Replies

I had 4 years of Latin and two of French in school, but never mastered either, even though I took two more of French in college.

I always thought that a language that had 500 Irregular verbs had a problem.

The problem with learning a language is that if you don't keep in touch with it (i.e. speak it with people), you lose it.

French is quite a nice language and was the language of culture and arts from the end of the time that Latin was commonly understood (around 800 AD) right up until the 20th century.

The Emperor Charles V said in the 1500s 'I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse'

English also borrows heavily from French -- after learning French and German one sees Post Modern English (what we speak, rather than Modern English which is Shakespearean) as an illegitimate daughter of the two :-P

English has lost its use of cases, gender attribution for inanimate nouns etc.

It is an easy language to pick up (from my interactions with tons of non-native speakers), but difficult to master because it is filled with exceptions -- even more so than French.

To give you my favorite example, pronounce the following three words

B O U G H
C O U G H
T O U G H

They are spelt the same yet pronounced completely differently

then, try explaining the differences of simple past, present perfect and past perfect tenses.

Or even the continuous tenses -- they don't exist in some other languages

Also, there is tremendous inconsistency in verbs with lots of irregularities -- like: to spell, I spelled/I spelt. To feel: I felt but not I feeled. To tell becomes I told but not I telt or I telled.

And, if I spell in past is I spelt, why isn't I feel (a tree) not "I felt" :-P

=======================================================================

and in my years (not ears ;P) in England I realized that the language is deviating and then I travelled in India and Hong Kong and there is a gap between American English and British English and Australian English and Indian English (which still uses Victorianisms and Edwardianisms) and Chinglish.