In your opinion, what is the easiest language to learn besides English?

Question

Also, how many languages do you speak (I mean fluently)? What do you think is the most useful language to learn? And what is the coolest? I think Spanish is probably the easiest to learn and it's definitely the most practical. I would love to learn to speak French! I took 4 years of Spanish in high school and 3 more classes in college but I still am not fluent! And I can't understand at all unless they talk in slow motion! I know this sounds crude but I think German is the ugliest language! It sounds so harsh! And I have German in me so don't chew me out! The hardest language I think to learn would be Chinese, Japanese, and some of the African and Middle Eastern languages.

Answer 1

Spanish, Italian and German are all very easy to learn.

English is the HARDEST language to learn and has been acknowledged by linguists as the hardest to learn.

German I think was the coolest to learn. I really enjoyed that one. We speak the 4 languages here at home. Spanish, Italian, German and English.

We are of English background, but talk often in the different languages just for fun.

Answer 2

The hardest language, hmmm. Again a debatable question.
Each language is dependant on the complexity it presents to potential students, and the desire and mental discipline that those students command. English is a contender because of all its bastardizations and idioms. Navaho (Navajo) is also. They used Navaho as a code language in the Pacific because of its complexity during World War II.

The constructed language Esperanto is the strongest contender as the easiest language because it is designed to be just that. A look at its history will show you that it is expanding exponentialy. In numerous studies conducted over the last century, it has been demonstrated that first mastering Esperanto can lessen significantly the amount of instruction required for a third or forth language, because it clearly demonstrated linguistic theory that is useful in understanding languages. The link below provides details on this phenomena.
Now one could say that the same effect would happen with almost any language, and I believe they are correct. So if you are in a position to learn any language, and hope to use it to vault into a third language, then by all means do so.
The only real benefit that Esperanto has over the other tongues in this case is its ease of absorption, and its clear demonstration of linguistic principles.
I frequently make this next statement, and I live by it.

"If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language."

At the very least, if you learn Esperanto first, which by the way can lead to the enjoyment of meeting new friends and traveling to new places, you'll at least have that under your belt regardless of how far you decide to take any other languages.
It's not uncommon for a student of Esperanto to become fluent inside of a month, maybe less, if you've the desire.

Please don't let anybody tell you it's useless. As with anything else, it's use is dependant on how you decide to use it. With over 2,000,000 speakers in the world, there aren't too many places where you won't find it, you just need to look. The internet is the best place to start. The sites below are the best intitial places to investigate the language and it's history. (Yes, it has a history (120 years) and a culture.)
Research and make your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 3

First of all, English is the HARDEST language to learn. It may not seem that way to you, because I'm assuming it was your first language and you grew up with it, but when you think about it, think of how difficult it is with all its little "rules". Take for example, I before E except after C. That's a rule of the English language, but it is broken ALL the time. Like in the word science. I think the easiest language to learn besides English is Latin, (which I take) although it is a dead language, because its easy to pick up if you know Spanish, French, English, German, or a few other languages. As for the hardest language to learn, I believe it is Chinese. Not Japanese, because I am currently learning Japanese. It's hard, but also easy because they have an alphabet. Chinese is difficult because they don't have an alphabet. They a have a single character for every word. And also, just call me a linguist, because I am also learning how to speak French, because my mother knows the language because she lived in Paris for a year. I do agree, I love the language and would love to be fluent in it.

Answer 4

Spanish would be the easiest if you speak English because it is most like English. Some people i know that took Spanish and didn't do too well took French and they said that it was easier. I guess it just depends on the person. I agree that German is an ugly language!

Answer 5

I speak six including English, and found Italian to be the easiest. Chinese isn't hard at all, but my tribal language, Cherokee, is the hardest I have ever encountered. The syllabic writing system is very easy though. It's easier to learn to READ Cherokee than it is to speak it.

Answer 6

You are basically right about Chinese and Japanese. However their grammars may not be the hardest. According to what I heard, Hugarian grammar is the hardest in this universe. Although writing might be hard, Chinese grammar is fairly simple. One example, there is no "go-went-gone" in Chinese, you just use "go" all the time for today/yesterday/tomorrow. Also, comparing to German/French, Chinese/Japanese do not differentiate sex for any Noun, Verb..etc. Isn't that nice? I think Chinese grammar is easier than English. Japanese grammar is much more complicated than Chinese and it is definitely harder than that of English.

Answer 7

Spanish, Italian and French are all romance languages, and all follow a very logical pattern; so they're easy to pick up. Especially if you know one of them, the others come more naturally.
Swedish, too isn't too hard to pick up on. It's one of the East Germanic languages, but their grammar is so similar to English it's insane.
As for the hardest; Finnish is supposed to be pretty tough. There are 15 cases for nouns, at least 160 conjugations for personal forms for verbs, and you even have to conjugate the word 'no'. :/
French and English are lingua franca's, and are among the most useful, so thank goodness we've got those down.

Answer 8

Italian is the easiest . But the question is : is it useful for you or not ?
Could you use it for work , travel , reading ?
Then I would say : Spanish , Frence are more useful .
But I must tell you something : The best way to learn a language is to live in country of the language , alone , for few months .

Answer 9

You're right. Spanish is pretty easy.
French is, for the number of countries it's spoken in, one of the most useful languages. For instance, Ghana speaks English, but all its surrounding countries speak French (Cote D'Ivoire, Burkina Fasso)

Answer 10

probably Spanish is the easiest language to learn ... i speak Arabic & English Fluently ..n' i think that Italian is the coolest language :-) probably Chinese & arabic the most diffecult to learn ..