Less than 22 percent of the U.S. population speaks a language other than . It is spoken in 21 different countries! Dutch is full of English cognatesdrinken (to drink), kat (cat), week (week), licht (light) and hundreds more. For all its challenges, though, it is a worthwhile language to learn with some interesting conventions. Fill in the form below and well contact you to discuss your learning options and answer any questions you may have. Norwegian. As a bonus, if you know Danish, you can read the next two languagesNorwegian and Swedishpretty easily. It has 47 different characters that must all be learned before you can fully get to grips with the language. Spanish is often the go-to language for English speakers because of its small inventory of speech sounds and user-friendly phonetic spelling system. Here are some good titles to get you started on Farsi lessons! This selection may also come as a surprise, but Indonesian has several qualities that make it a logical choice for English speakers. These minuscule differences can transform the meaning entirely. In fact, it shares many similarities with Indonesian due to the fact that a similar variety of the language is used in Indonesia, Brunei and Singapore., But, although Malay and Indonesian speakers can generally understand each other, there are some differences in terms of spelling, pronunciation, and vocabulary, with Malay based more on loanwords from English, and Indonesian having more loanwords from Dutch., Malay is widely considered to be one of the easiest Asian languages to learn, because its grammatical rules are simple and its easy to pronounce. People may not be aware that Romanian is one of the Latin languages because its not as popular as the other more commonly learned ones like Spanish and Italian. For instance, if youre familiar with Spanish, learning Italian will be much easier. The word order, syntax, and structure of Portuguese when writing and speaking are similar to English and other Romance languages. Like Indonesian, its an Austronesian language. Here are the five easiest languages to learn for Arabic speakers. Both the script and vocabulary system of this dialect is far from the modern version, with small, wedge-like lettering and a fusional language syntax system that mirrored other languages like Latin in using genders and noun cases. Finnish is an interesting language to feature on this list because most people may assume that it would belong to the Indo-European family. The Turkish language features an unfathomable 30 verb tenses compared to just 3 in English! If you are interesting in learning Korean, it is worth looking at the Rocket Korean language course, part of the Rocket Languages series. This may be because it is influenced in many ways by English and some of the more familiar Romance languages. Georgian is a language that is very unique as it has its own script. However, if you are looking for a modest challenge then Swahili is a great language choice for you. So if that is not enough motivation to learn we dont know what is! Like English, Norwegian or "Norsk" is a Germanic language, which makes it easier for English-speakers to learn. Although the pronunciation may take some time to master, Swedish grammar rules and sentence structure are not overly complicated., There are, of course, a few trickier aspects to learning this Scandinavian language, such as getting used to its three extra vowels. French features a few tricky components for native English-speaking learners, like gendered nouns, inconsistently pronounced letters, and lots of tricky silent letters. French speakers can master other Romance languages like Spanish, Portuguese and Italian. For example, a writer targeting the Japanese market might learn Japanese . Persia was one of the most powerful empires on earth, rivaling those of the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. Though Persian is spoken in several countries in the Middle East, it is primarily used in Iran and parts of Afghanistan as the Farsi language, or Iranian Persian. However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and there are also many other contributing factors. Following Darius, Xerxes I was initially successful in his campaign against the Greeks, but after defeat at the Battle of Salamis in 480 BC, the Empire took a decisive hit. In addition, there are many English words in French vocabulary . There are a number of different dialects of Georgian, depending on where you are speaking it, but the most common is the one spoken in Georgia itself. And of course, France exists! Rosetta Stone is a well-established course but isnt suitable for everybody. Italian 3. However, in general, it is much more difficult than other Indo-European languages because it uses a different alphabet or script system. Spanish also uses the same alphabet as English, and many of the words are pronounced just as they are spelled., Another benefit of Spanish for English speakers is that the sentence structure is not only similar to English, but its also not as strict as it is in English, which means there are often multiple ways a sentence can be put together.. If you want to learn Persian online, there are many great options available to you right at your fingertips. That means most learners wont find many words they cant get their mouth around! The only barrier you need to overcome is yourself. The most challenging part of learning Dutch is pronunciation, but thats nothing you cant master, especially if