Which foreign language is the most easy to learn for native speakers of English? And what about the most difficult one?
Which foreign language is the most easy to learn for native?
Not too sure about the easiest. But I reckon Cantonese is probably one of the most difficult language to learn.
The Scandinavian languages and Afrikaans are probably the easiest. All are related with simplified grammars.
Dutch is the easiest for an Englishwoman.
French is the easiest for an Englishman (think sex)
French is the easiest for an Englishman (think sex)
Decline of Afrikaans resulted in more English speakers, which is awesome.
South African English is much more pleasant than harsh Afrikaans.
South African English is much more pleasant than harsh Afrikaans.
Afrikaans.
A guttural language spoken in Southern Africa. The language of the oppressor. It is based on a simplified form of Dutch called Kitchen Dutch and is useful mainly for swearing and elaborate insults.
A guttural language spoken in Southern Africa. The language of the oppressor. It is based on a simplified form of Dutch called Kitchen Dutch and is useful mainly for swearing and elaborate insults.
Various candidates for toughest:
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Navajo
- Basque
- Hungarian
- Finnish
- Georgian
- Turkish
- Lithuanian
- Sanscrit
- Arabic
- Icelandic
- Hindi
Based on past discussions here
- Chinese
- Japanese
- Navajo
- Basque
- Hungarian
- Finnish
- Georgian
- Turkish
- Lithuanian
- Sanscrit
- Arabic
- Icelandic
- Hindi
Based on past discussions here
Afrikaans is definitely the easiest, followed by Dutch. I find both of them fun to speak and not at all unpleasant to listen too.
Germanic languages, I feel, are easier in the beginning for English speakers generally, since our common, everyday language is based heavily on older forms of German. Romance languages are somewhat easy for an educated English speaker since they form much of the English literary, non-spoken language.
I don't find Mandarin difficult at all since it is analytic and doesn't contain much unfamiliar grammar for a native English speaker. In other words, it doesn't have much morphology.
In contrast, learning a Slavic language has been the most difficult thing I have ever attempted.
Germanic languages, I feel, are easier in the beginning for English speakers generally, since our common, everyday language is based heavily on older forms of German. Romance languages are somewhat easy for an educated English speaker since they form much of the English literary, non-spoken language.
I don't find Mandarin difficult at all since it is analytic and doesn't contain much unfamiliar grammar for a native English speaker. In other words, it doesn't have much morphology.
In contrast, learning a Slavic language has been the most difficult thing I have ever attempted.
I agree with Dutch (or Afrikaans)
Though Afrikaans is simpler, I myself would go with Dutch
Though Afrikaans is simpler, I myself would go with Dutch
For me it would be the languages of Finno-Ugric language family. If compared to Indo-European language family (Romance and Germanic, and even Slavic languages), Finno-Ugric lead to no associations at all.
e.g. in all Indo-European languages one-two-three sound somewhat alike (in Russian odin-dva-tri, in German ein-zwei-drei, etc). In Estonian, which is of Finno-Ugric group its yks, kaks, kol.
I still think that the easiest one is English, maybe not grammatically and syntactically, but owing to the fact that it is almost everywhere...
e.g. in all Indo-European languages one-two-three sound somewhat alike (in Russian odin-dva-tri, in German ein-zwei-drei, etc). In Estonian, which is of Finno-Ugric group its yks, kaks, kol.
I still think that the easiest one is English, maybe not grammatically and syntactically, but owing to the fact that it is almost everywhere...
oh sorry, you asked about English native speakers :) Then I think German would be the easiest - they look absolutely identically to me! The declension system might be a bit confusing, but still it's fun to observe similarities.
If not one of the other Germanic languages (specifically Dutch or even Swedish) then probably Spanish or French.
Anything with tones would be the most difficult, but probably something more obscure than Cantonese... Something like Hmong.
Anything with tones would be the most difficult, but probably something more obscure than Cantonese... Something like Hmong.
I find German completely incomprehensible (and I used to speak it as a small child!) -- the Romance languages are far easier to pick out cognates for, as far as I am concerned. Although I suppose I'm biased; I took Spanish and French in high school. I can puzzle out the gist of many things in those languages, even though it's been almost 20 years, while speaking a related tongue everyday does absolutely nothing to get me through German, Dutch, Afrikaans, or any of the Scandinavian languages. I suspect that this might be because our Latin and French borrowings tend to look more like their modern Romance counterparts, while our Germanic cognates have been a lot more contorted.
