So What Is The Easiest Language To Learn?

Learning a Language is difficult at the best times, even for the most experienced linguist. The two most important factors to judge the difficulty of a Language is your native Language and the age at which you start learning the new one.

The native language element is very important because someone who is a native Spanish speaker will find it very easy to learn Italian or French, why? Because the three are all extremely similar, they're all Latin based and they have the same spelling and grammar nuances.

On the same note, if you were a native Spanish speaker and you were looking to learning Italian or French but you were 80 years old, then you might find it a lot more difficult, when compared to learning at the age of 20. It's been statistically proven that the further down the line you get, the harder it becomes to learn a new language, no matter how similar the new language is to your native language.

So if you're looking to learn an easy language then don't wait till there is white hair on your head. Normally the easiest language to learn for any native speaker, young or old, is a language that is extremely similar to their native one.

For instance, west Europeans will find other west European languages easy to learn. Russians in Eastern Europe will find the Lithuanian or Estonian language easier to learn, when compared to say French or Spanish. However there are some exceptions, such as the English language which is like no other language so it's difficult to find a similar language to learn next.

However there is a clear language out there that is easiest language to learn for any native English speaker. And that language is, drum roll please, the Spanish language. Unlike French, it's a logical language to learn from afresh and unlike, say, the Italian language, it doesn't have a colossal vocabulary that you have to learn.

Spanish is a brilliant language to learn as well. It's fantastic if you live in a community where there are native Spanish speaking people, you can communicate better and you may even make a few friends along the way.

Also, if you learn Spanish it will massively improve your travels, there are Spanish people everywhere and in a Spanish speaking country if you can speak Spanish as well, you'll have a great time. Seeing the culture from the inside and you'll have a totally unique experience.

What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

Did you ever wonder what the easiest Language to learn is? Maybe you are looking to learn another Language and haven't decided on which one. You don't want to get bogged down in something too difficult and you'd like a (relatively) easy time of it.

There are a lot of factors that make a Language easy or hard to learn. The factor with the greatest impact is what your native Language is - the language you grew up speaking. This will always effect how you learn languages. Other factors are - whether you have to learn a new alphabet or writing system, new grammar rules and strange new sounds to make.

It's really a combination of the actual characteristics of the language you want to learn and your own personal experience and learning skills. But if the majority of people agree that one language is easiest to learn, then it probably is. I have a survey on my website and most people seem to choose the easiest language based on what their native language is.

The majority of language learners whose native language is English choose Spanish as the easiest language to learn. Why? For one reason, Spanish is a very regular language. Once you know the rules of pronunciation, you can read almost any Spanish word and pronounce it correctly. And aside for a few new letters (that aren't very difficult), the alphabet is the same.

There are also many cognates between English and Spanish. Much of the vocabulary is familiar, either borrowed from one language to the other, or borrowed from the same source, like Latin.

Another key factor in why people feel that Spanish is easy to learn is the availablity of resources to learn with. The market is flush with products to buy, Books and movies are readily available, and the internet has lots of free resources to use. Combined with the fact that Spanish is one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world, it seems that Spanish is everywhere and is somehow easier to pick up.

There are other candidates for the Easiest Language to Learn such as French, Italian, Dutch and German. Esperanto is a popualar write-in candidate for the easiest language to learn, but Esperanto has an unfair advantage. It is a constructed language, it was designed to be easier to learn. In fact studies have shown that it is four to ten times easier to learn than other languages!

What do you think? Fill out the Easiest Language to Learn Survey and let me know what you think the easiest language to learn is!

Which is the Easiest Language to Learn? Rating the 14 Most Popular Course Offerings

Which is the best Language to learn? Which is the easiest?

Two different questions, often uttered in the same breath. But that's okay, because there will be only one answer. Whichever Language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be both the best and the easiest. However, here's some help choosing.

The choices.

Here is the Modern Language Association's 2002 list of the most commonly studied Languages at university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages like Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purposes languages like American Sign Language, or U.S. heritage languages, like Hawaiian or Navajo since the choice of those languages follows a different dynamic:

1. Spanish
2. French
3. German
4. Italian
5. Japanese
6. Chinese
7. Russian
8. Arabic
9. Modern Hebrew
10. Portuguese
11. Korean
12. Vietnamese
13. Hindi/Urdu
14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider some cold facts. The U.S. State Department groups languages for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The "easiest" languages for speakers of English, requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency: the Latin and Germanic languages. However, German itself requires a bit more time, 750 hours, because of its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requiring 1100 hours of classwork: Slavic languages, Turkic languages, other Indo-Europeans such as Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-Europeans such as Georgian, Hebrew and many African languages. Swahili is ranked easier than the rest, at 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requiring 2200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean and the Chinese languages.