you have some experience in learning other languages. Though it might seem like a complex and daunting language to delve into, particularly with the different alphabet that it uses and the right-to-left reading and writing method employed, if you take some time, it can be a rewarding and surprisingly simple process! Download our free German essentials eBook to see the similarities. The Spanish language is phonetic (meaning the spelling tells you the pronunciation of the word). Look at this Norwegian sentence: Jeg spiste egg til frokost(I ate eggs for breakfast). The main reason for this is because of the use of the Cyrillic script. First of all, English and Norwegian share a lot of vocabulary. After Xerxes assassination in 465 BC, the litany of the last Achaemenid kings made strides in Persias cultural phase. For average native Turkish speakers, is it less difficult to learn/pronounce other non-Turkic agglutinative languages like Korean and Japanese or the languages of the neighbors with whom the Oghuz Turks have historically interacted frequently, like Armenian, Arabic, Farsi, Bulgarian, and Greek The Middle Persian language was also inflectional, but started showing changes towards a simpler manner of denoting relationships between vocabulary. This makes it easier to get to grips with if you already have prior knowledge of any of them. Feel free to get in touch about anything. This includes literature, history, traditions, and food, as well as the language. Here, the native name of the language is known as Farsi. From Early to Classical New Persian, the language managed to become more simplified and easier to understand and spread along with new religious guidelines as people migrated between Middle Eastern countries, bringing the ever-changing language with them. For example, improving listening skills should be. Of course, you also have the masses of Italian words that the English language has borrowed, such as pizza, pizzeria, stiletto, umbrella, and even words like dilemma and ditto! Keep reading to discover the easiest languages to learn you may be surprised by some of the options. Like Norwegian, it shares many different cognates with the English language, and pronunciation can be guessed relatively easily when you look at the spelling of certain words. That being said, it is more than doable and there are a wealth of resources out there if you choose to learn this beautiful, song-like language. It has no cognates or loan words, and you are highly unlikely to draw similarities between Finnish and English. It is easier to learn Kurdish and other similar languages in the Iranian language family after studying Persian (Farsi). According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), linguists, and learners, all the languages we mentioned today are fairly easy to learn. Of course, there are some challenging things about learning Swedish. The Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Beginner to Intermediate Course by Narguess Farzad is a go-to resource for learning the language from a book. From this period, we primarily have the remains of religious Pahlavi or Zarathushti texts that described Persias new religion, Zoroastrianism. You wont have to spend a lot of time developing reading skills. Because of its more challenging pronunciation, however, Danish isnt the easiest Scandinavian language to learn., Even so, if you plan to stay in Denmark for a longer period of time, learning the local language is simply the best way to fully immerse yourself in the countrys unique culture and form deeper connections.. The language is also full of idioms and homophones which, without prior experience, can also be very confusing. No grammar is super easy, but Swedish grammar rules are logical and somewhat similar to English. This family contains sub-groups of languages, namely the Germanic languages, the Romance languages (Spanish, French, and Portuguese among others), and Balto-Slavic languages (Prussian, Russian, Czech, Latvian, and more) to name but a few. Originally, Persian was the language spoken by the rulers and people within the Empire of Persia, stretching back for thousands of years. Many of their words are very long with unfamiliar letters and letter sounds such as and . Once the fundamentals are down, you should be more than ready for basic conversations and childrens books. Persian is one of the Iranian languages, having been spoken in Iran for hundreds of years. Enter Spanish. Over 2000 of them are commonly used, so you need to know at least all of those. This is one of the reasons why Persian speakers sound so melodic when pronouncing words aloud. This was the empire of Cyrus the Great, of Darius and Xerxes, and of the elite forces who fought the 300 Spartans within the pass of Thermopylae during the Greco-Persian Wars. Many popular world languages have very different grammatical structures to English. On one hand, its not an overly complicated language to learn, as the pronunciation isnt difficult, and much of its vocabulary is borrowed from other languages, including English, Spanish and Malay. As we just mentioned, it can be very rewarding to make a friend who is on the same language learning journey as you. With Farsi being such a surprisingly easy language to learn, why not start your journey into its grammar, inflections, and wider Persian culture today. For example, it is spoken in Iran and called Farsi. For instance, Good morning, translates to Goeie moarn in the West Frisian dialect., Unfortunately, since