As native speakers, there are so many nuances to the English language that we don’t even realize. Things like the graphic below give me an even greater respect for ESL learners.
What’s the weirdest thing you can think of about the English language? If you’re an ESL learner, what has been your biggest challenge?
As someone whose first or second language was not English, I decided to focus on the most widely-spoken language in the world and the difficulties I had while learning it.
It’s true what they say: kids are like sponges, they soak up all kinds of information rather quickly. This is also true for languages. You place a child in a new environment and they will pick up the culture, slang, pronunciation, etc., in a timely manner. I know this because I was one of those kids. My family and I moved to the United States when I was nine years old, and besides it being the land of McDonald’s and the phrase “I’ll be back,” which I learned from watching American movies starring fellow European native Arnold Schwartzeneggar, I didn’t know anything about the American culture or the English language.
Fast forward nine months later when I tested out of my ESL classroom to a regular 4th grade class. I had American friends, I knew the cool 90′s slang, I felt like I fit in. By that time, most people wouldn’t even be able to tell that I was not a native speaker. However, I still had (and still do have) many questions about the English language. Fifteen years later after learning four languages, I still believe English is an interesting and at times difficult language to learn.
Examples:
-English has the weirdest spelling. Who knew that knife had a “k”? I didn’t (lost a spelling bee because of this, still bitter). What’s up with the random “g” or “gh” in words such as foreigner or night?
-There, their, and they’re, all have different meanings but sound the same. Enough said.
-I use to avoid telling people what I did in the past because it was much easier to stick to the present. Go becomes went; eat becomes ate, and depending on the subject, eaten; teach becomes taught; and so on and so forth. You realize pretty quickly that you can develop incredible memorization skills.
-Learning English in America doesn’t mean that you’ll be able to understand what is being said to you in Australia, England, or New Zealand.
Earlier last week I came across an article, 10 Reasons Why English Is a Hard Language, and absolutely loved reading all the things that I struggled with as an ESL learner. The article actually goes in depth about the difficulties of learning English but also explains the reasoning behind some of the wacky rules of English. I was very glad to find out that I wasn’t the only one that felt this way. Very informative. Click here for the full article.
This is all to say that learning ANY language is tough, including English. Each language has it’s own rules, forms, pronunciation, and culture behind it. But no matter how confusing it gets, you still learn a lot along the way and it’s a wonderful feeling when you can communicate with others in your new language.
What are some interesting facts/rules about other languages you have studied/learned?
Hello All,
As an individual whose first language isn’t English, I thought I would take this opportunity and use this blog to express how funny (and at times hard) the English language can be. I am sure that other people who learned English as a second or even third language would agree with me.
I was very happy to come across the list below which includes words and phrases that have made me scratch my head in confusion on numerous occasions. I have been speaking English for 14 years, and to this day I come across sayings that just don’ t seem to make sense. If I learned anything, it’s that sometimes you just need to just accept things just the way they are… especially when it comes words and phrases in the English language.
Here are some examples… you tell me…
There is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple…
Is cheese the plural of choose?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital?
Ship by truck, and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
Park on driveways and drive on parkways?
Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
And why is it that writers write, but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce, and hammers don’t ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth, beeth?
One goose, 2 geese. So, one moose, 2 meese?
One index, two indices?
When a house burns up, it burns down.
You fill in a form by filling it out, and an alarm clock goes off by going on.
When the stars are out, they are visible, but when the lights are out, they are invisible.
And why, when I wind up my watch, I start it, but when I wind up this essay, I end it?
English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France
How can ‘slim chance and fat chance’ be the same, while ‘wise man and a wise guy’ are opposites?
We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.
Personally, I’ve had a really hard time understanding why the word knife is spelled with a ‘k’. That’s just me.
The main part of my job as a Project Linguist is to edit courses developed by our teachers in order to make sure that the language is broken down in such a way that a student can understand and build sentences with it, as well as to ensure that the course is linguistically sound. Since I started at Mango in September, the variety of courses I’m responsible for have changed a little (some languages have been “traded” between the linguists for one reason or another), but no matter what, I always have several foreign languages and a few ESL (English as a Second Language) courses.
You would think that the ESL courses would be easier to edit, since the language we are teaching in those courses is, of course, English. When I edit the foreign language courses, I am essentially a “super-student” – most of the foreign languages are languages I don’t speak, so while I am editing I am also learning. This helps me to sympathize with future students because if I’m confused by something, the student most likely will be as well. However, ESL is actually more difficult for me to edit. That’s because the students in ESL courses are Polish speakers, Russian speakers, or Italian speakers, etc. I have to put myself in the shoes of a student whose native language is something other than my own. On top of that, because the language we are teaching in the course is my native language, sometimes I find myself taking certain grammatical structures or sound changes for granted only to remember that the student has no way of knowing them!
For example, forming the past tense with a regular English verb is quite simple on the surface: you just add –ed (or just –d) to the end. But this –ed can have three different sounds: [t], as in “picked”; [d] as in “blamed”; and [id] as in “needed”! It’s something an English speaker doesn’t think twice about because we have mastered this since we were children, but it’s a very important sound change for an ESL student. I have to be very self-aware of my own language in order to teach it to someone else.
In addition to that, because it is an ESL course, the entire client is in the student’s native tongue. So the name of the chapter, the directions on the buttons, and all of the audio instructions are in, say, Polish. In addition to that, all of the grammar and cultural notes are in Polish as well! I use a lot of online translation sites and dictionaries to help me edit these. The translations aren’t always perfect (sometimes hilariously odd, in fact), and I have to make sure the translation truly conveys what the sentence means in English. English also uses a lot of synonyms to describe different concepts, but the source language might use only one word to cover the entire range of ideas. It is difficult to teach these different “shades” of meaning to a student who knows them all by one word! These are only a few examples of some of the challenges in editing ESL courses.
Do you have any experience teaching or explaining your native language to someone as their second language? What difficulties did you find in doing so?
How many of you remember your parents or siblings drilling you for the upcoming spelling bee when you were in grade school? R-E-A-D spells “read.” I like to read. But wait, R-E-A-D also spells “read,” as in, “I read a good book yesterday.” English is a funny language when it comes to spelling and the correspondence between letters and sounds. This is partially because the English language has held on to much of its Old English orthography. This is a benefit when reading somewhat old historical texts. But, it’s not so great when it comes to teaching spelling, reading, and writing. I’m sure many ESL and elementary school students would agree. Indeed many native adult English speakers, including yours truly, still struggle with spelling. Isn’t that why they invented spell check?
So take a look at this: G-H-O-T-I spells “fish.” You may think I need to go back to the 1st grade, but what if told you the letters ‘gh’ make the [f] sound? Still think I’m crazy? What about the ‘gh’ in the words enough and rough? The –o in “women” makes the same sound as the letter –i in “fish.” And finally, “Nation” and “station” both have the ‘ti’ combo that sounds like /sh/. So, there you have it. G-H-O-T-I spells fish!
Do you know of any other examples of fun things like this?
