What Is The Most Difficult Language In The World

Jon ITTT Alumni Experiences Difficulty with pronunciation is likely something that every EFL teacher will face at one point or another in their career. Every language in the world has different ways of pronouncing different words/ letters. In addition to this, most speakers of other languages have heavy accents that can make pronouncing English words very difficult. This can be a challenge when teaching English as a foreign language. It can be especially challenging because not all learners around the world will face the same problems. Students in Vietnam will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Kenya and students in Brazil will likely have different pronunciation problems than students in Morocco. For this essay, I will...  [Read more]

  In this video, we break down the difference between the usage of "for" and "since". Both of these words are used when talking about time, which is why they often cause confusion for many English learners. However, the difference in the usage of the two words is actually qutie easy. The word "since" is used when referring to a point or exact moment in time, such as in this example: I have been living in this house since 2005. The year 2005 is a point or exact moment in time and therefore, we need to use 'since'. "For", on the other hand, is used for a period or duration of time, such as in this example: I have been living in this house for 12 years; 12 years is a duration of time, and therefore we need to use 'for'. As you can see, all you need to do is figure out whether you are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Over the decades, the English language has reached the status of a global language and is commonly known as the lingua franca around the world. It has become one of the most widely spoken language as a mother tongue, international communication as well as language taught in millions of schools around the globe. The use of the English language is widespread in many sectors in the global market as many organizations begin to adopt the language as an official language. In the economic world, the language plays a significant role in international trade/business between two of the most powerful global economic powerhouse mainly the United States of America and China. This post was written by our TEFL certification...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences A global language is a language spoken internationally, the most popular one being English. It is learned by many people as a second language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Damian B. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. A big part of the lexical units in the English language was taken from German, Latin, French, and other European countries. People think that languages have a strong relation between dominance and cultural power. Also read: What to Watch Out for Before Signing Your TEFL Contract in China To have a common language is important because it's one of the main ways to communicate and interact with other people...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Japan is a country with a long history, deep tradition, and vibrant culture. Within this culture sits the Japanese language. At first, being a spoken language and then adopting the Chinese Writing System, Japanese has grown and changed into what it is today. If you look at all languages, most Western languages originate from a set family, such as Romance Languages (which became today’s Spanish, French, Italian, etc). But Japanese (as most Asian languages) was formed from entirely different roots. These fundamental differences mean that the method of learning these languages has a lot to do with memorization and repetitive practice of the Chinese symbols and the words they represent. Which means it is...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English has its place as the most frequently required subject of mostly Philippines’ school and universities. This is because of the belief of most Filipinos that the mastery of the English language is the most important demands globally. We grew up believing that learning a second language is not an easy task, although other nationalities find that it is easy for us to imitate and practice the language. However, that is not the case. The problems of teaching and learning a foreign language, specifically English, have suggested some studies of the errors made by most Filipino students. In spite of the knowledge of English of the Filipino, there are times that most students make errors serious enough that a...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas In my experience teaching elementary and junior high school level English in Japan, several different pronunciation problems appear frequently. The Japanese phonemic inventory is smaller than English’s phonemic inventory, and the sounds present in each language differ from each other quite dramatically. Because of this, it can be difficult for native Japanese speakers to learn and master English pronunciation, but there are a few teaching techniques that can help students overcome this difficulty. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Vladlena H. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Several consonants are difficult for native Japanese...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning another language is one of the most powerful tools for connecting people around the world from different cultures. Opening an immeasurable amount of opportunities, learning English has many benefits including but not limited to expanding career options, exercising another part of the brain, and improving the ease of traveling to a foreign country. However, particularly for natives of Eastern countries, learning English may be very difficult due to the exoticism of sounds, writing, pronunciation, and structure. While Japan is unique in a sense, having a booming influence of Western culture after World War II, native Japanese learners face difficulties in learning English due to phonology differences,...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Communication is essential for everyday life activities. It's impossible not to communicate. Even when you don't speak a word, you communicate. That's because communication represents the way we express put thoughts, our ideas, and our opinions. It is as much about effective listening and reading as it is about speaking and writing. Communication is built on these four important skills which are divided into Productive Skills (speaking and writing) and Receptive Skills (reading and listening). This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Valentina D. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Of the four skills, speaking is the most important but...  [Read more]

