Is There A Language So Hard That Even Natives Have Trouble With It?

[The Simpleton 2]

There are thousands of languages in this world and there are thousands of language-enthusiasts who are always seeking out new, strange languages to learn. These polyglots naturally pick up the language by imitating the natives who speak the languages. For example, by watching a dozen or so French movies, anybody can pick up a few words/phrases immediately. This applies to almost every language, including tough ones like Japanese/Mandarin.But I was wondering if there's any such language/dialect in this world which even the natives have trouble using. I heard that Swahilli is a tough one to master? But I'm sure the natives are quite comfortable with it. So, heard of any peculiar language(s)?

[templehost 0]

i think its sanskritits the one of the language which i thought i should learn but failed as its too hard to learn may be the natives would be having no prob with it but not same everywheremaybe the natives will find easy to speak sanskrit rather any oder language like english and hindibut i met some of the natives which find it hard to speak sanskrit also i wonder what kind of language they would be able to speak

[The Simpleton 2]

i think its sanskritits the one of the language which i thought i should learn but failed as its too hard to learn
may be the natives would be having no prob with it but not same everywhere
maybe the natives will find easy to speak sanskrit rather any oder language like english and hindi
but i met some of the natives which find it hard to speak sanskrit also i wonder what kind of language they would be able to speak

As of today, except for a few villages/towns there is no place where Sanskrit is used as a first-language. It is still used only by literary enthusiasts and although the main language itself has diminished, it's derivatives are still very popular - Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, etc are all derived from Sanskrit and they're not difficult to use

[mahesh2k 0]

I know hindi,marathi,little bit kannada, Japanese and English. Going t study german soon. And i found that Japanese and Chinese are very hard to learn. sanskrit/hindi are way too easy. I don't think so that there is any language which is giving trouble to localities. But i have seen languages getting extincted each year because of globalization. Local languages are killed over priority of english and national language. So in my opinion when such time comes that localities are not comfortable with their own language then that language gets extincted.

[andresf91 0]

But i have seen languages getting extincted each year because of globalization. Local languages are killed over priority of english and national language. So in my opinion when such time comes that localities are not comfortable with their own language then that language gets extincted.

It gets quite difficult to learn your local language if your parents think it's not worthy to learn it since the rest of the country has some other official language and that is the only one that is thought at school. And you don't have to go as far India or Somalia. I think it's part of what happened in Wales, Scotland and Ireland, where English language was made compulsory everywhere and during centuries local dialects of Gaelic languages became almost extincted. Though, now they're more free there and it is.. let's say, "legal" to speak local languages.

[The Simpleton 2]

Languages getting extinct is really a sad thing and it's a pity theres not much outsiders can do about it - the natives themselves must take it up to themselves and preserve their language...

[Nameless_ 1]

Languages getting extinct is really a sad thing and it's a pity theres not much outsiders can do about it - the natives themselves must take it up to themselves and preserve their language...

I know right? Here in my country, there are so many people that are actually first generation there and so on, and they don't even know how to speak their own language in their ancestry, like the languages that their parents know how to speak, so therefore, while they look like they should know another language, like Chinese, Mandarin (and other dialects like Cantonese), Hindu, French, German, Spanish, they don't, and they only know the English language.

I find this really sad, because most of them not only don't know how to speak or write or understand their language, they also don't want to learn it. It is like shunning their own heritage... Even for those that do know how to understand their own language, they often miss a vital skill, like speaking or writing, and even if they can do both, they don't do it really good at all, and often have a very strong accent when they speak their own home heritage language. The parents though, have to give priority to their children, and the parents, instead of their children, have to learn english to communicate with their own children. This creates communication problems, because obviously, a language learned as an adult is harder to grasp than a child learning a new language... don't you think???

And so obviously, the children won't have respect or listen to the advice that their parents give, and so they become more and more rebillious and so on and so on... So sad... But it's not like I can (or we can) do anything about it, due to globalization, many languages will be going extinct sooner and sooner. In the end, the main languages might only be English and Chinese or something like that, due to the internet using English, and the big population of the Chinese people...

[mahesh2k 0]

Languages getting extinct is really a sad thing and it's a pity theres not much outsiders can do about it - the natives themselves must take it up to themselves and preserve their language...

It's not that easy in the days of globalization. Here localities are forced to speak in national language(which is again forced on them for sheer number of people speaking in that language) and english. I can understand english should be in trading or communication for international stream. But when it comes to local deals and life, if national language and english made compulsory on locals then there is no way local language will survive. It may sound good that all are under national language but with that they lost local culture an festival when they make language extinct. It's just not the job of localities to preserve it but to people who migrate from over the world to place to preserve it if they wish to stay for longer run.

Only way i can see in this will work is each person should learn as many local language as they can and should be familiar with foreign language as well. Myself starting to do this i learned most of the local language in my country(only the one with which i've touch). So i practice before i preach, that's why i think it might work with others as well. Again if people are lazy to learn new language with some excuse then i can see that only globalization will decide which language will take over soon. Else we are going to see language extincted one by one.

[rpgsearcherz 5]

I'm guessing English is the language you're asking about. Read anything written by Americans. 99.9% (and this is not exaggerated) can't even distinguish the difference between easy things like "your" and "you're." It's ridiculous to me that so many people can't properly use English in the U.S. and what's even worse is that most don't even *want* to learn how to use it properly.

