The world's easiest language to learn (NO SPAM)

[Magrus]

I wouldn't say I know how to speak another language aside from english, however, I did take 4 years of Spanish classes in school. I found it fairly easy to learn to read and write. Speaking on the other hand, pronunciation was harder for me. I think it may be considered one of the easiest to learn in it's original form. Learning to speak it now is a problem given how many areas of the world have adapted the language to be slightly different from how it is spoken in Spain. Learning Spanish in Spain will cause confusion speaking it in Mexico or Puerto Rico.

I have been told by many people who speak English as a second language that it is one of the hardest to speak (as well as read and write) given how all of it's exceptions contradict each other. (I before E except after C, etc etc. )

[dragon wench]

[QUOTE=moltovir]In my opinion German is the easiest, but that's because my native language is dutch, and german is closely related to dutch. Basicly, it's like speaking Dutch but with casi and a big potato in your mouth. German is easy, but it's also a really ugly, brutal language. "Ich liebe dich" sounds more like "I want to hit you in the face really hard" than "I love you". But that's just my humble opinion [/QUOTE]

I hope this is not too far off topic, but this brings to mind a question I've often had.

Dutch and German were actually the first two languages I learned as a child. While, sadly, I let both slip, I currently understand about 80 % of all spoken Dutch and around 50% of all spoken German. But here is what is weird... my comprehension of Dutch is far better... but I'm actually able to speak more German..
I've often thought this might be because Dutch is effectively a German dialect in much the same way that Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian German are... so maybe I'm subconsciously reverting to the root language when I try to speak Dutch. But, I really have no idea...

[fable]

[QUOTE=dragon wench]I've often thought this might be because Dutch is effectively a German dialect in much the same way that Swiss, Austrian and Bavarian German are... so maybe I'm subconsciously reverting to the root language when I try to speak Dutch. But, I really have no idea...[/QUOTE]

Dutch isn't a dialect of German. They're both descendents of something called "proto-German," which also fed into English, Swedish, Norwegian, etc. I could pull out an old book or two on this if you're interested. Could you have learned German first, making it more likely to be hard-wired into your system?

[dragon wench]

[QUOTE=fable]Dutch isn't a dialect of German. They're both descendents of something called "proto-German," which also fed into English, Swedish, Norwegian, etc. I could pull out an old book or two on this if you're interested. Could you have learned German first, making it more likely to be hard-wired into your system?[/QUOTE]

Ah, okay. Though Dutch does, on a superficial level, sound somewhat like Swiss German, hence my unresearched interpretation
That's a good guess, and it would make sense. Thing is, though, I actually learned Dutch first. What can I say? I'm weird..

[Luis Antonio]

Ok. The easiest language to learn is the one you are born immersed into. Because you're listening to it before you exit your mother's woumb.

Now Portuguese is hard for english, german and russian people, AFAIK, cause the very structure of the sentences is different. It must apply too to french and spanish, but I dont speak those - my fault, being the lazy bum I am - so I cant prove it.

I think, for me, a hard thing would be to learn russian. But it is also a dream of mine - learning russian and japanese. After that, I would learn german, then french, then spanish, then urdu - even though urdu is getting more and more important nowadays.

Learning languages is easy for me - I can stay with you for a few hours and I'll go home speaking anything you've told me, and if I can practice I'll learn (been a few hours with an uncle of mine who speaks german once, learned lots of tricks) so I guess this is something I cant complain, I mean, about learning new languages being hard.

Russian would be fine to learn, I say again

[Chimaera182]

[QUOTE=Morlock]Easiest? Well now it would have to be english, just because it is the only truely global language. Simply to many people know/need/use it for it not to be the easiest.

But structure wise, I think Spanish would probably be easiest.

I am fluent (if not a good speller ) in English (mother language), Hebrew, and know a sizable amount of French, Arabic and Russian. Plus a lot of individual Latin lines, but nowhere near enough to form a gramaricaly correct paragraph. (Please do not point out the lack of structure in my posts )[/QUOTE]
English is hardly the only truly global language. And I've noticed that it tends to be one of the harder ones for others to learn; I always found it easy, but then again I would since I grew up speaking it, and having to take English courses every year I was in school, even in college. I also learned Spanish and German--the latter only two years ago--and I found both relatively easy, Spanish more so; but I also wound up forgetting most of what I learned quickly.

So as for the easiest language to learn, I agree with Luis. It's the one you get immersed in. I hope to immerse my kids in several languages while they grow up, so they will at least be able to speak something other than English. But I have to learn those languages in order to do that. Unless my SO turns out to speak a language other than English... which is very possible when you live in Florida.

