An English Lesson

Years ago I saw a deal on TV about exchange students coming into the US. Part of the program required each student to speak fluent, or near fluent English.

They spoke with several students about various things. One student said that English was "very easy to learn".

He happen to be from China where the standard alphabet contains like 9,000 characters.
No wonder English seemed easy to learn. No wonder the Chinese are stereotypes for the smartest in the wolrd. If our alphabet contained even 12 more characters, I bet we'd be a lot smarter as a whole.

I think English would be very difficult to learn and here's why:

When are we going?
I will win the game.

I have read the book.
The book cover is red.
I will read the book.

See? there are tons and tons of words that look the same but sound different. Likewise, there are just as many that sound and look the same but mean different things.

Who started all this anyway?

We have abbreviations because we are a lazy people:

Do not Don't
Will not Won't

Isn't that confusing?

When I took Spanish in high school, it came very easy to me. I just never stuck with it and have since forgotten what I've learned. But it was easy! Conjugating verbs made all the sense in the world!

I cannot understand how someone can say English is "easy".