[greenpeace 0]

If it is about higher meanings of language, it is Sanskrit I think. Most of the words used in Sanskrit has different meanings and the appropriate meaning inferred according to the situation. So it was hard for scholars of modern times to translate Sanskrit literature in to English, even though most of them are already translated with never-ending controversy over abstract meanings.My native language, Malayalam, is also not easy... and we have numerous versions of Malayalam in our small state of Kerala. What I use a "print language" so that everyone can understand ...

[anwiii 17]

this is exactly why i think the english language is the most difficult to learn for natives. there are so many rules of grammer to the english language, it isn't even funny. my mother was actually an english teacher before she raised us kids. didn't really phase me or help me any. she was always correcting me. and although i now correct HER at times, i am far from grammatically correct....especially the written language. being raised in a melting pot of los angeles, i went to school and have worked with many non native speakers. NONE of them have learned the language fully while speaking so i assume they can't write it well either. there are some that come close, but fail at perfecting the language. when it comes to native speakers, i don't really think you can perfect the language unless you go on to study the language itself in college....maybe a bachelors or masters degree. for the average native, most of us are lost and still have to look up things to make sure we are grammatically correct.

your and you're is just an example of one word of thousands that get confusing in the english language(writing it....not speaking it as the two words are pronounced the same).

as far as what is proper, i can't critisize people anymore as i am not perfect either. all that matters to me now is that i understand people any way i can to communicate with them. i traveled many places and even in the united states, they hold their own dialects of the english language that is hard to understand at times and in some places, they just have their own way of pronouncing english words differently.

look at our vouls compared to other languages. our vouls are the hardest to master because one voul can have many pronunciations. this gets confusing to a native speaker. although we pick up the basics at a young age, it's still hard to learn compared to most other languages.

anyway, i truely believe that the english language is the hardest for natives to master as there are so many rules to the english language.

I'm guessing English is the language you're asking about. Read anything written by Americans. 99.9% (and this is not exaggerated) can't even distinguish the difference between easy things like "your" and "you're." It's ridiculous to me that so many people can't properly use English in the U.S. and what's even worse is that most don't even *want* to learn how to use it properly.

Edited November 15, 2009 by anwiii (see edit history)

[rpgsearcherz 5]

this is exactly why i think the english language is the most difficult to learn for natives. there are so many rules of grammer to the english language, it isn't even funny. my mother was actually an english teacher before she raised us kids. didn't really phase me or help me any. she was always correcting me. and although i now correct HER at times, i am far from grammatically correct....especially the written language. being raised in a melting pot of los angeles, i went to school and have worked with many non native speakers. NONE of them have learned the language fully while speaking so i assume they can't write it well either. there are some that come close, but fail at perfecting the language. when it comes to native speakers, i don't really think you can perfect the language unless you go on to study the language itself in college....maybe a bachelors or masters degree. for the average native, most of us are lost and still have to look up things to make sure we are grammatically correct.
your and you're is just an example of one word of thousands that get confusing in the english language(writing it....not speaking it as the two words are pronounced the same).

as far as what is proper, i can't critisize people anymore as i am not perfect either. all that matters to me now is that i understand people any way i can to communicate with them. i traveled many places and even in the united states, they hold their own dialects of the english language that is hard to understand at times and in some places, they just have their own way of pronouncing english words differently.

look at our vouls compared to other languages. our vouls are the hardest to master because one voul can have many pronunciations. this gets confusing to a native speaker. although we pick up the basics at a young age, it's still hard to learn compared to most other languages.

anyway, i truely believe that the english language is the hardest for natives to master as there are so many rules to the english language.

Luckily, some of us have mastered it already. You used the word "phase" as a type of change. This is actually "faze." I'm not bringing that up to be rude, it's just another word most people get confused with (and many don't even know "faze" is a word!).

I think the reason I know so much about English is because I'm a writer. It's my job to know the difference between different words, different meanings, etc. and understand the proper placement of each.

Random fact : Every letter in the English alphabet is silent in at least one word, ex. "climb" has a silent "b." And yes, you can actually go through and write the alphabet and come up with at least one word that has it silent. I did it a year or so ago as a fun experiment.

[The Simpleton 2]

Lol I never expected English to be one of the answers but it does make sense once you think about it. The grammar rules and vocabulary together make mastering the language a very difficult job. While speaking I think most people don't get confused but it is while writing that their problem starts!

[rpgsearcherz 5]

Lol I never expected English to be one of the answers but it does make sense once you think about it. The grammar rules and vocabulary together make mastering the language a very difficult job. While speaking I think most people don't get confused but it is while writing that their problem starts!

People don't even speak properly. To name a quote off the top of my head that people use out of place, it's "I could care less." Now think about it... If you could care less that means you actually have quite a bit of "care" about the subject/person/item/etc. In this case, how is it a derogatory term? Yet everyone uses it to be rude. The proper quote should be "I couldn't care less," meaning you care so little it's impossible to care any less.

There are many more too. If I think of another I'll let you know.

[Spudd 0]

Yes, there is a language so hard that even the native speakers have trouble with it, and it's one we all know: English. Seriously, English is the most butchered language on the planet. There are so many confusing rules in spelling that we actually have spelling contests to see who can just spell the words right. Then there's this new age of chat speaking, where people intentionally use a variation of English, one that is totally wrong, all for the sake of saving a few seconds. You know what I'm talking about, that cell phone lingo where every other "word" is actually an abbreviation, and vowels don't exist unless used alone. (E.g. I, U (You), O (Oh), Y (Why), etc.)