Of course, its music. After all, thanks to exposure and wide reach of Spanish, English speakers wont find it very unfamiliar. An example of this is the Russian words and . As a Romance language, Spanish derives from Latin, just like many English words. English, for example, has many similarities to other Germanic languages (think German and Dutch). And whether you find a certain language easy or not depends on many factors. The tonal element of this language is perhaps the hardest aspect to get to grips with. how long it will take you to learn a language, Download our freeSpanish essentials eBook to help you get started, Download our easy, visualItalian essentials eBook and get a head start, Download our free French essentials eBook to accompany your studies, 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). FluentU brings a language to life with real-world videos. It shares many similarities with English, including a common alphabet, comparable sentence structure and familiar vocabulary. Less than 22 percent of the U.S. population speaks a language other than . Or, if you want structured lessons on all things Farsi that will help you start speaking it in 30 days, check out Reza Nazaris channel to achieve your fluency goals! Whether its their sentence structure or vocabulary, they are simply easier to master than some other languages. But there are also many cognates that are not food-related futuro (future), controllare (control), concerto (concert), and so on. For this reason, they have had a lot of influence on English, particularly American English. German is, as the name suggests, a Germanic language. The total number of learned Farsi speakers and native Farsi speakers alike equals about 62% of the population of Iran, or over 30 million people. Italian: Italian is the easiest language for Spanish speakers to learn. This is because the grammar, pronunciation, and even writing of Hindi is very difficult to get to grips with as it is so unfamiliar. More than 40 percent of the world is bilingual, meaning people can speak two languages fluently. . Some of them are phonetic, which means that reading and pronunciation shouldnt be a problem for you. You can't get much easier than this. can take anywhere. With Swahili speakers spread over 14 countries, Swahili is the most widely spoken language in Africa. Another Romance language you can start learning right away is Italian. That means most learners wont find many words they cant get their mouth around! Norwegian is another Germanic language just like English and so it is relatively easy to get to grips with as a native English speaker. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. But, Persian has an enormous amount of Arabic influence, which makes it easier for Iranians to speak and understand Arabic. Its the most closely related to English out of all the languages in this list. The language sounds like musica. And with the Sasanians, a new Persian dynasty emerging after 200 AD, Modern Persian was able to form. Persia was one of the most powerful empires on earth, rivaling those of the Greeks, Romans, and Egyptians. 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. However, the Empire still maintained cultural and political significance even as its sphere of influence shrank. 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. Even if it is just ten minutes a day, it is enough to keep what you have learned fresh in your mind. All Rights Reserved. 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. There are some challenging aspects of learning French though. For example, the word frolic meaning to play and move around cheerfully (e.g. Welsh is a reasonably difficult language to get to grips with for native English speakers, even those English speakers who have lived in Wales for their whole life! This is where, to keep the sounds in harmony, suffixes are added to words. With dedication, motivation, lots of passion, and enthusiasm to learn, you will be able to master any language you want. Gaelic has two common types: Scottish and Irish. The 11 easiest languages to learn for English speakers (and how to make Along with natives and Spanish language learners, there are more than 572 million Spanish speakers worldwide. You would not be alone in assuming that it would be a Slavic language given its proximity to Russia and other Slavic countries. You will have noticed that even the easiest languages on this list can take between 575 and 600 hours. In comparison, a language that is not in your language family may be more difficult to get to grips with. But whether you learn a new language in a quick and easy way also depends on your learning source. For instance, to change a singular word to plural, all you have to do is repeat the word or add an extra one. Chinese is a very difficult language to learn (whether Mandarin or Cantonese) due to the use of tone and of course the unfamiliar script. For instance, polisi is police and baiskeli is bicycle., There are also some key differences, of course, but if youre looking to gain fluency in one or more African languages, Swahili is an excellent one to start with.. The sounds created in the language are challenging for beginners as it is so culturally distanced from what you may be used to. And the same goes for Italian grammar. 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). They also write right to left, which is very different from English writing. You can also find some of your favorite movies and shows that you already know well and watch them in another language. Language families are languages that are grouped because they are related in some way through descent. The letters can be learned and memorized, as can pronunciations, but the tone can take a little while for native English speakers to get right, especially if you have no native Mandarin speakers around to hear your tone and correct you if needed. And once again exposure. Spanish is considered relatively easy for English speakers: it has 1000s of similar words (fant stico!) they frolicked in a field on a warm summers day) comes from the Dutch word vrolijk which means happy and cheerful. In addition to Farsi speakers in the Middle East, there is evidence of linguistic transmission all the way to the Western world. Thai has five tones while Chinese has four. 