[Lestat]

I think Chimaera & Luis have it right, immersion, and if not that, regular exposure is important. And if the language you're learning is related to one you know already, so much the better.

E.g. in Flanders & Netherlands, American & English sitcoms, animations and other imported programmes are subtitled. And there are quite a lot of them on TV, so from early on you get exposed to English with a handy translation provided. And our language is related to English. No wonder we find English easier to learn.

The French though, do voice-overs, and their language is less related and they do have some difficulty learning English.

And for myself: it is when I found myself surrounded by French speakers and not a single other person to speak my own language to that my French really improved (it helped that I got the theory of grammar in school of course).

Added to that, it seems that your mother tongue conditions your hearing and capibilities of learning another language, especially in terms of:
- basic sounds (if a language has a sounds that are not represented in other languages it's harder to learn. That's why Slavs are often good at learning other languages with a wide range of sounds, especially consonants)
- tone/pitch: e.g. French is a fairly monotonous language (you can ramble on for a whole paragraph without strong changes in pitch or tone), while in English you have already quite the pitch changes just in the phrase "Oh, really?".
At least that's the excuse the French have found for their abominable skill with languages.

@ DW: Dutch similar to Swiss German? I could hardly understand anything they said, while normally I can understand fairly well when people speak German.

Concerning Dutch & German: though they are different languages, their dialects form one continuous dialect-space. I.e. you find dialects that present characteristics of both or intermediate characteristics (like the one from the place I grew up in Limburg), so the dialects gradually change from Dutchlike to Germanlike. (I.e. people from Aachen & Maastricht speak similar dialects, but one is closer to German and the other closer to Dutch).

[The Balance]

I agree with the "IMMERSION THEORY" ...
but still I believe that some languages are more difficult than others..
My motherlanguage is italian, i've studied english for several years (and i think that after all those years, notwithstanding i've never been in a country where they speak english, i can speak it fairy well. am i wrong?) and i've studied for a few years french, latin, ...
I find english easy to learn as it is quite intuitional if compared, for instance, to italiano (one of the most terrible languages to learn even for native!! the 60% of italians can't speak italian correctly!!) or deutsch, even if there are a lot of exceptions and "false friends"..
I completely disagree with the guy who said that latin is an easy language!!
[INDENT]It's OK if you're talking of translate Caesar, Seneca or Cicerone but it's KO if we consider Sallustio or Apuleio (Damned Apuleio! I'll damn his Amore et Psyche till the end of my days!!)[/INDENT]
They use to compare latin grammar to german grammar but i assure you the affinityes aren't too many and latin grammar is even worse... ...
I'd really like to learn russian and japanese cause they're the languages i consider most difficult and fascinating...
My uncle can speak very very well german, italian, english, french, spanish, portoughese and fairy well russian and polish. He has some notions of latin too. French, Spanish and Portoughese are very similiar to our local dialectal forms so they aren't that pain to learn but russian ...

[fable]

Added to that, it seems that your mother tongue conditions your hearing and capibilities of learning another language, especially in terms of:
- basic sounds (if a language has a sounds that are not represented in other languages it's harder to learn. That's why Slavs are often good at learning other languages with a wide range of sounds, especially consonants)
- tone/pitch: e.g. French is a fairly monotonous language (you can ramble on for a whole paragraph without strong changes in pitch or tone), while in English you have already quite the pitch changes just in the phrase "Oh, really?".
At least that's the excuse the French have found for their abominable skill with languages.

I have found this true about many German speakers in English, too. Even when the memorized vocabulary is large, the intonation of words, phrases and sentences is often problematic. Various musicologists have postulated that there is a profound link between truly hearing language from an early age, and being "musically gifted." The great Hungarian teacher/composer Zoltan Kodaly suggested that if one began early enough with certain basics, literally anybody could display musical gifts; but I don't know if this work has been carried over into learning languages. So the cure for poor intonation may be the analysis of spoken language as a musical form.

I completely disagree with the guy who said that latin is an easy language!!

But why? Latin is extremely regular. I'd learn it, if I had the time and any large number of people still communicated in it. (Curiously, the Hungarians used it as their chosen language in parliament back in the mid 19th century, when they briefly achieved independence, and the Finns used to air a 30 minute weekly program of current news and public affairs on shortwave in Latin--beamed to Western Europe for no explicable reason.) By contrast, English is extremely irregular. It's trickly that way. English is easy to learn, but difficult to master, because of the enormous range of idiomatic expressions, and the large number of irregularities in the language. Spanish, Latin, Italian: yes, I know Italian has a lot of dialects, but still--all these seem to me much easier to learn than English.

