If you are learning English as a foreign language, you will have to deal with a set of problems: rare sounds, bizarre spellings, rules without logic, and so on. There are really many reasons why English, in spite of what people usually believe, is a really tough language to learn.
In this article, we will explore some of the many folds and facets of English that make it a truly strange and challenging language.
pronounces it
English pronunciation can be a real nightmare, because you will be dealing with new sounds that do not exist in your native language.
Take the simple 'th' sound.
Italian is not part of the small group of languages that has this type of sound. "Th" is in fact a rather rare sound, present only in the 8% of all the world's languages, including Spanish, Greek, Arabic, Swahili and Icelandic.
Our 'spelling you don't expect
Pronounce the words as they are written? Never. English gives you strange spelling rules and then breaks them. Take these two words, for example:
colonel (kərnl)
kernel (kərnl)
Say it out loud. Continue. That's right, they are pronounced exactly the same. Go explain how to tell them apart to an English learner.
To be fair, even native speakers find it difficult to understand English spelling, especially since the rules often change from one country to another. Imagine learning the language really well in one country, say England, and then flying to Australia for an additional 6 months full immersion. You will make a puzzling discovery: the spelling rules between the two countries are different!
And to make matters worse, there is often a huge gap in pronunciation between native speakers even within the same region (and here we Italians should know something).
Slang can be extreme in many neighborhoods, and those who come from outside and try to immerse themselves in English often have no idea what is going on...These are the real problems in learning a language.
"Fake" antonyms
English has terms in its vocabulary that mean the exact same thing while presenting themselves as opposites. Take this example:
Flammable
Inflammable
They both mean flammable, yet they sound like full-blown antonyms. Thus, prefixes in English do not have simple rules that you can simply learn and apply at every opportunity.
The contractions
No, we are not talking about a muscle injury, but about the all-English characteristic of contracting words, which certainly some fatigue (though not muscle fatigue) causes in those who are learning the language.
In English, a sentence can end with "don't" or "can't," but not with "you're" or "it's"--although it is okay to end with "you are" or "it is." Learning English contractions is neither intuitive nor obvious to non-native speakers.
The plurals
If you are an intermediate-level student, you have undoubtedly already learned the main rules related to the transformation of nouns in the transition from singular to plural. Nothing too complicated, right?
But then one day you hear a native speaker utter a sentence like this, "If someone reads this book, they are going to cry."
This is how native English speakers speak. Although it is not grammatically correct to use "they"/"their"/"them" instead of singular pronouns, it is such an established practice in everyday speech that it is commonly accepted. The reason this occurs is that in English there are no gendered pronouns. "Someone," meaning someone, can be male or female, which is why the English say "they."
Synonyms
Modern English has an unusually large number of synonyms, far more than other languages. For a non-native speaker, it is really complicated to choose the right one and will often use these words interchangeably. For native speakers, on the other hand, each context requires a specific linguistic nuance, and any variation from this score will immediately sound wrong or at least strange.
Phrasal verbs
Give up, give in, give out, give away...Phrasal verbs are one of the most troublesome worries for students. There are really an endless number of them, and to make things even more complicated, it often happens that a single phrasal verb has multiple meanings. Take for example the verb "take off." Here are its different meanings:
- Taking off/taking off something, like clothes
- Take a break from work
- The take-off phase of an airplane
- Leave the people you're with and go somewhere else
- Delete something
The English interpreting service of International Congresses
Now that you have a somewhat clearer idea of how difficult it is to learn English perfectly, think about the job of someone who has to interpret it, in real time, in front of hundreds or thousands of people in prestigious roles every day, for work.
International Congresses selects only the best interpreters to provide you with a interpreting service in English impeccable for your events.
Marketing Team Congressi Internazionali
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