We often hear people say that English is an “easy” language — a quick win for travellers, workers and students alike.
And in some ways, that perception isn’t entirely wrong.
Walk into our Academy and you’ll see it: newcomers can become functional in English incredibly quickly.
Without memorising gendered nouns, declensions or six-form verb tables, students can start communicating within weeks.
But is English really easy?
Or is there something more interesting at play — something about how languages are taught and learned from childhood onward?
This is where the story becomes fascinating.
The English Paradox: Easy to Start, Hard to Finish
Compared with many European languages, English does offer early rewards:
× No masculine/feminine/neuter noun systems
× One “you” instead of tu/vous, du/Sie
× Minimal verb endings
× Adjectives that never change form
For a learner, these are huge reliefs!
You don’t have to learn dozens of endings before you can say a sentence.
You can communicate quickly, imperfectly — and be understood.
It’s no wonder English conquered the world as the international language of tourism, diplomacy, business and science.
It lets non-natives operate swiftly.
But here is the twist.
After twenty-three years running a language Aademy and learning English myself, I see the same pattern again and again:
➡︎ English is easy to begin, but hard to master.
Once daily communication is “fine,” learners suddenly meet:
- irregular verbs
- vast vocabulary
- unpredictable pronunciation
- phrasal verbs
- subtle register
- implied meaning
The plateau between “getting by” and speaking well is steep — and emotionally demanding.
So perhaps English is not quite the lazy language after all.
It only pretends to be easy… until it isn’t.
Now let’s flip the lens.
People often ask:
“Why do so few English native speakers speak another language well?”
Yes, English as a global lingua franca makes learning a second language feel unnecessary — but that isn’t the whole story.
There is something deeper:
The way English people are taught their own language.
➡︎ Different Countries Teach Their Mother Tongue Differently — and It Changes Everything
I grew up in France.
At eight or nine years old I was memorising verb tables, analysing sentences, and learning conjugation rules — not in English class, but for my own language.
Grammar was unavoidable, explicit, layered and rigorously assessed.
French children internalise language through structure.
Contrast that with the typical English education experience:
- creative writing
- literature
- narrative expression
- intuitive use before analysis
English speakers are encouraged to use their language, but rarely to dissect it.
So when they encounter a foreign language as adults, they are taken aback by how rule-based everything suddenly is.
It isn’t only the new foreign words that puzzle them.
It is the fact that someone is asking them to learn grammar — explicitly — perhaps for the first time.
Meanwhile, immigrants from Europe, Latin America or Asia have often grown up parsing grammar since childhood.
They may find English vocabulary difficult, but the logic of learning grammar isn’t unfamiliar to them.
In Other Words:
How we learn our first language shapes how we learn every language thereafter.
- If your schooling taught you grammar early, you expect rules.
- If your schooling prioritised creativity and intuition, explicit grammar feels alien.
The difficulty, therefore, isn’t just linguistic — it’s cognitive and pedagogical.
So What Does This Mean for Adult Learners?
It means languages are challenging (but fascinating!) in different ways.
- French or German look harder early because they demand accuracy from day one.
- English looks easier initially but hides enormous complexity later.
Most people experience both truths:
➡︎ Quick wins at the start.
➡︎ Hard graft in pursuit of real fluency.
At VICI, we see this progression daily.
Learners arrive thinking English will be simple.
Later, they discover the real challenge is mastering:
- nuance
- tone
- cultural meaning
- idiomatic expression
And that is precisely where skilled teaching transforms outcomes.
Language Learning Isn’t Just About Capability — It’s About Conditioning
A French speaker learning English isn’t necessarily “smarter” than an English speaker learning French.
They are simply conditioned differently.
- One expects rules.
- The other expects flow.
Understanding this — as teachers, coaches, learners, or parents — changes everything:
- It removes shame (“Why am I finding this hard?”)
- It explains plateaus (“You’re hitting the invisible complexity now.”)
- It reframes expectations (“Ease first, difficulty later.”)
And it reminds us that language learning is always cultural, psychological and personal — never purely grammatical.
This Why I Still Love My Job After 23 Years!
Every learner arrives with assumptions shaped long before they enter the classroom.
My role — our role as educators — is to help them:
understand how they learn
notice where their expectations mislead them
navigate the “hidden” stages
and ultimately grow into genuinely confident speakers
Yes, language has structure.
But language learning is a human experience.
It reveals how we think, how we were taught, and how we adapt.
And that, for me, is endlessly fascinating.