What Makes A Language Easy To Learn
Many factors make a language one of the easiest languages to learn. These include:
History
Many languages have the same history. For instance, modern English was derived from a type of Old English that was spoken by Germanic tribes in England. These tribes were conquered by the Latin and French-speaking Normans in 1066.
It was through this means that modern English became a descendant of Latin, German, and French. Its grammar and vocabulary structures were taken from these languages.
Writing System
It takes time and lots of practice to master a new writing system while learning how to speak it.
Russian, Greek, Thai, Arabic, Hebrew, and other languages that use alphabets are easier to learn for English speakers than Chinese and Japanese that do not use alphabets.
In this case, each word may either represent an entire word or a syllable.
Cognates
Cognates refer to two words in different languages which have a similar origin, these words tend to look and sound the same. They also have the same meanings. It is easier for you to learn languages that have lots of cognates with your native language.
For instance, irresponsable in Spanish is a cognate of the English word irresponsible. Also, film remains the same in English and German, while adorabile in Italian is adorable in English.
Exposure
You can easily learn a language if you hear it often.
Resources
Grammar
Similarity To English Structure
Each language that we speak today, including English, has its own origin. Just like we do as humans.
When you track back to the roots of the English language, it began from the Proto-Indo-European language family. Refer to the image below, and you can see languages that are similar to one another. English, for example, is quite similar to German, Afrikaans, Dutch, French, Spanish, etc.
That means these languages are easier to learn as an English speaker, versus Mandarin or Korean . â
Is It Really That Difficult To Learn English
Chinese, Russian, and Japanese are examples of other languages in the same way. More than 1.5 billion people speak English at some point in time, making it one of the most popular languages in the world.
Learning English is complicated for several reasons. Learning the grammar structure, pronunciation, rules, definitions, and pronunciation of German is challenging. However, there are some easiest languages to learn for English speakers like Dutch, Spanish, French and Italian. Furthermore, learning a foreign language for English speakers is similar to learning a native language.
All that matters is how commit you are to learning the fundamentals. Language difficulty can also be determine by the individual. Students who seek out information about is English easy to learn can learn English more easily if you dont worry about the rules.
Pay attention to native-language content when reading and listening. Learning English would be more difficult if your language learning targets are high. Its as simple as that.
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What Languages Are Spoken In Pakistan
First of all, lets list the popularly spoken languages in Pakistan while looking at the percentage of their speakers in the countrys total population.
- Natively Percent Speaking Urdu 10%
- Natively Percent SpeakingPunjabi 48%
- Natively Percent Speaking Sindhi 12%
- Natively Percent Pakistanis Speaking Saraiki 10%
- Natively Percent Speaking Pashto- 8%
- Natively Percent Speaking Balochi 4%
- Natively Percent Speaking Hindko 2%
- Natively Percent Speaking Brahui 1%
Now, lets discuss each of these languages in Pakistan in detail.
Why English Is Easy
Despite these difficulties, English is actually the easiest language in the world to learn. You may think Im crazy for saying this but allow me to explain.
Unlike other languages, English has no cases, no gender, no word agreement, and arguably has a simple grammar system. English speakers sometimes have difficulties when learning Portuguese because they are not used to words having genders.
The reason why English is the easiest language to learn is because of the vast selection of English resources to learn from, including TV shows, movies, music, podcasts, books and websites. English is the most studied foreign language in the world and there are a ton of resources available to help speakers of each specific language learn English. There are thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of books written about learning English as a foreign language that you can use to improve. In addition there are a ton of great English learning blogs on theinternet.
Studying from a book will only get you so far though you need to get contact to the real language as its spoken by native speakers in order to speak the best English. You need to make a lifestyle out of English where you listen to music, watch TV and read in English every day. The popularity of English pop culture means that you dont have to look very far in order to find English language resources that you can incorporate into your daily life.
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Easiest Languages For English Speakers To Learn In 2021
by Olly Richards
Have you ever wondered what the easiest languages to learn are?
As we enter the new decade, maybe youve decided its the perfect time to attempt one of your long-term goals and try to learn a foreign language.
