What is the best language to learn? What is the easiest?

Two different questions, often uttered at the same time. But that’s okay, because there will only be one answer. Whichever language you wholeheartedly choose to study will be the best and easiest. However, here is some help in choosing.

The options.

Here is the Modern Language Association’s 2002 list of the most studied languages ​​at the university level in the United States. I have not included ancient languages ​​such as Latin, Biblical Hebrew, or Sanskrit, special purpose languages ​​such as American Sign Language, or US heritage languages ​​such as Hawaiian or Navajo, as the choice of those languages follows a different dynamic:

1.Spanish

2. English

3. german

4. Italian

5. Japanese

6 chinese

7. Russian

8. Arabic

9. Modern Hebrew

10. Portuguese

11. Korean

12. Vietnamese

13.hindi/urdu

14. Swahili

Difficulty, according to Uncle Sam

First, consider some cold facts. The US Department of State groups languages ​​for the diplomatic service according to learning difficulty:

Category 1. The “easiest” languages ​​for English speakers, requiring 600 hours of class work for minimal proficiency: Latin and Germanic languages. However, German requires a little more time, 750 hours, due to its complex grammar.

Category 2. Medium, requires 1100 hours of class work: Slavic languages, Turkic languages, other Indo-European languages ​​like Persian and Hindi, and some non-Indo-European languages ​​like Georgian, Hebrew, and many African languages. Swahili is rated easier than the rest, at 900 hours.

Category 3. Difficult, requires 2,200 hours of study: Arabic, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese.

Will you have the opportunity to practice this language?

Now, consider another important factor: accessibility. To be a successful student, you need the opportunity to listen, read, and speak the language in a natural setting. Language learning requires an enormous amount of concentration and repetition, which cannot be fully done in the classroom. Will you have access to the language in which you live, work and travel?

The 14 most popular courses based on a combination of language ease and accessibility.

1.Spanish. Category One. Simple grammar is familiar and regular. It is also ubiquitous in the Americas, the only foreign language with a significant presence in the insular language environment of the US. The possibilities to speak and hear it abound. It is the overwhelming favorite, accounting for more than fifty percent of language study enrollments in the MLA study.

2. English. Category One. Grammatically complex but not difficult to learn because many of its words have entered English. Because of this vocabulary affinity, it is easy to reach an advanced level, especially in reading. It is a world language, and a motivated learner will find this language on the Internet, in movies and music.

3. German. Category One Plus. Syntactic and grammatical rules are complex, and noun declensions are a major problem. It is the easiest language to start speaking, with a basic vocabulary similar to English. However, abstract and advanced language differs markedly when English opts for Latin terms. Values ​​clear enunciation, so listening comprehension is not difficult.

4. Italian. Category One. It has the same simple grammar rules as Spanish, a familiar vocabulary, and the clearest enunciation among Latin languages ​​(along with Romanian). Italian skills are easily transferable to French or Spanish. You may have to go to Italy to practice it, but worse things can happen to you. It is also found in the world of opera and classical music.

5. Russian. Category Two. This highly influenced language, with declensions, is quite difficult to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet isn’t particularly difficult, though, and once you can read the language, the many borrowings from French and other Western languages ​​come as a welcome surprise. It is increasingly accessible.

6. Arabic. Category Three. Arabic is spoken in dozens of countries, but the many national dialects can be mutually incomprehensible. It has only three vowels, but includes some consonants that don’t exist in English. The alphabet is a formidable obstacle, and good penmanship is highly valued and difficult to perfect. Vowels are not normally written (except in children’s books) and this can get in the way of reading. It is ubiquitous in the Muslim world and opportunities exist to practice it at all levels of formality.

7. Portuguese. Category One. One of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world is often overlooked. It has a familiar Latin grammar and vocabulary, although the phonetics may take some getting used to.

8. Swahili. Category Two Less. Includes many loanwords from Arabic, Persian, English, and French. It is a Central African Bantu language, but has lost the difficult Bantu “tones”. The sound system is familiar and is written using the Latin alphabet. An important grammatical consideration is the division of nouns into sixteen classes, each with a different prefix. However, the classes are not arbitrary and are predictable.

9.Hindi/Urdu. Category Two. The Hindustani language, an Indo-European language, includes both Hindi and Urdu. It has an enormous number of consonants and vowels, making distinctions between phonemes that an English speaker will have a hard time hearing. Words often have clipped endings, further complicating understanding. Hindi uses a lot of loanwords from Sanskrit and Urdu uses a lot of loanwords from Persian/Arabic, which means a large vocabulary must be mastered. Hindi uses the phonetically accurate Devanagari script, created specifically for the language. Unsurprisingly, Urdu’s use of a borrowed Persian/Arabic script leads to some approximation in the writing system.

10. Modern Hebrew. Category Two. Revived as a living language during the 19th century, it has acquired characteristics of many languages ​​of the Jewish diaspora. The resulting language has been regularized in grammar and syntax, and the vocabulary has absorbed many loan words, especially from Yiddish, English, and Arabic. The alphabet has both printed and written forms, with five vowels, usually unmarked. Vowel marking, or pointing, is quite complex when it occurs. Sounds can be difficult to reproduce in their subtleties and a certain amount of linking makes listening comprehension problematic. It is not very accessible outside of a religious or Israeli context.

11. Japanese. Category Three. Difficult to learn, as the vocabulary is unfamiliar and the sound system requirements are so strict that even the many words borrowed from English, French and German will sound unrecognizable. With three different writing systems, it is tremendously difficult to read and write. In addition, social constraints can prevent useful interaction.

12. Chinese. Category Three. Whether your choice is Mandarin or Cantonese (MLA survey doesn’t make a distinction, oddly enough). It is the most difficult language on this list. It includes all the most difficult aspects: unknown phonemes, a large number of tones, an extremely complex writing system, and an equally unknown vocabulary. Personal motivation is absolutely essential to keep the student on track. On the plus side, it’s easy to find, as Chinese communities exist all over the world, and Chinese-language media such as newspapers, movies, and television are present in all of these communities.

13. Vietnamese. Category Three. This language belongs to an unknown family of languages, but it borrows a lot of vocabulary from Chinese (useful if you already speak Chinese!). It has six tones and a grammar with an unknown logic. It’s not all bleak though, Vietnamese uses an alphabet derived from Latin. The chances of speaking this language are not high even though there are 3 million speakers in the US.

14. korean. Category Three. Korean uses an alphabet of 24 symbols, which accurately represent 14 consonants and 10 vowels. However, the language also includes 2,000 Chinese characters commonly used for literary writing and formal documents. Speech levels and honorifics complicate vocabulary learning, and there is a link between words, making it difficult to tell them apart. The grammar is not too complicated and there are no tones. It borrows many Chinese words, but the language is not related to other languages ​​of Asia.

The most important factor of all: personal motivation

The third factor, the most important, is up to you. The easiest language to learn is the one that motivates you the most, 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 implies participating in their behaviors and identifying with their people.

So consider the three factors: motivation, accessibility, and language facility, in that order, and come up with the final list yourself. The bad news is that no language is really easy to learn, but the good news is that humans are programmed for great linguistic flexibility, as long as we know how to activate the learning process. If the rewards and benefits of language are clear to you, you’ll be able to make those rusty language synapses light up in your head and start the words rolling. Good luck!