What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

“What is the best language to be taught?”

I’m requested this question a lot, especially by folks just beginning out as language learners. It’s one of the popular questions for novices to ask.

So, what’s the answer?

In a moment, I’ll share what the
Fluent in three Months
(Fi3M)neighborhood thinks, and try the views of polyglots and professors.

Before we get there, let’s explore why this question doesn’t have a single, easy answer.

What Makes a Language Easy to Learn?

First things first: everyone’s totally different. There is a range of things that may affect which language is the easiest for
youto learn.

Here are the key components:

1. Your Motivation

Motivation is thefor success in learning
anyinternational language.

No matter how “easy” the language you’re finding out is, you simply gained’t make progress should you aren’t motivated. Even should you’re learning one thing new in
your native language(for example, authorized or medical terminology), you STILL gained’t study it should you aren’t motivated.

I need to be clear on this. While it’s enjoyable to analyse and evaluate languages to see which one is the easiest, the results only apply in an imaginary “ideal” world. I call this the “all things being equal” state of affairs. Equal time spent studying, equal access to resources, and
especiallyequal motivation for each language.

But all issues aren’t equal in the actual world. People be taught languages for very different causes. People’s motivation changes from everyday. They would possibly study inefficiently. A so-referred to as “straightforward” language might be much more difficult for you than for someone else, because, as I’ve mentioned, everybody’s totally different.

This is one of the causes I say that
anylanguage can be straightforward to study. In impact it’s a level taking part in field in relation to assessing the issue of a language. When you’ve received the need, you can find a method through the “troublesome” parts of any language.

2. Your Native Language

In common, the more intently-related your native language is to your goal language, the simpler will probably be to study your goal language.

For occasion, if Italian is your first language, you’ll most likely find French easier to learn than Icelandic (however once more, not if you’re more motivated to be taught Icelandic!). If your native language is Norwegian, Swedish will come more simply to you than it might to a native Russian speaker.

When your target language overlaps along with your native language when it comes to grammar, syntax or vocabulary, you naturally have a head begin if you begin learning your goal language.

three. Your Other Languages

The other languages you communicate, or that you just grew up listening to your loved ones converse, may even affect how easy different languages will be for you to be taught.

Just like with your native language, the more comparable a given language is to a language you already speak, the extra easily you’ll study it.

This is especially true as a result of when you’ve
discovereda second language somewhat than
acquiredit like you did your first language, then you’re very conscious of the construction of that language. Maybe even more conscious than you are together with your native language.

Unlike your native language, studying a second language after childhood means memorising grammar guidelines and vocabulary, and having to consciously suppose each time you conjugate a verb or use a refined turn of phrase. This hyper-awareness of the options of the language implies that should you attempt to study another language from the identical family, you’ll have a head begin.

Here’s Why I Believe that
AnyLanguage Can be Easy

Ultimately,
all languages have the same absolute difficulty.

As far as I’m concerned, issues like “grammar complexity”, “tones”, “writing system” and other aspects of a language don’t come into play when thinking about how tough or easy a language is to be taught.

In different phrases, there is no language that’s
inherentlytougher to be taught than another.

How do I know this?

If some languages have been more difficult, then children would take longer to pick up these languages. But they don’t. Kids around the globe begin talking their native languages at across the same time.

With all that in mind, we’re now able to dip our toes into the question “what’s the best language to be taught?”.

What’s the Easiest Language to Learn for Fluent English Speakers?

We’ve established that “What’s the best language to learn?” is a subjective query. It is dependent upon your native language, different languages you speak, and particularly your
ardourand motivation. But when you converse English fluently, then we can get extra particular about which languages are easier.

Let’s take a look at what tutorial analysis, polyglots, and language learners all say about what the easiest language is for English audio system to be taught.

Academic Research on the Easiest Language to Learn

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is the United States government’s diplomatic training agency. It prepares diplomats to serve at embassies and consulates all over the world. This preparation consists of overseas language coaching.

They specialize in teaching foreign languages to English speakers, so they need to understand how lengthy every language takes to be taught so they can design their courses. Through research and many years of expertise, they’ve ranked all the languages they educate into categories based mostly on the size of the course.

, the languages that fall into the simplest class are:

• Afrikaans


• Danish


• Dutch


• French


• Italian


• Norwegian


• Portuguese


• Romanian


• Spanish


• Swedish

This ranking relies only on how similar these languages are to English. It’s actually only helpful for the perfect state of affairs: eight hours a day in an intensive learning setting (while getting paid!), a teacher who is aware of exactly the way to practice English audio system to use the language in the actual world, and the motivation of understanding that failing the exam will negatively have an effect on your profession.

For the rest of us, the language-learning experience could be very different.

For example, although Spanish is listed right here as one of the
bestlanguages to study, I personally discovered it the
hardestout of all of the languages I’ve studied. Why? Because my strategy was all mistaken at first. I took months-long Spanish programs as an alternative of looking for. I didn’t. And worst of all, for the first few months of learning Spanish, I didn’t feel motivated.

newspaper has compiled its own listing of the best languages for English speakers to be taught. The record is much like the FSI’s, containing largely Romance and Germanic languages. They additionally embrace Esperanto (more on this later) andin the record. The FSI doesn’t teach these, so that they don’t appear in the FSI ranking.

Polyglot Opinions on the Easiest Language to Learn

You might be surprised to be taught that not a lot of polyglots have outright stated which languages they imagine are the simplest to study. Nor have I.

Many polyglots understand that making an attempt to rank languages in accordance with problem includes too many variables to be worthwhile.

That said, there may be one language out there that I suppose comes closest to being “objectively easy”:.

Most of the features that assist make other languages easy can be found in Esperanto, together with:

The cause Esperanto is so easy is that it was
designedto be. It’s an artificially constructed language. But don’t let its “artificiality” turn you off from finding out it. The Esperanto neighborhood is large, and. I found it a very fulfilling language to study.

In reality, when you’re new to language learning, then I
highlyrecommend that you simply. It will open up a worldwide neighborhood of Esperanto speakers, and expose you to the language-studying course of so that your next language might be noticeably simpler to be taught.

My good friend and fellow polyglothas. She agrees that it’s unimaginable to provide a conclusive answer, but examines the question from several factors of view. For English speakers, she argues that Afrikaans could also be one of the best languages. Its easy grammar and similarity to Dutch mean that English speakers can easily grasp the fundamentals.

Like myself and many other polyglots, Judith ranks Esperanto as the simplest language to study for essentially the most number of individuals worldwide. Considering she’s the head organiser of the Polyglot Gathering and a representative of the, you possibly can guess she is aware of her stuff!

What does the
Fluent in 3 MonthsCommunity Think?

Of course, the conclusions of academic research and experienced polyglots nonetheless don’t mean a lot in relation to your private experience. “Your mileage may differ,” because the saying goes.

I took a glance on theand other language-learning web sites to search out out what language learners like you think. Here are a few of their responses:

• Spanish – as a result of the writing system is very regular, it’s stuffed with cognates with English, and the pronunciation is simple.


• French – because of its super affect on English, making it quite comparable.


• Scots – Not to be confused with(which shouldn't be confused with!), Scots is typically thought-about to be a dialect of English. But much of Scots is mutually unintelligible with English, although almost all Scots audio system additionally converse English fluently. The two languages do have so much in common, so many language learners claim that it’s the simplest language to learn.


• Esperanto – This one keeps reappearing as a preferred choice. Maybe there’s one thing to it 😉


• English additionally gets a shout out (though not for individuals who already converse English, in fact!) – not as a result of its grammar or vocabulary are inherently simple, but because it’s so accessible around the world. The internet is bursting with English sources, and there are free English language programs in all places. Movies, TV, music and the news all have countless choices online. And English lecturers are in all places.alone has over 1300!

So, What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

Everyone has their very own opinion of which languages are the best.

Ultimately, the choice is as much as you.

Whatever language you choose to learn, don’t let ease of the language be your only cause to be taught it.

The biggest impression on your language-learning success isn’t how easy or hard the
languageis, it’s about how simple or onerous the
learningis. Find methods to make
finding outstraightforward – for example, by selecting enjoyable methods to check, using, and solely learning a language you’re
motivatedto be taught – and
that language will naturally become an “simple” language
for you
.

Have Your Say

What do you suppose is the easiest language to study, and why? Do you assume it’s potential to reply this question? Let me know in the feedback!

And lastly... One of one of the best ways to be taught a new language is with podcasts. Read extra about.

Benny Lewis

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

Fun-loving Irish guy, full-time globe trotter and international bestselling writer. Benny believes the most effective strategy to language studying is to.

Founder, Fluent in 3 Months

Speaks: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Esperanto, Mandarin Chinese, American Sign Language, Dutch, Irish

JOIN 300,000+ LANGUAGE HACKERS!

Start talking your target language from day 1 with confidence!

There was an error submitting your subscription. Please strive once more.

Click here to see the feedback!