What do you like and dislike about each language ?

[Maciamo]

The more fluent one becomes in a (foreign) language and the more one can judge what they like/dislike about it.

English

English is my favourite language of expression, because of its richness of vocabulary, flexibility and grammatical convenience (all the useful nuances without the annoying rules), and because it combines the Latin and Germanic cultures. Yet, there are things I dislike about the English vocabulary. For instance, the lack of home-related words compared to French (see Missing words in English).

I find quite primitive and unscientific to have words ending in "-fish" for sea/water creatures that are not fish, like shellfish, crayfish, jellyfih, etc. I also dislike words like 'pineapple' or 'eggplant', because a pineapple is not related to an apple, and 'eggplant' sounds too weird (it's just a word vaguely based on the appearance of an "egg"). Fortunately the latter is only American English.


French

I prefer French to English is formal or business situation because I find it has more "fixed" polite expressions, which makes it easier (like in Japanese). In informal situation or when writing I prefer English though.

What I dislike most about French is the ridiculously irregular grammar ("don't forget the exception to the exception to rule blablabla which applies in this case because of position of the subject in relation to the indirect object" ).

Quite a few French idioms are so metaphorical or old-fashioned that they sound really ridiculous or nonsensical. Of course, English has plenty of metaphorical idioms too, but some French ones are just uniquely ridiculous (while some other are well found indeed). In French, an idiomatic way to say that something happened by chance is to say literally "at the little happiness the chance" (au petit bonheur la chance) - frankly, what's that ! If you want to say that you "enjoy yourself", you can say that you "take your foot" (prendre son pied) in French. It's a very common expresion but I never like it because it is too ridiculous.

[Ma Cherie]

French:

What I like about French is that to me, it's a beautiful language. I like how it sounds when people speak French. I feel that French isn't a difficult language to learn because it has such a limited supply of words. But what I dislike about French are the issues with what's masculine and what's feminine. Even though my French is limited, I think get the general idea of what's considered feminine and masculine. It seems that when talking about a general concept or idea, it seems that's when words are feminine.

English:

I like English because it's my native language. But I, too like English because of the vocabulary. What I don't like about English is that to me, there are times when English doesn't seem all that logical.

[Maciamo]

I was hoping for likes and dislikes going beyond "because it's my native language" or learning issues like remembering which is masculine or feminine. I intentionally refrained from commenting on Dutch, German, Italian, Spanish and Japanese because I didn't feel I had reached a 'native enough' level, or I haven't analysed them enough or used them in all kinds of situation (e.g. business) to really feel what I like or dislike about the language apart from learning issues.

I didn't comment on which language I found more beautiful, because it depends too much on the voice, accent and intonation of the person speaking it. French can be as ugly as it can be beautiful, and the same is true for other languages. French sounds probably best when spoken by "annoucer-like" woman with a warm, sensual voice. I prefer English spoken in a British upper-class and slighlty old-fashioned (late 19th or early 20th century) accent Gender doesn't matter, but older people tend to sound better. German and Italian languages have many regional accents, but I do not know them well enough to pinpoint my favourite one. Japanese sounds best to me when spoken by in a virile "samurai-like" or "yakusa-like" voice.

[Kinsao]

Well, I can only comment about French and English, and I'm not sure that my thoughts would be suitable.

About French:
Gahhhhhhhhhh I can't put my thoughts into words at all! My mind has gone a blank now I'm trying to explain... I'm so bad at this. I can only think to say that there are some things I can express in French better than in English simply because the turn of phrase - could be grammar, word order or particular expressions - just happens to best suit my mood at the time. I can't describe it better than that... ... for example, my lastest journal entry I had to write it in French because I couldn't express what I wanted to say so well in English. Not because of the vocabulary but just the mood of the phrasing.

I'm totally not making any sense...
ahem... moving swiftly on...

