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Welcome to the A to Z English Podcast.
My name is Jack, and today I have a special solo episode for you.
And the topic today is why people hate English?
There are a lot of reasons why people hate the fact that they have to learn English
or get frustrated while learning English.
I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the reasons why people don't want to learn English.
Even those that are learning English right now are feeling desperate or frustrated
because they feel like they must do it.
So let's take a look at some of the reasons why students hate learning English.
The first one is that English has a very complex grammar and spelling.
So, English has many irregular rules and exceptions in its grammar and spelling,
making it difficult to learn and master.
For example, words like knight and knight, K-N-I-G-H-T,
and N-I-G-H-T sound the same, but they're spelled differently.
And the verb conjugations can be inconsistent in English as well.
We have a lot of irregular verbs, right?
Go went, see saw, do did.
Number two, another reason that people hate English is that it has a colonial history.
So, English is often associated with British colonialism.
In countries that were colonized,
English might be seen as a symbol of oppression and cultural erasure.
So, this can contribute to negative feelings towards the language,
right? The colonial history of the British Empire.
Number three, English has a global dominance.
So, the fact that English is a global language can sometimes feel overpowering.
In international settings, non-native speakers might feel pressured to learn English,
which can lead to resentment, especially if they feel their own languages and cultures
are being overshadowed by the English language.
Number four, another reason, cultural imposition.
The dominance of English language media, movies, music, literature can sometimes be seen as a
form of cultural imperialism, pushing Western values onto other countries or other cultures.
The educational challenges is number five.
In some educational systems, English is taught in a way that feels overly strict and punitive.
So, students might feel like English is a real burden. English classes are a real burden in school
because they're taught in a very strict way.
Like, you must memorize this list of words.
You must memorize this grammar.
And there are no speaking opportunities for the students.
So, students might struggle with the language due to the teaching methods
that do not accommodate different learning styles.
Number six, pronunciation difficulties.
English pronunciation can be challenging for non-native speakers.
The same letter combinations can be pronounced differently in various words,
leading to confusion and frustration.
For example, the word read is spelled the same in the past tense,
but the pronunciation of read in the past is red.
And the past participle is also red.
So, read red red, but the spelling is RED, RED and RED.
This can be very, very frustrating for students.
Number seven, language pride.
People may feel a strong sense of pride in their native language
and view the necessity of learning English as undermining their own language and language identity
or even their cultural identity.
And number eight is the social and economic inequality.
In some societies, fluency in English can be a marker of social status
and economic opportunity.
It can create a divide between those who have access to quality English education
and those who do not and it can foster resentment among those who feel disadvantaged.
So those who don't have access to English good English education might feel a little bit of anger
towards the wealthier in the country, the wealthier people who have access to better teachers
and better English education or international schools, things like that.
But I want to dig into the language structure because I think this is where people get the most
frustrated and really start to hate English.
English has many irregular verbs that do not follow standard patterns.
For instance, go becomes went in the past tense instead of goad.
So there's an interesting one, right?
Do changes to did in the past tense instead of dood.
This requires memorization of many unique forms which can be very challenging for students.
English has many inconsistent spelling rules.
The relationship between spelling and pronunciation in English is often very inconsistent.
For example, words with an OUGH ending as in Do or through.
Okay, different pronunciation, Do, through and then rough and cough.
So those are all OUGH, OUGH, OUGH, OUGH, OUGH, OUGH, but it's four different sounds. Do,
through, rough and cough. They're all pronounced differently in each word.
English has words borrowed from other languages that retain their original spellings.
For example, ballet from French. B-A-L-L-E-T. We don't say ballet. We say ballet.
A-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L-A-L
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your success. Creating for students English uses articles on or the and determiners such as
some and any that do not exist in all languages requiring learners to understand their proper usage.
The definite article the and the indefinite articles uh in un are used based on specific grammatical
rules that can be confusing. When do you use the when do you use ah and when do you use on?
There's some sentence structure variability in English. English allows for flexible sentence
structures but also has specific rules about word order. Subject verb object is the standard
and questions and negatives require helping verbs like do do you like? I do not like or in the
positive I like. There's no I do like you just say I like. This can be very frustrating and very
difficult for students to understand. English has many prepositions. English prepositions can be
tricky because their use often does not follow a logical pattern and they must be memorized
list. I'm interested in something. I'm good at something. I'm afraid of something.
Pronunciation challenges include vowel sounds. English has a large number of vowel sounds about 20
which are combinations of um sorry which have combinations of vowel sounds in the same syllable.
So we have some that use two vowel sounds which are called dipthongs or just one vowel sound which
are called monopthongs. For example the I in bit is different from the I in bite which has two
vowel sounds. I eat bite. So very difficult to to master that. It's very difficult to master that.
English has consonant clusters so English frequently uses consonant clusters which are multiple
consonants together which can be difficult for speakers of languages that do not use them.
Words like strengths NGTHS or 12th LFTH are challenging due to their complex clusters.
Stress and intonation is difficult in English. English is a stressed time to language meaning
that the rhythm of speech is based on the stress of syllables rather than a syllable count.
And sentence meaning can be changed based on intonation and stress patterns.
For example I didn't say he stole the money can have different meanings depending on which word is stressed.
I didn't say he stole the money. And there are homophones and homographs.
Homophones are words that sound the same but have different meanings and spellings. For example
2, 2 and 2. T-W-O-T-O-O. Homographs are words that are spelled the same but have different meanings.
And sometimes different pronunciations. Lead is into guide and lead as in metal.
They are spelled the same. Lead lead lead lead.
There are silent letters in English. Many English words contain silent letters that are not pronounced
as in the K in knight K N I G H T or B in debt D E B T debt.
The inconsistency adds to the difficulty of spelling and pronunciation.
Examples of these difficulties. The chaos of English pronunciation. A classic is the example is
the poem the chaos by Gerard Nostranit which illustrates the inconsistencies and complexities in
English pronunciation. And minimal pairs words that differ by only a single sound can change the
meanings entirely. Ship, sheep, bat, pat, bat, pat. These irregularities and inconsistencies in
English grammar, spelling and pronunciation contribute significantly to the difficulty of
learning the language. Understanding these challenges can help educators develop more effective
teaching methods and learners to be more patient with their progress.
So I think it's a good thing that we talked about this today because I think addressing this
issue head on is a good one. Sometimes you are going to hate English. It is going to be a very
frustrating journey. But if you hang in there and you just keep working at it, you will make
progress. You will make progress. And so that's my plea to you is even though sometimes you have a
feeling of just strong hatred towards English, I want you to not give up. I want you to keep working,
keep fighting because there's something special about learning another language that is very
beneficial, I think, to you. And whether we like it or not, English has become a global language.
It's a way we communicate with other cultures with different languages. It's a, what we call
a lingua franca, an international language. And so I think English will benefit you even though
you have some very valid reasons for hating it. But try to put that hatred aside and keep making
progress and continuing on with your language journey. All right, thanks everybody. That's
today's episode. If you would like to listen to the podcast on our website, you can go to
aidesenglishpodcast.com. You can also send us an email at aidesenglishpodcast.com.
If you want to become an exclusive subscriber for $10 a month, you'll get access to our exclusive
WhatsApp group and our exclusive WeChat group, where we will record a special episode for you each
week. And with that said, we will see you next time. Thanks everybody. Bye bye.