It's OK if you're talking of translate Caesar, Seneca or Cicerone but it's KO if we consider Sallustio or Apuleio (Damned Apuleio! I'll damn his Amore et Psyche till the end of my days!!)

Apuleio? You mean the author of the wonderful Le Metamorfosi, o Asinus Aureus? I admit, I've only read it (repeatedly) in translation, but what have you got against him?

[Minerva]

Most definitely English is the easiest. Well, IMO anyway.

I know Spanish and Italian, the very basic Arabic and French, and have advantage of knowing Chinese characters. The pronunciation of Spanish and Italian are easy, but the grammer, English is much easier. I had problem with reflexive verb or passive, that kind of things, probably because there's no such thing in my language. French is similar with more problem in pronunciation.
Arabic... well, what can I say? There is no capital letters, and that is difficult when you read. But the most difficult thing is that there is no vowl letters in Arabic (well, except A). That's really difficult. I can say "I learnt Arabic language at university" in Arabic, and that is the longest I can remember now!
The Chinese is the most beautiful language to listen to, and the most difficult to learn, I believe. I can sort of identify words, but not much of reading as grammer is different.

As for Japanese, it is probably not too difficult to learn very basic conversation. IMO, though, the most difficult part of Japanese language, apart from reading and writing, is you have to know whom you are talking in what situation, then pick the right word. In English, for example, "you" is always "you", but in Japanese it literally depends. "anata" is probably the neutral, but if you are talking to a close friend "kimi", "omae", or "anta" may be used. If you are in a bad relations or about to fight, you may call him/her "teme'e" or "kisama". However, if you use them during business meeting, you will lose the business, and possibly your job because you'd be regarded as someone who lacks common sense. This applies to every part of the Japanese language. That is really difficult.

[Lestat]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Lestat
I completely disagree with the guy who said that latin is an easy language!!


But why? Latin is extremely regular. I'd learn it, if I had the time and any large number of people still communicated in it.
<snip>
By contrast, English is extremely irregular. It's trickly that way. English is easy to learn, but difficult to master, because of the enormous range of idiomatic expressions, and the large number of irregularities in the language. Spanish, Latin, Italian: yes, I know Italian has a lot of dialects, but still--all these seem to me much easier to learn than English.

That wasn't my quote. But still allow me to react:
To a certain extent this is right, especially as far as concerns English: low threshold to entry, but steep going to mastery. What makes learning English even more difficult is the tenuous relation between spelling & pronunciation.

About Latin (and I had Latin as a course for my six years of secondary school): there is a lot of grammar to be mastered and multitude of tenses which are regularly used (as are the cases). Regular? The basics yes, until you get more into detail and encounter all the irregularities and exceptions (or "deviant" rules), not to speak about some liberties that certain authors take. I didn't find it that easy to be frank.

Concerning the sounds in a language, I quickly translate from a French article I stumbled on:
The brains of an infant can distinguish the sounds of all known languages. From their birth (some say even before), baby's react to the prosody, i.e. stress, intonation, rythm, delivery and tone, of their mother's voice, rather than the words she uses. Words are composed of small units called phonemes. E.g. the [French] word "bas" is composed of the phonemes "b" and "a" [ah]. Therefore the fusion of these phonemes forms the word "bas".
Each language has its own phonological system, but, surprisingly, there are only 90 phonemes in total, all languages considered. That corresponds to the maximum number of sounds that the human voice can produce. Even though the infant can perceive [/distinguish] all 90 phonemes, it loses the capacity to distinguish those contrasts that are irrelevant for its mothertongue between the ages of 10 & 12 months. According to one study, Japanese baby's aged 6 months could distinguish the "l" and "r" sounds as well as American baby's of the same age, but toward the age of 10 months they had far more difficulty of distinguishing these sounds than their American counterparts (Cheour, Ceponiene, Letokoski, Luuk, Allik and Näätänen, 1999). As the infant grows this phenomenon becomes more pronounced.

[fable]

As for Japanese, it is probably not too difficult to learn very basic conversation. IMO, though, the most difficult part of Japanese language, apart from reading and writing, is you have to know whom you are talking in what situation, then pick the right word. In English, for example, "you" is always "you", but in Japanese it literally depends.

