The Possible Reasons for the Differences in the Acquisition of Second Foreign Languages

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Many people in Asia such as Taiwan may consider English a difficult language to learn; however, they may see Japanese as an easier language to learn. People in Europe such as German tend to regard English as a fairly easy language to acquire; nevertheless, Chinese may be referred to as one of the most difficult languages for them. What are the possible causes of these kinds of tendency? In my opinion, the most significant contributing factors are: characteristics of the first language, environment, learners’ attitude. The characteristics of one’s first language usually play a quite important role in the very first place. Take, German and English, for instance, they come from the same “language family “, which means some they somehow share some similar language structures. And generally speaking, German has a much more sophisticated language structures than English does. Therefore, it’s easy to understand why average German people can usually learn English well quickly. However, language sometimes will “fight against” each other just like Japanese and English. It’s never easy for an average native Japanese speaker to utter English words without carrying Japanese accent. However, the inborn knowledge like first language acquisition is not the only factors to affect one’s learning conditions of other languages. Sometimes, it also has something to do with the things and people around language learners. If people keep themselves exposed to a kind of language input for a long time, it may become easy for them to break the “natural boundary” of first language and learn the target language well. For instance, if a Japanese has lived in America for more than twenty years, he or she may be able to speak standard English. But the most important thing in learning a new language is always the learners’ attitude. An old saying goes “Attitude matters.” In my opinion, that’s the

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