About English:
As you say, Mac, it seems there is a bit wider vocabulary, and sometimes I am a little frustrated at trying to translate a particular English word into French and having to settle on something that falls a little short of what I want to express. Again like you, I also like the combination of Latin and Germanic influences, which seem to give a broad range of expression. ^^

Both languages have their grammatical complications, of course. I wouldn't exactly say English is without "annoying rules"! It's true there are lots of irregularities in the French grammar but for some reason they don't bother me all that much, and English has irregularities too. In the same way, the 'nonsensical' phrases don't bother me - probably because I have not so 'logical personality' as you, Mac! :) ........ (I mean, why say "casser les pieds" for "annoy" anyway?! - but I don't really care about it!)

And the sound of languages; well, I think any language can sound nice or horrible depending on the speaker.

Ooo - I find upper-class British accents horribly annoying! I don't just mean as in 'well-spoken' (i.e. like RP), but the true upper-class accent... *winces* >_<

[Ma Cherie]

I find it much easier for a language to have less vocabulary words, well at least at times I do. That's why I like French, because even though there aren't as many words like English, I feel that sometimes there is only one way of to say something. Instead of using complex sentences when there's no need for them. I know how you feel Kinsao, as I'm learning more French I have to resist the urge to translate a paticular word into English.


About Japanese, even though we're only discussing English and French. One reason why I like Japanese is because I like the patterns of syllables are important as the next. Like "konnichiwa" kon-ni-chi-wa. It gives the language a certian rhythm.

[Minty]

I find it much easier for a language to have less vocabulary words, well at least at times I do. That's why I like French, because even though there aren't as many words like English, I feel that sometimes there is only one way of to say something. Instead of using complex sentences when there's no need for them. I know how you feel Kinsao, as I'm learning more French I have to resist the urge to translate a paticular word into English.

Actually French has more vocabularies than English.

Ok, my comments on learning European languages.

English, I hate the irregular grammars, but I like the way English sounds, I think it has beautiful pronunciations.

French, well as you know my first language is Mandarin, Chinese.

So when I first learnt the English language the most challenging things were the tenses because our grammar is easy, but when I get to learn French I think boy it is more difficult than English, it also took a while to get the pronunciations right. I don't know, I find learning French tricky, at the beggining I kept on getting it mixed up with German... I am still learning the language I am not fluent in French.

German, I took it for a year when I was a University student back in Australia. I think the pronunciation is easy because it is very close to English but the grammar is a headache it is more difficult than French grammar in my opinion and the spelling is most difficult to remember their words are so long.

However I liked my German teacher, she used to teach in Malaysia and she was rather nice to me.

I am not fluent in German, but as I live in Strasbourg and we go to Germany to buy things I can understand the products' names in German, and not buy the wrong products. Although there seems to be quite some number of Germans online who speak English but the Germans in the stores we go to in Germany don�ft , some can speak French though...

[Duo]

French is a language with very a very complex grammar structure. I think at times it can be quite enjoyable. I have a love/hate relationship with french. At times i really enjoy speaking it becuase it sounds "chic" and fancy. However, when it comes to grammar i feel like burning the paper im writing on. There are way too many rules and expetions to the rules and expetions to the expetions and so forth.

English is simpler. It's more malluable and moldable. It's straightforward but when used in the right way by the right person it can be sublime. It's easier to give your own personal shape to english than french i would say.

Italian is in my view a more romantic language then french. It's simpler grammar wise and pronounciation wise it lacks the annoying nasal sounds and the "rrrrrrrr" in your throat that french employs.

[Ma Cherie]

I think Italian is another one of those "beautiful" languages, and Spanish, in my opinion.

Oh, and that thing about the "rrrrr" that you make with your throat in French, after learning French for awhile it seems I've gotten use to it. Though it can be rather annoying at times. I used to cough when I first started learning French "r".

[Maciamo]

Duo, you have expressed my exact thoughts in these 3 languages.

