"Easiest" language?

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Jamie*On
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"Easiest" language?

Postby Jamie*On » 2005-10-06, 20:56

Hi everyone

There is this book by Barry Farber "How to learn any language quickly, enjoyably and on your own" or something! In this book he says Indonesian is the easiest language in the world bar none.

Is it true?

How long should it take to learn it, for an English speaker?

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Postby edsmedia » 2005-10-09, 8:41

Hello there!

Geez finally! Someone who's interested in the language hahaha... :D

Well as a native speaker myself, I pretty much agree with what the book is saying. There is no tenses in Indonesian whatsoever so you don't have to worry about verbs changes (esp. irregular ones :shock:). The fact that Indonesian uses Latin letters is another advantage. You esp. don't need to worry about pronounciation because it's so literally easy... Anything is said exactly as it's written, and there is no tricky sound to worry about like other Asian languages. The grammar is quite simple but very organised, esp. when compared with any other Asian language.

About the duration of study... well it depends I reckon.. from a couple of weeks, then months, even years... hahaha depending on the proficiency and fluency. Good luck!
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Postby Alcadras » 2005-10-09, 13:02

no tense ? :shock:
i am starting to learn :D

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Postby Jamie*On » 2005-10-09, 15:50

If it was REALLY very easy (that I could learn it in a few weeks) I'd definately learn it -- I'd like to travel to the South Pacific / SE Asia someday. I'm dreaming of it!

:)

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Postby Jamie*On » 2005-10-09, 15:53

Maybe the best thing for learning would be to post a "crash course" - i.e. first the basics like "it is, I am, the shop is big, the dog is on the floor..." then post some easy texts and we can work through them.

Also - a question about the vocab - I see that bahasa indonesia is obviously from Hindi / Sanskrit (bhaasha = language) so do these Indian loans run through the whole language, if so it should be even easier for me since I'm almost fluent in Hindi.

One last thing, if you're interested in learning Hindi please visit the Hindi forum area, it's really deserted there!

--regards.

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Postby Alcadras » 2005-10-09, 15:56

i might have a look at it if it is really easy.(low possibility) :D

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Postby edsmedia » 2005-10-11, 10:14

I don't think there is any word loaned from Hindi... or probably there's "hardly" any..

About the vocab, please see the vocabulary bank in the Indonesian VSL Forum. Thank you..
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Postby Jamie*On » 2005-10-11, 18:43

I don't think there is any word loaned from Hindi.


It's the Sanskrit influence: (from Wikipedia)

Unlike other loanwords, Sanskrit loanwords have entered the basic vocabulary of Indonesian, so by many these aren't felt as foreign anymore.


They stick out to me as sharp as English words would.[/quote]

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Postby edsmedia » 2005-10-13, 12:38

O-righty then.... I didn't know that Hindi is Sanskirt or its derivation... (is it?)... For sure I'll now say that Indo is also influenced by some Sanskirt words...
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Postby Emilius » 2005-12-28, 7:38

No tenses? :shock:
Then how can you say that you will do something, or that you did something? How can you make a difference between was, is and will be?

Interesting...
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Postby Kirk » 2005-12-28, 11:28

Emilius wrote:No tenses? :shock:
Then how can you say that you will do something, or that you did something? How can you make a difference between was, is and will be?

Interesting...


Just because a language doesn't overtly mark certain things grammatically doesn't mean it can't express those concepts (since all human languages are able to express things like past/future/conditional/counterfactuals) ;) Many of the world's languages don't usually overtly mark tense or plurals, yet those concepts are still readily expressed. Of course those same languages may overtly mark things that Indo European languages don't. For instance, someone whose native language is ergative-absolutive (not present in most IE languages while a few have ergative constructions) might be surprised to find out that (most) IE languages don't mark ergativity yet everyone seems to get along fine :).
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Postby AlmightyMan » 2006-03-09, 6:28

:roll:

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Postby Gemma » 2006-03-22, 13:46

Hey there. i have just joined the group. i am currently studying Indonesian at university and hope to one day become an interpreter or an indonesian teacher.

Continuing on from the discussion you guys were previously having with the fact that indonesian does not contain verb tenses. i find that this makes the language alot easier to learn and understand. To help understand what tense a person is talking in theyt use time constructions such as 'will', 'currently' and 'already'.

indonesian is a great language to learn and i really encourage others to give it a go!! :lol:

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Postby aflm » 2006-07-24, 18:25

edsmedia wrote:Geez finally! Someone who's interested in the language hahaha... :D

Selamat sore! Saya orang Brasil dan...

