Language difficulty rating for English Native speakers?

Question

On a scale of 1 to 5. 1 being the easiest, and 5 being the hardest, what do you rate each language difficulty to learn for an English Native speaker, and why?

Japanese, Chinese, French, German, Spanish.


Feel free to include others you would like to comment on.

Thanks

Answer 1

Spanish would be the easiest- It based mostly off of latin and so are many english words. Because of the similarities in origin, one can catch on to words and phrases quicker. The sentence structure differs from english, but can be picked up quickly as well. Pronouns are simple as they are either feminine or masculine and when hearing the noun it is easy to guess the pronoun
German would be number two- It has some words that are similar to english, but for the most part it is in a league of it's own. The sentence structure is very odd in that it is not anything like english or spanish. The pronouns are terribly confusing as there are masculine, feminine, and neuter which are placed on random nouns with no apparent rhyme or reason.
I would say that Japanese and Chinese are the hardest. I do not speak either language, but their alphabets are obviously different than ours. With german and spanish, the alphabets are the same and the sounds are for the most part similar. Japanese and chinese are in a whole entire league of their own in that they are not the least bit similar to english.

Answer 2

ok, I'm not precisely an english native speaker. I was born in Mexico (my mother tongue is Spanish)...but I have had contact with both languages all of my life. So I'll answer on my experiences.

*Japanese is hard for almost every person on the planet, the alphabet, the sounds they make, it's like no other language in the world. I'd rate it as 4
* Chinese, well, similar to Japanese. 4
* French belongs to the Roman-evolved languages, so, if you speak Italian, Spanish or some other language that comes from the same root you'll have not that amount of trouble. Rating: 3
*German shouldn't be hard for English native speakers. It has the same root, and many sounds (and even words) are the same. Rating: 1.
* Spanish seems to be really difficult for you guys. Even a person who lives in a Spanish speaking country nevr gets the accent of it really well. I think it's because of your pronounciation in English what makes you uncomfortable with the one in Spanish. The same as French, 3

Answer 3

Spanish, French, and German are undoubtedly the easiest of the five because all of them are grammatically similar to English and use the roman alphabet. Japanese and Chinese are much harder because they are completely different from English. In Korean (which is similar to japanese) sentences are arranged with subject, object, verb, unlike in english which is subject verb object. Spoken japanese may be easier than chinese, because it is a monotone language, unlike chinese which is tonal. However, from what I understand, grammatically chinese is very simple (for instance, to say I went to the store yesterday you don't conjugate the verb at all, you just say I yesterday store go) Additionally, chinese uses characters rather than an alphabet. And so the order I would give is Spanish, French, German, Japanese, Chinese.

Answer 4

Japanese 5
Chinese 5
German 4
French 2
Spanish 2
Japanese and Chinese would be the most complicated it will take you some time just to learn the characters that make up the alphabet. German will have a few extra characters. French and Spanish would be the easiest. I would consider Spanish considering most employers will take that into consideration when you apply for employment.

Answer 5

Phrasal verbs. Just too many of them for you to remember. But english was, overall, an easy language to learn. The grammar is pretty simplistic. I can understand why you feel these difficulties. Usually the difficulties greatly depend on your native tongue and the differences to the language you are learning

Answer 6

Spanish-1
French-2
German-3
Chinese/Japanese-5

Answer 7

Japnese-5+( Friend tried teaching me, way too hard)
Chinese-5+( Classmate tried teaching me a few words, I only know how to say "Merry Christmas" )
French-3(I'm learning French.)
German-3
Spanish-2 (I'm learning Spanish)

Answer 8

Japanese 5
Chinese 5
French 2
German 3
Spanish 2

i have only briefly looked at some of them, but i find French the easiest!
#

Answer 9

Chinese - hardest, because of the characters
Japanese - not as many characters, but more variety in how
characters are pronounced, and two more
alphabets
German - Grammar is not so easy, and pronunciation is
not so easy
French - Pronunciation is not so easy.
Spanish - It's all pretty easy.

Answer 10

Japanese: 4
Chinese: 5
French: 2
German: 2
Spanish: 1