I started learning English by my own and it has been kind of hard but wouldn't say one language is harder than another as I think there are advantages and disadvantages that we gotta take into account. For instance, the articles in Spanish is one of the grammar points I have seen English Speakers have struggled with. On the other hand, English pronunciation is really hard for me as considering that English has 14 vowel sounds this makes it harder for Spanish speakers for whom language has just the 5 sounds from the written vowels. I guess this is one of my biggest issues about getting better in English besides learning idiomas, and phrasal verbs. Can someone suggests some ways to improve my English and recommend some learning strategies?... Thanks in advance.
I would say Spanish is somewhat more difficult if only because the nouns can be masculine/feminine and this is not really seen in English.
@Mike Thanks for commenting. I really appreciate your suggestion for that online web site. I'm quite interested to practice my speeh with a native speaker as I can't go on with out achieving this stage. I find English pronunciation the most important part of the language as I have noticed that even when some natives speakers break the English rules they are understood by other natives just because they got the accent. People have told me everything I write is well understood but not when I speak so that made me think English proununciation plays a very important role in the learning language process as I know everything that I write but if poeple doesn't undestand me could be because maybe I don't give one pitch of the real sounds and instead of saying what I wanna say I end up saying quite the opposite. So I reallized that this could be because in English a words can have more than one meaning and if a foreigner is speaking slowly because is afraid to commit mistakes that leads her/him to be misundertood. I will look for the web site you provided me tho. Thanks a lot
I'm sorry I just finished reading your entire post. Can you explain to me how English has 14 vowels or where you learned this? I am intrigued. We only have 5 true phonemes or phonograms that are considered "vowels": a;e;i;o;u. However, those vowels make their short sound which would be 5 sounds and then they each combined in different formats make a long vowel sound. There are 23 combinations for long vowels and that's including the consonant "y", which can me the long i or long e sound at the end of some words. For example, many or try. I am very impressed that you have learned so much on your own and are seeking out more ways to embrace the language. Contact me anytime for strategies and resources :) Awesome job! BTW, I can send you phonemes and how to combine them easily and with your ability you should master with ease. Once you master the phonetics to English, the rest becomes easy.
I think English could be considered more difficult than some languages because it is the "melting pot" of languages, especially American English. We have such a diverse culture and with it comes new words and phrases. We adopt/embrace these new words and phrases and the language is constantly evolving. Our language then becomes complex to master because it isn't really one language but a combination of many languages and sounds.