British English is the easiest to learn for the Americans. And the American English is for the Englishmen.
>>Which foreign language is the most easy to learn for native speakers of English? And what about the most difficult one?
Easiest: In general, a lucrative one - I dont know about u guys.
Most difficult: In general, one that almost nobody would consider at all.
But it's more complicated than just that. In the long run, a language's own strength across borders would actually be more important... but also relative to one's own daily-life needs. For example, I wont be writing any academic stuff in my native language, so while I find English academic vocab. quite handy (but abstract at times), Chinese counterparts would be really so obscure to learn.... and unless I'm terribly interested in a particular subject, I won't learn it at all.
So, for example, from my perspective, Chinese is more difficult (and obscure, or difficult simply equals obscure) than English. Easy languages mean lucrative/stronger ones; difficult ones just mean... almost like impossibles. It's been interesting for most people to say something is difficult without even trying to learn what it is.
Who says Chinese is difficult again? I dont deny the existence of linguistic differences that are so obvious in any kind of linguistic forms you find in any language, relative to your native, but if you do study a language (I mean, pick a good language book, or a good text about the language, like one about linguistic analysis, and read it peacefully) seriously, you might find that grammar is just so.... To "say" grammar is difficult is a big scam, and mastering grammar isn't even the slightest proof of language proficiency. When you get the hang (i.e. grammar, phonology, etc) of the whole game, then you know this language is an infinite challenge (numerous contexts) and much more learning stages (pragmatic competency, cultural awareness, cross-cultural discourses...) are waiting for you.
So, for me, grammar is just a book - let me just put the elements of grammar (presented as a book) as "grammar rules" - and rules are exhaustive. But to put it simply, vocab is never really exhaustive. Any average language (and holistic) courses can bring you up to at least a level of decent competence in grammar alone, and often with "quite a bit" of vocab (say 2000 words, to be optimistic, excluding any varied morphological forms); but then, that's much less than a fraction of the language knowledge you need, as an adult (supposedly), for becoming a translator, for studying another degree program in that language, for understanding films and all daily conversations in it, etc.
Easiest: In general, a lucrative one - I dont know about u guys.
Most difficult: In general, one that almost nobody would consider at all.
But it's more complicated than just that. In the long run, a language's own strength across borders would actually be more important... but also relative to one's own daily-life needs. For example, I wont be writing any academic stuff in my native language, so while I find English academic vocab. quite handy (but abstract at times), Chinese counterparts would be really so obscure to learn.... and unless I'm terribly interested in a particular subject, I won't learn it at all.
So, for example, from my perspective, Chinese is more difficult (and obscure, or difficult simply equals obscure) than English. Easy languages mean lucrative/stronger ones; difficult ones just mean... almost like impossibles. It's been interesting for most people to say something is difficult without even trying to learn what it is.
Who says Chinese is difficult again? I dont deny the existence of linguistic differences that are so obvious in any kind of linguistic forms you find in any language, relative to your native, but if you do study a language (I mean, pick a good language book, or a good text about the language, like one about linguistic analysis, and read it peacefully) seriously, you might find that grammar is just so.... To "say" grammar is difficult is a big scam, and mastering grammar isn't even the slightest proof of language proficiency. When you get the hang (i.e. grammar, phonology, etc) of the whole game, then you know this language is an infinite challenge (numerous contexts) and much more learning stages (pragmatic competency, cultural awareness, cross-cultural discourses...) are waiting for you.
So, for me, grammar is just a book - let me just put the elements of grammar (presented as a book) as "grammar rules" - and rules are exhaustive. But to put it simply, vocab is never really exhaustive. Any average language (and holistic) courses can bring you up to at least a level of decent competence in grammar alone, and often with "quite a bit" of vocab (say 2000 words, to be optimistic, excluding any varied morphological forms); but then, that's much less than a fraction of the language knowledge you need, as an adult (supposedly), for becoming a translator, for studying another degree program in that language, for understanding films and all daily conversations in it, etc.