Will you get a chance to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful learner you need the chance to hear, read and speak the language in a natural environment. Language learning takes an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely in the classroom. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses according to a combination of linguistic ease and accessibility.

1. Spanish. Category One. The straightforward grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a major presence in the insular linguistic environment of the U.S. Chances to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollment in the MLA study.

2. French. Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it's words have entered English. For this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to attain an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the internet, in films and music.

3. German. Category One Plus. The syntax and grammar rules are complex with noun declensions a major problem. It is the easiest language to begin speaking, with a basic vocabulary akin to English. Abstract, advanced language differs markedly, though, where English opts for Latin terms. It values clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category One. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages (along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You might need to go to Italy to practice it, but there are worse things that could happen to you. It is also encountered in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category Two. This highly inflected language, with declensions, is fairly difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet is not particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the numerous borrowings from French and other western languages are a pleasant surprise. It is increasingly accessible.

6. Arabic. Category Three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don't exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good calligraphy is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not normally written (except in children's Books) and this can be an obstacle for reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at every level of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category One. One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, though the phonetics may take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category Two Minus. It includes many borrowings from Arabic, Persian, English and French. It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu "tones". The sound system is familiar, and it is written using the Latin alphabet. One major grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary, and are predictable.

9. Hindi/Urdu. Category Two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing. Words often have clipped endings, further complicating comprehension. Hindi uses many Sanskrit loans and Urdu uses many Persian/Arabic loans, meaning that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the phonetically precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Predictably, Urdu's use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two. Revived as a living language during the nineteenth century, it has taken on characteristics of many languages of the Jewish diaspora. The resultant language has become regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English and Arabic. The alphabet has both print and script forms, with five vowels, not normally marked. Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it does occur. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of liaison makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category Three. Difficult to learn, as the vocabulary is unfamiliar, and the requirements of the sound system so strict that even the many words that have been borrowed from English, French and German will seem unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is forbiddingly difficult to read and write. Also, social constraints may impede useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category Three. Whether your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (the MLA survey does not make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all of the most difficult aspects: unfamiliar phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system, and an equally unfamiliar vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the positive side, it is easy to find, since Chinese communities exist throughout the world, and Chinese language media, such as newspapers, films and TV, are present in all these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category Three. This language belongs to an unfamiliar family of languages, but it does borrow much vocabulary from Chinese (helpful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones, and a grammar with an unfamiliar logic. It's not all bleak, however, Vietnamese uses a Latin derived alphabet. The chances of speaking this language are not high, though there are 3 million speakers in the USA.

14. Korean. Category Three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, which accurately represent 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2000 commonly used Chinese characters for literary writing and formal documents. Speech levels and honorifics complicate the learning of vocabulary, and there is liaison between words, making them hard to distinguish. The grammar is not overly complicated and there are no tones. It borrows many Chinese words, but the language is unrelated to other languages of Asia.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation

The third, most important factor is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that you are most motivated to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. It is useless to try to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language involves participating in its behaviors and identifying with its people.

So, consider all three factors: motivation, accessibility and linguistic ease, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that we humans are hard wired for a great amount of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to turn on the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of the language are clear to you, you will be able to get those rusty language synapses sparking in your head and start the words rolling. Bonne chance!

Is a New Language Difficult to Learn?

Learning a new Language is like learning a new way of thinking. You immerse yourself into a new culture and even traditions of foreign people. You learn to speak and write in a different way from your mother tongue of which causes no escape from the eventuality of thinking differently as well.

Is a new Language difficult to learn? Yes, it could be difficult at times, but most of the times it is easy. There is one condition. You must love the Language you'll be learning. Loving to do something makes the experience a heck a lot of easier. It's no different with Languages.

Now, there is one very important aspect to pay attention on. It's about the method you're using to learn a language. If you're in school and you're learning a new language, you won't make it. In my experience, when I was a student, most of my peers didn't learn German. And some of them didn't even learn English.

I believe that self teaching is the foundation of learning everything. Think about it. The best things in life you learned...did someone teach you these things? I think not. So, in my opinion, the best method to use is to spend 90% of your time self-teaching.

The next thing I hear all the time is...WHERE TO START? Oh, gosh, not again. OK, I've spend months and months trying to realize where to start and I found it by accident. It's called Pimsleur. Period. I know some of you now are saying: "Huh, Rosetta Stone or Tell me More is better". Let me tell you something, tell me More is a not totally appropriate for beginners.

