Why is it generally easier for English speakers to learn Spanish or French than it is to learn German, when German is a fellow Germanic language, and French and Spanish are Romance languages?
2007-01-17 17:18:15 · 10 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
Well, it could be that Spanish (at least) is more often heard in this country than German. The more you can use a language, the easier it is to remember it. Also, a lot of words in the "romance" languages are quite similar...if you learn one, it is a little easier to learn another one. Although German is one of the languages that is taught in a lot of high schools, more kids take Spanish because there is a higher probability of usefulness in the job market.
2007-01-17 17:28:24 · answer #1 · answered by SUSAN N 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I would say that German is actually easier than learning the romance languages such as Italian, French, or Spanish considering the fact that english has some Germanic roots involved to it and some of the words are frighteningly similar.
2007-01-18 21:06:35 · answer #2 · answered by Robert B 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The main reason is that English contains a high percentage of vocabulary derived from both Latin and French, so you will recognise a lot of words when you learn a Romance language. Another important reason is the difficult German grammar, which most English speaking people find hard to master.
2007-01-18 03:40:30 · answer #3 · answered by Dennis J 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Me personally to me English is a Latin language. Because it has so many things in common with French, Italian, and Spanish. Like Problem(English)and problema( in Italian and Spanish). I speak Italian and Spanish. Also you will notice the Roman Empire Ruled France, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Latin was the language of the Roman Empire. All those countries have Romance languages, but the Roman Empire also ruled most of Great Britain which English comes from. So I guess English should really be called a Latin language. English get over 65% of it's world from the Romance languages.
2007-01-18 04:25:34 · answer #4 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Romance languages probably just seem like they would be easier because more people learn Spanish in schools here in the US since there are more possibilities to do something with it. But German is harder because it has a more intense grammatical system once you get passed the beginner levels.... but it also sounds more familiar since it has so much in common with English. I don't think it's harder or easier it's just what you're willing to put the effort and interest into learning.
2007-01-18 01:31:39 · answer #5 · answered by skapuis 1 · 5⤊ 1⤋
I find German to be very similar to English and think my Italian class to be more difficult. English is half Germanic and Latin so I guess it could go either way although there are more congregations in the Latin Languages but the German Language has the neuter which Italian only had male and female
2007-01-18 01:22:53 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
Although English is classified as Germanic, it shares very strong links with Romance languages because of the Norman invasion of England in 1066. More formal words are of Romance roots, not Germanic, so words in other Rom. lanugages are generally easier to translate (you learn the simple words in a language first, so after a while all the words you have yet to decipher are more formal words). However, not everyone does find Rom. languages easier to learn. In my experience, Germ. ones are.
If you are comparing specifically German with French and Spanish, the latter are easier to learn because German has more complicated grammar rules - but German is reputedly the hardest Germ. language to learn: Germ. languages in general aren't as difficult.
2007-01-18 02:00:14 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 5⤊ 1⤋
Because in german everything declines. All the adjectives decline based on the case and action of the nouns in the sentence. the plural is a lot harder. and the vocab can be considered harder, just because the words are longer.
i am comparing all this to french and spanish, because i have friends in both those classes on the same level as me; i don't know anything about italian. thats what they say the differences are.
2007-01-22 00:01:38 · answer #8 · answered by milan 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
I don't agree. I learned German and Spanish. I found them to be about the same difficulty. Both have gendered nouns which English doesn't have.
2007-01-18 06:44:53 · answer #9 · answered by rbwtexan 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'd say that German is very easy to learn for English speakers, at least I found it that way. I thought that it was very much like English, except that the rules of grammar were followed much closer.
2007-01-18 01:21:53 · answer #10 · answered by Biggg 3 · 5⤊ 0⤋