What was the easiest language for you to learn?

Question

I only speak english and I was wondering what was the easiest language to learn? Also what did you find the most fun to learn? thanks!

i only speak english and i was wondering what the easiest language for you to learn was? also what was the most fun to learn? the person with the longest message(tells me more about how it was easy for them to learn ect) gets to be the "best answer" person

Answer 1

I'll start with ways that can make learning a new language a little less painful. Here are some ideas many second language learners don't normally realize.

FIRST: Completely eliminate idioms when you speak. We use a LOT of phrases that are not understood in other countries, and they use ones we don't understand. Examples: Get to first base. Flip the switch. Hitch a ride. Hit the road.
Put yourself in the place of a new learner of English and ask yourself if you would really understand the meaning of 'hit the road' when you heard it, or would you wonder why somebody is asking you to strike the pavement?
Even between England and North America, for example 'knock someone up'. In North America it means get someone pregnant. In England it means knock on their door. So you can see how embarrassing it might be should you stumble on an idiom that means something else.

SECOND: Realize that it is not ALWAYS a one-for-one word exchange when translating. Some languages can express an idea in as little as one word compared to a few, and vice-versa.
Hand in hand with this, understanding that the idea being expressed is what's important, not the way it's said. Just because the sentence wasn't constructed the way we would have said it doesn't make it wrong.

THIRD: Pronunciation can be improved by reciting the names of things you see as you walk about, and holding conversations with yourself in the absence of friends to practice with. (Warning! Don't do this in the vacinity of mental institutions.)

Not to understate it of course, but listen to and read as much as you possibly can, whenever you can. Immersion, immersion, IMMERSION!

LAST: I cheated. I learnt the worlds easiest language first and now I find I understand English better (my native tongue) and I'm in a better position to learn more languages. I've provided a link below to better explain this.

That language was ESPERANTO. It is designed such that you MUST understand sentence structure, which helps to understand other languages. Plus you end up with a multitude of Esperanto friends; oh the burdens we bear.

Now let's take a closer look at Esperanto.

I frequently make this statement and I live by it.
'If you can't learn Esperanto, you can't learn any language.'
It's completely regular and phonetic. With only 16 gramatical rules and no exceptions. (That's right, you read that correctly, NO EXCEPTIONS!) You only need to learn the respective rules and know that it won't change on you out of the blue.

Believe it or not, Esperanto represents the best chance for the survival of the multitude of dying languages since it's purpose is to provide an alternative to any one National tongue to the disadvantage of others.
Consider if you will, Esperanto is an easily learnt AUXILIARY language. This means that myself and that German, Japanese or Korean fellow over there needn't sink a lot of time and effort into learning each others mother tongues if they don't wish, where whose ever tongue we settle to communicate in will hold the advantage in any discussions; since the likelihood of having a mastery of the second language will be remote at best. Each partner has exerted a similar effort in order to communicate; a linguisticly neutral hand shake if you will. Yet we are still free to talk in our mother tongues when and where we choose.
Further, I am now in a position to visit just about every country in the world and with the help of my new found Esperanto speaking friend (2 million plus) learn of his / her culture and language. This second facet is possible because in learning Esperanto I now have a firmer grip on linguistic principles. I will provide a link below on the benefits of learning tertiary languages after Esperanto.
However, if it is Culture you desire, then you've no need to look much further than the Internet. In music there are Folk, Jazz, Opera, Rock, Hip Hop, Rap, childrens' songs, etc. In literature there is multinational translations plus original works. The yearly Esperanto Congresses are a play ground for young and old alike for interaction.
It's use is expanding exponentially. The last educated guess puts the number of functionally fluent speakers at 2 million plus and another 2,000 native speakers (those that were born to an Esperanto household; yes they exist).
Yet many feel threatened by it because they feel it is atempting to be the ONLY language spoken, which is NOT the case. It is simply a tool to allow those that might otherwise struggle to learn a new language, the option of expanding their horizons.
Finally, there is currently $600 million plus a year being spent on translation services at the UN, and a similar amount in the EU, because no one nationality wants to loose the prestige of owning one of the 'working' languages in each of those institutions. This a huge waste of resources that might otherwise go to feeding and housing those less fortunate. A single working language, easily learnt (less than a year to become fluent) would certainly go along way towards that goal. The Universal Esperanto Asociation (UEA) currently holds observer status (class B) at the UN and UNESCO. So there is some movement towards this goal.

