# He is a poor learner



## Encolpius

I do not want the literal translation of that sentence. In some languages (Hungarian, German?, Czech, All Slavic?) the verb learn can collocate with an adverb, namely "badly". I wonder if you also use the* "learn + badly"* pattern? Thanks. 

*Hungarian*: Rosszul tanul. [rosszul (badly) + tanul (learns)]
*Czech*: Špatně se učí. [špatně (badly) + se učí (learns)]
*German*: Er lernt schlecht. ??


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## sakvaka

We do in *Finnish*. _Hän oppii huonosti. _(= Hän on huono oppija)


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## apmoy70

In Greek, "learner" is a participle: «μαθητευόμενος/maθite'vomenos (_m._)-μαθητευόμενη/maθite'vomeni (_f._)-μαθητευόμενο/maθite'vomeno (_n._)».
However, in the above example you've given, it sounds more natural in Greek, to use the noun «μαθητής» (maθi'tis, _m._-->pupil) instead of the participle.
I'd translate the phrase as:
«Είναι κακός μαθητής» ('ine ka'kos maθi'tis) 
lit. "[He] is a bad pupil"


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## Encolpius

apmoy70 said:


> In Greek, "learner" is a participle: «μαθητευόμενος/maθite'vomenos (_m._)-μαθητευόμενη/maθite'vomeni (_f._)-μαθητευόμενο/maθite'vomeno (_n._)».
> However, in the above example you've given, it sounds more natural in Greek, to use the noun «μαθητής» (maθi'tis, _m._-->pupil) instead of the participle.
> I'd translate the phrase as:
> «Είναι κακός μαθητής» ('ine ka'kos maθi'tis)
> lit. "[He] is a bad pupil"



So you cannot say in Greek: "He learns badly"?


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## apmoy70

Encolpius said:


> So you cannot say in Greek: "He learns badly"?


No, I can't because «μανθάνω»* (man'θanō, in ancient Greek), «μαθαίνω» (ma'θeno, in modern Greek: to learn) is a transitive verb-->"I learn _something_"
Instead of "he learns badly" we say "he learns bad/awful things"

*It derives from the Homeric «μάω» ('maō-->to seek for), again transitive verb


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## Awwal12

In Russian:
Он плохо учится (on pl*o*kho *u*chitsa) - lit. "He badly learns" (or even more literally - "He badly teaches himself" ).


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## Encolpius

I think it works in all Slavic languages. Too bad only a few Slavs visit this forum.


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## jazyk

> However, in the above example you've given, it sounds more natural in  Greek, to use the noun «μαθητής» (maθi'tis, _m._-->pupil)  instead of the participle.
> I'd translate the phrase as:
> «Είναι κακός μαθητής» ('ine ka'kos maθi'tis)
> lit. "[He] is a bad pupil"


I'd say the same about Portuguese: Ele é um mau aluno (He is a bad student/pupil.)


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## Encolpius

jazyk said:


> I'd say the same about Portuguese: Ele é um mau aluno (He is a bad student/pupil.)



And it follows from this that all Romance languages might follow the same pattern.


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## apmoy70

Encolpius said:


> So you cannot say in Greek: "He learns badly"?


However, now that I think more about it, there seems to exist a similar expression in Greek (very colloquial though)--> «κακομαθαίνω» (kakoma'θeno), formed by the joining together of the adjective «κακός-κακή-κακό» (ka'kos, _m._, ka'ci, _f._, ka'ko, _n._-->_bad_) + verb «μαθαίνω» (ma'θeno-->_to learn_) with a different meaning: «Κακομαθαίνω» (to badly-learn) means something like "to acquire bad manners" and «κακομαθημένος-κακομαθημένη-κακομαθημένο» (kakomaθi'menos, _m._-kakomaθi'meni, _f._-kakomaθi'meno, _n., participle_), lit. "bad learner", is the ill-mannered, ill-bred.

[c] is a voiceless palatal plosive
[θ] is a voiceless dental non-sibilant fricative


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## Outsider

Encolpius said:


> In some languages (Hungarian, German?, Czech, All Slavic?) the verb learn can collocate with an adverb, namely "badly". I wonder if you also use the* "learn + badly"* pattern?


