Why learning English is so difficult.

0:00I have to be honest I'm a native English

0:02speaker I teach English and I firmly

0:07believe that the English language can be

0:10really really stupid and I know that

0:13sounds harsh but let me

0:16explain if you're learning English and

0:19you find the English language difficult

0:21you find that sometimes it doesn't make

0:23any sense you're confused you're

0:26frustrated then I want to tell you that

0:30there's a good chance the problem is not

0:33you because the English language is

0:36difficult it can be really confusing and

0:39honestly it can be stupid there are

0:41times when things just don't make sense

0:44so in today's video I'm going to talk to

0:47you about why English can be so

0:50difficult and I also want to give you

0:53some good news so stay till the end of

0:55the video because I'm going to give you

0:57some good news which will hopefully help

1:00motivate you and encourage you to learn

1:04English now one thing that happens when

1:08students first start learning

1:11English maybe you can relate to this

1:13maybe this is something that happened to

1:14you

1:15too but a lot of students find English

1:19easy at the

1:20beginning they find it simple they find

1:23it not as complicated as some other

1:26languages and this is true at the

1:30beginning English is actually quite

1:32basic we only have one definite article

1:37we don't have any gender we don't have

1:39masculine or feminine nouns we have one

1:43word we have the one word for everything

1:47the and the simple

1:49tenses in English not the complicated

1:52tenses which you learn later but the

1:54basic tenses like the present simple

1:56past simple they're simple

2:00I did you did he did we did they did

2:04it's all the same and a lot of

2:08languages at the beginning you have to

2:10memorize a lot when you get more

2:12advanced in English so maybe you get to

2:15the B2 or the C1 level you start to

2:18realize that things get a lot more

2:21difficult and this is where the

2:23challenge begins it seems like every

2:27rule you've learned in the past has an

2:30exception so you have to relearn things

2:33you have to learn them again and this is

2:37one of the difficult things about

2:39English it's a bit deceiving because at

2:41the beginning it seems to be quite easy

2:44but the more advanced you get the more

2:47you realize that oh there's a lot more

2:51to this language than I expected now one

2:54of the most difficult things about

2:56English is spelling and pronunciation

3:00and

3:02unfortunately English can be really

3:04really challenging when it comes to

3:07these two areas now whenever you learn a

3:11new

3:12word it's not enough just to learn the

3:15word because if you look at a word it's

3:18impossible to know the pronunciation

3:21just by looking at the spelling because

3:23there are so many different ways of

3:25pronouncing things in English you

3:28actually need to learn the pron iation

3:30at the same

3:31time you learn the word so whenever you

3:35learn a new word go to Google go to Bing

3:39go to any of these translation sites

3:41type the word in and then press the play

3:45button there's always a play button so

3:47you can actually hear how the word is

3:49pronounced so you're not only learning

3:52the word you're not only learning the

3:53definition but you're also learning the

3:56pronunciation at the same time it's

3:59really going to save you a lot of time

4:01and a lot of effort so you don't have to

4:03go back and learn the pronunciation

4:06again so whenever you learn something

4:08new you learn a new word you learn a new

4:11phrase always look up the pronunciation

4:14and learn the correct pronunciation at

4:16the same time now why is English

4:18spelling and pronunciation so

4:21complicated and confusing well there's

4:23actually a historical reason for this so

4:27500 years ago in the past

4:30We spelled words similarly to the way we

4:34do today but we pronounced them

4:37completely differently and what happened

4:40and this is completely normal this is

4:42completely natural is we changed our

4:45pronounciation over the

4:47years but we changed our

4:50pronunciation and not our spelling so

4:53our spelling is like this

4:55oldfashioned

4:57reflection of

5:00iation but our pronunciation is now

5:03modern so there's this gap between

5:06pronunciation and spelling today and

5:09that's why English can be so difficult

5:13because we haven't updated our spelling

