English: The Easy Language?

Some say that English is an easy language to learn - and in some ways it is, as it retained little of the elaborate system of declensions and conjugations that some related languages have.

So maybe it’s an easy language to learn and to begin communicating in. But what about the next step: mastery, communicating with confidence? There are a number of barriers to this: complex syntax, a huge array of compound tenses, highly irregular pronunciation, a large number of phonemes compared to many other languages, multiple word origins and borrowings resulting in a massive vocabulary.

Easy language? Maybe not. Perhaps you need help to master it?