The 20 easiest and hardest to learn languages
Many of us are fascinated by the idea of learning new languages , is that being able to interact with other cultures and communicate with people from other countries enriches us enormously. But learning languages is not easy, and while there are individuals who absorb the new languages as if they have a gift for it, most mortals must strive hard to master a language that is not our native language.
If you want some tips to learn languages, in this article you can find a list that will be very useful, but it will also be useful to know which are the easiest languages and the most difficult to learn .
- Related article: "Sapir-Whorf's theory of language"
The difficulty of being a polyglot
Not all languages are equally easy to learn, and it can be said that When it comes to acquiring a new language, the difficulty is relative . On the one hand, the motivation of the person and the desire to learn are a determining factor, it is also to live in the country where that language is spoken in a native way and, logically, it will always be easier to learn a new language if it is similar to our mother tongue. For example, if we speak Spanish and want to learn Italian or Romanian.
Assuming that our reference language is Spanish , below you can find out which of the languages with a well consolidated and cohesive number of speakers and more than 5 million speakers are easier and more difficult for you.
- Maybe you're interested: "Alogia: when language and thought stop flowing"
Easiest languages to learn
For Spanish speakers, The following languages are the ones with the least difficulty:
1. Catalan
Catalan is a language spoken in a good part of the Mediterranean coast of the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in the Balearic Islands and some areas of France. Curiously, the language family from which it comes, the occitanorromances languages, is more widespread in the latter country than in Spain. But nevertheless, the influence of the official language in the whole of the Kingdom of Spain It has made it very easy to learn by all Spanish speakers.
2. Italian
Italian is a relatively easy language to learn for Spanish speakers, and not only because of the great influence their culture has had in the Mediterranean countries. Italian is also rooted in Latin, providing great ease in learning vocabulary, as it is familiar to Spanish speakers. This language is easy to read by those who speak Spanish, except some phonemes and double letters . The similarities are also evident in the construction of sentences.
3. Portuguese
Portuguese is spoken mainly in Portugal and Brazil . This language is the first brother of the Spanish language, and we must not forget that the territory of Portugal shares the peninsula with Spain. That is why they share great similarities and, in fact, it is similar to some languages such as Galician, spoken by the inhabitants of Spain.
4. French
French is a language widely used both in France and in many other countries worldwide. This beautiful language shares alphabet and many words with Spanish. The Spanish speakers find in the learning of French great facilities, and great utility because it is an important language and widely used in Europe.
5. English
Although English is not the easiest language to learn for some people, it is one of the most accessible languages and that is why it is the language that is used the most in the world and that most nationalities speak. One of the reasons why English is easy to learn is because there is a large training offer to be trained in this language and the British and American influence is very large around the globe.
On the other hand, a lot of his vocabulary is based on Latin root words , something that does not happen in other Germanic languages, such as German.
6. Romanian
Romanian is, like Castilian, a romance language , so both are related. However, the latter has acquired many everyday words of Slavic and Hungarian languages. It retains much of the grammatical structure of Latin, although the articles can be complicated to learn.
7. Greek
Historically we have always been influenced by the Greeks, and although Greek civilization is far from the context in which characters such as Aristotle, Socrates or Plato lived, we share many terms of our vocabulary with Greek. At the time of reading or writing it, we may have serious difficulties, but when speaking it the sounds of vowels and consonants are similar to those of Spanish .
8. Afrikaans
The Afrikaans is known to be something like an easy version of the Dutch , and it is a language spoken in South Africa and Namibia. Actually, it has many words that are similar in spelling and meaning to English and Dutch. Although from the point of view of work opportunities will not interest many people, it is a relatively easy language to learn.
9. Russian
Russian is one of the most spoken languages in Europe, and there are so many cultural elements generated in this language that finding material to learn it is easy. In addition, the sounds on which its pronunciation is based resemble those of Spanish, and its vocabulary is greatly influenced by Latin.
10. Malay
Although most of its speakers are concentrated in a place on the planet very far from Spain, Curiously the Malay language is easy to learn . The reasons for this is that its grammar is relatively simple, its sounds are easy to reproduce and, being a binding language, part of the vocabulary can be memorized simply by adding suffixes and prefixes to others that are already known.
More difficult languages
Regarding the difficulty, the most complicated languages to learn are :
1. Hindi
This is the fifth most spoken language in the world due to its extension through the societies of India, a very populated territory. In addition, it is capable of bringing head to any person who has Spanish as their mother tongue. Not only its structure is totally different from the Latin alphabet; In addition, the pronunciation does not resemble that of Castilian.
2. Yoruba
This language is spoken by some 22 million people, mainly in Nigeria, Togo and Benin. Its relation with the Castilian is practically null, since is part of the Niger-Congolese languages .
3. Korean
Korean is the official language of North and South Korea and is spoken by more than 80 million people around the world. One of the most complicated languages to learn.
4. Arabic
The Arabic language was spoken for the first time during the sixth century. This language, which is used in a wide range of territories, it extends from the Middle East to the western end of the Maghreb . Most of their spoken varieties are unintelligible and are said to constitute a sociolinguistic language.
5. Zulu
The Zulu is spoken by some 9 million people, especially in South Africa. One of its most striking features is the use of "clicks" of language used as consonants , something that also happens in other languages of the African continent.
6. Tamil
In a similar way to Hindi, this language is so different from Castilian in all aspects that it is difficult to find useful elements in Spanish in order to learn it: neither pronunciation, nor vocabulary nor grammar have much to do.
7. Thai
The Thai language is the official language of Thailand, and belongs to the Tai-Kadai linguistic family, where almost half of its words derive from the Pali or the Sanskrit language. The Thai it is basically tonal and analytical and is known for its complex orography .
8. Finnish
Finnish is one of the most difficult European languages to learn a Spanish speaker, among other things because it does not even belong to the group of Indo-European languages. That means our language is more related to Persian than to what is spoken in Finland .
9. Hungarian
Hungarian is the official language of Hungary, spoken not only in this country, but also by Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia and Romania. It belongs to the family of Uralic languages, as well as Finnish.
10. Chinese (mandarin)
It is the most spoken language in the world because about one fifth of the total population of the world speaks Chinese, mainly in the People's Republic of China, Taiwan and Singapore. This language is considered one of the most difficult to learn, because the alphabet is completely different from ours and his writing system is based fundamentally on memorization of thousands of elements.