Except you dont want to be too ambitious. Youd prefer to start learning something that gives you a reasonable chance of success.
If that sounds like something youve been mulling over, or even if youre just curious, heres my list of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers.
Oh and stick with me till the end to find out how to make learning any language easy, even the so-called hardest ones.
If you’re in a hurry, discover the 5 easiest languages to learn in the video below. Otherwise keep reading to discover all 13 languages.
Improving Your Spoken English
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How To Make Any Language Easy To Learn
Im learning Mandarin Chinese at the moment and it feels easy.
But it feels easy because Im learning at a pace that works for me. Im challenging myself, but not straining. And Im motivated because I spend my study time doing things I like.
Easy or difficult doesnt depend on how many hours it takes, or how complicated the grammar is. It doesnt even depend on how good or bad you are at it. It depends on how you feel while youre doing it.
If your idea of learning a language is spending hundreds of hours with your nose to the grindstone, youre going to make yourself miserable . Every language will feel difficult, from Spanish to Mandarin Chinese and everything in between.
But, if you can find your learning sweet spot, where youre challenging yourself but not frustrated or overwhelmed, any language will feel easy, whether its Chinese, Japanese, Arabic or Korean. Sure, theyll take a long time, but they wont feel difficult.
Instead of asking which language is the easiest to learn?, a more helpful question is:
how can I approach the language I want to learn so it feels easier?
With this in mind, here are 5 ways to make any language easy to learn:
What Factors Influence Whether A Language Is Easy Or Hard To Learn
There are many reasons for which certain languages can be easy or hard for an individual to learn. For example, tonal languages can be difficult for someone who has no prior experience of tonal languages .
However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and there are also many other contributing factors.
In this section, we are going to be exploring some of the main reasons why you may find a certain language easy to learn, or indeed very difficult.
This will help you to work out whether a particular language is right for you or whether you may want to start with the one that is more similar to your native language.
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Change In Function Of Part Of Speech
In the English language, a noun could serve as an adjective in a sentence depending on its usage. For example, whose father is at the door? Billys father is at the door. Billy is a name of a person, as such, it is a noun. But due to its usage in the given example, it serves as an adjective for the noun father.
Furthermore, you can easily change a verb to a noun by adding er. For instance, teach to teacher, dance to dancer, etc. In contrast, it doesnt work the same way for pray or cook.
Some Things Are Nonsensical:
The English language is often full of inconsistencies and illogical statements. Many words, for example, seem confusing to non-native speakers.
For example, what does pineapple have to do with the words pine and apple?
There are also cases where nouns become verbs. Teachers, for example, taught while preachers preached. Its difficult enough to clarify to native English speakers.
So imagine how difficult it is for English learners to understand these inconsistencies.
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Danish To Learn In A Year
You can learn Danish in a year with the help of online courses. With the online courses, you will be able to learn all the important phrases of the language in a month. All you have to do is just to learn the vocabulary and pronunciation of the words. You can also download the audio files and listen to them in your free time. You can learn to speak Danish in a year if you have good pronunciation. Many people learn to speak the language with the help of audiobooks. If you want to learn the language fast, you can try to take up the courses.
Video credit Lindie Botes
Join Online English Forums
The key here is to join forums for subjects that you are interested in that way, your motivation will rub off on your English learning and youll be more inclined to participate. So, whether its photography, movies, travelling or cooking, discuss your passion with other like-minded people in English.
If you feel nervous about people identifying you, make an anonymous profile. Then read through the forum to see what people are discussing. Once you feel confident, start to actively take part in the forum by answering questions posed by other people or post your own questions and have a conversation with the other members who answer you.
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Concentrate On The Bricks Not The Wall
When Will Smith was 12, his dad knocked down the brick wall in front of his business and asked him to rebuild it. It took him over a year, but he built it. And it taught him an important lesson about how to approach challenges without getting overwhelmed. He says:
You dont set out to build a wall. You dont say Im going to build the biggest, baddest, greatest wall thats ever been built. You dont start there. You say, Im going to lay this brick as perfectly as a brick can be laid. You do that every single day. And soon you have a wall.