Federico Riva TEFL Information Teaching Ideas Before we start looking at the actual receptive skills lesson, it is useful to think about what potential problems there could be in these lessons. ### Watch the video about this topic Firstly, when the students are reading in a language that is not their native language, they tend to read every word as a separate piece and when reading word to word, it is very difficult to get an overall impression of what that particular text is saying. Secondly we need to consider the sentence length, in a lot of articles that we will have available this can be very long and many of our students will not be used to that depth of language. So it's important to have a think about the way in which...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas When you select information to teach in your lesson, you need to think about what level the students are at and how well your lesson fits into what they already know and what they need to know. When you begin teaching it can be quite difficult to know what students are likely to comprehend at each level and few EFL teachers follow the same students from beginner to advanced level. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Shorena B. Beginner-level students aren't necessarily children. Many people discover a need or desire to study English later in life. Students at beginner level can't speak or write accurately in the present simple and present continuous tenses. Those who know some words in English...  [Read more]

Federico Riva Teaching Ideas The receptive skills of reading and listening, generally get less attention than the other skills of speaking and writing. Here we look at some of the reasons they are avoided and why e should overcome these fears. Before we start looking at the actual receptive skills lesson, it is useful to think about what potential problems there could be in these lessons. Firstly, when the students are reading in a language that is not their native language, they tend to read every word as a separate piece and when reading word to word, it is very difficult to get an overall impression of what that particular text is saying. Secondly we need to consider the sentence length, in a lot of articles that we will have available this...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas In this blog post, our TEFL expert shares their thoughts on the top ten mistakes that online teachers make. ✅ Check out this article to find out what these mistakes are and improve your online teaching today! Kavinna Batra TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Education comes in many forms. ✅ Yet, nowadays, it seems like a college degree is the best and the most meritorious achievement in education –something that employers not only support but also demand. Anastasiya Akpinar Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas ...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences English is one of the most widely spoken languages and it is taught in a lot of countries. Globalization, fast economic development makes many people study English. People learn English for different reasons: business, education, life abroad, traveling, personal interest. Chinese students are not an exception. With the growing economies of China, the need for learning English increased dramatically. What challenges do Chinese students face when learning English? What challenges does the teacher meet teaching Chinese students? What teaching approach can be found? This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Darya M. Let’s talk about the most typical challenges when teaching Chinese learners and...  [Read more]

Linda Dunsmore Alumni Experiences The following blog post is about an ITTT graduate who shares his story on how learning Chinese helped him to become a better English teacher in China. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Joseph S. A common saying imparted to me by one of my professors goes like this: "What do you call someone who speaks three languages? Trilingual. What do you call someone who speaks two languages? Bilingual. What do you call someone who speaks only one language? American." I have found this to be extremely true for the majority of cases, and, as a young student, it spurred me to want to learn as much of other languages as I possibly could. I grew up in a monolingual home, however, as a child, I spent much of...  [Read more]

  In this episode, we cover the pronunciation of the word rhadamanthine. This word is used as an adjective and means showing inflexible judgment. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. Teaching modals and passive voice will be difficult. At this point most of the English language comes naturally, so it is hard for me to comprehend these very detailed descriptions of grammar and clauses. However, I think that phrasal verbs will be easier to teach. I...  [Read more]

Kavinna Batra TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Education comes in many forms. ✅ Yet, nowadays, it seems like a college degree is the best and the most meritorious achievement in education –something that employers not only support but also demand. Anastasiya Akpinar Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Teaching English online has become common place in the world of education today. ✅ But is it all good, all bad? This blog post discovers all the advantages and disadvantages of online education. Kavinna Batra Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas Are you a teacher and are...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning a second language can be difficult, and this is especially true when the learners L1 and their target language are completely different in structure, sound, and tones. An English as a second language student who speaks French, German, or any other European language will have an easier task than one who speaks a language that is not of European origins. One such language is Mandarin Chinese. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Ashley L. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. The areas that native Mandarin speakers most often run into difficulty are pronunciation, tones, tenses, and sentence structure. A Chinese speaker might...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Grammar, the key element to all languages, is, by all means, the first thing which everyone must have a clear understanding of before acquiring such language. From parts of speech to sentence structure, the complexity of grammar doesn’t seem to have a sign of decrease as ESL students’ vocabulary range increases. In all respects, the fundamental problem to all learners who treat English as a second language is that they never take it as a first language but try to understand the meaning behind every word with the aid of their mother tongue, their first language. In this essay, I would like to focus on one of the smallest parts of grammar - syntax as the starting point, to shed some light on how teachers can...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas What is phonology? Most students have not even heard about it. Whenever I ask my students whether they know or have ever learned about phonetics, the same answers come out, “No, we don’t know about it at all”. It is no wonder they reply like this because there is no phonetic teaching lesson in English classes from KG to high school here in my country. As for me, I got to study about this only when I attended college. Even then, it wasn’t taught comprehensively and I only learned very little. So I couldn’t read nor write phonetic symbols very well. Thus I thought it was the most difficult part of studying English. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Thein G. Please note that this blog...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas Japan is an island nation and is a recognized homogenous society with a very small percentage of foreign permanent residence and more than half of the adult population lacks the necessary skills to speak English proficiently. Because of this, English as a Second Language is in high demand with young learners being a focus group in Japan. English is taught in the school environment during nearly all of a child’s primary education years, but this, unfortunately, doesn’t translate to a proficient English-speaking Japanese population. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Payton P. Please note that this blog post might not necessarily represent the beliefs or opinions of ITTT. Children as young...  [Read more]