Ma Cherie, I don't think anymore that Spanish is such a beautiful language (after learning it). Real Spanish (from Castilla) is too harsh with all those "j" sounds and snake-like "c" and "z" (like in Zaragoza). It is "drier" and lacks the joyful intonation of Italian. It doesn't have the elegance of French, nor the grandeur of English.

[Kinsao]

I recently started learning a bit of Latvian, and it makes me feel very glad that English does not use different cases.

[Dutch Baka]

What I dislike about my language is that foreigners can't pronounce the G, and my wife makes joke about that!

[Maciamo]

What I dislike about my language is that foreigners can't pronounce the G, and my wife makes joke about that!

But what is even funnier is that the Dutch "g" is pronounced in very different ways in the North of the Netherlands (closer to a German "ch" or Spanish "j"), in the South and in Flanders. People in Brugge are said to be almost unable to pronounce "g" so that they cannot even pronounce their city name.

[buruburu69]

English:
I like the sounds and the rythm of the language, the way word are bouncing. I understand why Eminem is not French...Also, It s very easy to convey an idea with a minimum of words.

French:
My native language, many different sounds.
As most of the sounds are "flat", not stressed, to my mind, it is easy to learn orally, (written French is tricky and has been created to torture foreigners!!!), also it is very flexible to play with the tone. Thus you can pronunce a same sentence, according to the sound you say it, the meaning change.

Italian:
sounds sexy and familiar

Spanish:
idem (sexy), but the sound of "j" isn't nice to my ear.I guess it is the same for English native speaker who hear the French "r".

Dutch:
Sounds weird.

German:
Sometime I like the melody of the language. Sometime I think it sounds ridiculous. very long sentence, take your breath...

And I am sorry there is more word in English than French. But don't forget French supplied word to the english language for many century (and vice versa).
But, dont forget!!! French language is supplied by...many many other languages!!!

[Minty]

English:



And I am sorry there is more word in English than French. But don't forget French supplied word to the english language for many century (and vice versa).
But, dont forget!!! French language is supplied by...many many other languages!!!

You mean there are more words in French than English!

Bonjour! Where do you live in France! I live in Strasbourg with my French husband.

[Kinsao]

As most of the sounds are "flat", not stressed, to my mind, it is easy to learn orally, (written French is tricky and has been created to torture foreigners!!!), also it is very flexible to play with the tone. Thus you can pronunce a same sentence, according to the sound you say it, the meaning change.

One of the things that I find, I have to use my brain a bit when I'm writing, but when talking, I find French easier... it seems odd, because usually people find a language easier when reading/writing because you have time to think about what you are going to say, whereas in speaking/listening you are "on the spot", but I find the latter a bit easier in French, because of the flexibility as you say... I can make an indication of my ideas, and get the meaning across, without having to have precise grammar; in fact, even in only a very few words... (and no one in France has ever tried to talk to me in English, so I consider that a positive sign, although maybe it's just that none of them spoke English but I think in the capital at least some would have English skills! )

[Zauriel]

German
Likes: rich morphology, complex sentence constructions, three gendered cases (masculine, neuter and feminine) and distinctions between nominative, genitive, accusative, and dative cases.
Dislikes: confusingly grammatical differences between the dependent clauses and independent clauses or main clauses and subclauses.


English:
Likes: very simple syntax, abundant vocabulary, advanced phonology
Dislikes: No distinction between the singular and plural pronouns of the second person ("You" pronoun is both singular and plural), lack of a genderless third-person pronoun, insufficient verb conjugations of the subjunctive tense, too many irregular verbs, too many irregular plural markers, inadequate morphology, clumsy semantics,


Irregular Plural markers:
mice
children
octopi (plural of octopus)
alumni (plural of alumnus)


Tagalog:
Likes: Its ergative-absolutive cases, genderless pronouns, distinctions between the articles of people and things, ligatures, complex verbs, an unique morphology and an unique phonology.
Dislikes: Limited vocabulary, too many complex verb affixes, prefixes and suffixes, and lack of definite articles in the possessive and indirect object cases.

