User blog comment:Razlem/How do you prefer to learn a language?/@comment-1883086-20100722023728

It's not an expensive school that'll get you to learn. It's just the fact that languages are tricky businesses. Just when you think you've got something right, bam! You're wrong. Learning a language isn't simply learning the grammar, but the phonology, the culture, and a whole new way of thinking (compare the fact English, French and Spanish use "to have", while Irish uses "so and so is at me" and Icelandic says "I am with..", or the fact Czech uses "I have happy" for "I like"). With languages, it's a trap to be cocky. It sounds mean, but you're better off, yes, having confidence, but being modest about it, because making an error while acting as if you know the language will triple the offense (I can tell you right now, even if you're modest and made a simple mistake, a French person will knock you down and tell you you're wrong, it's the culture).

Shouldn't it be? You learn a language to communicate, and you can only communicate with a linguistic capacity. Simply learning a language "just to use it" won't suffice. It sounds cruel, but languages are one of those things that require dedication dedication dedication, because, after all, learning a new language is pretty much trying to put aside how you express yourself for another, much more completely different format.

& Detectivekenny. Of course it's easy if you're a native, though even natives have problems with verbs. My cousin always complains about verbs, really, because if you see, Romance languages have one of the most comprehensively complex verbal systems from the IE languages (compare the fact most IE languages use constructions while Romance languages have up to 7 synthetic conjugations + analytic constructions, what a bitch).

Oh, I didn't specify that about Mandarin. I have a Mandarin-speaking friend so everything I know about Chinese is most likely Mandarin. Lol, I'm terrible with tone. I prefer inflections! :D

Overall I didn't mean to come off as rude or degrading, but simply trying to warn you that languages are the epitome of "not everything is what it seems". Cheers!