So am I interested in this language. :)
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Postby annice » 2006-09-22, 12:42

Wow..I find it pretty interesting that there are some people learning indonesian.

so... no tenses, easy pronunciation like japanese language then.. can u imagine that it is very hard for me to learn English?:P saya orang indonesia:P
Using different tenses for a situationm, for example, is driving me nuts. Anyway, I just drop some comments. To me, I often have problems with the tenses and pronunciation when speaking in english. And sometimes it turned into an embarrassing situation. :oops:

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It is TURKISH!! Research proved that!!

Postby Fra » 2006-09-24, 6:35

It is Turkish. Turkish is the easiest for sure. But not necessarily for English speakers, this is for everyone in general. Read this:

A research conducted worldwide has established that Turkish children are the fastest at learning their native language.

The results were released at the International Association for the Study of Child Language’s 10th congress in Berlin, Germany, where it was indicated that Turkish children could speak their native language by the age of 2-3 years in a grammatically correct manner. Linguistics Professor Klann Delius noted that the Turkish language was easy to learn. “Suffixes in Turkish that determine person and tense are regular. Using them is like arranging Lego pieces.” According to the research, it takes 12 years for Arab speaking children, and 4-5 years for German children to acquire the grammatical mastery in their mother tongue. The congress held in Berlin is attended by about 800 linguists from around the world.

To view the full article, visit http://www.lingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=101or go to http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&hn=22321
Last edited by Fra on 2006-09-27, 1:32, edited 1 time in total.

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Postby Alcadras » 2006-09-24, 7:55

That's an interesting article.
In Turkey, turkish children learn to read at the age of 7-8. It takes only a year to learn to read and write.

I learned to read and write at the age of 2. Do not shocked like :shock: .
Whenever I say it to other people, they laugh at me and don't believe. But that's the truth. Even I can't believe it but my mother shows me the proofs. :P
I used to write on walls with pens. :lol: Owing to number plates of cars, I used to try reading them.
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Re: It is TURKISH!! Research proved that!!

Postby Sisyphe » 2006-09-24, 16:31

Fra wrote:It is Turkish. Turkish is the easiest for sure. But not necessarily for English speakers, this is for everyone in general. Read this:

A research conducted worldwide has established that Turkish children are the fastest at learning their native language.

The results were released at the International Association for the Study of Child Language’s 10th congress in Berlin, Germany, where it was indicated that Turkish children could speak their native language by the age of 2-3 years in a grammatically correct manner. Linguistics Professor Klann Delius noted that the Turkish language was easy to learn. “Suffixes in Turkish that determine person and tense are regular. Using them is like arranging Lego pieces.” According to the research, it takes 12 years for Arab speaking children, and 4-5 years for German children to acquire the grammatical mastery in their mother tongue. The congress held in Berlin is attended by about 800 linguists from around the world.

To view the full article, visit http://www.lingforum.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=101 or go to http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&hn=22321


Maybe for native speakers....you've obviously NEVER tried to learn Turkish though - I assure you it is the furthest thing from easy. :shock:
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Postby Fra » 2006-09-27, 1:31

Hey yes, it does not necessarily mean that Turkish is the easiest for speakers of any language. But the the article at http://www.lingforum.com does show that it is the default easiest language. so for example, if u wanna learn a language very different from your own, then, Turkish might be a good choice.

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Postby ego » 2006-09-28, 12:14

Kirk wrote:
Emilius wrote:No tenses? :shock:
Then how can you say that you will do something, or that you did something? How can you make a difference between was, is and will be?

Interesting...


Just because a language doesn't overtly mark certain things grammatically doesn't mean it can't express those concepts (since all human languages are able to express things like past/future/conditional/counterfactuals) ;) Many of the world's languages don't usually overtly mark tense or plurals, yet those concepts are still readily expressed. Of course those same languages may overtly mark things that Indo European languages don't. For instance, someone whose native language is ergative-absolutive (not present in most IE languages while a few have ergative constructions) might be surprised to find out that (most) IE languages don't mark ergativity yet everyone seems to get along fine :).


What's ergativity? :oops:


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