Join my virtual academy and meet with me every week to get a systematic theoretical framework for long-term language learning in the Path of the Polyglot: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ Join also to read and discuss French, German, Italian, and/or Spanish literature, to learn sacred languages such as Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek, or Old Norse, to develop conversational abilities in Latin, and/or to read and discuss Great Books of Western Civilization or the Comparative History of Religions in English. And subscribe to my monthly newsletter at: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/
My personal experience is very much in line with what Prof. Arguelles explains here: the first foreign language is the most difficult one to learn. After that, you can build on some experience & methodology you've acquired. Surely there are huge differences regarding the difficulty of languages, depending on your 'point of departure' and the 'linguistic distance' between the languages you already know and your target language, - but all that's less steep a climb than the 1st foreign language.
@@ProfASAr if only more teachers were aware of it... at school, our son was struggling with French, and we asked the teacher for advice on what to do to raise his interest in the language and show him that acquiring a language can be fun and interesting. her reply: "that's not part of my job". left me speechless 🤬
I'm Brazilian. I gave up on education because of bullying. After some time, I returned to high school, which used to scare me so much. I graduated with very little knowledge of the English language (I didn't even know the verb 'to be'). Four years later, I decided to learn the language on my own, a huge challenge! I remember playing an English video and not recognizing the words, just hearing sounds. While washing my dishes, I started to hear and understand some words like 'home,' then 'country,' and so on. Well, in short, your videos give me motivation to keep going. Someday I'll get there! Keep up the good work.
My wife is Japanese, so I’ve been around the language for almost 25 years, and even went back to school for 2 years to study it. I’ve never been able to pick this language up naturally. Everything is a struggle and requires explanation, and I fight constantly. Just before Covid, I started watching Korean drama, and picked it up naturally without a fight. I’m not at a high level or anything, and my Korean vocabulary is probably 10% of my Japanese vocabulary, but I can understand about as much Korean as Japanese when I watch. Even though the grammar is the same, Korean just flows into my ears naturally. The tonal flow and inflection matches my feelings, whereas they do not with Japanese. Japanese is also vague and requires background knowledge that Korean doesn’t. Korean is more direct.
I've learned English almost without trying on my own with music and movies but it took me a good 3-5 years and in between I've studied some grammar. With Russian I'm at 4 months and I have to expose voluntarily much much more, but compared to my 4 months in with English and my 4 months with Russian I got much much progress now, curios on how I will progress in a year.
Your name appears to be Polish; if that is the case, then you will certainly find Russian to be easier, but even if not, since it is your second foreign language, you are likely to find it easier than you first for that very reason.
Professor Arguelles, have you ever studied Quechua/Quichua/Kichwa? I started learning it this semester and it’s one of my favorite classes! What are your thoughts on this language?
Well, when I spent the summer in South America about a quarter of a century ago, I collected lots of materials for studying it, as I am fascinated by the mystique of the language of the Incas. Unfortunately, life is short and there are only so many hours in a day and too many fascinating languages to fit into all of them, and this is one that I've just never really gotten to. I am pleased to hear that you like it so much: what, in particular, appeals to you?
Thanks for considering my question. Korean pronunciation and grammar was so challenging that I knew that I would have to spend near singular focus on it in order to get decent. I wonder if taking a language course in S.Korea for some years would be the solution.
That was the case for me with Korean. Before learning how to say anything, I spent enormous effort learning to pronounce the letters and syllables exactly as I heard them from multiple speakers. There are some characters that are very difficult to comprehend at first, and then still difficult to pronounce well. That said, French is completely impossible for me to pronounce or even comprehend in many circumstances. To my surprise, Mandarin was doable. French is not.
The most important thing is surely motivation? Nowadays with the internet, we have relatively easy access to a whole myriad of foreign language material of differing kinds and of varying "weight". There are things such as TV and radio, films, music, privately made UA-cam content, podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, newspapers, etc, etc... If someone really and truly wanted to, he/she probably could spend multiple hours every day within a kind of foreign language bubble. To give just one example: there are literally 100s of hours of old TV police detective shows from West Germany during the 1970s, 80s and 90s which have been uploaded on to UA-cam! It includes things like Der Kommissar, Tatort, Der Alte, Derrick, Ein Fall für Zwei... (In my humble opinion most of this also has considerably higher artistic merit than the slop which is served up as entertainment today - in any language.)
