Sombre Posted April 16, 2011 One could propose a counter-argument that non-native English speakers have already learnt one foreign language, probably with more aptitude than most English-speakers learn any foreign languages (certainly better than I've managed, anyway), and have therefore had more practice at working outside of their home tongue. I imagine it's significantly harder to learn Japanese than to move between European languages, but at least the language centres of the brain have been better exercised.This is all pure speculation, of course, and it probably depends much more on the individual than their nationality, anyway. But furthermore, imagine a non-native English person learning ENGLISH, then going on to learn a different one. You already learn such a fucked up language like ours, then go on to something like Japanese, you'd have mental brain syndrome Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James Posted April 17, 2011 I think people overplay how "fucked up" English is. It has its idiosyncrasies, sure, and its mixed roots can lead to some confusing inconsistencies, but it's not like it's fundamentally broken, and it's not like other languages don't have their difficult quirks. Caveat: I'm no linguist, and can barely speak one language, let alone any extra ones. So I may be entirely wrong. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted April 17, 2011 English is a cinch. Immigration (since 800 AD) has smoothed out all the difficult bits and the remaining challenge is that there are so many words that originate from different languages. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted April 17, 2011 English is a cinch. Immigration (since 800 AD) has smoothed out all the difficult bits [citation needed] Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted April 17, 2011 I haven't tried learning Japanese but I don't see how English could pose a problem even if all the material was in English. And I'd imagine (based on nothing at all) that English is one of the easier languages to learn, at least for a westerner. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thompson Posted April 17, 2011 From the trailers i've posted over here, I need some help with a Kanji. The rest of the sentence says: Hey, midnight TV tte<Kanji>tteru? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dium Posted April 18, 2011 (edited) shitteru (shiru, to know) Hey, do you know about Midnight TV? (lit: Hey, know Midnight TV?) EDIT: Looking up kanji is a bitch and a half, especially when you're coming at it without any working knowledge. That said, the interfaces here can help a lot. The handwriting thing works best if you know something about typical stroke order, but even when that fails you the "multiradical" interfaces can usually help. Edited April 18, 2011 by DIUM Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thompson Posted April 18, 2011 shitteru (shiru, to know)Hey, do you know about Midnight TV? (lit: Hey, know Midnight TV?) EDIT: Looking up kanji is a bitch and a half, especially when you're coming at it without any working knowledge. That said, the interfaces here can help a lot. The handwriting thing works best if you know something about typical stroke order, but even when that fails you the "multiradical" interfaces can usually help. どもありがとう! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites