Want to learn a differant language, Is German the simplest? what is the hardest?

Question

To me it seems the eaiset to understand, myself only being an English speaker. I'm of Polish heritage so would be interesting.

Answer 1

Gosh... we'll there's no such thing as an easy or hard language for starters... but German is very close to english so you probably wouldn't suffer too much. Find one that's fun for you, cause motivation is more important than how hard it is.

Actually Icelandic is considered one of the hardest languages in the world.

Answer 2

Dutch and it's sister language Afrikaans, of the major languages, are historically the most closely related to English (Frisian is similar to Dutch, and consider a little bit closer, but it only has a few hundred thousand speakers). Of Dutch, Frisian, German and Afrikaans, the latter is far and away the simplest. It has practically no verb conjugations, for starters. Whole sentences are the same as English, for instance "My pen is in my hand".

German (though still related to English) is a little further removed from English, especially with regard to pronounciation. It's grammar is also a little more complex than Dutch (and especially more so than Afrikaans), but German is not as difficult is it is often made out to be. All the languages mentioned so far are Germanic languages.

The Romance languages, such as Spanish and French are often cited as "easy" languages for English speakers, because English contains a lot of French and Latin words (which are also shared by Spanish). Don't be too swayed by that. The tense system in all Romance languages is extremely complex, with dozens of conjugations to learn for each verb. Also, the stress is different, so few English speakers really manage to learn to sound natural. But they are still relatively easy languages to learn.

Germanic languages correspond to English with regard to grammar, stress and basic vocabulary (hand, water, milk, bread, eat, sit, stand). Romance languages correspond to English mainly in mid to higher level vocabulary (addition, exchange, condition, intention), but with the advantage that the words are often almost exactly the same, whereas English's cognates with Germanic languages are often similar, but not exactly the same (stand in German is stehen).

Seeing that you are allready interested in German, I say go for it. It is not the simplest (a question which does not have a simple answer anyway), but close enough to English. Plus German is quite a useful language (second most widely used on the internet). Chinese, though also useful, must be right up there among the hardest languages, because it is not related to English at all, and because of it's non-alphabetic script.

Answer 3

No its no longer that unhealthy. I studied it for approximately five years from eighth grade via twelfth. It's very similar to English, in order that most likely is helping. There are nonetheless sixteen one-of-a-kind approaches of claiming "the" and "a" that's lovely ridiculous, however for those who be taught it slowly, it will finally all come in combination. I extensively utilized to are living in Germany, in order that helped, however by the point I began learning it, I had forgotten all of it so its no longer like I had an abilities. But have amusing. Lol I consider that is the primary time Ive each and every heard any person say that Germans are wonderful, however howdy some thing floats your boat haha. Good Luck

Answer 4

I was always interested in learning German but at the time my school didn't offer it. Seemed easier than either the French or 2 years of Spanish I tried. For me, French was the hardest.

Answer 5

I agree with Rhea113. But you could also choose one you find interesting. For example, I'm Mexican and my second language is English (my school was bilingual). I wanted to learn a third language, so I tried Italian (which was so much like Spanish I got bored) and French (which I liked). Finally, I went to a Japanese class and I loved it. It is hard, but it's also very interesting, the writing looks beautiful and I have learned a lot about Japanese culture.

Answer 6

Well, you have it easy!!!

English is the hardest language to learn!

Since you have that down, anything is possible.

But if I were to choose a foreign language, I would choose something that goes back to my roots.

For example, my heritage is German, Irish and Cherokee indian.

I would LOVE to learn how to speak any of their native languages.

It would be magnificent to know how to speak the words that my family background is based off of.

It is truly a beautiful thing. Don't learn how to speak a specific one just because it is easy to learn. Choose one that is meaningful! =)

Answer 7

Chinese is definitely not the easiest to learn, but it must be the most necessary for us to learn. We in the West need to make more of an effort to understand China - after all, we’re surrounded by stuff that’s made there! Check this site to learn more about learning Chinese http://www.learnchinese.bj.cn/

Answer 8

I m trilingual, I can speak Mandrin, Englsih, and Japanese. My native language is chinese mandrin, chinese character is very interesting, because u can understand it from the look. In my private view, German is the most relevant language to Englsih, they have the similar spelling, and pronunciation, so i suggest u learning it .

Answer 9

Spanish is definetly the easiet. It has a ton of Americanized phrasing and is spelled exactly the way it sounds! Their alphabet is almost the same as English except for a few characters.
the hardest? Something with foreign characters instead of a basic alphabet I would assume. Good luck to you!

Answer 10

Dutch is the easiest Greek hardest if you do not understand it sounds like Greek