No doubt the language that's the most difficult would be the first one one would study on their own. For me that was English, naturally. I was quite bad at it until I started doing a lot of input after 5 years of nothing but school grammar. But barring that, Hungarian was the one that despite my natural draw to it, I never did get a firm grip on. Currently I think that is due to a lack of interesting literature, which I hope to remedy soon.
@@ProfASAr Oh, well, I doubt I’ll find much in literature, but I do hope to find decent philosophical works by the likes of Imre Lakatos, Michael Polányi and Janos von Neumann. We’ll see though.
Hi Professor, I really like your videos, I’m learning Irish and use your method of using multiple course books, I translate from English to Irish back and forth, I try to do an hour everyday, is there benefit to listening to Irish on the radio when I only understand about 40/50%? Thank you
Irish is one of those languages that, while I have studied them, I have never yet given them the time and attention they really deserve. As for your question: if you only understand 45% or so of what you hear on the radio, then I think you would get more benefit out of working with something like Speaking Irish: An Ghaeilge Bheo by Siuán Ní Mhaonaig & Antain Mac Lochlainn (McGraw Hill, 2008), which has recorded and transcribed interviews with a variety of different speakers.
Hi Professor, thanks for your reply, and recommendation. You know I have that book and bought it about a year ago as I saw you had it in your library, it’s a really good book but I stopped studying it for some reason, I’ll try to get back to using it and listen to the audio as I drive to work, great videos by the way with lots of great advice, thank you!
I understand why East Asian languages would rank at the top of lists of difficulty, but it fascinates me that Dravidian languages are considered by FSI to fall under their "Category III", while Arabic somehow makes it to the final Category IV. I wonder if orthographical difficulties primarily account for this, as all the other determining features like syntax, phonology, cultural concepts etc. seem to apply more or less equally to the likes of Tamil, Kannada etc. Am I missing something else here?
For that matter, Thai, Cambodian, Tibetan, and many other languages from other families that have different scripts for their literary traditions. And then there is your old love, Georgian. I think perhaps these languages were of less "strategic value" for diplomatic training programs and so there were fewer people who were taught them. Also, this may have been done in a less pressured/stressful atmosphere, and therefore have been more effective.
Russian is definitely more difficult than Arabic just on grammar alone. Spoken Arabic is pretty easy. Just takes time to get used to the few new sounds.
If we are talking about the classical Arabic, then Russian is not more difficult. Actually most people who go to Russia learn it quite fast. Look at all those immigrants in Russia many of them went there without knowing any Russian and became fluent in it very fast. Also many learned Russian just in schools outside Russia and can communicate pretty well.
@@a.r.4707 eh maybe, in my experience not many people can actually speak Russian in a fluid and concise manner. They can use basic sentence structure and most have terrible accents. The thing with Arabic is that there are not many good resources and materials to learn the different dialects. Whereas with Russian there are plenty. And I’m talking about the spoken dialects, not MSA or Fusha which nobody speaks in everyday life. They are a different story. Although the case system in Arabic is much more simplistic than Russian. Arabic is still very difficult though.
@@josmith5419I speak Russian as my first language. I've seen videos of American Christian missionaries talking about their experiences in Russia, in Russian, and their levels seemed pretty high. They often spoke very fluidly and expressed their desire to convert Russians to their branch/denomination of Protestantism as well as giving an example of what they usually say to Russians. They seemed fairly fluent to me.
@@olegcherkasky2755 When religion is involved people take it more seriously, as it’s for the glory of their god. You can say the same for newly converted Muslims who learn Arabic very well for their religion. Happens a lot. Anyway, we all disagree it seems. Stay blessed.
Join my virtual academy and meet with me every week to get a systematic theoretical framework for long-term language learning in the Path of the Polyglot: www.alexanderarguelles.com/academy/ Join also to read and discuss French, German, Italian, and/or Spanish literature, to learn sacred languages such as Arabic, Sanskrit, Greek, or Old Norse, to develop conversational abilities in Latin, and/or to read and discuss Great Books of Western Civilization or the Comparative History of Religions in English. And subscribe to my monthly newsletter at: www.alexanderarguelles.com/newsletter/
My personal experience is very much in line with what Prof. Arguelles explains here: the first foreign language is the most difficult one to learn. After that, you can build on some experience & methodology you've acquired. Surely there are huge differences regarding the difficulty of languages, depending on your 'point of departure' and the 'linguistic distance' between the languages you already know and your target language, - but all that's less steep a climb than the 1st foreign language.
