What's the most difficult aspect of learning a language?

I'm learning Spanish, as we live in Spain and I really want to belong here. I'm confident enough to try out my Spansh on the locals, but for me, the hardest part is understanding their replies! Because I speak without hesitation, they assume I'm fluent in the language, and they speak very quickly, and use idiomatic words that I don't always grasp. Still, they love it that I try, because so many expats here, especially the British, to my shame, just will not try to learn the language. Is Fjaril on your friends list? He's a native Swede and I'm sure he'd help out with any difficulties. He also posts some very entertaining responses - he's great fun to be around.

th most difficult aspect of learning a language is using it in day to day life , no matter how nicely mug up the words untill we don't know when to use the words we cannot understand anything because learning it and using it in day to day life is different , using the language is also necessary to remind tha language else you will forget the labguage after few days or months so to learn the language interaction with the person speaking that language should be done daily

I think to learn a language with connecting it to our language is many times prooved wrong. one more important point to learn other language starts with the word meanings but later how to put up the words is the most difficult work.

To me, I found that listening is much more difficult. As people may have different accents. And sometimes they may even use slangs. And therefore, it will be harder for a foreigner to understand it. I don't think it is so important for the speaking, as usually people will understand you. As long as you can speak some key words. And practice makes perfect for writing. I love China

Yes, speaking is the most difficult for me too in most of the languages I tried to learn. That's mainly because of the accent in pronouncing the words. Langaiges have tonal accents too, which make them much more difficult for starters not familiar with those. Writing can be very difficult too. I was trying Japanese writing. That's not easy for me.

Well I come from a country where they speak more than eighty languages so there's enough to learn..:)...Well in India,you have a lot of regional languages and people from different states often get stuck in the other state trying to learn the local language.I am myself trying to learn a local language Tamil which is pretty difficult.I find the writing part of it most difficult and don't think I'd be able to learn it over.Reading comes next and speaking,well its not easy but relatively,its manageable..:)

Hello. My languages are as follows: English, Spanish, and Italian. English is my native language, and the other ones I learnt later in life. Well, when I started learning language, it was the listening, because sometimes it goes so fast. It makes my head hurt really bad. The vocabulary can be difficult when you start out because you don't know what to say. . Currently I'm not actively learning any additional languages, BUT I do keep up with my Spanish and Italian.

I think the hardest thing is understanding others that are fluent. They speak it very fast and sometimes I have a hard time with that. If they slow down a little I do well but I hate to ask them to because it makes me feel dumb..lol. My second language is Spanish.

hi maezee^^;; i agree with you that speaking is difficult and also listening. i am trying to learn Korean now and i learn the writing and reading of their characters in just 2days but still cannot construct a good sentence fluently in speaking. and another thing that makes it more difficult is the sentence pattern which is totally different from English and the different endings for whom you are talking to.. there's formal (much older people and/or for officers/boss) ,polite(for older and person u don't know) and casual(for friends that are same age and younger) way of talking in a conversation

I have tried learning basic german, french, bahasa indonesia/ malaysia and japanese at school and i also tried learning Mandarin Chinese and Korean on my own. I have got to say that learning a language will be easy if you really have the dedication and the eagerness to learn it. Based on my experience, it doesnt matter how hard the system of that language is because with a great passion, everything will be easier. My problem when learning those languages definitely is the "speaking" (and daily usage) of the particular language. No matter how much I learn about the language, I always find it hard to retain it because I have no one to talk to. Since I am the only one who knows that language, I have to work harder so as to not unlearn it. I have to constantly practice, watch movies, listen to music and practice reading often so I would not lose it. That's really the hardest part for me---finding someone to practice a particular language with. :(

Hi, I was in progress of reading Hindi my friend. I have the knowledge of basic letters in hindi but i still finding some difficulties in writing. I doesn't know to speak but i can understand when others talk in HINDI. i think with in three months i can able to speak and write in HINDI very clearly. If you are interested,you can try it's a easy language to learn quick. Happy mylotting. Have a nice day.

Yes you referred to pronunciation, I totally agree, just you know, I'm learning English and this is the reason I'm here. For me, a lot of people in my country are good at reading and writing, but there is seldom chance to speak, therefore we call this "Dumb English". Another aspect is that thinking in, example English way. Whatever I see my mind will relate it to the word or sentence of my mother language, it's difficult to convert my thinking to the way a British or U.S.A man thinking. I think, I will master English skillfully if not any mother language factors in my mind.

Well in general the toughest part of learning a new language is that if u start comparing it with any language that u know already,u tend to switch to that language before u know it! in my case,i usually start blabberin in english every time i find myself unable to express my self in bengali dont know how to control that! How did u like this answer????????

i'm learning chinese for around 3 years but i have not mastered it yet. it's quite difficult to remember the stroke,dot and line. and for the speaking they have 4 different sound. chinese character really killing me

For me it was the new syntax. It was really difficult to grasp the different sentence structure. I learned Spanish in high school and again in college and it was really difficult. I was unsire of how languages with so many cognates could have such strange sentence structures.

I think the most difficult part of learning a language is the writing because you have to really focus on grammar. Speaking comes a bit more easier and reading is definitely the easiest part. Once you have the pronunciation down pack you will be able to speak better and teach yourself.

For quiet some time I am trying to learn German and I have seen that some words are very hard to pronounce.Apart from it,German grammar is very tough.. There are so many rules and the most difficult part is the verb position.

Apart from half a dozen vernaculars of this country (India) I read and write good English and a bit of German for which I had attended classes. The one and only way to be proficient in whichever language you are interested in is to read, write, speak and think in that language. If you have a friend whose mother tongue is the language you are interesed in there cannot be a better way. You have to constantly be in touch.

The most important thing for learning a foreign lingua as i see is the atmosphere. Of course you can learn a language by yourself but at last i think you'll probably become an excellent grammarist but poor at your communication. You need interactive with others.Can anyone explain detailed about his mother tongue? Maybe not. But he can fluently use it.Y? The surroundings.

I took french in highschool, but don't remember a whole lot, just a few phrases and my numbers. In my case it was the same as with you. Its the correct pronunciation of words thats the hardest to master. Can't imagine learning to read japanese, much less getting a firm grasp of writing in a language with that much complexity in its writing. Though If I tried, I could probably relearn alot of the french I have forgotten, on my own, its definitely more difficult than a classroom setting.