A while back I wrote a post “Glorious, complicated, perverse English language” in which I lamented how very difficult it must be for non-native English speakers to learn the language.
This morning I came across a post that exemplifies just how confusing the English language can be. See this post from Pradita of https://thepraditachronicles.com/. I loved reading her take on what certain words should be. LOL In her post she included this great poem which she found on Pinterest.
My love of my native English language remains unabated.
It remains fascinatingly complex and perverse.
If you love words, visit my Word Love page.
Fictionophile 
I think English is hard to learn because unlike in German or Spanish, where the language is very transparent, English is opaque. English doesn’t have a 1:1 mapping system.
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As a bilingual child I can relate. I remember being confused but then just brushing it off and kept on reading books – that’s how most of us learned 😀
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Reading books is the very best way to learn!
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playfulness postal service 🙂 i enjoyed meter reading this one … thanks 🙂
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i enjoyed Reading this one … thanks 🙂
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i enjoyed reading this one … thanks a lot ^^
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Fun post 🙂
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Thank you so much for mentioning my post. Indeed, English is a very enjoyable language and thoroughly confusing too. As a non-native speaker, I’ve had many instances where I could never understand why some of the Grammar rules were the way they were. We just learnt them by rote and that’s how it is for most of us who learn a foreign language. But all said and done, English remains one of my favorite languages, and the one I choose to express myself in, as well. Great post from you yet again.
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Yikes! That poem was difficult! After a few lines I took to reading it out loud, and really struggled trying to spell out all the words – and I’m a native English speaker. This was really fun! Thanks for sharing.
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So glad I’m a native speaker. I really empathize with those learning English. Fun post!
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And it isn’t just learners tackling English as a foreign language. Is there any wonder native speaking children have spelling nightmares?
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I’d rather spelling nightmares than the ‘whole language’ method of learning where spelling doesn’t seem to matter anymore… Call me old fashioned.
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The whole Language approach I think isn’t the best way to learn language because it offers no guidance or cues. However, phonics is a preferable system because it is based off a letter to sounds ratio, which is the alphabetic principle, which in turn, is crucial to word learning.
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I love this post, although I was exhausted reading that poem! What can I say though, except I love and adore the English language. I learned it at 11 years old, and it’s been a love affair. It’s so complex, but that’s what I love about it. I have been absent on WordPress recently, so I will take this opportunity to apologise too.😊
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Thanks so much Cynthia. I agree that its complexity is what makes it so fascinating.
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Reblogged this on Author_Iris_Chacon and commented:
Don’t skip this hilarious and challenging example of the idiosyncrasies of the English language, courtesy of Fictionophile.
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Thanks for the mention. I really appreciate it.
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To me it was easy learning English since I was 6 years old. Other languages are more difficult like Chinese, French, German, Russian 😂
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Interesting to note.
Thanks for your comment.
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You’re welcome 😊
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Definitely complex and perverse! 😅
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Cathy you just have to love the perversity! 😉
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😁 What fantastic poems! I don’t envy anyone learning English as a second language!
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Thanks Nicki! 😉
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I think it’s very subjective to judge whether a language is difficult to learn and there are many factors to consider. One language might be viewed as difficult for a non-native speaker and easier than others by another. It depends from the similarity between the mother tongue of a speaker and the foreign language he/she wants to learn, whether he/she has learnt other foreign languages before and which ones, whether he/she is strongly motivated or not etc.
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You make some very valid points. I am just assuming that English would be challenging to learn because of the myriad contradictory rules and varied pronunciations of the same string of letters. Eg: ough
Thanks so much for your comment.
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