Comments on: Is French Hard to Learn? – Yes and No

By: Enrique

Enrique — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 01:10:20 +0000

In reply to Matiss.

Hey, Matiss,

I appreciate your detailed comment. As you pointed out, learning French can be hard or not depending on each person's perspective. In my case, I'm a native Spanish speaker, so many things are similar and I understand them easily. However, some things still don't make sense, and that's where I have to change my approach. French is similar, but there are differences nonetheless. That's the beauty of languages.

Thank you for commenting. :)

By: Matiss

Matiss — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 14:24:20 +0000

I was surprised to learn that there is such a thing as a list that estimates the difficulty of learning particular languages for native English speakers. But it makes sense. On that note, I actually thought that my native language will be on the list of most difficult ones but it's not (we have beyond complicated punctuation). Still, very interesting how they all line up and stack up against one another.

I loved that summary of pronunciation and spelling. Frankly, to me, it doesn't seem like that hard of a language. So, I would agree to categorize French as Category I. Granted, I might be biased since I would most likely learn it from a Latvian point of view. Hence, I might just naturally perceive it as something not too complicated.

Also, I 100% agree with those tips you gave there at the end. Exposing oneself to the language is critical. My favorite way has always been movies. It's kind of how I got the hang of English but also, I just think that seeing and hearing simultaneously is very powerful when learning a language. Because as we're learning, we likely won't be understanding everything that is being said. However, that visual help can often assist in getting the gist of the context without knowing what the actual words mean.

Great post, Enrique. Cheers. :)

By: Enrique

Enrique — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 01:14:51 +0000

In reply to Minjun Kim.

Hi, Minjun,

Right on! Difficulties are just a part of the journey.

Thanks for commenting.

By: Minjun Kim

Minjun Kim — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 07:59:41 +0000

French...I don't speak French very well.
Bonjour...just enough! However, you can hear French through various media, and of course, all you have to do is watch the translated subtitles, but I have a subjective notion that it is a language that has a very lovely feeling.
My second foreign language is English and Japanese.
Grammatically, English and Japanese are opposites. It seems that there is always a common challenge to overcome difficulties in learning a foreign language beyond grammar.
In the case of Chinese, the beginning was too easy, but I was confident that "I think I'll learn this quickly", but now I can't keep up.
Coming to the main point, the most important subjective opinion I feel from this article is that difficulties exist, of course, and must be overcome if the motivation to learn French is clear.
Power to all who want to learn French!