Frisian is only spoken and understood by about 500,000 people, theres little reason to learn it, unless you intend to relocate to the Dutch province of Friesland or Germanys Saterland or North Frisia regions., Dutch, like Frisian, is closely related to English. Enter Spanish. It is a vibrant, fluid, and ancient language, that ignites passion and intrigue in researchers, teachers, and those who want to learn how to speak it. You may assume that the Welsh language is Germanic due to being on the border of England and so close to the other countries with a Germanic language. Learn more at www.rosettastone.com and start your first lesson today! Some tonal languages may be particularly difficult for English speakers, as this is not something that they are used to. Welsh, the language of Wales (Englands neighbor) is a beautiful ancient language spoken by around 29% of the population in Wales. This is especially important if the language you are learning is a tonal one. It is full of mutations and consonants that are unfamiliar to an English speaker, but with some memorization and an eagerness to learn, it is certainly possible. German The Indo-European language is the source of many of its idioms and concepts; Latin, Greek, French, and English all contribute to its construction in various ways. Norwegian 6. Speak aloud to yourself or record yourself doing it using your smartphone, computer, or a recording device. Why? Language types and writing systems The multi-state system set up by Cyrus continued, including tax districts, infrastructure, communications, and transportation, all important to sustain such a massive expanse. And if you want vocabulary courses that helps you learn Farsi words, Memrises courses are helpful. Norwegian grammar is generally pretty straightforward, so it wont take you long to take a hang of it. Spanish pronunciation is another advantage. In their Latin script, they also include an additional nine letters, which look a lot like letters you are familiar with, but still require memorization and learning in order to fully understand and use them. Or, for a more step-based lesson book, try Learn Persian (Farsi) Step by Step: Level One Beginner (Steps 1 to 10) by Fruzan Seifi, available in both kindle formats and physical copies. 8 Easiest Languages to learn for English speakers | Edulyte At the end of the day, it all comes down to your motivation and persistence. This language is basically useless, but it is undoubtedly the easiest to learn. Youll also need to familiarise yourself with unfamiliar compound words like jordntter, which means peanuts, but translates to dirt nuts, or kofngare, which means bumper, but translates to cow catcher., Romanian is a language you might not have expected to see on this list. With its roots in Old Norse, it can be a fascinating language to study, and fluency in Norwegian will give you greater access to the countrys rich literary culture and mythology., Although Spanish is a Romance language rather than a Germanic language, its fairly easy for English speakers to learn because many English words stem from Latin. It's spoken in South Africa, Namibia, and a few other countries. And once again exposure. But compared to the languages with different writing systems and strange grammar concepts, learning basic Swedish is a piece of cake. The change to New Persian was initially sparked by the rise of Islam and the Arabic nations of the area, including the adoption of Arabic script for writing, illumination for manuscripts, and a wider spread of poetry. In addition to this, they also feature hard and soft sounds for each of the consonants, meaning that pronunciation can be difficult to get to grips with. Typically, it is thought to be easier to learn a language that is in your language family or sub-group. We mentioned Dutch above, but Afrikaans is like a grammatically boiled-down version of its parent language. Although Frisia no longer exists, Frisian, which actually consists of three main dialects, is still in use in parts of the Netherlands and Germany., English and Frisian share many similarities in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary. Indonesian 7 Easiest Languages To Learn This article will expose you to some of the simplest and moderate tongues you can learn. Arabic grammar is notouriously complex, and Persian speakers will have just as much problem with mastering the grammar as do English-speakers. Many Japanese language apps teach users the various fascinating aspects of Japanese culture whilst also teaching the Japanese language. You say what you see. There are hundreds of French cognates in English. The 10 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers What will help you to persevere even when it starts to get difficult? We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. In terms of vocabulary, youll learn new Swedish words very quickly. Tones are very important in some languages and are used to alter the meaning of the same sound. In comparison, a language that is not in your language family may be more difficult to get to grips with. Although estimates vary greatly, Swahili is thought to be spoken as a native language by around 16 million people, and as a second language by up to 80 million people., In fact, if youve watched the Disney classic The Lion King youll already be familiar with a number of Swahili words such as rafiki (friend) and simba (lion). There are many reasons for which certain languages can be easy or hard for an individual to learn. More job opportunities, including a higher income with being bilingual or multilingual. 