This list is just some examples of interesting english idiosyncracies and no way demonstrates how difficult or otherwise it is to learn the language.
The whole ghoti/fish thing is a 19th century gag and in no way represents the stand alone sounds created by the letters. to call it even amusing is a stretch IMO.
I live in a russian speaking country and russian is way harder than english: gender specific verbs for example.
The fact of the matter is that most native english speakers can't spell or punctuate correctly, use pretty limited vocabularies, and couldn't effectively analyse a text.
Basic english is easier than basic russian, the turkic languages, and the majority of asian languages. According to our language acqisition speacialists at work, conversational english usually takes between 1-3 years to master, academic english to high school level up to 6 years. Expecting non native speakers to ever master it in an accent free manner is a stretch.
