Rather, SHMUP, finalsquall is right. English is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. It may not have goofy rules about gender, no, but it instead has even more pronouns, it has a fairly complex grammar (partially in that there are a variety of ways things can be stated, yet there are still many, many ways to be wrong), it has an even more complex phonics rule set, and the list goes on.
You see, English has a far more complex history than most other languages. It has a very heavy influence from German and French mainly, but it also has a heavy influence from Latin, and it borrows words from Chinese, Italian, Spanish, Japanese, various Native American languages, and basically every single language it ever comes into contact with.
And instead of "customizing" these words to fit the language (ie, like Japanese usually does with English terms it borrows), the words end up spelled (mostly) the same, and the pronunciation sometimes stays like it was in the original language, sometimes becomes altered to fit English phonics. There's no way to know which will apply - experience is the only way to know the pronunciations of the vast majority of English words, especially our complicated ones.
Other languages... aren't like that. Nearly every single other language in the world has set rules of phonics, and it's rather simple to know the pronunciation of ANY word after learning those rules. This, and our rather complicated set of grammar rules, is why English is difficult to learn as a second language. Those of us born into speaking English are just conditioned to think this way and we don't realize how complicated it is. But think about it - you spend every single year of school until graduation taking either reading, writing, or grammar classes (and sometimes all three). Other languages pretty much don't have that.
I assure you - English is incredibly difficult.
SW-5120-1900-6153
