15. Easy and Difficult 易學(xué)的和難學(xué)的語(yǔ)言
A: People always say that Chinese and English are very hard to learn. Sometimes I wish I were learning French or Japanese. Maybe they'd be easier.
B: Maybe, but maybe not too. It all depends on what language you already speak.
A: Why should that be? What diffrence does it make?
B: Well, languages are more or less equally difficult. Most of the things one language says must be said by every language in some way.
A: You mean I could learn Chinese easily?
B: No, because your native language is Spanish. But Italian might be easy. It has a lot of words that are similar to words in Spanish. Even the sound systems are more similar than that of Chinese is to Spanish. How difficult a language is to learn depends mostly on how much it resembles your own language.
Notes
Sound system-the total arrangement of the vocal units of a language
Resembles-is like
A：人們常說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)是很難學(xué)的。有的時(shí)候我想要是我學(xué)法語(yǔ)或日語(yǔ)就好了。也許這兩種語(yǔ)言容易些。
B：可能，不過(guò)也可能不太容易。這要看你原來(lái)是說(shuō)什么語(yǔ)言的。
A：為什么呢？這有什么關(guān)系？
B：哦，語(yǔ)言大體上都是同樣地難學(xué)。一種語(yǔ)言中所說(shuō)的絕大部分東西，在別的語(yǔ)言中差不多都有。
A：你的意思是說(shuō)我學(xué)漢語(yǔ)會(huì)很容易？
B：不，因?yàn)槟愕哪刚Z(yǔ)是西班牙語(yǔ)。所以意大利語(yǔ)可能容易些。它有很多詞同西班牙語(yǔ)相似。連它的語(yǔ)音體系也比漢語(yǔ)更接近西班牙語(yǔ)。一種語(yǔ)言是否難學(xué)，主要看它在多大程度上同自己的語(yǔ)言相近。
A: People always say that Chinese and English are very hard to learn. Sometimes I wish I were learning French or Japanese. Maybe they'd be easier.
B: Maybe, but maybe not too. It all depends on what language you already speak.
A: Why should that be? What diffrence does it make?
B: Well, languages are more or less equally difficult. Most of the things one language says must be said by every language in some way.
A: You mean I could learn Chinese easily?
B: No, because your native language is Spanish. But Italian might be easy. It has a lot of words that are similar to words in Spanish. Even the sound systems are more similar than that of Chinese is to Spanish. How difficult a language is to learn depends mostly on how much it resembles your own language.
Notes
Sound system-the total arrangement of the vocal units of a language
Resembles-is like
A：人們常說(shuō)漢語(yǔ)和英語(yǔ)是很難學(xué)的。有的時(shí)候我想要是我學(xué)法語(yǔ)或日語(yǔ)就好了。也許這兩種語(yǔ)言容易些。
B：可能，不過(guò)也可能不太容易。這要看你原來(lái)是說(shuō)什么語(yǔ)言的。
A：為什么呢？這有什么關(guān)系？
B：哦，語(yǔ)言大體上都是同樣地難學(xué)。一種語(yǔ)言中所說(shuō)的絕大部分東西，在別的語(yǔ)言中差不多都有。
A：你的意思是說(shuō)我學(xué)漢語(yǔ)會(huì)很容易？
B：不，因?yàn)槟愕哪刚Z(yǔ)是西班牙語(yǔ)。所以意大利語(yǔ)可能容易些。它有很多詞同西班牙語(yǔ)相似。連它的語(yǔ)音體系也比漢語(yǔ)更接近西班牙語(yǔ)。一種語(yǔ)言是否難學(xué)，主要看它在多大程度上同自己的語(yǔ)言相近。