French
Likes: simple sentence constructions and and how the words are spelled seem romantic,
Dislikes: The way the pronunciation is too different from the spelling.


Italian:
likes: plentiful verb conjugations, four cases (masculine singular, feminine singular, masculine plural, feminine plural), the way it is spelled sounds romantic
Dislikes: Not too strict rules on Italian grammar, limited phonology, too many verb tenses

Japanese:
Likes: unique honorifics in reference to personal relationships,
Dislikes: limited phonology

[Kinsao]

Just thought I'd check in here again to say that I'm starting to learn Hungarian.

Of course, I only know a very few things yet!

So far, I like the pronunciation.. it's quite beautiful and not too hard (beyond actually remembering it, but once you heard/read the instruction, it's ok ^^).
And dislike.. umm.. can I say.. the fact that it has 22 cases? (!!!)

[Mycernius]

I always thought Maltese sounds like Klingon. Odd, eh.

[Crazy Russian]

English. I like the way the language sounds (especially in songs).

French. Sometimes it is rather difficult for me to memorise which French word is masculine and which one is feminine. The reason is that the same word can be masculine in French but feminine in Russian. It drives me crazy. For example, the word table is feminine in French but it is masculine in Russian. Or the word fenetre is feminine in French but it is neuter in Russian. Funny, isn't it? :)

Japanese. It is difficult for me to memorise Japanese words. They sound similar to each other. For example, igaku, kadeki, kuiki, kioku, ugoki, kukaku, etc. Please, advise me how to memorise Japanese words! I am scared!


What is the most terrible thing in the world? Love song in German!


By the way, those who speak English (the English, Americans, etc.) write the pronoun I with a capital letter. We (Russians) write the pronoun so: i.

Those who speak English write the pronoun you with lowercase letter. We write it so: You. Interesting, isn't it? :)



Scientists have discovered the fact that the right brain hemisphere of individuals who think in Russian is much more developed than the right brain hemisphere of individuals who think in English. Plus, the left brain hemisphere of individuals who think in English is much more developed than the left brain hemisphere of individuals who think in Russian.


Left side processes: speech, analysis, time, sequence.

Right side processes: creativity, patterns, spatial awareness, context.


Left side recognises: letters, numbers, words.

Right side recognises: faces, places, objects.


Individuals who are predominately left sided tend to be more verbal, analytical, and problem solvers; while individuals who are predominately right sided tend to be artsy, good with math, and are more visual in nature.

Functions associated with hemispheric dominance include:

Right Hemispheric Functions:

1. Connected to left side of the body.

2. Integrates many inputs at once.

3. Processes information more diffusely and simultaneously.

4. Deals with space.

5. Responsible for gestures, facial movements, and body language.

6. Responsible for relational and mathematical operations.

7. Specializes in recognizing places, faces, objects, and music.

8. Does intuitive and holistic thinking.

9. The seat of passion and dreams.

10. Crucial side for artists, craftsman, and musicians.


Left Hemispheric Functions:

1. Connected to right side of body.

2. Deals with inputs one at a time.

3. Processes information in a linear and sequential manner.

4. Deals with time.

5. Responsible for verbal expression and language.

6. Responsible for invariable and arithmetic operations.

7. Specialises in recognising words and numbers.

8. Does logical and analytical thinking.

9. The seat of reason.

10. Crucial side for wordsmiths and engineers.

[Niedy]

German: my native language... I absolutely hate the sound of typically germany-german... its harsh and nasal and doesn't sound nice... I like austrian german though... not all dialects and definitely not the low-class slang, but my everday standard german...
german can be a very beautiful language... there are loads of words and ways to say something... but never ever read a specialist book if you don't have to... the thing that is nice for literature and stuff becomes a real pest when applied to scientific texts... there seems to be a competition in who makes the longest and hardest to understand (even for natives) sentences... an believe me... in german you are able to make REALLY long sentences... with loads of sub-clauses... grammar might be horrible for learner's... I mean how do you explain why "girl" needs the neutral gender article...