1) Danish. There are some shared cognates such as ja which means yes and veld which means field. This is because the grammar, pronunciation, and even writing of Hindi is very difficult to get to grips with as it is so unfamiliar. Although its considered fairly easy, mastering Norwegian takes time. After Cyrus the Great transformed the groups of nomadic tribesmen into Persians and unified the lands under the name of an Empire, nearby Middle Eastern kingdoms like Media, Babylon, and Lydia soon fell under his rule to create the first superpower of the ancient world: the connection of Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus Valley. The Finnish language often uses just one word to say a whole sentence, which can be confusing for those used to the complex sentences of the English language. Especially if you have no one around you who speaks it. This has meant that Italian culture and the language have stayed very much alive in these places. The consent submitted will only be used for data processing originating from this website. This is another language on the list that might surprise you. Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn, so it's logical why it is the second-largest language worldwide.. (Download). Hungarian. For example, the word frolic meaning to play and move around cheerfully (e.g. For this reason, many native English speakers may find that these languages are a little easier to learn than a language such as Chinese Mandarin or Arabic. 1. For instance, Et tois? (And you?) There is also a welcome lack of verb conjugation, which is great news for learners, especially since this means that the sentence structure stays simple and short. Advertisements. Nevertheless, Georgian is a beautiful language, particularly when listening to the music of the country. It means that an average person takes up to 600 hours, or about 24 weeks . That being said, several different factors may affect how easy or difficult a person finds it to learn a specific language. Furthermore, whilst it is known to be difficult to learn and takes a long time, the result makes it worthwhile. So if youre curious about the easiest languages to learn, Ive got 10 great suggestions to help you out. Here are nine of the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers: 1. Even so, French is still one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. As a Romance language, Spanish derives from Latin, just like many English words. Under Xerxes, Persia took over large parts of Northern and Central Greece in the 480s BC, and the Empire was only shaken by the conquest of Alexander the Great by 330 BC. Some writing systems require writing from right to left, as opposed to the left to right method that Germanic languages (English, German, etc.) Brief history of Persia and the Persian language, University of Londons SOAS Language Center, Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Beginner to Intermediate Course, Learn Persian (Farsi) Step by Step: Level One Beginner (Steps 1 to 10). An example of this is the Russian words and . However, once you have the grammar down the rest is much simpler. Easiest Languages To Learn For Spanish Speakers - Top 9 Many Swedish native speakers can speak English quite fluently. Another member of the Germanic family of languages that is considered easy to learn is Swedish. This is because the Dutch were some of the first colonizers of the States. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you Another appealing thing about learning Norwegian is that the language has different accents. Swahili does share some cognates with the English language such as gereji which means garage and friji which means fridge. It shares many similarities with English, including a common alphabet, comparable sentence structure and familiar vocabulary. Spanish is a close relative of French. Persian is, first and foremost, an Indo-European language and so this makes it a little similar to English. You can't get much easier than this. Chinese is a very difficult language to learn (whether Mandarin or Cantonese) due to the use of tone and of course the unfamiliar script. This is because of the complex writing systems in Japan. There are some challenging aspects of learning French though. FluentU Review [2023]: Details, Features and What Real Users Have to Say, The Penny Pinchers Guide to Learning Any Language for Free, The Top 8 What Language Should I Learn Online Quizzes, The 6 Best Sources of Language Learning Videos on the Internet. If you are learning Spanish, get some Spanish music on or tune into a Spanish soap opera. Sure, it is a little more difficult because it takes around 900 hours, but the alphabet is Latin script, meaning it is something you will be used to, and the words are phonetic meaning they are said how they are spelled. Now we come to the language of Iran, and what modern native speakers use to communicate. Contents 1. Click here to get a copy. The stress placed upon words and sounds is also important. Apply for a place in courses that take place in Yerevan, Armenia through Aspirantums Language School, or opt for classes run by the University of Londons SOAS Language Center. With the wide range of smartphone applications available for every purpose under the sun, its no wonder you can find language learning there too! This means that in order to learn Arabic you have