Kore7, for someone who had to learn English - I still make the comment, regardless of the linguists. I'm basing my comment on me learning English from scratch and watching American students learn Russian (which gave me pause... since I never thought of it being that complex before).

I'll give you a simple example:
In English you say "I go", "You go", "We go", "They go". There's a small change for he/she, but otherwise the word 'go' or any other verb stays the same. In Russian - every one of these combinations would yield the word 'go' with a different ending. To top that - various verbs would have different endings, depending on the verb. This is just a small example. Learning English...

Kore7, for someone who had to learn English - I still make the comment, regardless of the linguists. I'm basing my comment on me learning English from scratch and watching American students learn Russian (which gave me pause... since I never thought of it being that complex before).

I'll give you a simple example:
In English you say "I go", "You go", "We go", "They go". There's a small change for he/she, but otherwise the word 'go' or any other verb stays the same. In Russian - every one of these combinations would yield the word 'go' with a different ending. To top that - various verbs would have different endings, depending on the verb. This is just a small example. Learning English relatively decently took me about a year in high school. Based on what I've seen in terms of Russian learning here, if I didn't know it - I don't think I'd be brave enough to tackle it.

Also I think one must look at level of the language... it's one thing to know conversational English and totally different to know literary one. And then there's spelling, which is another part... and English kills Russian in complexity there.

octane attempting a hand at his English:

I pitty the pour soles that have to learn English...

Octane, I had no idea 'soles' 'poured' anything... but based on your spelling - I pity you too.

@Kore7, you sound like someone who strictly goes by science and when you say 'anecdote' and 'truth' - you're totally false on both counts. It's not an 'anecdote', it's a small example of the complexities of the language, has nothing to do with 'truth', I'm simply stating facts, if you choose to look at them as non-truth - I guess you could, although I'd have to wonder why.

The problem with any science on this is that it doesn't (because it can't) take into account the fact that differen...

octane attempting a hand at his English:

I pitty the pour soles that have to learn English...

Octane, I had no idea 'soles' 'poured' anything... but based on your spelling - I pity you too.

@Kore7, you sound like someone who strictly goes by science and when you say 'anecdote' and 'truth' - you're totally false on both counts. It's not an 'anecdote', it's a small example of the complexities of the language, has nothing to do with 'truth', I'm simply stating facts, if you choose to look at them as non-truth - I guess you could, although I'd have to wonder why.

The problem with any science on this is that it doesn't (because it can't) take into account the fact that different ages, and different brains for that fact, respond to learning a language differently. It took me a year, my 4-year sister was jabbering away after 3 months of immersion. My parents, until this day (i.e. almost 30 years later), still speak very poor English AFAIC, in terms of grammar and vocabulary (even compared to me), even though they took lessons for a while etc.

So, if you personally learned other languages and want to introduce your personal experience - fine. If you're simply quoting some studies and science on the subject - based on my personal experience and what you're describing - they're not sufficient (i.e. not accurate with reality).

Nice clip. I absolutely agree with Torley.

One thing why I like german very much (which is my native language) is the fact that you can say something very precisely. For example: Take the word "ordinary". You can translate it to "alltäglich", "üblich", "unmondän", "gewöhnlich" or "normal" and maybe some germans here would find even more translations for "ordinary".
Every of these words has a slightly different meaning or connotation. I think it is very hard to do this in english, but maybe I'm wrong just because it's my second language.

@Kore7: I have read the text from Richard Barbutia but I can not agree. It's one thing that it is not good to tell amerikan students german or french wou...

Nice clip. I absolutely agree with Torley.

One thing why I like german very much (which is my native language) is the fact that you can say something very precisely. For example: Take the word "ordinary". You can translate it to "alltäglich", "üblich", "unmondän", "gewöhnlich" or "normal" and maybe some germans here would find even more translations for "ordinary".
Every of these words has a slightly different meaning or connotation. I think it is very hard to do this in english, but maybe I'm wrong just because it's my second language.

@Kore7: I have read the text from Richard Barbutia but I can not agree. It's one thing that it is not good to tell amerikan students german or french would be harder to learn than spanish or italian - but it is totaly smattered.

If you raise and learn your native language it doesnt make a difference to you if its russian, german, italian or english. But this is your first language and its stored in your main language center of your brain. If you begin to learn a second language when you are older, this language will be handled by another new language center of your brain.