Imagine what it would be like if one's first experience learning a foreign language were positive and fruitful.
@@ProfASAr if only more teachers were aware of it... at school, our son was struggling with French, and we asked the teacher for advice on what to do to raise his interest in the language and show him that acquiring a language can be fun and interesting. her reply: "that's not part of my job". left me speechless 🤬
I'm Brazilian. I gave up on education because of bullying. After some time, I returned to high school, which used to scare me so much. I graduated with very little knowledge of the English language (I didn't even know the verb 'to be'). Four years later, I decided to learn the language on my own, a huge challenge! I remember playing an English video and not recognizing the words, just hearing sounds. While washing my dishes, I started to hear and understand some words like 'home,' then 'country,' and so on. Well, in short, your videos give me motivation to keep going. Someday I'll get there! Keep up the good work.
Thank you for your sharing your story and appreciating my work.
My wife is Japanese, so I’ve been around the language for almost 25 years, and even went back to school for 2 years to study it. I’ve never been able to pick this language up naturally. Everything is a struggle and requires explanation, and I fight constantly. Just before Covid, I started watching Korean drama, and picked it up naturally without a fight. I’m not at a high level or anything, and my Korean vocabulary is probably 10% of my Japanese vocabulary, but I can understand about as much Korean as Japanese when I watch. Even though the grammar is the same, Korean just flows into my ears naturally. The tonal flow and inflection matches my feelings, whereas they do not with Japanese. Japanese is also vague and requires background knowledge that Korean doesn’t. Korean is more direct.
Welldone sir
Thank you kindly.
I've learned English almost without trying on my own with music and movies but it took me a good 3-5 years and in between I've studied some grammar. With Russian I'm at 4 months and I have to expose voluntarily much much more, but compared to my 4 months in with English and my 4 months with Russian I got much much progress now, curios on how I will progress in a year.
Your name appears to be Polish; if that is the case, then you will certainly find Russian to be easier, but even if not, since it is your second foreign language, you are likely to find it easier than you first for that very reason.
Professor Arguelles, have you ever studied Quechua/Quichua/Kichwa? I started learning it this semester and it’s one of my favorite classes! What are your thoughts on this language?
Well, when I spent the summer in South America about a quarter of a century ago, I collected lots of materials for studying it, as I am fascinated by the mystique of the language of the Incas. Unfortunately, life is short and there are only so many hours in a day and too many fascinating languages to fit into all of them, and this is one that I've just never really gotten to. I am pleased to hear that you like it so much: what, in particular, appeals to you?
Thanks for considering my question. Korean pronunciation and grammar was so challenging that I knew that I would have to spend near singular focus on it in order to get decent. I wonder if taking a language course in S.Korea for some years would be the solution.
Yes indeed, that would probably help. Good luck to you with your studies. And thank you for asking an interesting question!
That was the case for me with Korean. Before learning how to say anything, I spent enormous effort learning to pronounce the letters and syllables exactly as I heard them from multiple speakers. There are some characters that are very difficult to comprehend at first, and then still difficult to pronounce well.
That said, French is completely impossible for me to pronounce or even comprehend in many circumstances. To my surprise, Mandarin was doable. French is not.
The most important thing is surely motivation? Nowadays with the internet, we have relatively easy access to a whole myriad of foreign language material of differing kinds and of varying "weight". There are things such as TV and radio, films, music, privately made UA-cam content, podcasts, e-books, audiobooks, newspapers, etc, etc... If someone really and truly wanted to, he/she probably could spend multiple hours every day within a kind of foreign language bubble. To give just one example: there are literally 100s of hours of old TV police detective shows from West Germany during the 1970s, 80s and 90s which have been uploaded on to UA-cam! It includes things like Der Kommissar, Tatort, Der Alte, Derrick, Ein Fall für Zwei...
(In my humble opinion most of this also has considerably higher artistic merit than the slop which is served up as entertainment today - in any language.)
In theory, yes, one could build quite a bubble for oneself of a foreign language in your own room if you are highly motivated to do that.
No doubt the language that's the most difficult would be the first one one would study on their own. For me that was English, naturally. I was quite bad at it until I started doing a lot of input after 5 years of nothing but school grammar.