to learn a whole new bunch of letters and characters. What are the easiest languages to learn for Hebrew speakers? No matter how busy you are or how difficult you think it may be, theres a language out there for everyone! For example, the English word ruthless has just two syllables, but the Polish word for ruthless has a whole five different syllable sounds and an astounding number of hard consonants Bezwzgldny. One of the best ways to connect with native speaker audio and a Persian teacher is by listening to podcasts, which can really help your understanding of pronunciation. But with so many different languages to choose from, how do you decide which one to spend your time mastering? Gaelic has two common types: Scottish and Irish. First and foremost, it is a Romance language, but you cannot deny its Slavic influences, especially when you consider that Romanian once used the Cyrillic script. So many languages are arguably easier to pick up than others for English speakers. The grammar is ridiculously simple, and there are only about 120 to 130 words. Esperanto Furthermore, Portuguese and English have a lot of shared words. On the bright side, because it is so widely spoken with many different varieties there is a wealth of resources out there to help you. Afrikaans is the native language of South Africa and is widely spoken all over the country. Regardless of what you choose, youre probably going to have a smooth learning process without too many difficulties. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for a native English speaker to learn Russian. An example of this is musique. And whether you find a certain language easy or not depends on many factors. Nevertheless, with lots of practice and a desire to learn, it is more than achievable. We and our partners use cookies to Store and/or access information on a device. It is known as Farsi in Iran, Dari in Afghanistan, and Tajik in Tajikistan. Dont worry according to FSIs language difficulty ranking, Portuguese is also in Category 1. Though Persian expansion arrived at a standstill after a failed attempt to colonize Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars following the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC, the Persian defeat at Marathon, and Dariuss death, his successor was still determined to continue the legacy of previous kings. Being a native English speaker, what would be the easiest language to It is also known as the Perso-Arabic alphabet and is written in horizontal lines from right to left, with numbers written from left to right. That is what makes it so wonderful. According to a study by the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. Learning a language is a lifelong skill and you will be learning it forever but guess what? Should you go for a more widely spoken language like Spanish or Mandarin, a politically relevant one like Russian, or one you can is pronounced as Ay twah and Pouvez-vous? (Can you?) A large part of learning a language is learning how to write it. Continue with Recommended Cookies. Language vs Dialect: Whats the Difference? You already know more than youre aware of in terms of vocabulary too. The tones and sounds of a language can have a direct impact on how difficult you find it to learn. Some of them are members of the Germanic family of languages so they share quite a bit of vocab with English. Persian and Farsi: Whats the difference? In order to put this list together, we took into account the numerous factors which should be considered when deciding whether or not a language is difficult, or easy to learn. Kanji is a character-based system with thousands of characters to learn. So, if youre looking for an easy foreign language to learn, youve come to the right place. French is a language that has many similarities to English, and they share a large number of cognates. However, it's a different story in the United States. And although it shares fewer cognates with English (a fancy way of saying 'words that are the same'), there are some other features that make it super-easy.. Spanish is simple to pronounce for English speakers. 10 Hardest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. It is no good attempting to learn a language but only practicing once or twice a week. The most challenging aspect of this language for English speakers will likely be the pronunciation., In Belgium, Flemish, which is the dialect spoken in the Flanders region, is actually identical to Dutch. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. You could even hire a teacher or tutor for yourself, or attend language classes to help you along with your journey. Weve used data from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to rank them from the easier to the somewhat more challenging., Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. Along with natives and Spanish language learners, there are more than 572 million Spanish speakers worldwide. Portuguese is spoken by around 234 million people around the world. Afrikaans is one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn because--like many of the languages on this list--it's part of the Germanic language family. But there are also many cognates that are not food-related futuro (future), controllare (control), concerto (concert), and so on. In addition, Swahili, Farsi (Persian), Pashto and Kurdish are languages that an Arabic speaker can get the hang of without much effort.

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