I've been learning Chinese for a few years, and though I do find it reasonably difficult, I find it a lot easier than, for example, French. Some people will find Chinese immensely difficult, others will think it's really easy - I'm kind of in the middle on this one. As for reading English, I could read from a very young age, so I could read a newspaper even before I finished primary school. Shakespeare, however, is often terribly difficult to read, seeing as it's written in English used over five hundred years ago, and the language has changed quite a bit since then! I'm in high school now and have studied several of Shakespeare's plays, and they can sometimes be quite difficult to understand.

To learn any language is hard but rewarding! I have been learning Chinese for more that half a year (summarized stops and starts time:)) and I find Chinese very challenging. As for English, it is hard to learn and I every day come across words which I have never seen before. Shakespeare is hard to read because of the change in English as Lauren has mentioned, but try Oscar Wilde or D.H. Lawrence. The language is new, but the meaning is complicated, so for the beginners I would recommend Jerome K. Jerome "Tree men in a boat", very easy reading but classics and great fun! :)

i am a Chinese ,but i think it is very difficult to learn Chinese well.