"The English language is the easiest language to learn.
You should try learning Mandarin if you think English is hard." ................... In a moment of madness many years ago I did a Mandarin course.
The Chinese teacher said that English was easy to start to learn because of the alphabet and semi phonetic nature of English. Beyond that, English is very hard to master because of its flexibility. She also said that mandarin, on the other hand is hard to start because of the tonal aspects, and the characters. After that it is easy because it is quite rigid in word order and grammar.