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Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences Learning English is very difficult, there are many various grammatical and spelling differences between the English spoken throughout the world. Most notably is British and American English grammar. There are also differences in the pronunciation and meanings of many words. While you would think learning English would be a simple task, it is not, after all how different can English be from English? There are a few additional factors - Canadian, Australian, South African, Indian English, etc. have their own differences, these are differences that must be taken into consideration while you study the English Language. This post was written by our TEFL certification graduate Gerald M. Despite many of the...  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina Alumni Experiences The ability to speak more than one language broadens a person’s worldview, from job opportunities to the ability to relate with people from different cultures. It is no secret that learning English as a foreign language has become popular across many non-English speaking countries and Russia is no different. The English language has slowly been incorporated into the Russian educational system and many English language learning centers have been established all over the country. As much as most Russians are motivated enough to learn English, it is not as easy as one would hope due to dissimilarities between the two language systems especially the lettering systems, cases, pronunciations, and other factors....  [Read more]

Elizaveta Pachina TEFL Information Alumni Experiences Teaching Ideas There is currently a need for more people willing to teach English as a Second Language (ESL) across America. Several small communities have accepted immigrants from other countries. Although children of school age will learn English in school, the parents and grandparents struggle to learn English as they continue their daily lives and earn a living. This is a challenge as most Americans do not know any other languages as they do in Europe, so the immigrant needs to communicate in English to accomplish anything. This leaves the older generation feeling isolated and causes problems in everyday life, such as going to the bank. In most large...  [Read more]

  In this video we'll be looking at the international phonemic alphabet and how it's used in the classroom. There are other phonemic alphabets but this is the most popular and the system, which is most widely used. You may have seen some of these symbols before as any good dictionary will supplement standard English spellings with the phonemic spellings to aid in pronunciation practice. Here we have a situation where we have what are called phonemes and each phoneme represents a sound within the English language. How is this helpful? Well, what it does is help students understand how to say words rather than simply relying on the often archaic English spellings. To illustrate this point let's for a moment put ourselves in the shoes of our students when trying to understand how to...  [Read more]

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Elizaveta Pachina Teaching Ideas The English Language is universally derided for its difficulty and the absurd number of exceptions to every rule. To teach English effectively in an EFL setting, it is important to make note of these difficulties and teach students both the rules and the plentiful exceptions. My personal experience as a teacher and the knowledge I’ve gleaned from this course illustrate the importance of incorporating games and group practice so that students feel motivated. I want my students to find learning English fun rather than frustrating. It is key, especially when teaching young learners, to pick one’s battles: a pedantic mindset will only breed frustration and lead to a classroom full of anxious students. Therefore,...  [Read more]

  The 120-hour TEFL/TESOL online certification course is our most popular course format. Complete 20 exciting units on teaching English as a foreign language and receive your hard-copy embossed TEFL/TESOL certificate via mail. This certification enables you to travel the world and live abroad teaching English. Below you can read feedback from an ITTT graduate regarding one section of their online TEFL certification course. Each of our online courses is broken down into concise units that focus on specific areas of English language teaching. This convenient, highly structured design means that you can quickly get to grips with each section before moving onto the next. This unit can be quite difficult for the teacher and students to understand. Specially the phrasal...  [Read more]