簡単vs易しい？
Both mean easy or simple, right?

易しい sounds the same as 優しい, which means friendly.
I hear and see (in conversations and also often in videogames) 簡単 a lot more, but my textbook (みんなの日本語) wants to teach me 易しい as a vocabulary for "easy".

Shall I never use 易しい for easy, or is it used in certain situations/circumstances?

Answers in Japanese are fine, too, if they are quite simple written.

Thank you in advance! これからお世話になります? :D

Question

簡単vs易しい？
Both mean easy or simple, right?

易しい sounds the same as 優しい, which means friendly.
I hear and see (in conversations and also often in videogames) 簡単 a lot more, but my textbook (みんなの日本語) wants to teach me 易しい as a vocabulary for "easy".

Shall I never use 易しい for easy, or is it used in certain situations/circumstances?

Answers in Japanese are fine, too, if they are quite simple written.

Thank you in advance! これからお世話になります? :D

Answer

The best way to tell the difference between them is to remember that 簡単 also means simple, like a simple question, a simple word, a simple taks, etc.

易しい is more common when you want to say that something is easy to understand or when something was hard, but now is easy to comprehend.

Well, that was how I Iearned.