What is the easiest language to learn? Ranking of the 14 Most Popular Course Offerings

What is the best language to learn? Which is the easiest?

Two different questions, often spoken at the same time. But that’s okay, because there will only be one answer. Whichever language you choose to study wholeheartedly, it will be the best and the easiest. However, here is some help in choosing.

The options.

Here’s the Modern Language Association’s 2002 list of the most commonly studied languages ​​at the university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages ​​such as Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purpose languages ​​such as American Sign Language, or American heritage languages, such as Hawaiian or Navajo, as the choice of those languages ​​follows a dynamic different:

1. Spanish

2. French

3. German

4. Italian

5. Japanese

6. Chinese

7. Russian

8. Arabic

9. Modern Hebrew

10. Portuguese

11. Korean

12. Vietnamese

13. Hindi / Urdu

14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider a few cold facts. The US Department of State groups languages ​​for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The “easiest” languages ​​for English speakers, requiring 600 hours of class work for minimal proficiency: Latin and Germanic. However, German itself requires a little more time, 750 hours, due to its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requiring 1100 hours of class work: Slavic languages, Turkish languages, other Indo-European languages ​​like Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-European like Georgian, Hebrew and many African languages. Swahili ranks better than the rest, with 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requires 2200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Will you have the opportunity to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful learner, you need the opportunity to listen, read, and speak the language in a natural setting. Language learning requires a tremendous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely in the classroom. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses based on a combination of language ease and accessibility.

1. Spanish. Category one. Simple grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a significant presence in the insular language environment of the United States. Opportunities to speak and listen to it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of the language studies enrollment in the MLA study.

2. French. Category one. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because many of its words have entered English. Due to this affinity of vocabulary, it is easy to reach an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated student will find this language on the Internet, in movies, and in music.

3. German. Category one more. The syntax and grammar rules are complex, and noun declensions are a major problem. It is the easiest language to start speaking with, with a basic vocabulary similar to English. However, abstract and advanced language differ markedly when English opts for Latin terms. Values ​​clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category one. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary, and the clearest enunciation among the Latin languages ​​(along with Romanian). Knowledge of Italian can easily be transferred to French or Spanish. You may have to go to Italy to practice it, but worse things can happen to you. It is also found in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category two. This heavily inflected, inflected language is quite difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet isn’t particularly difficult, however, and once you can read the language, the many loanwords from French and other Western languages ​​come as a pleasant surprise. It is becoming more accessible.

6. Arabic. Category three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but it includes some consonants that do not exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good handwriting is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not written normally (except in children’s books) and this can be a hindrance to reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and there are opportunities to practice it at all levels of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category one. One of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, although the phonetics can take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category two less. Includes many loanwords from Arabic, Persian, English, and French. It is a Bantu language of Central Africa, but has lost the difficult Bantu “tones”. The sound system is familiar and is written using the Latin alphabet. An important grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary and are predictable.

9. Hindi / Urdu. Category two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has a huge number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have difficulty hearing. Words often have shortened endings, which further complicates understanding. Hindi uses a lot of Sanskrit loanwords and Urdu uses a lot of Persian / Arabic loanwords, which means that a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the precise Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Unsurprisingly, the use of a borrowed Persian / Arabic script in Urdu leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category two. Revived as a living language during the 19th century, it has acquired characteristics of many languages ​​of the Jewish diaspora. The resulting language has been regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many borrowed words, especially from Yiddish, English, and Arabic. The alphabet has printed and written forms, with five vowels, usually unmarked. The marking or marking of vowels is quite complex when it occurs. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain relationship makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category three. Difficult to learn as the vocabulary is unknown and the sound system requirements are so strict that even the many words that have been borrowed from English, French and German will seem unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is tremendously difficult to read and write. Also, social limitations can prevent useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category three. If your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (the MLA survey does not make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all the most difficult aspects: unknown phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system and an equally unknown vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the positive side, it is easy to find, as Chinese communities exist all over the world and Chinese-language media, such as newspapers, movies, and television, are present in all of these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category three. This language belongs to a family of unknown languages, but it borrows a lot of vocabulary from Chinese (useful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones and a grammar with an unknown logic. Not everything is bleak, however, Vietnamese uses an alphabet derived from Latin. The chances of speaking this language are not high, although there are 3 million speakers in the US.

14. Korean. Category three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, accurately representing 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2,000 Chinese characters commonly used for literary writing and formal documents. Speech and honorific levels complicate vocabulary learning, and there is a link between words, making it difficult to distinguish between them. The grammar is not too complicated and there are no tones. It borrows a lot of Chinese words, but the language is not related to other Asian languages.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation.

The third and most important factor is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that motivates you the most to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. There is no use trying to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language implies participating in their behaviors and identifying with their people.

So, consider the three factors: motivation, accessibility, and linguistic ease, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that humans are hardwired for a great deal of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to activate the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of the language are clear to you, you can get those rusty synapses of the language in your head and start rolling the words. Good luck!