Easiest language to learn.
I have often wondered which is the easiest language to learn. As an English teacher I constantly hear how difficult English is. Of course, there are aspects of English which are difficult but I have tried to learn other languages such as Spanish, Portuguese, Korean and even my homeland language Welsh and they all seemed to be just as difficult to learn. So is every language difficult to learn or are there some languages which are relatively easy?
Szukaj różnych nauczycieli angielski...
Komentarze · 7
3
If you don't mind counting artificial languages, my vote goes to Esperanto! The same level one would reach in ~2,000 hours of studying German is attainable in only 150 hours or so of Esperanto, statistically speaking; I began learning the language a few weeks ago and am already reading books, watching YouTube bloggers, etc. Not because I am smart or anything, just because the language is incredibly logical (for Westerners; it has many assumptions from Romantic grammar) and regular. Recently I had a convesation with a guy from China - I know no Chinese and he knows no English, but less than a month of Esperanto was all it took to connect us. It might have taken two or three years of study for us to have had that same conversation in English or Chinese.
That being said, I think that difficulty is a relative thing. Every language has some parts that are more difficult and others that aren't so much, and motivation is a really big part of it. Russian is much more complex than Spanish for me as an English speaker, but it has been much easier and more enjoyable to learn simply because my girlfriend is Russian and I love Soviet cartoons. Despite being ranked as one of the "hardest" languages, Japanese has been easier than both of them - I fell in love with the Japanese characters and lived in Japan for a year, so the language became a means for exploring the country and navigating daily life and conversations rather than just points on a test.
If you find something that you really enjoy that you need the foreign language to do, I think that the difficulties sort of go away - the bit about actually learning these languages has become more of just a byproduct for me than anything.
That being said, I think that difficulty is a relative thing. Every language has some parts that are more difficult and others that aren't so much, and motivation is a really big part of it. Russian is much more complex than Spanish for me as an English speaker, but it has been much easier and more enjoyable to learn simply because my girlfriend is Russian and I love Soviet cartoons. Despite being ranked as one of the "hardest" languages, Japanese has been easier than both of them - I fell in love with the Japanese characters and lived in Japan for a year, so the language became a means for exploring the country and navigating daily life and conversations rather than just points on a test.
If you find something that you really enjoy that you need the foreign language to do, I think that the difficulties sort of go away - the bit about actually learning these languages has become more of just a byproduct for me than anything.
2
It all depends on the level you want to attain and your native language. I think all languages have stages of difficulty. But no language is easy to master, since that is an impossible feat to do, even for your mother tongue. Languages are always changing and are spoken differently based on region and sometimes social class (England).
In my opinion, Chinese is really hard at first because of tones and characters, then becomes relatively easy as you get to the intermediate stage because of grammar and characters (it's easy to guess the meaning of new vocab once you have a good foundation), and then it gets super hard again if you want to advance to a high level (because of idioms and such)
For a Westerner, Japanese is relatively easy at first because of pronunciation, borrowed words, and casual speech, difficult at an intermediate level because of counter words, grammar, and particles, and then even more difficult at an advanced level because of formal speech.
But the more languages you learn, the more you can tap into other pools of words to draw similarities from, and each language gets easier. There's more overlap than you would think between languages. All languages are influenced by the world around them to some degree or another.
So, it gets easier, but it still requires a lot of time and practice if you want to achieve a high level of fluency.
1
I would say that there are "speakable languages" instead of labeling them "easy". What I mean is, every language if you try to master them will be difficult, there'll always be those irregular rules and details here and there but some languages can be easily learnt for communication in a quick way. In my opinion, English is the easiest or the most " speakable " language in general due to the constant immersion that we have unwittingly. I'd say that romance languages are also very "speakable" and quick to pick up! But of course, we have to take into consideration that native language of the person!
0
So other than the artificial language of Esperanto there doesn't seem to an easy language that anyone from any nation could learn with little problem. Pity I was hoping there was an easy language that I could learn in a month!
0
For a native English speaker, Nederlands and Deutsch would be the obvious choices given their closeness to English. Icelandic is another choice if one is familiar with Old English.
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