Yes, you can say _Ele aprende mal_, where _mal_ is the adverb "badly".

In English, it seems only an adjective is acceptable here, which is confusing to Portuguese speakers. Other examples:

_Você fala bem inglês_, "You speak good English", more literally "You speak English well".

Still, I think you can say in English "He learns poorly", or "He's learning poorly".


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## Orlin

Awwal12 said:


> In Russian:
> Он плохо учится (on pl*o*kho *u*chitsa) - lit. "He badly learns" (or even more literally - "He badly teaches himself" ).


 
Quite similar in Bulgarian: _Той се учи лошо/зле_. (T*o*i se *u*chi l*o*sho/zle) - the literal translation is the same.


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## ilocas2

Slovak:

Zle sa učí.

He/she/it learns/is learning badly.


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## Sardokan1.0

*Sardinian :*

_Issu (he) / Isse (he/it) est unu malu ischente***_
_Issa (she) est una mala ischente***_

Literally : he/she is a bad apprentice

* ** ischente (apprentice) is also the present participle of the verb Ischíre (to know)


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## anahiseri

in Spanish:
es un mal aprendiz 
like in Sardinian


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## ThomasK

I think we say he is a *slow* learner: _Hij leert traag_ (He learns slowly), maybe also _moeilijk_ (with difficulty). But we seldom use "leerder", I think, though we can.


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## Encolpius

we use the phrase "learn slowly" as well, but there is difference between "learn slowly and badly" in Hungarian


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## ThomasK

I suppose you could say "learning slowly" is just a euphemism, but still: learning bad (_slecht leren_) seems to be uncommon to me...


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## Sobakus

In Russian, in addition to the verbal construction _он плохо учится (on plóxo účitsä)_ = "he studies poorly" one can also use a nominal phrase - _он - плохой ученик (on - ploxój učeník)_ = "he's a bad pupil/student". But, as the translation hints at, both of these are said in the meaning "pupil/student~studies" to refer to a concrete instance of being bad at learning something in particular, as opposed to being a bad learner when it comes to learning anything at all - or perhaps the issue is not the person's learning abilities but simple unwillingness to study or lack of motivation to learn. One can easily be an excellent learner but a bad pupil (_nōn scholae sed vītae_). This seems to also be the situation in Greek and some of the Romance languages mentioned here - by using an equivalent of "pupil/student" they don't express the intended meaning behind "bad learner".

In order to express the intended meaning in Russian, one would have to go for a periphrasis such as _учение даётся ему нелегко (učénije dajótsä jemú nelexkó)_ = "learning gives (= lends) itself with difficulty to him" or even with an euphemism _он не очень одарённый ученик (on ne óčeň odarönnyj učeník) _= "he's not a very gifted student".


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## SuperXW

In Chinese, 学生 is what we address a "student", but there isn't a common word for "learner (a general concept, for example, you are a learner when you are learning some skill by yourself)".
差学生 "poor student" only means a student with a poor academic score.
If you want to say "he learns slowly", we usually say it directly 他学得慢(he learns slowly), or 他很笨(he is silly).


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## Dymn

What's the intended meaning? If it's that he struggles to learn things, I'd say _"li costa aprendre" _("learning is difficult for him", _costar _= "to be difficult"), or maybe even _"li costa seguir el ritme de la classe"_ ("he finds it hard to keep up in class"), _"es queda endarrerit"_ ("he lags behind"), or something alike.

I'll comment why I think literal translations of some of the suggested sentences don't sound natural to me:

"_pobre_" ("poor"). Totally off. "_Pobre_" would literally mean he has little economic resources. Of course "_pobre_" can also have metaphorical meanings in Catalan (of low quality, or deserving of compassion (_coitado _in Portuguese) when placed before the noun). For example you could say _"un rendiment pobre" _("a bad performance") but not _"un aprenent/estudiant pobre"_, unless you want to imply he's got little money.

_"aprendre malament"._ Totally off as well. "_Aprendre_" ("learning") is a patient-subject verb, you can't possibly do it bad because it's not up to you. If anything, you could say "_estudiar malament_", but that would imply you're adopting unsuccessful studying techniques, not what was intended I guess.