Learning a language like Chinese or Arabic probably feels tougher than building the biggest, baddest wall thats ever been built. But dont get distracted by the big picture.
Just focus on laying one brick at a time. In each study session, build on what you already know by learning one more thing, then one more. If you keep it up for long enough, youll step back and realise that youve learned fluent Chinese .
Heres Why I Believe That Any Language Can Be Easy
Ultimately, all languages have the same absolute difficulty.
As far as Iâm concerned, things like âgrammar complexityâ, âtonesâ, âwriting systemâ and other aspects of a language donât come into play when thinking about how difficult or easy a language is to learn.
In other words, there is no language thatâs inherently more difficult to learn than any other.
How do I know this?
If some languages were more difficult, then children would take longer to pick up those languages. But they donât. Kids around the world start speaking their native languages at around the same time.
With all that in mind, weâre now ready to dip our toes into the question âwhatâs the easiest language to learn?â.
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Your Strengths As A Language Learner
While some of us may have a knack for grammar , others may get their kicks out of memorising vocabulary or even a whole new alphabet.
Whatever your language talents may be, its worth identifying them so you can pick a language thatll play to your strengths. That way, youll find the hardest parts of learning a particular language the most fun!
Easiest And Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers: Bottom Line
The most important thing that we want you to take away from this article is that even though some languages may be easier for a native English speaker to learn than others, it does not mean the harder languages are out of your reach.
With dedication, motivation, lots of passion, and enthusiasm to learn, you will be able to master any language you want. The only barrier you need to overcome is yourself.
Follow our tips in the section above to help you learn your chosen language a little quicker, and always keep in mind that good things take time. You will have noticed that even the easiest languages on this list can take between 575 and 600 hours.
That is a huge amount of time, and even then you will only be at intermediate, conversational level.
Learning a language is a lifelong skill and you will be learning it forever but guess what?
That is what makes it so wonderful. It is something you can keep on developing over time and once you have learned a second language, you will have an appetite for learning more, which will become even easier when you have more languages under your belt!
Above all, have fun. There will be times where you feel like giving up, but keep persevering. You will be glad you did when you hold your first conversation in your new language with a native speaker!
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Use The Goldilocks Rule To Get The Level Just Right
Imagine trying to talk about politics or read a newspaper in the language youve only just started learning. Youd probably get discouraged and give up pretty quickly.
Now imagine spending several lessons learning to count from one to ten. Youd probably get bored and give up pretty quickly.
In his article The Goldilocks Rule: How to Stay Motivated in Life and in Business James Clear talks about the importance of setting goals which are just right: achievable enough that you dont feel discouraged, but challenging enough that you dont get bored.
Finding the optimal challenge level, when youre working hard, but not too hard is key to staying motivated.
Keep this in mind when youre using textbooks and other resources. If youre losing interest, could it be that the content is too easy or difficult?
Aim for something that stretches you just beyond your current level, without being overwhelming.
Another way to make difficult tasks more appropriate for your level is to break them down into smaller chunks. For example, if studying grammar for 30 minutes feels too hard, why not go for 15 minutes instead? Or even 5?
A few minutes can add up to a lot of progress, when you do it every day.
The Top 5 Easiest Languages To Learn According To Busuus Experts
Now, as weve mentioned, there are also languages that are generally considered to be easier to learn than others.
Check out Busuus top five picks, judged by three main factors: spelling , pronunciation and grammar .
- Pronunciation: Very challenging
- Grammar: Very challenging
But remember: While these are universally considered the easiest languages to learn, they may not necessarily be the easiest ones for you.
Now, back to the quiz: there were a handful of factors we considered when putting together this quiz. Heres the low-down on our logic.
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Reason #: English Is A Gender
I think its really cool you can use any English noun and be 100% sure in the knowledge thatyou cant possibly get anything wrong in relation to its gender simply because theres none!
As you may already know, English nouns dont come in specific genders there is no such thing asFeminine, Masculine or Neutral Gender which makes it fairly easy to memorize and use any new English noun.