English versus Hindi

The last time I began learning a new language, I was five years old. French. Twenty years later, now steeped in Hindi, I can appreciate how difficult it is to think and articulate in a "nayi bhasha." That's Hindi for new language.

Hindi is super difficult. Among other things, the word order is completely different from that of English. Consider the sentence: "Did I put a bottle of water on your desk yesterday?" In Hindi, the construction is: "Question-word yesterday I your desk on water's bottle put?" What?!

But I can think of two reasons why English is tougher. The first is spelling. In English, spelling is just plain hard. It's why National Spelling Bee Champion Rebecca Sealfon got so excited. The spelling of many words (e.g., cousin, mighty, ghoul, numb) simply must be memorized. Hindi is highly phonetic. One letter per sound. Phew.

The second is irregulars. People Who Created English, was it really necessary to have so many irregular verbs, superlatives, and plurals? Wouldn't it be easier if "the goodest childs buyed mouses" didn't sound ridiculous? (Read as: The best children bought mice.)

As my Hindi instructor would say, "So much difficulty in English is there." It doesn't make learning Hindi any less taxing, but it's comforting knowing that I've got the tougher of the two in the bag.

Translation: I will learn Hindi no matter what.

Translation: No one drinks more tea than James.

Translation: An ocean fills drop by drop.