in words

A：People always say that Chinese and English are very hard to learn. Sometimes I wish I were learning French or Japanese. Maybe they'd be easier.
      人们常说汉语和英语是很难学的。有的时候我想要是我学法语或日语就好了。 也许这两种语言容易些。

B：Maybe, but maybe not too. It all depends on what language you already speak.
      可能，不过也可能不太容易。这要看你原来是说什么语言的。

A：Why should that be? What diffrence does it make?
      为什么呢？这有什么关系？

B：Well, languages are more or less equally difficult.Most of the things one language says must be said by every language in some way.
      哦，语言大体上都是同样地难学。一种语言中所说的绝大部分东西，在别的语言中差不多都有。

A：You mean I could learn Chinese easily?
      你的意思是说我学汉语会很容易？

B：No, because your native language is Spanish. But Italian might be easy. It has a lot of words that are similar to words in Spanish. Even the sound systems are more similar than that of Chinese is to Spanish. How difficult a language is to learn depends mostly on how much it resembles your own language.
      不，因为你的母语是西班牙语。所以意大利语可能容易些。它有很多词同西班牙语相似。连它的语音体系也比汉语更接近西班牙语。一种语言是否难学，主要看它在多大程度上同自己的语言相近。

A：Hello, Harry. Where are you off to?
      你好，哈里，你到哪儿去？

B：I'm going home to study my English lesson.
      我回家去温习英语课。

A：English lesson?
      英语课？

B：Yes. I'm trying to learn a little more.I don't always understand what people say, and they don't always understand me.
      是的，我想尽量多学一点。我总是听不懂人家讲的话，别人也听不懂我讲的话。

A：What're you learning about?
      你在学习什么呢？

B：Well. For instance, some words in a sentence are stressed.The time between two of these stressed words is always about the same. No matter how many words there are.This is what makes English sound jerky. First you go very fast, and then perhaps you slow up.
      嗯，例如，在一句话中的有些词是加重语气的,其中两个词间隔的时间总是几乎一样的。不论一句中有多少加重的词,这就使英语的音调显得不平稳。开始你说得很快，后来可能慢下来。

A：Hmmmm. I never noticed that. Give me an example.
      哦，我倒从来没有注意到这点。给我举个例子。

B：Sure, Here's a sentence we memorized for class. "You told me last night not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time."It takes just as long to say"not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time"as it does to say"you told me last night"
      可以。这儿有一句我们在上课时应记住的话："You told me last night not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time。"在说"not to let you argue me out of getting you up on time"这段话的时间就和说"you told me last night"这句话一样长。