Which language should I study? (Or in other words, what's the easiest language to learn?) The twel


by Dominic Ambrose - Date: 2007-07-25 - Word Count: 1365 Share This!

Students are often intimidated by the list of language course offerings, afraid of making the wrong choice. There are three factors to consider: ease for English speakers, usefulness and personal motivation. This article looks at all three criteria, and comes up with a list of twelve language choices that could be just right for you.

As a language teacher, I have been asked these two questions over and over again. Two different questions, often uttered in the same breath. But that's okay, because there will be only one answer, since whatever language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be the easiest language for you to learn.

First, consider some cold facts. The U.S. Department of State groups languages according to difficulty for purposes of designing language courses for the diplomatic service. Here are their groups:

1. The "easiest" languages for speakers of English, requiring 600 hours of classwork for minimal proficiency: all of the Latin languages and a number of Germanic languages. This is because English is a mixture of these two language families. German itself requires a bit more time though, at 750 hours, because of its complex grammar.

2. Medium difficulty, requiring 1100 hours of classwork: the Slavic languages, the Turkic languages, other Indo-European languages such as Persian, Hindi and Armenian, and some non-Indo-European languages such as Georgian, Albanian, and many African languages. Swahili is ranked a bit easier than the rest, though, at 900 hours.

3. Difficult, requiring 2200 hours of study: Japanese, Korean and the Chinese languages, and also Arabic.

Now, consider another important factor: usefulness. You will not be a successful learner if you never have the chance to hear the language, read it and speak it in a natural environment. Language learning takes an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be done entirely with textbooks and classroom lessons. Will you have access to the language where you live, work and travel? And besides that, will the knowledge of this language be useful in your daily life even when you are not actively speaking it?

So here I will offer my list of twelve of the most popular course offerings, ranked according to usefulness and its general appeal.

The first two are obvious enough, and it is really a matter of personal taste which is first and which is second:

1 or 2. French. It is grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because so many of it's words have entered English that the vocabulary is very familiar. It is a first or second language in countries around the world, and the knowledge of French will increase your knowledge about Western culture in general.

1 or 2. Spanish. By far the most useful language if you are traveling in the Americas, but still of little use elsewhere, though its influence is growing. It is a beautiful language and represents a vast cultural territory. It is easier to learn than most.

After that, things get more complex.

3. German. For it's cultural value, and because it is often a second language in Eastern Europe. For the insight it gives into the origins of English (true of any of the Germanic languages). It is the ancestral language of millions of Americans, and can be a rewarding spiritual choice for those people.

4. Russian. A very significant language, but rather difficult to learn. It is most useful if you are traveling in the nations of the former Soviet Union. Beyond that, it serves as a portal to all of the other Slavic languages. Just learning the Cyrillic alphabet can be surprisingly helpful, since Russian is full of Latin borrowings that will become apparent once you can read the words.

5. Portuguese. One of the most widely spoken languages in the world is often overlooked. It is spoken in many countries in Africa, and Brazil and elsewhere.

6. Arabic. Arabic is spoken in a large number of countries, but beware that it is broken up into many national dialects which can be mutually incomprehensible. You should study Modern Standard Arabic, which is not the native dialect of any particular country and is spoken as a formal lingua franca throughout the Arabic world. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, but knowledge of it can be useful far beyond the Arabic language.

7. Swahili. By far the most important sub-Saharan language, it is spoken in coastal societies all over East Africa as a first or second language. Because of it's long history of interaction with non-African languages, it includes many borrowings from Arabic, English and French. It is a Bantu language, closely related to many other African languages, but it has lost the particularly difficulty that Bantu "tones" pose for language learners.

8. Italian. Because of two thousand years of cultural significance and its importance for a large diaspora throughout the Americas. It is beautiful, it has the simplest rules of grammar and a very familiar vocabulary. Most importantly, as the language closest to Latin, it is the key language that will open up all the other Latin languages for you, if you choose to learn another one in the future. Its major drawback is its limited domain, only in Italy and thereabouts.

9. Latin and Greek. Not particularly useful for speaking, but for gaining a knowledge of the origins of our western linguistic traditions, their significance is tremendous. However, I am convinced that a study of Italian and modern Greek, (Demotiki, as this variant is called) will give the same benefits, since they are basically modern versions of the same languages.

10. Turkish. Spoken in Turkey and Northern Cyprus, it is the portal to a whole family of languages that stretch eastward all the way to China. It is a clearly enunciated language that uses the western alphabet. It is the only language I know of with no irregular verbs, but the unfamiliar syntax of this language makes it difficult to gain fluency in.

11. Yoruba. Another Bantu language of central Africa, spoken in parts of Nigeria and Ghana. It has enjoyed popularity as a language course offering because of its significance for the African diaspora in the Americas. It is not easy, as it incorporates three tones. Unlike neutral Swahili, it is associated with ethnicity, and thus, its use implies social affiliations that may not be clear or desirable for a foreigner. What's more, it is spoken in a part of Africa where English is the language of education, and Hausa a more viable lingua franca, so it's usefulness there is questionable. Still, its spiritual significance for African Americans makes it a reasonable choice.

12. Japanese. If you are interested in learning about Japan it is essential. It would also be good for employment opportunities. However, be forewarned that it is hard to learn and with three different alphabets, forbiddingly difficult to read and write. Also, social constraints may impede useful interaction.

This brings us to the most important factor of all: personal motivation, the will to take on this project. In short, the easiest language to learn is the one that you are most motivated to learn, the one you enjoy speaking, the one with the culture that inspires you and the history that touches you spiritually. It is useless to try to learn a language if you are not interested in the people who speak it, since learning a language involves participating in its behaviors and identifying with its people. During the height of the cold war in the early 1960s, the U.S. Department of Education put massive effort into promoting Russian and Chinese learning in schools. The efforts were a monumental failure for obvious reasons. You cannot convince people to learn the language of people they consider their "enemies", which is what these nations were considered at that time.

So, consider all three factors: motivation, usefulness and ease, in that order. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that we humans are hard wired for a great amount of linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to turn on the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of this language are clear to you, you will be able to get those rusty language synapses sparking in your head and start the words rolling. Bonne chance!

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