But barring that, Hungarian was the one that despite my natural draw to it, I never did get a firm grip on. Currently I think that is due to a lack of interesting literature, which I hope to remedy soon.
Hello Yan - I don't know much about the Hungarian literary tradition, but I imagine there is one and would like to know more about it.
@@ProfASAr Oh, well, I doubt I’ll find much in literature, but I do hope to find decent philosophical works by the likes of Imre Lakatos, Michael Polányi and Janos von Neumann. We’ll see though.
Some of their lit can be found on gutenbergorg, some stuff all way back to 1800s.
Hi Professor, I really like your videos, I’m learning Irish and use your method of using multiple course books, I translate from English to Irish back and forth, I try to do an hour everyday, is there benefit to listening to Irish on the radio when I only understand about 40/50%? Thank you
Irish is one of those languages that, while I have studied them, I have never yet given them the time and attention they really deserve. As for your question: if you only understand 45% or so of what you hear on the radio, then I think you would get more benefit out of working with something like Speaking Irish: An Ghaeilge Bheo by Siuán Ní Mhaonaig & Antain Mac Lochlainn (McGraw Hill, 2008), which has recorded and transcribed interviews with a variety of different speakers.
Hi Professor, thanks for your reply, and recommendation. You know I have that book and bought it about a year ago as I saw you had it in your library, it’s a really good book but I stopped studying it for some reason, I’ll try to get back to using it and listen to the audio as I drive to work, great videos by the way with lots of great advice, thank you!
I understand why East Asian languages would rank at the top of lists of difficulty, but it fascinates me that Dravidian languages are considered by FSI to fall under their "Category III", while Arabic somehow makes it to the final Category IV. I wonder if orthographical difficulties primarily account for this, as all the other determining features like syntax, phonology, cultural concepts etc. seem to apply more or less equally to the likes of Tamil, Kannada etc. Am I missing something else here?
For that matter, Thai, Cambodian, Tibetan, and many other languages from other families that have different scripts for their literary traditions. And then there is your old love, Georgian. I think perhaps these languages were of less "strategic value" for diplomatic training programs and so there were fewer people who were taught them.
Also, this may have been done in a less pressured/stressful atmosphere, and therefore have been more effective.
Have you tried basque language?
I have three different manuals for it and explored it very briefly many years ago, but can't say I have really studied it.
For me Arabic is easier because I’m exposed to it more
There are no objectively difficult languages, only relatively difficult ones depending upon our linguistic base.
Russian is definitely more difficult than Arabic just on grammar alone. Spoken Arabic is pretty easy. Just takes time to get used to the few new sounds.
Thanks for sharing your opinion, though it differs completely from my own experience.
If we are talking about the classical Arabic, then Russian is not more difficult. Actually most people who go to Russia learn it quite fast. Look at all those immigrants in Russia many of them went there without knowing any Russian and became fluent in it very fast. Also many learned Russian just in schools outside Russia and can communicate pretty well.
@@a.r.4707 eh maybe, in my experience not many people can actually speak Russian in a fluid and concise manner. They can use basic sentence structure and most have terrible accents. The thing with Arabic is that there are not many good resources and materials to learn the different dialects. Whereas with Russian there are plenty. And I’m talking about the spoken dialects, not MSA or Fusha which nobody speaks in everyday life. They are a different story. Although the case system in Arabic is much more simplistic than Russian. Arabic is still very difficult though.
@@josmith5419I speak Russian as my first language. I've seen videos of American Christian missionaries talking about their experiences in Russia, in Russian, and their levels seemed pretty high. They often spoke very fluidly and expressed their desire to convert Russians to their branch/denomination of Protestantism as well as giving an example of what they usually say to Russians.
They seemed fairly fluent to me.
@@olegcherkasky2755 When religion is involved people take it more seriously, as it’s for the glory of their god. You can say the same for newly converted Muslims who learn Arabic very well for their religion. Happens a lot. Anyway, we all disagree it seems. Stay blessed.
When you speak, you look like you're about to have a heart attack, or like you're at gun point.
How kind of you to say so.
Not really, he speaks fluently, maybe it's hard for you to follow
@@karwoski91 No, he is hyperventilating lol. I don't know where you got that idea from.
@@HCRAYERT. Maybe who knows, I'm not an expert on this