не очен понемаю Русский язик. <-- and I probably spelled something wrong in there

LaRoza, the way English takes from so many languages actually makes it easier for me when I'm studying another language. Native English speakers seem to resist learning other languages and call them hard (not sure why...certain ones are harder, yes, others are much easier than English), but if you speak English and have a large enough vocabulary, you'll notice tons of words in Spanish that sound like their less-often-used-but-make-you-sound-smart English counterparts. If you study French after that, you'll feel like most words are just modifications of either English or Spanish. After 10 years of Spanish, it felt like "funny English" to me, and now I can look at some Latin words and figure out what they mean based on their similarities to either English or Spanish words. I haven't used Spanish much in the last 4 years, so I can't speak/listen too well (if it's very slow, I'm okay), but when you see it written, you see strings of letters that resemble ones you see in English, and they mean the same thing. Knowing English gets you something with resemblances to German or any Latin-based language, so learning any of those after English becomes easier.
Latin has seven cases for nouns: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative, locative, so it's right up there with Russian. Students often get hung up on the nouns, and neglect verbs, which are fun. Eight moods, each with its own set of tenses: Infinitive (2), Indicative (6), Subjunctive (4), Imperative (2), Gerund (1), Gerundive (1), Participle (3) and Supine (1)...and then there are two voices (active and passive...and sometimes a third, middle voice).

whew!

Quite a lot for the schoolboy to have to digest.

[macogw]

Latin has seven cases for nouns: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, ablative, vocative, locative, so it's right up there with Russian. Students often get hung up on the nouns, and neglect verbs, which are fun. Eight moods, each with its own set of tenses: Infinitive (2), Indicative (6), Subjunctive (4), Imperative (2), Gerund (1), Gerundive (1), Participle (3) and Supine (1)...and then there are two voices (active and passive...and sometimes a third, middle voice).

whew!

Quite a lot for the schoolboy to have to digest.

Yeah but you're fluent in like..everything ;) Yeah I know just Tagalog, Spanish, English, and Latin...but well, Latin means you probably understand French and Italian and Romanian too with little effort.

[JAPrufrock]

I'd just like to commend all native English speakers for a great job for learning English first.

Thanks, I was going to learn Armenian first but since everyone around me was talking English, I decided to go the easy route. Also, since I couldn't read at the tender age of 3, it wouldn't have done much good to go to the library and take out "Speak Armenian in Five Easy Lessons", unless someone read it to me, but that would have been difficult since I didn't actually know anyone who read or spoke Armenian. And let's be frank- I knew that learning English first would open up all sort of job opportunities, while learning other languages would not. God forbid, but what would have happened if I spoke English with an Armenian accent! How would that have effected my job opportunities?!!

[Tundro Walker]

Latin...good lord...

Now there's a language that does one thing well...separate the elite in charge from the masses that aren't. With such a learning curve, it's no wonder it's gone out of style (for everyday use...not that I fore-see Science giving it up any time soon...) English may be on the endangered species list soon, too, because it has a higher learning curve, too.

We should just replace all language with Assembly...LOL!

[Brunellus]

Yeah but you're fluent in like..everything ;) Yeah I know just Tagalog, Spanish, English, and Latin...but well, Latin means you probably understand French and Italian and Romanian too with little effort.

It takes a bit of effort; each of the Latin-derived languages does things that'll throw you for a loop, but I find I can get the gist of a lot of things. Certainly comes in handy when following cycling--I can read L'Equipe (FR) and Corrierre dello Sport (IT) and so forth when I don't want to read VeloNews (US)


Latin...good lord...

Now there's a language that does one thing well...separate the elite in charge from the masses that aren't. With such a learning curve, it's no wonder it's gone out of style (for everyday use...not that I fore-see Science giving it up any time soon...) English may be on the endangered species list soon, too, because it has a higher learning curve, too.

We should just replace all language with Assembly...LOL!

There is a definite advantage to Latin: no one "owns" it any more...indeed, no one has "owned" it since the fall of Rome. It makes up for its intricacies by being a very precise and relatively culturally-neutral language. For example, Switzerland's top-level domain is .ch--short for Confederatio Helvetica--the Latin for "Swiss Confederation." Why bother? Switzerland speaks, in its several cantons, French, German, and Italian. No canton or group of cantons "owns" Latin, so it's convenient to adopt that language when speaking (even if symbolically) for all the cantons together.

In that sense, I think of Latin as a kind of POSIX standard, if only for Western European languages.