English: learned in school for 9 years... love it to some extent... I love specialists books in english... they usually are quite nice to read... short sentences... not too many foreign words... heaven! ^^ but i sometimes think it lacks beauty in everday use...

French: learned in school for 5 years... Like it, but hated the teacher... I think French is easier when written (I usually am better in writing in any language)... right now, whenever I try to make a French sentence, Japanese pops up... but I'm able to read it... I dislike Parisians... stuck-up folks...

Japanese: LOVE it ;) I study it at university and I pretty much love everything about it... the sound, the sheer endlessness of ways to say stuff, the beauty of the language... the one thing i don't love is the fact, that the verb comes last (and in spoken language often is left out)... there you have a reaaaaaaaaaally long sentence and only when you hear the last word, you are able to understand... that's kinda hard...

Latin: yeah... its dead... otherwise I'd killed it...
Mandarin: just started studying... I think its hard to remember the tones for each and every hanzi... and that they actually sometimes change... but the grammar doesn't seem too difficult (better than japanese, that's for sure)... not sure about the beauty... sometimes I like the sound, sometimes I really hate it... ^^ I don't know about expressing stuff yet... so can't say anything about it

[Belisana]

Ma Cherie, I don't think anymore that Spanish is such a beautiful language (after learning it).

It doesn't really sound like you have a good ear if your liking changes that much from hearing the ponetics to pronouncing it

Real Spanish (from Castilla)

There is not such a thing like real Spanish BUT a somewhat standarized norm of Spanish that you call "from Castilla", and that's hardly even spoken in Castilla as it is.

is too harsh with all those "j" sounds and snake-like "c" and "z" (like in Zaragoza).

Curiously enough, these are the traits that I like most and best about Spanish. The Z somewhat makes it different too. This is an example of why I am fascinated by the Spanish diction:

(well i can't post urls here yet)

It is "drier" and lacks the joyful intonation of Italian.

and that being a Basque trait makes it unique amongst all the rest Romance languages. It's funny that the ups and downs is what I find a bit "annoying" of Italian after hearing for awhile.

It doesn't have the elegance of French, nor the grandeur of English.

Not that elegance is a thing that you can measure at all, but I would find the most harsh language sounding elegant if an elegant person (indeed) is speaking.

About the grandeur, written like that, or greatness... I am afraid that Marx o Freud did not think like you when they learnt Spanish to read The Quixote in original version.

Thanks!

[Michael]

I have 3 native languages, with English they would be 4 fluent ones.

Greek:
My 1st native language, being from Crete, Greece.
what I like about Greek is that it's extensive, very intense and rich with words and grammar, it's old and rich with history, and it carries so much words that even can be evidences of the long Greek history, or generally, the human history, you feel the history of Greece when you hear it or speak it.

What I don't like about it is that Greek has a very limited range of pronunciation, like, NO ACTUAL LETTERS for some common sounds like b,d,g (as in 'game'),h,w. so we have to write like d=nt, b=mp...etc.

Arabic:
My 2nd native language, as I lived in the Holy Lands for 9 years.
What I like about Arabic that it's constucted over 200 years by the most clever Arab minds 100 years before Islam. Being constructed on over 10 different languages such as Hebrew and Egyptian, Arabic is AMAZINGLY rich with vocabulary, and that makes it hard to learn as you hear 20 different expressions and words for the same meaning and all of them are commonly used! And that's why there is NOTHING on the planet you can't express in Arabic. It's grammar is fantastic with a very little range of exceptions, it has a very wide range of pronunciation and over 40 sounds expressed very easily by writing as every letter expresses only one sound.

An example for the Arabic vocabulary:
Water can mean kawthar, maa', mayy and many other words.
the Arabic word ''oud' can mean: wooden stick, perfume, music instrument, the Palestinian Arabic slang for "come back", remaining, a small and thin plastic stick and many other words only God knows.

