What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

“What is the simplest language to study?”

I’m asked this question so much, especially by people simply beginning out as language learners. It’s one of the most in style questions for beginners to ask.

So, what’s the reply?

In a moment, I’ll share what the
Fluent in 3 Months
(Fi3M)community thinks, and try the views of polyglots and professors.

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

What Makes a Language Easy to Learn?

First issues first: everyone’s different. There is a spread of things that can influence which language is the easiest for
youto learn.

Here are the important thing factors:

1. Your Motivation

Motivation is thefor success in studying
anyinternational language.

No matter how “straightforward” the language you’re studying is, you simply won’t make progress should you aren’t motivated. Even should you’re studying one thing new in
your native language(for example, authorized or medical terminology), you STILL received’t be taught it should you aren’t motivated.

I need to be clear on this. While it’s enjoyable to analyse and compare languages to see which one is the easiest, the results solely apply in an imaginary “perfect” world. I name this the “all things being equal” situation. Equal time spent finding out, equal entry to resources, and
especiallyequal motivation for every language.

But all things aren’t equal in the actual world. People study languages for very completely different reasons. People’s motivation modifications from everyday. They may examine inefficiently. A so-referred to as “simple” language might be rather more difficult for you than for someone else, as a result of, as I’ve stated, everyone’s totally different.

This is one of the causes I say that
anylanguage can be easy to learn. In impact it’s a degree enjoying field when it comes to assessing the difficulty of a language. When you’ve obtained the will, you'll find a means by way of the “difficult” components of any language.

2. Your Native Language

In general, the more intently-associated your native language is to your target language, the better it is going to be to be taught your goal language.

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

When your target language overlaps together with your native language in terms of grammar, syntax or vocabulary, you naturally have a head begin if you start studying your goal language.

3. Your Other Languages

The different languages you converse, or that you grew up hearing your loved ones converse, may also influence how straightforward different languages shall be so that you can learn.

Just like along with your native language, the extra related a given language is to a language you already converse, the extra simply you’ll learn it.

This is particularly true as a result of when you’ve
learneda second language somewhat than
acquiredit such as you did your first language, you then’re very aware of the structure of that language. Maybe even more conscious than you might be 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 delicate turn of phrase. This hyper-awareness of the features of the language means that if you attempt to study another language from the same household, you’ll have a head start.

Here’s Why I Believe that
AnyLanguage Can be Easy

Ultimately,
all languages have the identical absolute issue.

As far as I’m concerned, things like “grammar complexity”, “tones”, “writing system” and different aspects of a language don’t come into play when serious about how tough or straightforward a language is to learn.

In other words, there isn't a language that’s
inherentlytougher to be taught than another.

How do I know this?

If some languages were harder, then youngsters would take longer to pick up those languages. But they don’t. Kids around the globe start speaking their native languages at around the similar time.

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

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

We’ve established that “What’s the simplest language to study?” is a subjective query. It is determined by your native language, different languages you converse, and particularly your
passionand motivation. But if you communicate English fluently, then we can get extra specific about which languages are simpler.

Let’s check out what educational analysis, polyglots, and language learners all say about what the best language is for English audio system to learn.

Academic Research on the Easiest Language to Learn

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

They specialize in instructing foreign languages to English audio system, so they need to understand how long every language takes to be taught so they can design their courses. Through analysis and many years of expertise, they’ve ranked all of the languages they teach into categories based on the size of the course.

, the languages that fall into the best category are:

• Afrikaans


• Danish


• Dutch


• French


• Italian


• Norwegian


• Portuguese


• Romanian


• Spanish


• Swedish

This ranking relies solely on how related these languages are to English. It’s really solely useful for the perfect situation: eight hours a day in an intensive studying environment (while getting paid!), a teacher who is aware of exactly how to train English speakers to use the language in the actual world, and the motivation of figuring out that failing the examination will negatively have an effect on your profession.

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

For instance, despite the fact that Spanish is listed right here as one of many
easiestlanguages to learn, I personally found it the
hardestout of all of the languages I’ve studied. Why? Because my method was all incorrect at first. I took months-lengthy Spanish courses as a substitute of looking for. I didn’t. And worst of all, for the primary few months of studying Spanish, I didn’t feel motivated.

newspaper has compiled its own list of the simplest languages for English audio system to study. The listing is similar to the FSI’s, containing largely Romance and Germanic languages. They additionally include Esperanto (extra on this later) andin the listing. The FSI doesn’t train these, in order that they don’t appear in the FSI rating.

Polyglot Opinions on the Easiest Language to Learn

You might be surprised to study that not plenty of polyglots have outright stated which languages they believe are the best to be taught. Nor have I.

Many polyglots perceive that attempting to rank languages according to problem includes too many variables to be worthwhile.

That mentioned, there may be one language on the market that I think comes closest to being “objectively easy”:.

Most of the options that help make other languages straightforward may be found in Esperanto, together with:

The purpose Esperanto is really easy is that it was
designedto be. It’s an artificially constructed language. But don’t let its “artificiality” turn you off from studying it. English language school is large, and. I found it a really fulfilling language to be taught.

In truth, should you’re new to language learning, then I
highlyadvocate that you just. It will open up a worldwide community of Esperanto speakers, and expose you to the language-studying process in order that your subsequent language might be noticeably simpler to study.

My good friend and fellow polyglothas. She agrees that it’s unimaginable to offer a conclusive answer, however examines the question from a number of points of view. For English audio system, she argues that Afrikaans may be one of the best languages. Its easy grammar and similarity to Dutch imply that English audio system can simply grasp the fundamentals.

Like myself and lots of different polyglots, Judith ranks Esperanto as the best language to learn for probably the most variety of people worldwide. Considering she’s the pinnacle organiser of the Polyglot Gathering and a representative of the, you can guess she is aware of her stuff!

What does the
Fluent in 3 MonthsCommunity Think?

Of course, the conclusions of educational analysis and skilled polyglots still don’t imply a lot when it comes to your private experience. “Your mileage might vary,” because the saying goes.

Best ways to learn English took a look on theand other language-studying websites to seek out out what language learners such as you suppose. Here are a couple of of their responses:

• Spanish – as a result of the writing system could be very common, it’s full of cognates with English, and the pronunciation is easy.


• 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 usually thought of to be a dialect of English. But much of Scots is mutually unintelligible with English, although nearly all Scots speakers also communicate English fluently. The two languages do have lots in frequent, so many language learners declare that it’s the best language to study.


• Esperanto – This one retains reappearing as a well-liked alternative. Maybe there’s something to it 😉


• English additionally will get a shout out (though not for people who already converse English, in fact!) – not as a result of its grammar or vocabulary are inherently easy, but because it’s so accessible around the world. The web is bursting with English resources, and there are free English language courses all over the place. Movies, TV, music and the information all have numerous choices online. And English lecturers are everywhere.alone has over 1300!

So, What is the Easiest Language to Learn?

Everyone has their own opinion of which languages are the easiest.

Ultimately, the decision is as much as you.

Whatever language you choose to study, don’t let ease of the language be your solely reason to be taught it.

The biggest influence on your language-learning success isn’t how simple or hard the
languageis, it’s about how simple or exhausting the
studyingis. Find methods to make
finding outsimple – for instance, by choosing enjoyable ways to check, utilizing, and only finding out a language you’re
motivatedto study – and
that language will naturally become an “simple” language
for you
.