Research and draw your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 2

Here's the deal: I've taken Spanish and Russian, and am thinking about moving next to Czech.

I HATED Spanish, and consequently, it was the most difficult language for me to learn. I didn't have much choice when it came to taking it, though; when I started taking foreign language classes, the only language taught was Spanish. When I got to college, I got out of the first few credits and thought finishing it out would be the easiest thing. However, I wasn't impressed with the teachers and subsequently dreaded going to class.

I ended up completing Spanish and moved onto Russian. Now, I hear Russian is pretty difficult for most people to learn -- but I took to it really quickly. Unlike Spanish, the alphabet is almost completely different in Russian, and some of the grammar is, too (though the same goes for Spanish, in a way). However, I love the class and all the instructors in the very small department, and I'm now double-majoring in it.

I also have friends taking a variety of other foreign languages (a few are linguistics majors), and they've all taken to different languages -- some like Japanese the most (which I hear is wicked hard), some like French, and some like some of the really obscure ones here, like Swedish.

Maybe the easiest language to learn is the one you're most interested in taking? That's what's worked with me.

Answer 3

So far spanish, it is a catagory 1 language to learn (out of 3 catagories) im starting to recognize arabic, a catagory 3 language, and it is harder because the literature is nothing like english, in spanish, almost all of its letters are like the english ones, but in the arabic language, it is written in a type of scripture, and many of the sounds produced by this language are hard for an english speaker to learn, unlike spanish, which only has one sound for each letter, no matter what the combination, except for only a few. It is very easy to read spanish, and arabic has more of a variety in its sounds depending on how u combine the letters. I want to learn other languages tho, so i like the way arabic is so different, they are both beautiful languages, i will eventually know 3 different languages apart from my native language, which is english also, and i will have fun doing it myself because i want to use them, it depends on your motive and persistance in learning a language on how u feel about it.

Answer 4

I found English really easy... :p

I was pretty good at French when I was in school, then I left and pretty much forgot everything apart from the basics. I can speak some Welsh too but I didn't stick at it and now i'm annoyed at myself because I should really be fluent in it lol. I found that French and Welsh were both 'fun' to learn, if you can call it that lol.

Answer 5

for me it was english. knowing i speak both german and french as a native speaker, learning english wasn't really hard, being something of a mixture of both...
then spanish...
latin was much work, but quite easy grammarwise... and arabic is definitely the most difficult language i've tried to learn, and didn't succeed in in the end...
now, i'm learning italian, and with all these languages i already know, it's quite easy as well...

Answer 6

Spanish. In addition, I found that once you've mastered that, you can comprehend the other Romance language pretty well. It comes in handy when you stuck in a country that does not like English speakers, say France, and you're forced to use your knowledge of Spanish to get around.

Answer 7

German is the easiest language for me, besides my mothertongue, which is English. The hardest is Japanese, by far....but also the most fun, lol.

Answer 8

Cat. Quite easy to learn, but sometimes difficult to get your voice up that high. It was quite fun to learn!

Now I'm trying to get my cat to say "mama." No luck so far.

Answer 9

spanish. it's not as hard as it may seem at first, but once you learn the basics, it gets way easier. especially with verbs if you get the pattern. and also if you learn spanish, learning french, latin, or italian will be much easier.

Answer 10

For me it was first baby language,then,proper english,2nd then,english,After,A bit of spanish,Finilly spanish