Re:The world’s hardest (for native English speakers) languages
by decode on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @07:15AM
(#1009786)
That's not the point. The point is that in order to communicate simple things correctly in German, you need to learn a lot more than to communicate simple things correctly in English. But to have correct mastery of German, it's not a large jump from there.
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Re:The world’s hardest (for native English speakers) languages
by memetichazard on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @11:55AM
(#1010215)
It seems like you're saying, once you've gone through 90% of the effort to learn a language, you've only got 10% left (as opposed to 10% for basics then 90% to master).
Re:The world’s hardest (for native English speakers) languages
by decode on Tuesday December 22, 2009 @03:23PM
(#1010704)
Yes, that's right, except for the important part. I'm sure the percentages are off, but here's the basic idea:
To correctly form simple German sentences you need to learn 90% of the non-vocabulary elements of the language. To get to mastery, you have to learn the other 10%.
To correctly form simple English sentences you need to learn 10% of the non-vocabulary elements of the language. To get to mastery, you have to learn the other 90%.