And what I don't like about it is that it's pronunciation is impossible to nail if the learner was not Arab, for me, I speak it well, but still not like Arabs.
A special muscle was discovered in Arabs is the reason why they can pronounce those sounds.

Hebrew:
Hebrew is my 3rd native laguage which I learned in a UN mission my parents had in Israel when I was 10 years old and since that time we live between Israel and Greece.
It's the main language which Arabic was constructed on (Ancient Hebrew) and Modern Hebrew was consrtucted over Arabic! Weird!
I like it because it's an easier version of Arabic.
I dislike that it's limited in vocabulary and verbs, and 50% of it's words are built up from simplier ones.

English:
It's very simple and feels too modern, poor with vocabulary compared to other languages.
The grammar is very simple which making English very easy to learn and thus it's not interesting to study it's structure and go deep in it.

French:
French is a romantic, sexy language I tried many times to learn and gave up but now I can handle myself in France, but not in every detail.

Spanish:
I studied Spanish when I was in the 7th grade and I enjoyed it, but forgot it all, I think it's the not-really-interesting version of the fabulous Italian!

Italian:
Romantic, sexy, simple, easy. I love Italian.

German:
I liked nothing in German so I like : nothing.
Dislike: All of it.

Latin:
Sounds too ANCIENT!!! and so related to French and Spanish and the most thing Italian.

Turkish:
I liked that Turkish grammar is so easy.
I disliked: the awful pronunciation and the sounds of Turkish, it's very silly and disgusting and most of the times sounds like gibberish.

Russian & Bulgarian:
They both sound like speaking non-sense in non-sense with non-sense so I gave them up on the 1st class and the same day!

I know my words are a little harsh with some languages so I'm sorry to all the native speakers of those languages...

[Maciamo]

English:
It's very simple and feels too modern, poor with vocabulary compared to other languages.

Are you kidding ? English is the world's richest language in terms of vocabulary. There are about 500,000 words. A educated person in a developed country knows only about 20,000 to 30,000 words in their mother tongue. You only need about 5,000 words to be considered fluent in a language.

In comparison, French language, supposedly rich because it is a great literary language and used to be the language of the aristocracy and the diplomacy, only has 70,000 words (that's partly because there are so many dialects and minor languages in France that were excluded from standard French). But I am pretty sure that French has more words than a recent language like modern Hebrew.

The grammar is very simple which making English very easy to learn and thus it's not interesting to study it's structure and go deep in it.

You should read the works of Winston Churchill before claiming that English grammar is simple. English grammar has its complexities. Few other languages have 5 future tenses, 4 forms of conditional, and 6 perfect tenses (past, present, future ; simple or continuous).

What you meant is perhaps that English grammar is easier to learn than most other European languages, because there is less to memorise (almost no conjugation).

Latin:
Sounds too ANCIENT!!! and so related to French and Spanish and the most thing Italian.

That is because it is ancient.

[Marianne]

Are you kidding ? English is the world's richest language in terms of vocabulary. There are about 500,000 words. A educated person in a developed country knows only about 20,000 to 30,000 words in their mother tongue. You only need about 5,000 words to be considered fluent in a language.

I don't quite agree with this. English is only rich because it is influenced by many other languages over the years. English words that are not borrowed by other languages are a lot less than greek/russian/arabic ones.

As for the languages I can speak:

English: I like that its very easy to learn (at least for me), I like the English and Irish accent very much even though my accent is closer to American-Irish (from what i was told by native english speakers). I also find the english grammar way too easy. The vocubulary was never a problem to me cause there are so many greek-origin words.
What i dont like in english is that the way some letters are pronnounced makes no sense. For example the letter e is pronnounced differently in the words egg and return or the letter i : ice and ill, letter a: apple - hate

French: I adore the french accent. I find the french grammar to be closer to the greek one (even though I haven't confirmed this with other people. Its just a feeling i get). I like that it's very similar to other latin-origin languages so it helps me learn those easier.
What i dont like in french is the fact that there is no rule for whether something is male or female. Greek has the same problem and that's what makes it harder for me, cause one word can be male in french and female in greek etc.