"_aprenent_" ("learner"). This would be someone learning some trade or skill (like a language). Not a member of a class group necessarily. If you want to mean someone who is part of a class, better to use "_alumne_" ("pupil") or "_estudiant_" ("student"), especially the former.

_"mal alumne/estudiant"_. Wrong again. That would be someone who misbehaves in class, or has a bad attitude towards the subject. Usually correlated with the lack of understanding of a topic or getting poor results, but not necessarily.

If you really want to use a "He's + Noun Phrase" structure, I'd suggest _"és un alumne amb dificultats"_ (lit. "with difficulties"), or _"és un alumne a qui li costa"_, but we're back to the first paragraph.


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## velisarius

In Greek I used to hear unsophisticated parents complain that their son or daughter  _Δεν τα παίρνει τα γράμματα. _(He/she doesn't "take" letters.) 

It was the old-fashioned attitude of uneducated people to children who might not have had the aptitude or inclination to do their homework.


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## Awwal12

velisarius said:


> In Greek I used to hear unsophisticated parents complain that their son or daughter _Δεν τα παίρνει τα γράμματα. _(He/she doesn't "take" letters.)


And in Russian things "don't give themselves to him/her" (e.g. "грамота ему/ей не даётся").


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## SimonTsai

SuperXW said:


> but there isn't a common word for "learner".


學習者, probably.


> 差学生


I am not familiar with that. Perhaps there is a regional difference.


> 他很笨 (he is silly).


If you describe someone as silly, you mean that he behaves in an insensible, foolish, and ridiculous manner, which is more than 笨.

他這學生很笨。 ==> He is an inept pupil.


> 他学得慢 (he learns slowly).


Slow learning is not always something bad: A building is only as strong as its foundation, isn't it?


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## nimak

*Macedonian*

Тој е слаб ученик. (Toj e slab učenik.) _lit. He is weak learner._
Тој слабо учи. (Toj slabo uči.) _lit. He weakly learns._
It could mean_ he's not so good; he tries, but he cannot learn something; or he doesn't learn enough.
_
Тој е лош ученик. (Toj e loš učenik.) _lit. He is bad learner._
It could mean _he doesn't even try to learn; he has bad results; and/or he has a bad behavior._


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## merquiades

A poor student is not really a bad student. He's mediocre. He doesn't fail. He just squeaks by with the bare minimum. So a tad better than bad but definitely not good at all.

I'd not translate bad, malo, mau, mauvais, cattivo.... but rather mediocre /weak (politically correct) or similar.


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## SuperXW

SimonTsai said:


> I am not familiar with that. Perhaps there is a regional difference.


差cha4 is the most common and generic word for "bad/poor (in amademic performance)" in China.
For example, 学习差, 成绩差, 差学生, 差生 etc.
How do you say that in Taiwan?


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## SimonTsai

SuperXW said:


> 差 (cha4)


Most Taiwanese would pronounce (ㄔㄚ; 1).


> 学习差,  I might say '學習效果不理想'.
> 成绩差,  This is something that I am familiar with.
> 差生  For me, this is totally incomprehensible.


In general, Taiwanese are inclined to say, 學得很差 / 學得很爛 / 學得不好 / 沒把 (something) 學好.

學得很差 ==> 學 is a verb. 很 is an emphatic adverb modifying 差.
學得很爛 ==> 學 is a verb. 很 is an emphatic adverb modifying 爛.
學得不好 ==> 學 is a verb. 不 is a negative adverb modifying 好.
(I am trying to stay on-topic.)


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## elroy

Palestinian Arabic:

هو طالب ضعيف (_huwwe ṭāleb ḍʿīf_) ‘He is a weak student.’


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## ThomasK

Encolpius said:


> we use the phrase "learn slowly" as well, but there is difference between "learn slowly and badly" in Hungarian


Dutch: we'd say that s/he _leert moeilijk_ (learns "difficultly"), but then it implies that one's capacities are not that big, not that he is lazy or something). If laziness is involved, teachers might go for simple paraphrases like "not doing enough efforts", "not learning steadily/ regularly/…" - or that is what I think...


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