Is English an easy language to learn?

[Monoriu]

Yeah. English is very logical. You can almost see why the world's greatest scientific and computer achievements of the last century were developed by people who speak English.

I think there are a whole host of reasons why English speakers made so many important contributions, including the relative strength of the English speaking countries like the US and that English is the international business and academic language.  Somehow I don't doubt the ability of other major languages in conveying ideas. 

[Martinus]

Yeah. English is very logical. You can almost see why the world's greatest scientific and computer achievements of the last century were developed by people who speak English.

I think there are a whole host of reasons why English speakers made so many important contributions, including the relative strength of the English speaking countries like the US and that English is the international business and academic language.  Somehow I don't doubt the ability of other major languages in conveying ideas.

I don't know. I think simplicity of language helps too in international trade and exchange of ideas. Plus, anyone who has ever tried to translate an English game/computer programme into another language will tell you how much more complex the language interface needs to be for that (and often, early English games/programmes were too simple for that).

So, in other words, a programmer wanting to write a working German or French language interface must dedicate a lot more resources than one doing it in English.

[Duque de Bragança]

Yeah. English is very logical. You can almost see why the world's greatest scientific and computer achievements of the last century were developed by people who speak English.

I think there are a whole host of reasons why English speakers made so many important contributions, including the relative strength of the English speaking countries like the US and that English is the international business and academic language.  Somehow I don't doubt the ability of other major languages in conveying ideas.

I don't know. I think simplicity of language helps too in international trade and exchange of ideas. Plus, anyone who has ever tried to translate an English game/computer programme into another language will tell you how much more complex the language interface needs to be for that (and often, early English games/programmes were too simple for that).

So, in other words, a programmer wanting to write a working German or French language interface must dedicate a lot more resources than one doing it in English.

That's nothing compared to a translation of a Japanese (same goes with Chinese) game to any European language. English is a bit more concise but less detailed than French or German. French text is say 25 -30 % longer than English, while German is even longer than French. If it's too long and it can't fit in the text box there are ways to deal with that. The real problem is wasting money on advertising stunts and/or bribing the videogame press while not caring about the translation.

Back to topic, Globish English is easy to learn, BBC English is is tougher.

[Zanza]

So, in other words, a programmer wanting to write a working German or French language interface must dedicate a lot more resources than one doing it in English.

Modern frameworks (available for about 15-20 years now) definitely support internationalization and localization. As long as the programmer knows what he's doing, there is no connection between the application logic and the user interface language.
It can get tricky with non-European alphabets though as some logics (ordering items etc.) don't work well for Chinese or Japanese and user interfaces have to be extremely flexible to allow for right-to-left languages like Arabic or Hebrew.

[Zanza]

I think the dominance of English in science, business etc. is just down to the dominance of the USA over the last century, supported by the still big influence of the former British Empire. If the US was speaking Spanish or so, that would be the dominant language in the world now. It has not much to do with the ease of learning it. Humans are quite capable of learning other languages, so it just a question of utility.

[Martinus]

That's nothing compared to a translation of a Japanese (same goes with Chinese) game to any European language. English is a bit more concise but less detailed than French or German. French text is say 25 -30 % longer than English, while German is even longer than French. If it's too long and it can't fit in the text box there are ways to deal with that. The real problem is wasting money on advertising stunts and/or bribing the videogame press while not caring about the translation.

Back to topic, Globish English is easy to learn, BBC English is is tougher.

Well, I didn't just mean text length.

For example, in English language game like Civilization you can have a message "X built Y" with any noun, in its denominative form, being usable in place of X and Y and the sentence still having proper grammar.

To have this sentence work in Polish you would have to use a different declention for the same word when put in place of X and Y, and you would have to use three different forms of "built" for each gender of the noun.

[Syt]

I recall the pain of beta-testing Paradox translations and trying to fix text blocks that were in a certain order but ran counter to German syntax.

[garbon]

It has not much to do with the ease of learning it. Humans are quite capable of learning other languages, so it just a question of utility.

It is why, despite my interest, my abilities in other languages are rather abysmal as there hasn't really been much need.

[Syt]

[Razgovory]

That's nothing. In Polish there is also a neutral gender.

So, a table or an armchair is a "he", a gate or a curtain is a "she" but a chair or a door is an "it" (each with its own verb and pronoun form - so "this chair" and "this door" has a different word for "this" each).

In Swahili there is 15 grammatical genders.

[Syt]

It doesn't help that grammatical gender can be very arbitrary. In German, sun is f. and moon is m. In French it's vice versa. In German, tree is m., but most specific trees (oak, ash etc.) are f.

Not to mention that the gender can be different over time, and there's currently differences between Germany and Austria, e.g. Cola is f. in Germany, but n. in Austria, or Schranke (the bar you'd find at e.g. a level crossing) is f. in Germany and m. in Austria.

Oh, and rivers can be either - Rhine is m., Elbe is f.

[Valmy]

So... what's an easy/easier language to learn?  Any thoughts?  I dabbled with Spanish in High School and Dutch in College.

I found French pretty simple. I went from knowing nothing to being basically fluent in just a few years (then forgot it all because 'murica). The grammar is pretty simple and English already commandeered a lot of their vocabulary so that was nice. The thing that is horrible is the spelling, dear God what happened there? Fortunately not a big deal if you are just learning it to speak it and not learning it in school. I hear Spanish is even easier, it has the advantages of French but with easy spelling.

[celedhring]

Spanish spelling is essentially WYSIWYG.

[Duque de Bragança]

Well, I didn't just mean text length.

For example, in English language game like Civilization you can have a message "X built Y" with any noun, in its denominative form, being usable in place of X and Y and the sentence still having proper grammar.

To have this sentence work in Polish you would have to use a different declention for the same word when put in place of X and Y, and you would have to use three different forms of "built" for each gender of the noun.

There are tags for the relevant cells for this to work in translation software. This happens in Romance languages as well.

[Valmy]

no concept of singular or plural.

Ok that clarifies one of the most signature mistakes Chinese speakers make speaking English.