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. Members of this language family tend to have complicated grammatical rules and more than double the amount of vowels that the English language uses. Because of this, many words can change meaning entirely when a suffix is added! However, this time frame is not because it is more difficult per se, but rather because of the grammar rules that need to be remembered. It shares quite a bit of vocabulary with English, and unlike some Germanic languages, the pronunciation of most Norwegian words is fairly straightforward. Can you guess what English word this resembles? Tones are very important in some languages and are used to alter the meaning of the same sound. Dutch is another language that is generally considered easy to learn for English native speakers. More tutorials, interactive lessons, and activities are found via ANU Persian Online, an official portal with many educational options. The language is also full of idioms and homophones which, without prior experience, can also be very confusing. Should you go for a more widely spoken language like Spanish or Mandarin, a politically relevant one like Russian, or one you can Depending on where in the States you are, you may find that you are surrounded by Italian speakers thanks to the mass Italian immigration to places such as New York in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Yes, that is systems, plural. The reason it is so simple to pick up is because of the similarities it shares with English. 1 Language and diplomacy 2 Easiest (about 600 hours of study) 3 German (750 hours) 4 Malay and Swahili (900 hours) 5 Hungarian (1,100 hours) 6 Greek (1,100 hours) From this period, we primarily have the remains of religious Pahlavi or Zarathushti texts that described Persias new religion, Zoroastrianism. But even if youre not familiar with any other similar language, Portuguese will be relatively easy to learn. 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 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. That's because it's the closest language to English today, both in words and structure. With Farsi being such a surprisingly easy language to learn, why not start your journey into its grammar, inflections, and wider Persian culture today. This is because Japanese has long been thought to be one of the most difficult languages ever to learn, whether you are native English speaking or not. Contents 1. One aspect of German that English-speakers do tend to struggle with is the pronunciation, especially when it comes to longer compound words like Fremdschmen (cringe) or Verschlimmbessern (to worsen or exacerbate)., But while German might not be quite as easy for English-speakers to grasp as Dutch or Norwegian, it is an extremely useful language to learn, as its spoken by more than 100 million people throughout Central Europe, including in Austria, Switzerland and Luxembourg.. Its spoken in Brazil and Portuguese, and although there are differences between the two, you can still get around in every Portuguese-speaking country. Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc, or its affiliates. Although it doesnt seem so at first, Norwegian is one of the easiest languages for English native speakers. Different languages may use breathing and throat noises as part of their words which can be difficult to master for those new to the language. Other features of the script include that it is an abjad alphabet, which means that only letters for vowels exist and any vowels must be indicated with diacritics or specific consonant combinations. Check out our article on the best way to learn a new language here. But according to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language. Speak aloud to yourself or record yourself doing it using your smartphone, computer, or a recording device. Passionate multilinguist. Their words also tend to have more syllables than English words. Click here to get a copy. Other Middle Eastern languages that use similar dialects are Basseri in Southern Iran, Darwazi in Tajikistan and Afghanistan, Hazaragi in Pakistan, and the specific meanings that the Tehrani accent brings to the language. Italian and English use a similar sentence structure in most cases, and fortunately, the pronunciation is quite logical. The Hindi language is a relatively challenging one and takes hours to perfect to even an intermediate level. Nowadays, Latin script is used, which is why native English speakers find it a little easier. This blog post is available as a convenient and portable PDF that you What makes them easy is the grammarthere are no grammatical categories for gender, number or tense. Top 8 is spanish hard to learn for english speakers 2022 If you enjoy learning the language, it will be "easy." Spellings are also relatively simple, with many words being pronounced how they are spelled. Many Swedish native speakers can speak English quite fluently. This is because there may be similar cognates and some loan words that you will recognize. Fill in the form below and well contact you to discuss your learning options and answer any questions you may have. Many of their words are very long with unfamiliar letters and letter sounds such as and . Polish is a member of the language family known as the Slavic family, meaning it is similar to Russian. The natural rhythm of Persian spoken aloud is just as important, as it is a syllable-timed language that requires the right pronunciation to get your meaning across. The language of ancient Persia has gone through many changes to become the modern day language were now familiar with. These things will help you to stay focused and will motivate you to keep going, even when there are days where the learning is less enjoyable. Try one of the countless language learning apps, watch online videos of people teaching the language, or challenge yourself to read a chapter or an article in your chosen language. We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. Download our easy, visualItalian essentials eBook and get a head start. This is partly because Swedish and English are Germanic languages, so they have similar sentence structures and even some shared vocabulary. 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. On the other hand, the sentence structure and verb focus of Tagalog is quite different to that of English, which makes it the most challenging language on this list. 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. Many Japanese language apps teach users the various fascinating aspects of Japanese culture whilst also teaching the Japanese language. 28 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers It was only during Alexander the Greats 330 BC campaigns into Persia that the states began to fall apart, and the Empire of the Persians finally disintegrated into the control of other political and dynastic factions, like the Ptolemies. We love hearing from our readers. For starters, Indonesian spoken natively by nearly 23 million people is one of the few Asian languages that uses the Latin alphabet. Nevertheless, Georgian is a beautiful language, particularly when listening to the music of the country. Your next task, if you're up for it: Choosing among many options. We and our partners use data for Personalised ads and content, ad and content measurement, audience insights and product development. We will cover the basics of the Persian language, its origins and cultural history, and some of the best ways to approach learning it for the first time, including great resources that are available now. 