If learning Chinese is difficult for English speakers, is learning English difficult for Chinese speakers?

[nooj]

The answer is obviously yes, but some people don't seem to realise this.

I was speaking with a Basque speaker who was commenting on how Spanish/French speakers have this myth that even some Basque speakers have interiorised that Basque is a particularly difficult language, that it's impossible to learn and using this as an excuse not to learn Basque/use Basque/speak Basque poorly. He commented sardonically that if Basque is difficult to learn for Spanish/French speakers, then learning Spanish/French is equally difficult for Basque speakers, but you don't see Basque speakers complaining or they're not allowed to complain about it.

[lysi]

He commented sardonically that if Basque is difficult to learn for Spanish/French speakers, then learning Spanish/French is equally difficult for Basque speakers, but you don't see Basque speakers complaining or they're not allowed to complain about it.

You don't see Basque speakers complaining because the number of them who didn't learn Spanish/French as a child is probably countable on one hand.

But I did notice the same thing happen before. I had a Basque friend and he made sure to remind me of the fact that Basque is actually as hard or harder than Chinese to learn. I think it's a source of pride and certainly not unique to Basque speakers.

But about the topic title, I would say that it's not as difficult, and that the difficulty is asymmetrical. All linguistic reasons aside, the average Chinese person is exposed to magnitudes more English than an English person Chinese. But it's still certainly difficult.

[nooj]

You don't see Basque speakers complaining because the number of them who didn't learn Spanish/French as a child is probably countable on one hand.

I personally know dozens of Basque speakers who only started speaking Spanish/French as teenagers and were effectively active monolinguals until then. Although you must take into account passive exposure as well as formal education which inserts Spanish/French even into immersion schools. In the South Basque Country, in D model immersion schools, Basque students have an hour lesson of Spanish covering orthography, grammar, literature etc.

But I did notice the same thing happen before. I had a Basque friend and he made sure to remind me of the fact that Basque is actually as hard or harder than Chinese to learn. I think it's a source of pride and certainly not unique to Basque speakers.

Oh yes, how many times have we all heard people say 'my language is soooo hard' and they're speaking of...I don't know, Dutch? You could argue that there's a certain pride there, sure...or maybe even a lack of pride that betrays insecurity.

But about the topic title, I would say that it's not as difficult, and that the difficulty is asymmetrical.

Well, I'm going to use the example of my mother again, a native speaker of Korean, who is certainly exposed to a lot of English as she lives in Australia and has lived in English speaking countries for over 20 years. And yet she still has serious problems speaking English. I'd peg her level as A2, and she has far more daily exposure to English than most Chinese speakers will ever have.

But even with immense amounts of exposure such as formal obligatory education of English in school, there are still significant problems for Korean, Japanese, Chinese speakers when it comes to learning English. If we ignore the exposure factor (because in my opinion, it's still not qualitatively or quantitatively sufficient in Korea, Japan or China to really matter), why would English be easier to learn than the other way around?

[Lawyer&Mom]

Let’s just say that a lifetime of exposure to Chinese speakers of English has definitely helped me with my Chinese grammar.