Social distinctions by word, word part, and/or inflection still exist in many languages, especially those of "primitive" peoples, as well as other societies that emphasize relationships through language. Most of the US has done away with this, but there are still hold-out sub-cultures, such as the Mennonite communities, which employ "you" and its related words for formal speech, and "thou" and its relations for informal.

That wasn't my quote. But still allow me to react:
To a certain extent this is right, especially as far as concerns English: low threshold to entry, but steep going to mastery. What makes learning English even more difficult is the tenuous relation between spelling & pronunciation.

True enough. There have been numerous attempts over the years to reform English spelling, but they've come to nothing in the end. Dialects throughout the English speaking world are so diverse, that for any group to claim normality and set the pronunciation-to-spelling standard would probably lead to declarations of independence and massacres on an unparalleled scale. Even now, there's a movement in Texas to spell English the way Texans pronounce it. May the gods help us.

About Latin (and I had Latin as a course for my six years of secondary school): there is a lot of grammar to be mastered and multitude of tenses which are regularly used (as are the cases). Regular? The basics yes, until you get more into detail and encounter all the irregularities and exceptions (or "deviant" rules), not to speak about some liberties that certain authors take. I didn't find it that easy to be frank.

Point taken. No learning Latin for this greying lad. I think I'll stick with trying to learn a bit of Hungarian, and increasing my German vocabulary.

Concerning the sounds in a language, I quickly translate from a French article I stumbled on:

That was really interesting, and I don't quote it simply because of its length. It's true, too, that you can be retrained early enough to hear distinctions that you "forget" after infancy. It's also been speculated that while there may be some biological reasons for differences in what the article might term prosodical skills, family has a lot to do with that, too. The former might explain why an outstanding musician could arise in a "tone deaf" family, while the latter could explain some musical dynasties (like the Couperins, Bachs, Bendas, and such) that dot the landscape of classical music.

Concerning the Kodaly Method, this site has some basic information in a good outline format. Note that the efforts used to educate children musically involve rhythm symbols and (tonal) syllabation, as well as musical material using native folksongs. Hungarian folk music is extremely close to the intonation of the language, which may have helped in this regard.

[The Balance]

[QUOTE=The Balance]I completely disagree with the guy who said that latin is an easy language!![/QUOTE]

That was my quote but Lestat has anticipated my answer:

[QUOTE=Lestat]To a certain extent this is right, especially as far as concerns English: low threshold to entry, but steep going to mastery. What makes learning English even more difficult is the tenuous relation between spelling & pronunciation.

About Latin: there is a lot of grammar to be mastered and multitude of tenses which are regularly used (as are the cases). Regular? The basics yes, until you get more into detail and encounter all the irregularities and exceptions (or "deviant" rules), not to speak about some liberties that certain authors take. I didn't find it that easy to be frank.[/QUOTE]

and about this question:

[QUOTE=The Balance]It's OK if you're talking of translate Caesar, Seneca or Cicerone but it's KO if we consider Sallustio or Apuleio (Damned Apuleio! I'll damn his Amore et Psyche till the end of my days!!)[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=Fable]Apuleio? You mean the author of the wonderful Le Metamorfosi, o Asinus Aureus? I admit, I've only read it (repeatedly) in translation, but what have you got against him? [/QUOTE]

yeah, i mean THAT apuleio ...
the ONLY translation which was graded unsatisfactory in five years of senior high school was on his metamorfosi !!
I think it is a more than valid motivation to hate him !!

@Minerva: were did you learn japanese ?? Here in italy you can't find a guy who can teach the language paying him his weight in gold!
i hope the answer won't be "at the university" cause i'm already getting a specialistic degree in pharmacy!!


I almost forgot:
[QUOTE=Fable] [...] yes, I know Italian has a lot of dialects, but still--all these seem to me much easier to learn than English.[/QUOTE]
I didn't mean that it is difficult to learn dialects (even if i assure you i can't understand the dialect of the town far 2km from mine if spoken impenetrable)!
I meant that in italian it could be hard even to express a concept as the choice of words is often troubling and the uncorrect conjugation of verbs can turn the sense of the entire senctence (and i'm not talking about passive/active form! ) while in english, it seems to me, you can be MORE easily understood.. am i wrong??

[Minerva]

[QUOTE=The Balance]
@Minerva: were did you learn japanese ?? Here in italy you can't find a guy who can teach the language paying him his weight in gold!
i hope the answer won't be "at the university" cause i'm already getting a specialistic degree in pharmacy!!
[/QUOTE]
From my mum and dad.

