Re: CHAT: An introduction

Quoting Christian Thalmann <cinga@...>:

> --- In conlang@yahoogroups.com, Christophe Grandsire
> <christophe.grandsire@F...> wrote:
>
>  > > > Why is it always French which suffers from such dislikes? :((((
>  > >
>  > >Why, isn't that a sign that something *is* wrong with the language?
> ;-)
>  >
>  > No, that there's something wrong with the rest of the world! ;)))
>
> What an American point of view!  ;-)))
>
> No, really, French is tough for outsiders to learn.  I had
> the huge advantage of mnemonic assistance from my contact
> with French as a child, and still found it terribly difficult.
>
> Though I guess German, which I'm fond of, has the same measure
> of unlearnability, and thus the same bad reputation among
> those who had it in school.  =P
Back when I and my classmates between sixth and seventh grade had to choose to
take either French or German, the pretty much universal opinion was that
German was easy but bland, French hard but exotic. Being not particularly
interested in languages then, I chose German.

Now, eight years older and particularly interested in languages, I'm glad I
chose so - I find German much more aesthetically appealing than French, for a
start.

For some reason, I've lately heard alot of flak against German's supposed
orthographical horrors. I don't really see why - it may be less regular than
French, but the system is certainly alot less exotic to someone used to
Swedish orthography (which in turn is more erratic than German), and at any
rate it's way simpler than English.

                                                                Andreas

Replies