[ddantas]

English is a awful language to learn. The pronunciation<->spelling rules are completely inconsistent, and the conjugation rules for verbs are a mess of special cases.
I'm not a bit fan of amazingly-difficult-to-learn Asian languages either.
It's a bit of a shame that an Latin-based language, like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, is not the predominant world language. Their grammatical rules are typically much more elegant.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

How do you plan to turn the tide?

[Terpfen]

"The pronunciation<->spelling rules are completely inconsistent"

Those rules are situational. Example:
"Whose car is this?" "Who's going with you?"

"They're going to the store." "Hey, over there!" "Their car got towed."

Spelling is a speedbump, not a hurdle. There are plenty of native English speakers on FR who get their spelling and grammar wrong, but still get their point across.

[srm913]

I speak both Mandarin and Cantonese fluently, but let me tell you, they are both a BEAR to learn!
All my former students in China caught on to English far more efficiently than I caught on to Chinese.
Cantonese is particularly awful. A language with seven tones, in which the slightest change of inflection changes "go fishing" to "f--k fishes" or "My shoes are all wet" to "My vagina is all wet," along with no alphabet to use, makes me thankful for English's relative efficiency.
We have a lot to be thankful for.

[StACase]

English is a awful language to learn. ...Latin-based language, like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese...Their grammatical rules are typically much more elegant.

Maybe so, but it is efficient. Next time you look at any document printed in several languages, take a look at the lengths of each translation. English is always the shortest.

[E Rocc]

It's a bit of a shame that an Latin-based language, like Italian, Spanish, or Portuguese, is not the predominant world language. Their grammatical rules are typically much more elegant.

Well perhaps if one of them had been this nation's predominant language, they would be.

-Eric