If I have something to recommend to a beginner, then it would be to start with Pimsleur, and then go with Rosetta Stone. And even THEN try Tell me More. That's the perfect way to go.

And last but not least, the most important thing in learning any language is to master the art of DOING. Forget about procrastination. If you don't practice, you are never going to learn a language.

Is Japanese Language Difficult to Learn?

The answer is "yes" and "no". Yes, because, first of all, the Japanese Language has a few sounds with five standard vowels and simple pronunciation scheme; syllables are formed by a single vowel or a consonant-vowel combination. For the grammar, there are few exceptions to its rules, and restrictions on sentence structure are not severe.

The Japanese Language is considered difficult by many due to the mixture of different types of characters, namely, kanji characters, hiragana characters, katakana characters and Roman letters; the most difficult one is kanji. There are about 3,000 commonly used kanji characters including the 1,945 "daily use characters", and 46 hiragana and katakana characters each.

One aspect of the Language that makes it difficult for foreigners to grasp quickly is the presence of many words which are pronounced the same but have different meanings. For example; hana can be "flower" or "nose", ame for "rain" or "candy". Knowing kanji helps in this aspect of learning as each of these words can be easily recognized by kanji.

Cultural Considerations

Another feature which makes the learning of Japanese difficult yet interesting is the fact that the way Japanese is spoken differs depending on whether the speaker is a man or a woman, and adult or a child. Can you imagine, for instance, how strange a male foreign speaker, especially a big macho-looking man, sounds, if he speaks Japanese which he has picked up informally from Japanese lady's speaking?

What is even more troublesome is that the speaker must choose his words considering the relationship between himself and the person he is speaking to or speaking about. The barriers between the speaker and the listener/person in the topic are mostly created by familiarity between two people, age and position in society. The more unfamiliar you are to the listener, and the younger you are, and the lower your social status is, the more your speech becomes formal. The reverse is the informal speech. One example is that there are numerous words meaning "I" and each speaker refers to himself using the one what is most appropriate for his situation. Besides, these situational differences can be accentuated by the body language; custom of bowing (45 degree in general), space between two speakers, eye contact, etc., which projects the cultural aspect of the Japanese society.

In general, the Japanese are notorious for being a poor speaker of foreign language. Therefore, they appreciate the foreigners' learning Japanese. Their typical response to foreigners' speaking even a little Japanese is "Joozu desu ne!"; "Your Japanese is good!" Thus, knowing a little Japanese can go a long way, not only in communication, but captivating the heart of Japanese.

Ganbatte! (Hang in there!)

What is the Easiest Foreign Language To Learn?

Do you want to start with the easiest foreign Language to study? Which Language should you study first? If you are seeking a good language to start with, I would suggest the following:
Consider starting with a foreign language that is similar to your own.
The easiest foreign language to learn is probably closely related to your own. Most languages fall into certain groups. It is relatively easy to study a language similar to your own, or similar to another language that you already have some experience with. For example, French and Spanish are closely related to English. You will probably find it easy to deduce the meanings of many words on your own. If you already know some French or Spanish, then you shouldn't have much trouble with a language similar to Italian. Learn the basics of one, then switch to any of the others, you will find remarkable similarities.
Even if the words are very different, the grammar patterns are often the same. At some level, you will have an intuitive sense of how things go together. This makes it much easier to learn a closely related language rather than one from a unrelated lineage such as Korean or Russian.
Can You Find Lots of Resouces?
Can you find lots of resources in your chosen language? This is a critical factor in choosing a language. The easiest language to learn also has a lot of resources available. If you go to the library, can you find language guides, dictionaries, and phrase Books in your target language? If you search on-line, can you find websites, podcasts, and other material in the language? If you search around, can you find movies dubbed in the language? Finally, can you find native speakers to practice with? There are all important factors to consider. The easiest foreign language to learn will be one where you have access to native speakers and a good selection of resources.
Are You Interested In The Language?
Finally, do you have an interest in learning the language? For instance, why would you want to spend a huge amount of time studying Russian if you have no interest in the food or culture of that part of the world? But if you are enthralled by the sound of Italian, dream of eating at a piazza cafe, hope to one day explore Tuscany, and are fascinated by the people, then choosing Italian is probably a no-brainer. The easiest foreign language is one that you really want to learn.
Having strong reasons on many different levels to learn a language is a key factor to your success. It will help keep you interested, keep things fun, and keep you going through the ups and downs. Language learning is a skill. You have to work at it. Like anything else, you have to develop strength in it. The experience of learning one language will in turn make it easier to learn the next language. Start with an easy language and build up from there.