this post was submitted on 07 Aug 2023
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This is bullshit. Anyone who knows anything about linguistics can tell you that languages aren't objectively easier or more difficult to learn. What makes a language easy is its similarity to a learner's native language, or other languages they've already learned. Furthermore, there's a myth that certain things or ideas can be said or expressed in some languages but not in others, and this too is objectively untrue. All languages do the same thing, they just do it differently. If one language doesn't have a word for something, that doesn't mean it can't express the concept, just that it has to do so through other means, typically in a sentence or phrase.
The thing about 'not being able to be expressed in another language' is that one language might have a shortcut word for something another doesn't. That shortcut word might also be culturally charged, not that easily explained. Yes, you can explain anything in any language - for some languages you can just take shortcuts
Along these lines, some languages have a preference for longer or shorter words. There's an oft repeated factoid that the Inuit language has something like 50 words for snow. That's not entirely untrue, but it ignores that the language tends to have unique words that encompass more concepts. So whereas English would combine other words in a phrase to produce concepts like "soft deep snow", the Inuit language has an entire word. It's not like Inuit has special descriptive powers. It just takes up vocabulary space for concepts that could be mix-and-match instead.
Agreed. That said, what you're ultimately talking about is culture, of which language is only one among many aspects that impart meaning.
Were you though, or did you just think you were?
It's also 'easy' to communicate in English. 'I want eat' 'where go this place' and so on. People understand, and probably will answer you. It's easier for something like that in Chinese to be grammatically correct - but did you master pitch accents and never mixed them up after 'a few weeks'? We're you able to read hanzi?
The thing is that with European languages, it's easy to fall into the trap of trying to express ideas that are too complex for your language ability if you are native in an European language. I don't remember French for shit anymore, but say I were to ask some French guy that doesn't speak English for a good restaurant to eat in, I'd probably go something like 'je veux mange, tu sais un bon Restaurant ici?' I doubt that's grammatically correct whatsoever, and sounds weird as fuck, but you'd probably get my point. It's probable you sound similar when speaking Chinese only for a few weeks.
Haha, that’s exactly what I just posted. 100% agree
I also feel like there often is a temptation for people to believe that one’s native language is hard.