And hey. Don't tell me "that no modern, widespread language is more complicated than any other, no matter the difference in details. " *ggg
How many languages do you speak?
I speak native german and understand and speak nearly all german dialects, I speak a little bit english, had to lean latin for a couple of years, speak less french and spain and I learn portuguese creole since three years and brazilian portuguese since 3 months. Every of these languages is different. And they are of cause different to learn. While you will have quick results in english and creole with learning daily conversation, latin and portuguese are way more difficult. French is very hard to write for me, english, creole and latin is not. And with this comes a different learning success and motivation. I love languages like creole and english for being very easy to learn, even if i

What I'm saying is that learning any language is much easier at a younger age. In the pre-revolution days every Russian kid (outside of the 80% of serf population) spoke Russian and French. EVERY kid.

Also, what I'm saying is that for basic conversation speech, English is easier than Russian, and one example I was showing is these different endings on words. Obviously memorizing 'go' is much easier then memorizing all kinds of variations on it. Also, I think German is closer to Russian than English in terms of grammar... and I think it maybe a more colorful language, as funana described, which also makes English easier somewhat.

I don't mean to imply that English is cakewalk. There a...

What I'm saying is that learning any language is much easier at a younger age. In the pre-revolution days every Russian kid (outside of the 80% of serf population) spoke Russian and French. EVERY kid.

Also, what I'm saying is that for basic conversation speech, English is easier than Russian, and one example I was showing is these different endings on words. Obviously memorizing 'go' is much easier then memorizing all kinds of variations on it. Also, I think German is closer to Russian than English in terms of grammar... and I think it maybe a more colorful language, as funana described, which also makes English easier somewhat.

I don't mean to imply that English is cakewalk. There are plenty of people who have a really hard time learning it, especially spelling is a bear. I was fortunate enough to somehow commit to memory most spelling to go with words I was learning. Not to say that I'm a perfect speller - but reasonably decent, even without a spell checker.

The bottom line for any language I think is age when one attempts to learn it, combined with being surrounded by people who speak it. I've met very few Americans who speak perfect Russian that learned it here, but plenty who went back there even for a relatively short time.

I wanted to add that I am Estonian. Russia is right next to my country so their language is obligatory for us to learn.
But English was a piece of cake for me. I learned it quickly. So have all of the other people here. Some of course not who are struggling with languages..
Russian, on the other hand, is very complicated for us. Even though we are right next to their country and about 20% of our population are Russians, our language is nothing like theirs and it is HARD. I have been learning it since 6th grade (currently 11th) and I really stink at it. Most people do.

All I'm saying is, as a person, who has Russian and English as not their native languages, Russian really is much harder th...

I wanted to add that I am Estonian. Russia is right next to my country so their language is obligatory for us to learn.
But English was a piece of cake for me. I learned it quickly. So have all of the other people here. Some of course not who are struggling with languages..
Russian, on the other hand, is very complicated for us. Even though we are right next to their country and about 20% of our population are Russians, our language is nothing like theirs and it is HARD. I have been learning it since 6th grade (currently 11th) and I really stink at it. Most people do.

All I'm saying is, as a person, who has Russian and English as not their native languages, Russian really is much harder than English. I would consider English the simpliest of all languages.

Sikuaasma, I think we've been gathering different anecdotes, and coming down to; it depends a lot on the person (their background and "hardwiring) rather than anything universal or objective in the language. Different people find different kinds of languages easier than others. As I said earlier, I was conversational (in a simple-minded sort of way) in Russian after two years of half-hearted study. I never reached the same proficiency after 4 years plus of French.
I found mastering the rules of Russian grammar very easy. I never managed that with French. What I did find hard with Russian is that it requires way more verbs than a self-respecting language should. But that was just memor...

Sikuaasma, I think we've been gathering different anecdotes, and coming down to; it depends a lot on the person (their background and "hardwiring) rather than anything universal or objective in the language. Different people find different kinds of languages easier than others. As I said earlier, I was conversational (in a simple-minded sort of way) in Russian after two years of half-hearted study. I never reached the same proficiency after 4 years plus of French.
I found mastering the rules of Russian grammar very easy. I never managed that with French. What I did find hard with Russian is that it requires way more verbs than a self-respecting language should. But that was just memorization--it was hard work, but not complex. But that was me. Other people had a completely different experience.