It can be quite difficult to learn a new language. What do you think are the most difficult aspects of learning a language?
I think that difficulty of learning a language varies from language to language. There are some languages that may be familiar with learner’s own language. So, that will be easier to learn that language. But of course there are also languages that is hard to study. I think that the most difficult parts of a language are pronunciation and grammar. In my opinion the hardest part is pronunciation and only then grammar.
Firstly, the hardest thing to learn about a language is how to pronounce words correctly. Reason why I emphasize hardship of pronunciation is that some languages differ from each other very much. Some languages contain sounds that other language lack. And that is the most problematic thing for most of learners. For example, majority of my Thai friends just cannot pronounce some sounds that English language has. Such as, ‘s’ or ‘r’. Reason of that is lack of these sounds in their pronounce. Of course many languages such as Azeri for instance are built in a way that makes it easier to pronounce many of sounds in different languages. Orthoepy of some languages cover many sounds what makes studying a foreign language easy.
The last and slightly easier aspect of learning a language is it’s grammar - structure. Again the reason of hardship in this part of learning is that some languages contain different from other languages word and phrase order. For example, in some languages it’s preferable to use subject in the end of the sentence but there are also such languages that grammar of those languages require verb in the beginning.
In a conclusion I can state that there are two most difficult aspects of learning a new language. Pronunciation and grammar. The main thing that makes these aspects difficult are that some people are not used to pronounce some sounds that are in a foreign language. And majority of people have problems with ordering of words and phrases in a sentence. It is not that hard to perfectly learn grammar as it is to pronounce words as a native speaker.
Hi, last time when I submitted an essay you told me not to use such things as “Below I would like to illustrate…” etc. not to talk about my essay but actually write it. I have noted and remembered it. But I have a problem in my English courses that I take there is a suggestion like “input introduction to your ideas like: Below I would like to illustrate… stand some points… state some reasons… and etc.”. Luschen, please suggest me how to act writing an essay for TOEFL? Thanks!!!
Hi Tair, I thought your essay was pretty good. You could have covered a little more on the grammar paragraph - grammar is much more than word order. You also could have shortened your pronunciation paragraph, there was a little repetition. You have some grammar issues in your essay and a few word choices that could be improved. Overall, I would rate this essay a 3.5 out of 5.
I suppose there are different views on telling the reader what you are going to write about rather than just writing it. In a relatively short essay like the TOEFL, I think it is important to make every sentence count. The graders value conciseness as long as it does not interfere with your clarity. They do not like excessively wordy sentences which don’t add much information and often seem to be inserted just to boost the word count. So in general, I prefer addressing the topic directly instead of going through a two-step process where you say you are going to address it and then you do. Reading an essay, I don’t need to be reminded that you are going to give me some reasons - I want to read your reasons.
Compare:
“In this essay I will give several aspects which I think are the ones that are cause the most difficulty when learning a language.”
“Difficulty of pronunciation causes the most challenges when learning a new language, with grammar a close second.”
The second one gives much more information than the first, in fewer words, and I think is also more interesting to read. The reader also has a good idea of what the main topics of your essay are going to be. So you are still guiding the reader, but not with “empty” sentences.
Thanks!!!