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. You wont have to spend a lot of time developing reading skills. For instance, Et tois? (And you?) The easiest languages for English speakers to learn - Lingua.edu For instance, He comes from Norway translates to Han kommer fra Norge., Norwegian is spoken by around 5 million people, primarily in Norway. This problem is observed among many students, so they often turn to services like Thesis Rush, which helps with all kinds of writing theses, dissertations, or papers. Portuguese is spoken by around 234 million people around the world. In Afghanistan, it is called Dari, and in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, it is known as Tajik. Afrikaans is a beautiful language that is surprisingly easy to learn for native English speakers. In fact, you probably already know how to order so much more. If you are learning Spanish, get some Spanish music on or tune into a Spanish soap opera. 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. A large portion of its vocabulary comes from Arabic, meaning that will be the main hurdle for non-native speakers to overcome. To do so, its time to journey back in time to the roots of many countries in the Middle East Persia itself, and the Persian Empire. Other notable kings of Persia include Darius the Great, who presided over the Empire when it was at its peak. This means youll be able to read and pronounce most words correctly once you have learned a few ground rules. The grammar is fairly straightforward, without inflection, agreements between nouns and adjectives, and even no genders of words to memorize. 10 Hardest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. As a country, Iceland is relatively cut off from other places and so they have been able to retain some of their traditional language and grammar rules. There are hundreds of French cognates in English. Once again, similarities in vocabulary make things a whole lot easier. Here are some of the best apps for learning Farsi or Persian. Indonesian sentence structure is also similar to English and its grammatical rules are fairly simple. #1. Afrikaans - the easiest language to learn for both English and Dutch speakers Afrikaans, the same as English, Dutch, Danish, Norwegian and Swedish, is a Germanic language. As a bonus, if you know Danish, you can read the next two languagesNorwegian and Swedishpretty easily. 1. So many languages are arguably easier to pick up than others for English speakers. It is not widely spoken and resources for it are sparse compared to other languages on this list. However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and there are also many other contributing factors. 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. But with so many different languages to choose from, how do you decide which one to spend your time mastering? Regardless of what you choose, youre probably going to have a smooth learning process without too many difficulties. The Norwegian sentence can be translated word for word in the exact order as it would be said in English. Nevertheless the language is a beautiful one, steeped in history. Esperanto was designed with you in mind: Minimal grammar, easy rules and as a bonus, lots of things that resemble many other world languages. Learn Persian language offline and hundred percent free with no paid content. Benefits of Learning Persian & Farsi | Lead with Languages Now we come to the language of Iran, and what modern native speakers use to communicate. Although it doesn't seem so at first, Norwegian is one of the easiest languages for English native speakers. However, the language family it belongs to is the relatively small Kartvelian. What will help you to persevere even when it starts to get difficult? However, something that may soothe the pain of all these complex grammar rules is the fact that in Hungarian there are only three verb tenses to learn: the past, the present, and the future. The latter fact will be a welcome discovery for those still reeling from the discovery that Arabic goes right to left! Being a native English speaker, what would be the easiest language to More job opportunities, including a higher income with being bilingual or multilingual. We have mentioned Arabic many times already as the Arabic script is used in many different languages. Alternatively, Persian Language Online offers a variety of free lessons that cover everything from grammar to tenses, vowels to intonation. 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. Typically, it is thought to be easier to learn a language that is in your language family or sub-group. But since Norwegian and English have a lot of similarities, if you decide to take Norwegian lessons, you shouldnt come across too many obstacles. The Greek victory inspired various revolts staged by Greek cities under Persian control, and while the Persian army was still recovering, the Empire lost much of its Baltic holdings, including Macedonia as a whole. 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. It is known as the "daughter language" to Dutch (it shares 90 to 95% of its vocabulary with the language. The Empire stretched over areas such as Macedonia, Thrace, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Bulgaria, Iran, Afghanistan, Turkey, Syria, and even parts of Egypt and Libya. If you speak English, youll be very comfortable with the grammatical structure of Norwegian, so you can focus on learning vocabulary. Pronunciation and spelling are, on the whole, much simpler to learn, and there are also many shared cognates such as mutter which is mother, and kaffee which is coffee. 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. First of all, English and Norwegian share a lot of vocabulary. Recommended: 7 Easiest Language To Learn For Spanish Speakers Advertisements #1. As we just mentioned, it can be very rewarding to make a friend who is on the same language learning journey as you. You could even try changing the language on your cell phone! The main reason for this is because of the use of the Cyrillic script. The List: Easiest Languages To Learn For English Speakers, According To Pros 1. In this post, we have put together a full and comprehensive list of the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn for English speakers. As we highlighted in our introduction (remember that, it seems like ages ago, so you can skip back to the beginning of the article for a refresher if you wish) there are many reasons why a person may want to learn a new language. So if youre curious about the easiest languages to learn, Ive got 10 great suggestions to help you out. However, not only is it rewarding to form a friendship in this way, but it can also be beneficial to your learning journey. You may even know some Spanish from high school, meaning you have some basic knowledge to build upon. Persian is one of the Iranian languages, having been spoken in Iran for hundreds of years.