How easy was it for you (non-native) speakers to pick up English?

[The Larch]

It was hammered to me since I was a little kid, so I don't really remember how hard it was back in the day.

[viper37]

Jacob argued in a post a few days back that getting English as a Danish-speaker was inherently easy, and that once you get an ear for it it's relatively easy to understand even without formal education.  I found this difficult to believe, given that I have some difficulty in understanding just about all the Danish I've ever heard even with a reasonably deep linguistic background. 

How about romance-language speakers? 

Hmm.  Hard to say.  I learn to speak English at a very young age, due to being exposed to the language at about the time I was starting to speak.  Later on we traveled extensively through Ontario and the Maritimes, and once we got cable, I started watching tv to expand my vocabulary.

So, no, it wasn't really hard, but I was kind exposed to the language.  It's not like I understood everything at first, but I got the gist of it watching Transformers&GI Joe in English and French later on.  Later, it was Star Trek.  They had perfect diction, so it wasn't hard.  Other shows gave me a hard time though.  My first english movie on tv was something about Hulk's return.  Didn't get most of it.  My second english movie was in a theater, and it was Judge Dredd.  I never understood Balboa, I mean Stallone.  Even today, I'm having difficulties watching the old Rocky in english due to his and Paulie's accent.

As for the rest, I have trouble with some regional accents in the US and UK, especially where they're not train actors, i.e. people you'd hear in various medias, people calling on a radio/tv show, etc.

So how easy was it to pick up?  Not that difficult, as I started young and being in a see of English speakers, there's always a little English somewhere.  I was lucky to have good English teachers from the time I started learning English in school to my last years in college.  Nearly always native speakers, or people who did most of their studies in English.  I think the worst teacher was that guy from Maine.  Horrible accent.  And I kept correcting his spelling, so it tells you how bad he was

As for writing&reading, it was a bit harder.  Living in a small town, there's no English library or book store here.  Pre-internet days, it was hard to get english books, so only when I was in university (Sherbrooke) and in Ottawa did I get my first English books.  But eventually, I picked it up.  I'm not up to Brazen's standards, but I think everyone understands me.  Most of the time, anyway.

As for other languages, Latin was easy, but Spanish gave me lots of trouble, I only had a C on my introductory class.  Then again, it was filled to the brim with people who already spoke Spanish fluently 

[viper37]

@PDH:
I like your sig man, but I'm already drunk now!

[DontSayBanana]

As for other languages, Latin was easy, but Spanish gave me lots of trouble, I only had a C on my introductory class.  Then again, it was filled to the brim with people who already spoke Spanish fluently 

Ugh.  I had to give up on Spanish for that reason.  I couldn't get enough of a foundation because the pacing for the classes was skewed toward the amount of fluent and first-language speakers who took Spanish for easy grades.  I scraped by through Spanish I, and failed hard on Spanish II.  Twice.

On the front of English speaker learning other language, German was ridiculously easy for me, because I got used to the base similarities right away- hell, beginning sentences in German I were made up of words so close that they just sounded like English with a thick German accent.

I took five years' worth of German, so I can catch the gist of German and languages that share a good amount of similarities like Dutch and some very, very rudimentary Danish.

On the other big Romance languages, I've started again with French, but I'm still at a very, very basic level; nowhere near conversational.  And I've just never had the opportunity to dabble with Latin or modern Italian.

[Ideologue]

I think I've done a pretty good job.  Tonitrus said otherwise.  It hurt my feelings.

[Ideologue]

I learn to speak English at a very young age

Tell me more about your perception of time, Dr. Manhattan.

[Syt]

I dunno. Besides, I'm still learning.


Brazen, you said in Brussels that I have kind of an American accent? It may have gotten worse, because people who I meet for the first time occasionally ask me how long I've lived in the U.S. 

[The Brain]

I dunno. Besides, I'm still learning.


Brazen, you said in Brussels that I have kind of an American accent? It may have gotten worse, because people who I meet for the first time occasionally ask me how long I've lived in the U.S. 

I don't know how to put this but maybe it is about your... bigger bones?

[Richard Hakluyt]

Even Danes find it hard to learn Danish. Not a joke.

I find English almost impossible to understand. And trying to express myself is a nightmare.

So would Swedish be easier?  Icelandic sounds prmeval to English ears.

Easier to learn? My guess is yes. Easier for a Swede to learn English? My guess is no.

FWIW when I'm watching a Swedish TV program I can hear the majority of words that are being said and could have a go at repeating them. This, however, is not the case when listening to Danish, except for a few basic words.

[Sheilbh]

Even Danes find it hard to learn Danish. Not a joke.

I find English almost impossible to understand. And trying to express myself is a nightmare.

So would Swedish be easier?  Icelandic sounds prmeval to English ears.

Easier to learn? My guess is yes. Easier for a Swede to learn English? My guess is no.

FWIW when I'm watching a Swedish TV program I can hear the majority of words that are being said and could have a go at repeating them. This, however, is not the case when listening to Danish, except for a few basic words.

I felt a weird sense of achievement when I first distinguished between Danish and Swedish in the Bridge

[Iormlund]

Very easy, but I had the rare privilege of attending a bilingual school from the age of 3.

German was harder, only starting when I was 12 or so. Its similarity to English made things easier grammar-wise, but the three genders were a bit of a pain in the ass.

[Syt]

Back on topic - I don't think I had much trouble learning English. But somehow it always had the air of "cool" about it that drew me in.

Growing up hanging out with U.S. Army brats sure helped, and sisters marrying GIs probably didn't hurt, either. At the same time I purposefully sought out to read books in English or, when possible, watch movies/TV in English. A lot of computer games were in English when I grew up.

English in school was never much of an issue for me. I do recall going through the grammar, but a lot of it "made sense" to me so I often could fly through tests without having to learn the actual grammatical rules by heart (e.g. stuff like "I've been working" vs. "I've worked" or "I was doing x when y happened." => there's probably an embarrassing error in what I just wrote. ).

These days, most things I watch/read are in English., be it movies, books or websites. When offered the choice of German vs. English I will always choose English, unless German is the original language of the product.

French was a wholly different beast, though. The vocabulary was harder, everything sounded the same (en vs. on vs. an), the grammar and tenses were a nightmare ... so I only was a B student, even though my tests were always covered in red ink when I got them back.

[Admiral Yi]

Growing up hanging out with U.S. Army brats sure helped

Did you ever get any play with an American chick?

[The Brain]

They see me whalin'.

[Syt]

Growing up hanging out with U.S. Army brats sure helped

Did you ever get any play with an American chick?

No. They left town when I was 16 and the girls that were there, I think the oldest was 12, maybe? I'm not Siege.

And no, wasn't interested in hooking up with a bored Army wife.