complexity of languages

<<The point was, that foreigners claim that English is such an easy language, easier than other languages. So why they can't speak it so well, if it's so easy? >>

The big majority of E2Lers do seem to speak English amazingly well. For example, in your post above, you'd have to look long and hard to spot the few, minute telltale signs that it wasn't written by a native speaker.

Franco, et al.,

You'd also have to look at the proportions of the kinds of people that would learn particular languages. English is unique because it is considered the most important by many, and so you would get a certain proportion of people wanting to learn it. But another language, like Nepalese as you said, would probably have different (from English) proportions of the kinds of people that would learn it. So you may see in general some different results?

<<The big majority of E2Lers do seem to speak English amazingly well. For example, in your post above, you'd have to look long and hard to spot the few, minute telltale signs that it wasn't written by a native speaker.>>

Ha ha! My English is actually very terrible. It must be an exception.

But I think that's a large exaggeration, that majority of E2Lers speak English amazingly well. If you're native speaker, probably the most learners you've met live in your country? Obviously , they will have had much exposure, so speak better. But remember, for each learner in your country has 1000 learners in the home country, who probably speaks it much worse. If you travelled to overseas, and met locals who spoke excellent English, that's probably because everyone learns it in the country. If all the people learn English, and 2% reach fluency, then 2 of 100 people would be speaking it fluently, so there's a big chance to meet them on your journey. Conversely, for example, if a French person travels to America, maybe only 5 out of 100 people learn French. 2% of the learners will still reach fluency, but since such small people learn it , only 1 in 1000 people will speak French, so there's small chance to meet them.

And if you refer to this site, most English learners probably don't have ability to read this site, because their English isn't good enough. Only the best of learners will be capable, since it's almost totally in English.

Franco, I'm sorry, but what you said above is ridiculous. You truly do have convulated logic.

<<Ha ha! My English is actually very terrible. It must be an exception.>>

You written English is pretty good (I've seen a whole lot worse here on Antimoon). Of course, there's a chance that you'd have a discernable "foreign" accent when you speak.

<<But I think that's a large exaggeration, that majority of E2Lers speak English amazingly well.>>

At least it amazes me. I don't mean to say that they all speak English with no detectable foreign accent -- in fact almost none of them do.

<Franco, I'm sorry, but what you said above is ridiculous. You truly do have convulated logic.>

I love how you call his argument ridiculous without providing any reasons. If it's so ridiculous, why don't you respond his points and debunk them?

To insult a psychologist's logic is the most grave insult on Earth! But my logic tells me, your logic is not trustable, so todo está bien.

Franco's statistics are pure speculation and contradict artifially something everybody knows from experience: the native speakers of some languages (e. g. German, Dutch, Russian) are often multilingual and learn other languages quickly, while others (French, Enlish, etc.) are and do not the same.

Franco's statistical arguments are obviously false, since France and England are in the same category (French and Brits often speak only their native language). Following Franco's "logic" Frenchmen should be considered as being very good in learning other languages, since their number is relatively small.

Franco's English IS actually terrible! You can tell that he's not a native by the way he often leaves out articles (which is weird if his original language is a romance one!)

I don't know what language is the Franco's native one, but it is not Spanish.

Guest, really? That's very intresting!
I'm a bit suspicious about him knowing Russian. He knows it pretty good yet he does not write as a native. I suspect he might be somewhere from Eastern Europe (which would explain the lack of some articles in English, too bad I can't judge his Spanish...). However, I wouldn't be surprised if he's really Asian.

I meant to say invitado, not guest

I meant to say invitado, not guest

I invented the statistics, but only for highnlighting the argument. The argument is truth.

I don't find Franco's POV to contradictory at all to what I have observed here and abroad. I think you're taking it out of context, Sam, to say that by Franco's logic, the French should be good at learning other languages since they have a small population. For them, this is a question of motivation/popularity/resources - there are other factors besides their proximity to countries that speak foreign languages that might influence their motivation and the popularity of foreign languages. Franco's argument sounds plausible to me - and generally speaking, I think the popularity of something also influences resources and motivation (though other economic and political factors also hold sway).

For example, I am learning Italian in the States while my friend Chiara is learning English in Italy. My resources are few and my motivation is mostly my own. In Italy, learning English is very popular and indeed compulsory throughout my levels of school. Young Italians like to intersperse English phrases throughout their sentences when possible. She also has more access to resources because a greater number of people there want to speak English - which goes back to supply and demand. Not much demand for Italian here in the States.

There is much more motivation in Europe to learn other languages too because statistically a person has a much greater chance of coming into contact with a person who speaks another language. Every single country in Europe is smaller than the United States of America. In fact it is bigger than the entire European Union (whose countries constitute what most of you seem to be talking about). You can drive across the US and not meet a non-English speaker. Trying driving the same distance in Europe.

In my opinion this also extends to resources. In Europe in general, there is more motivation, more demand, and thus more supply/resources. Since Europe is so small and has some many languages, there is strong demand/motivation for most of the major ones - English, French, German and Spanish. The foreign language with the most resources here in the States is Spanish - why? Because out of all the countries that border us, Spanish and French (to a lesser degree) are the only foreign languages that really crop up*. And guess what foreign language has the second most resources here in the States - that's right, it's French.

*Not to mention the fact that many Americans are native Spanish speakers themselves