I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I am a Japanese living in UK, and writing a thesis regarding the Italian city states.

[Lestat]

[QUOTE=The Balance]@Minerva: were did you learn japanese ?? Here in italy you can't find a guy who can teach the language paying him his weight in gold!
i hope the answer won't be "at the university" cause i'm already getting a specialistic degree in pharmacy!![/QUOTE]I'll try to break it to you gently, but Minerva learned Japanese at a very young age in Japan... IIRC, she is in fact Japanese... (and only moonlights from time to time as the Roman Goddess of Wisdom). <- My face when I read your question. Sorry. My mean streak is giving me problems again.
[QUOTE=Fable]Point taken. No learning Latin for this greying lad. I think I'll stick with trying to learn a bit of Hungarian, and increasing my German vocabulary.[/QUOTE]Oh go ahead, just don't expect it to be easy . I very dearly would like to learn Arab and/or Japanese... Well actually I would like to know Arab and Japanese. Not learn them. But alas the one won't go without the other .

[fable]

[QUOTE=The Balance]I meant that in italian it could be hard even to express a concept as the choice of words is often troubling and the uncorrect conjugation of verbs can turn the sense of the entire senctence (and i'm not talking about passive/active form! ) while in english, it seems to me, you can be MORE easily understood.. am i wrong??[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, yes. It is extremely easy to be misunderstood in English. The language has an enormous number of words and phrases with different shades of meaning, depending upon cultural group, geography, race, gender, age, subject, intonation, and context. The widespread use of English only makes matters worse. As any politician will tell you, there are even many distinctive ways to say absolutely nothing in nearly the same fashion, and give a completely unique and varying series of impressions. And that's not even getting into the matter of body language.

[QUOTE=Lestat]Oh go ahead, just don't expect it to be easy . I very dearly would like to learn Arab and/or Japanese... Well actually I would like to know Arab and Japanese. Not learn them. But alas the one won't go without the other.[/quote]

So would I. Arabic is a language of great poetry, and both drama and poetry are great arts in Japan. No time! No time! I find myself continually reminded of Shaw's clever remark in Back to Methusalah: "Youth is a wonderful thing. What a crime to waste it on the young."

[The Balance]

@Minerva
wow! i would have never guessed you were japanese!!
well, you could give me some lessons now!

Relax! i'm kidding!:laugh: I love japanese language, its musicality, ...
i'm downloading ANIMEs or songs in your motherlanguage full-time!!
of course, without subtitles, i'll not be able to understand neither a word!!
my favourite is Full Metal Panic saga !! maybe if i keep listening to 'em i'll learn some words or fitting phrases!
what do you think about it??

I don't know if japanese is the most difficult language to learn but it is surely the most beautiful to hear !!

[Monolith]

[QUOTE=moltovir]In my opinion German is the easiest, but that's because my native language is dutch, and german is closely related to dutch. Basicly, it's like speaking Dutch but with casi and a big potato in your mouth. German is easy, but it's also a really ugly, brutal language. "Ich liebe dich" sounds more like "I want to hit you in the face really hard" than "I love you". But that's just my humble opinion [/QUOTE]
A very humble one

You're right though. "Ich liebe dich" doesn't sound as soft as "I love you"...or the Polish "Kocham cie". While talking about Polish, I don't know a more emotional language. "Kocham cie" can give me the creeps due to the sheer emotiveness. And it's rather difficult to learn.

In my opinion the easiest language or one of the easiest languages is English. French isn't that bad either, but I couldn't get enthusiastic about it, so I abandoned the school subject after three years in favor of philosophy and magically all my knowledge of French vanished.

[cduin]

i am always wondering, do Dutch people have an accent? Can you easily hear we are Dutch, or not? People from Germany and France always seem to have an accent, while people from Scandinavia never have.

[Lestat]

[QUOTE=cduin]i am always wondering, do Dutch people have an accent? Can you easily hear we are Dutch, or not? People from Germany and France always seem to have an accent, while people from Scandinavia never have.[/QUOTE]Yes, you do.
I'm Flemish myself and though we both speak (variants of) the same language the accents in English are quite different. Without any false modesty, I can say I have a fair ear for languages & accents and to be frank there are extremely few Dutch people that I don't identify as such as soon as they start speaking English (or French for that matter). Don't worry the same goes for other European nationalities I'm acquainted with (German, French, Italian). It's true that the Scandinavians have far less of an discernable accent in English, maybe because their own languages resemble English in tonality. But I usually recognise them as non-native speakers.