TEFL Firestone Colorado

It is said by many scholars that english is the most difficult language in the world to learn. While we, as native english speakers tend to disagree. To native english speakers, languages such as chinese seem to be more difficult simply because the characters are so foreign to us. However, we forget that our language is just as foreign to them as their language is to us. Furthermore, The english language has many grammatical rules and exception to the rules that do not exist in other languages. In addition, the use of slang words that used to be absolutely forbidden to say in public has become perfectly acceptable in most circles and is surprisingly used in the modern business world. These and many more peculiarities of the english language make it the most difficult language to learn. First of all, there are many homonyms in english that cause great difficulties for new learners; words that are spelled the same but have different meaning. On top of homonyms, there are words that are spelled the same and pronounced differently. For example, produce, resume, etc. Consider also that the words “snow,” “know,” and “tow” rhyme with “no,” while “now,” “how,” and “cow” have a totally different pronunciation. Irregular verbs and nouns are also peculiarities that make learning english difficult. There are no rules governing the irregularities, forcing the new student to memorize the words individually. One thing in particular is the making of plurals of the irregular nouns; these are very difficult for the new learner to comprehend. The three tenses are difficult enough for the native english speaker to grasp, let alone to students whose native language does not contain tenses. chinese may appear to be an extremely complex language to us; however, the fact that there are no tenses in the chinese language alone provides a big break to those learning it as a second language. Even to those whose native language contains the three tenses, learning the tenses in english provides a problem as english is a more definitive language with more rules than the others. It seems that the only people that actually speak proper english are those that have learned it as a second language in a foreign country as they have not been introduced to the slang and other bad habits that native english speakers use. The problem that foreigners that have learned english fluently face is when they visit the united states and find that they have difficulty understanding native speakers because of the slang that has become a part of our everyday language. I have been a licensed architect for twenty years and have sat in hundreds of business meetings. No matter how professional the individuals are, the meetings are always filled with slang as though it is considered proper speech. On top of that, new words are added and subtracted to our dictionaries every year; many of these new words originated as improper slang words. Just one more peculiarity of the english language is that so many improper words and phrases have become acceptable and used every day. For example, one cannot listen to the daily traffic reports on the news without hearing the improper use of the word “the.” According to proper grammatical rules, the word “the” is never to be used to refer to street names; yet, news announcers always refer to highways as “The 5,” or “The 8,” etc. The peculiarities of the english language add to the difficulty in which others have in learning it as a second language. As a native english speaker, I am glad that I do not have to learn english as a second language.