In the present tense it is true that can be harder to conjugate English than other languages.

However in the future tense of course English is much easier than many other languages. Ie you just put will between the person and verb I will run, he will run etc.
However in Spanish it is
correre
correras
correra
correremos
correreis (I think that it correct for vosotros).
correran

And of course there are many irregular verbs in Spanish eg caber.
By the way does anyone know a language which has a past tense equivalent of will ?

All I can say is that if English were *not* my native language, I'd never be able to learn it. The fact is that there is (essentially) zero consistency. Try this on for size: The lesson today is how to pronounce the letters "ou". Say the following words out loud, and explain what the rule(s) are regarding how it sounds. Good luck, you have 2 hours.

1. Our = "ow-rr"
2. Your = "yor"
3. Cough = "kawf"
4. Tough = "tuff"
5. Though = "tho"
6. Thought = "thawt"
7. Would = "wood"
8. Mouse = "mow-ss"
9. Through = "throo"
10. Coupon = "koopon" or "kewpon"
11. Pronounciation = "pro-nun-see-a-shun"
12. Pronounce = "pro-now-suh"

Gaah!!! I'd give up! -- J.W.

Australia is in the process of changing its rules and here in Western Australia students will soon have to learn a second language. I have mixed feelings about that, mainly the way it is to be implemented.

floppy

We really don't thought about details, it was just fun.

It's absolutely sure that Russian is harder than English. There are so many things to learn,
grammar and expression is partial "unlogicaly" (at least for me as a German). There are 6 different cases and you have to learn loads of suffixes and so on. That makes Russian even harder to learn than English.
Addiotionally both the German and the English language have the same root. Russian is completely different.
So i just can speak for a native German speaker. If i came from Poland, Russian would probably be easier for me to learn, of course.

At our school we can learn English, Russian, Spanish, French and Latin. We have to choose of Russian and French at 7th grade. Since 9th grade we can (but don't have to) choose a 3rd language (Spanish or Latin). I've decided not to learn a additional language at school because I'm learning Japanese in my spare time.

You're absolutely right. It is really hard to pronounce the words in the "right" way for non native speakers.
And at my school i have also the problem that we are teached "British English". But normally (in the internet, TV, games and so on) i only get in contact with american English. As long as it is about text there are no big problems, because there are only a few words that are different from British to American English. But also the pronounciation differs - and that's really hard. You never know if something is right, but I guess it's normal that the pronounciation is different from countrie to countrie or region to region. It's the same in my language, a normal person from Berlin, for example, usually hardly understand any word of a person who comes from Bavaria, Munich (you know, these guys with Beer and leather shorts (in German: Lederhosen)).

In Texas I know that no foreign languages are required. They were barely encouraged while I was attending. I took French for two years, but never got enough out of it to hold a conversation, although I did get to the point where I could read a lot of it if I stared long enough(not anymore though). I'm in southeast texas near the border of Louisiana(where I grew up), so I guess the school system believes that English, Redneck, and optional Cajun rambling are good enough.

That should be "thinks", it's 3rd person.
There is a comma missing, should be: "R: Of course, Mk. K.
This is right as far as I can see. However, just "You're kidding!" sounds better to me. Just my 2 cents :-)

The rest should fit :-)

I'm no native english speaker. In fact, I'm also native german , but writing english not to leave the other readers out of knowledge :-)

You're creative, this is an interesting project. Your conclusion (nothing possible to change) is absolutely right. But just think five minutes if it's worth doing - bashing teachers is fun, but your school grades are your starting point into after-school life. Don't mess them up, this will cause a load of problems in your life. I know that your teacher is wrong, you know, but he gives the marks. And neither me nor you do this.

If you want to discuss this, drop me an eMail (Language choice depends on you :-).

Greetings and good luck,

Seppel

PS: I'm 22, so not that far out of school :-)

It was really not only fun, for me it was a matter of courage. Giving bad marks for creativity is wrong! Shall we all only speak frozen English and do earnest dialogues because we are expected to do so? I believe this would be exactly the right path to boredom. And school itself is boring enough. Furthermore the sense of language is not only pointless transmitting of information - it's kind of art, i think. ^^

Maybe the world is simply unjust.

The world is unjust. This one is proven. Thumbs up for the courage. Full ack to your statement about marks and creativity. Of course we're not to speak only frozen and earnest at all, but you need to distinguish between the right and the wrong situation to do. If your english teacher wants you to speak earnest and frozen english, this is one to do so. It's not a path to boredom - it's high art to create poems with frozen, earnest english that are expressing feelings, for example. Oh, your last sentence is also about the art of language - I think we agree completely here :-)

Greetings,

Seppel

PS: It would be interesting to hear more about the "weird" topic the group with 11 pts hat in their presentation. Could you eventually even post the text of this presentation for us here (acknowledge of the writers included, of couse)?