5:16a lot of languages have but English has

5:19never done this and it's one of the

5:21things that I don't like about the

5:23language now as I mentioned earlier it's

5:26also true that every rule in English has

5:29an ception and this is something that

5:32can be very

5:33frustrating because the only way to

5:35learn these exceptions is to memorize

5:38them to learn them individually and to

5:41memorize them so as you get more

5:44advanced in English you will have to

5:47spend a lot of time memorizing rules but

5:50also exceptions memorizing spelling

5:53memorizing

5:55pronunciation memorizing tenses

5:58irregular verbs all that

6:00stuff now I mentioned earlier that I did

6:03have some good news so yes it can be

6:06very very confusing it can be

6:07frustrating to learn all these rules to

6:09learn all these

6:11exceptions but the good news is that as

6:15I said

6:16before basic English is relatively

6:19simple you don't need to speak perfectly

6:22to express your ideas and to get your

6:25thoughts across to the other person now

6:27if you've watched my other videos or

6:29maybe you're a student of mine you'll

6:31know that I often say that the purpose

6:35of language is not

6:37Perfection it's

6:39communication so when you speak when you

6:42learn a language your priority needs to

6:45be

6:47communicating getting your ideas to the

6:49other person and you can do this without

6:52being perfect it's okay to make mistakes

6:57everybody makes mistakes even native

7:00speakers so don't wait to start speaking

7:04don't wait until some magical moment

7:07where suddenly you're going to be

7:08perfect or suddenly you're going to be

7:11able to speak without making any

7:13mistakes cuz that's never going to

7:15happen it's it's

7:18impossible you will make mistakes but

7:21there's nothing wrong with

7:22that now that's not to say that you

7:26shouldn't improve your spelling that you

7:28shouldn't improve Pro your pronunciation

7:30your grammar or that you shouldn't learn

7:33these rules and these

7:35exceptions because you absolutely should

7:38and honestly you need to if you want to

7:40become truly fluent if you want to

7:43improve your writing if you want to

7:44improve your English

7:47generally but that shouldn't stop you

7:52from communicating right now that

7:55shouldn't stop you from expressing

7:58yourself and expressing your ideas in

8:01English ideally you should be

8:03communicating in English every day you

8:06should be speaking you should be writing

8:08you should be doing something productive

8:11in English and at the same time not

8:15instead of speaking but at the same time

8:19simultaneously you should also be

8:21working to improve your spelling your

8:24pronunciation your

8:26grammar learning the rules learning the

8:29exception

8:30at the same time not instead or not

8:34replacing speaking it's something that

8:37should happen at the same time and

8:40that's the important thing that's the

8:42thing that I want you to take away from

8:44this video yes English can be difficult

8:48English can be stupid and I think it is

8:51stupid sometimes but

8:53unfortunately that's just the way it is

8:56there's no getting around that and as I

9:00said the good

9:01news is that you can still use the

9:05language you can still speak you can

9:06still

9:08communicate even if you don't speak

9:11perfectly even if you don't have perfect

9:13spelling even if you don't have perfect

9:17pronunciation eventually the more you

9:20practice the more you speak the more you

9:22study the rules the more you study these

9:25exceptions the better your English will

9:27become the more confident you will feel

9:30but it's a journey it's a process it's

9:33not something that happens overnight so

9:37start speaking English today not next

9:40week not next month but today learn the

9:44rules yes learn the

9:46exceptions but don't focus on

9:49them focus on speaking anyways that's it

9:52for today's video if you made it this

9:54far and you found the lesson useful make

9:56sure to leave a like and let me know in

9:58the comments what you find most

10:01difficult about English and so you don't

10:04miss any future lessons from me don't

10:06forget to subscribe to English at the

10:08ready here on YouTube and you can also

10:11check out the link in the description

10:13below to learn more about how I can help

10:16you improve your English hope you have a

10:18wonderful day and I'll see you in the

10:20next lesson