German: I like the fact that in the past (when i couldn't speak a word in german) I could partially understand it because of the similarities with english and greek.
I don't like the German accent and I think the grammar rules are not the easiest..

Spanish: I recently started learning spanish but I like the fact that its so easy in grammar and vocabulary (I guess it helps a lot that i can speak French very well). I dont like the way some words are pronnounced and sometimes i get the feeling that people speaking spanish talk superfast.

Japanese: Just started learning but I love it. I love japanese culture in general and i guess this makes me like the language very much. I love the way japanese sounds but I dont like that many words are sooo similar to each other. Makes it harder to learn..

Greek: my native language. I love it cause of the fact that everything has a reason to be called the way it is called, it's not random, if you analyse the etymology of greek words you will see what i mean. I like the fact that it has influenced so many western european languages that I can find words with greek roots everytime I read or listen to english/french/german/spanish/italian ( http://www.godimitris.gr/a13_en.php ). Although I don't like the greek accent. I prefer a lot more the ancient greek accent that the modern one. Nowadays, the way words sound is a lot more simplified, while in the past it sounded like music...

[Maciamo]

I don't quite agree with this. English is only rich because it is influenced by many other languages over the years. English words that are not borrowed by other languages are a lot less than greek/russian/arabic ones.

It's true that English borrowed a lot, but this is also why it is so rich. English is a hybrid language created on the merger of Old French (itself a variant of Latin with a lot of borrowing from Greek and some from Gaulish Celt), Old English (aka Anglo-Saxon) and Old Norse (through the Vikings of the Danelaw).

You can attest of this diversity in this post. If you have learnt French or another Romance language, it is fairly easy to tell Germanic words from Latin ones in English. But unless you are well-versed in Germanic linguistic, you may not realise that even Germanic words have multiple origins. For example, "house" comes from Old Norse, but "home" from Anglo-Saxon. They originally meant the same, but "home" has come to be used differently with time (in a way not found in most languages, in such expressions as "home-sick", "home sweet home", "home alone", or "go home").

Another reason for the richness of English is that it is very flexible and new words can be coin quite easily (e.g. I have been googling). Many new terms in sciences, technologies or lifestyle also appeared first in English because of the importance of English speaking countries in the 19th and 20th centuries. Pretty much every terms specific to computering, aviation, aerospace, or recent genetics (e.g. haplogroup, genomics, introns), for instance, first appeared in English. Even words that sound Greek and are built on Greek roots, are in fact English (e.g. telephone, technocracy, heterozygosity, meiosis), because that is the language in which they were coined and first used.

A third factor is the diversity of regional English. No other language on Earth has ever been spoken (by native speakers) on such a geographic scale as English. British English is already varied enough - especially the hybridised Gaelic version that are Scottish and Welsh English. Add to that Irish English, American English, South African English, Indian English, Singaporian English, Australian English... not just with their regional terms and expressions, but all their slang too. No language has more regional and slang terms than English.

What i dont like in french is the fact that there is no rule for whether something is male or female.

This is not entirely true. Genders in French are inherited from Latin, and will 99% of the time be the same in Italian. So if you have learnt Italian and don't know if a French word is masculine or feminine, think about the Italian equivalent, which gender you can determine with the final vowel (o = masculine, a = feminine). For example, if you wonder whether oiseau is masculine or feminine, the Italian is uccello, so it is masculine in French too. You still need to know the gender of Italian words in -e, which can be either. But at least you won't mistake for about 80% of the words.

I love the way japanese sounds but I dont like that many words are sooo similar to each other. Makes it harder to learn..

I agree. I am often irritated by the excess of homonyms in Japanese. It's good for puns though.

Greek: my native language. I love it cause of the fact that everything has a reason to be called the way it is called, it's not random, if you analyse the etymology of greek words you will see what i mean.

That is also the case in German, for the most part.