All my friends and acquaintances always say to me: English is the easiest language in the world! They constantly repeat it to me when I express my difficulties dealing with the language. I love to answer "Do you know what? German is far easier than English!" Yes, I'm aware that kind of statement is very controversial when you think about the lovely set of articles that German has (der, die, das) and their adjective declensions. But the fact is that German has a beautiful order that makes total sense to me. You only have to get to know the rules and the order of the sentence and then you can enjoy and play with the language. So far, it’s very difficult for me to understand how English works.
My biggest complaint was always the vowel sounds. The multiple vowel sounds that English has are a big challenge for me as a Spanish speaker. To be able to identify one sound from another and, even more, reproduce it seems sometimes impossible for me. You can see an explanation (in Spanish) of this difference within those languages in this video. The number of vowel sounds is different from spoken English in the USA and the UK. English has one of the most complex vowel systems of any language in the world with around 20 distinct vowel phonemes (Wood, 2019). Funnily enough, I learned today that I'm able to distinguish the vowels better than I thought. You can also find that out with the Perception of Spoken English (POSE) Test.
I'm still not a big fan of the English vowel sounds, but I'm starting to appreciate the awesome versatility of this language. Also is amazing to observe the greatness of the phono-articulatory apparatus, which can make a broad variety of sounds in each language.
I'm currently learning German and its got me really frustrated! I was surprised to read about the ease you framed your German journey in. Did you self study or take any classes?
@braydenmroz, I took classes from A1 to B1 level. Then I have been learning almost on my own the level B2-C1.
Very interesting, Amanda. Statistically, the English language has 44 different sounds! The German language might be easier also because you get to learn the standard language(hochdeutsch) . The dilemma of different dialects that English have could be confusing for some learners. I remember in my first year at college at an English phonetics lecture, the professor said that the best English dialect to learn is the neutral one; neither very American nor British nor Australian nor...etc. Some English exceptions don't make sense, that's true. I presume, English being said that it is because it is spoken by more than 100 million people plus the surrounding media from films. songs, etc.. Wish the best of luck digging deeper in this beautiful language, and I'm here for you to help ;)