NationStates Jolt Archive

Vote and discuss!
Are some easier than others?

I studied French in first and second year, German to GCSE and Spanish to 'A' Level. I remember very little of the former two. I remember less Spanish than I should after having taken an 'A' Level in it, but can still converse in it to some degree.

Also did recreational courses in Gaelic, Japanese and Russian, but remember next to nothing from any of them :(

We studied French from year 7 (ages 11-12) and in year 9 (ages 13-14) could choose either German, Russian, or Spanish. We could drop French in year 10, but had to study at least one language for GCSEs (exams at 16).

German was the easiest, being much like English. I tried to learn Chinese at university (a Chinese girl I knew thought it would be a good idea), but found it difficult.

I took 4 years of French. I hope to take Russian or Polish in college, or maybe Spanish because its so much more useful in the US.

I have studied Spanish, Russian, Japanese and Italian. Of those, my favorite is Italian.

I have also created 2 languages of my own, just to see if I could.

Since IRL I'm a software developer, I've also studied a dozen or so computer languages.

I'm basically all about languages. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I sometimes value the structure and intricacy of the languages themselves, more than the act of communicating or the people one uses them to communicate with.

That just makes me a geek, really. :rolleyes:

English, French(not actually learned it, just classes for two years) and Ge

German.

I took French in grades 5-7, then all four years of high school. I also minored in French at university. I took Italian in grades 7 and 8. I can still get by with my Italian, but am nowhere near as fluent as I was when I was learning it (I was living in Italy, in a non-tourist city, at the time - kinda forced me to pick up the language quickly). My French is still very good.

My high school also offered Spanish and German classes, and my university taught just about any language you could ever want to learn.

Since IRL I'm a software developer, I've also studied a dozen or so computer languages.

I'm basically all about languages.
Do you find one group easier than the other? I find learning human languages difficult, even within the same language group, but learning programming languages easy, even from vastly different paradigms.

I studied French for two years in highschool, however there was no concern for the students to actually learn, only to be exposed to a different language.

As a self-education project, I began studying German two years ago and learned more in 6 weeks than I did in two years of public language education.

My husband and I rarely watch TV, however we both noticed and commented on the number of television commercials directed to the Hispanic population last night. "By the time we are 60, we will probably need to speak Spanish fluently," my husband predicted. We are in our thirties now.

Carried over the Spanish from high school and got bored with it, so tried out Arabic and spent a summer in Morocco- it was fun, but I didn't learn enough in 2 years to do anything with it after college :(

EDIT: also picked up some Menu reading French, as well as a few select German and Greek curses

Been in French through all of grade school (Required course... damn Quebec).

German and Irish

Do you find one group easier than the other? I find learning human languages difficult, even within the same language group, but learning programming languages easy, even from vastly different paradigms.

Human languages are just like programming languages. All you really need in order to pick them up quickly and start using them efficiently is a solid understanding of their structure. There are certain common features of all languages. I recommend starting with a linguistics class. Think of it as a basic architectural programming class for humans. :D

I tried to learn Chinese at university (a Chinese girl I knew thought it would be a good idea), but found it difficult.

A friend of mine took Mandarin in university, and had a really hard time with the tonalities. Her boyfriend, a close friend of mine, is Chinese-American, and she would practice with him all the time. I remember them having a conversation something like this:

HER: *counts to ten in Mandarin*
HIM: No, no, you're doing it again!
HER: What? What am I doing?
HIM: You're counting wrong. You just said, "one, two, three, four, five, six, chicken, eight, nine, ten."

(Not sure if I got the number right that she was saying as chicken, but you get the idea...)

a little bit english ... the people who know my statesments here will know that it was not much ;)
and less french

Human languages are just like programming languages. All you really need in order to pick them up quickly and start using them efficiently is a solid understanding of their structure. There are certain common features of all languages. I recommend starting with a linguistics class. Think of it as a basic architectural programming class for humans. :D
I have taken and interest in linguistics and phonetics. I've gained the ability to pronounce almost any sound in any language, to bore people to death talking about the relationship between English phonology and how we write the language, and even to construct a vaguely Celtic-style language - http://www.safalra.com/special/nationstates/ek/ - I still find it difficult to actually learn foreign languages. I could tell you about the interesting syntax of Chinese, but I'd have difficultly constructing anything more than a basic sentence.

I am German, so German from 1st to 13th grade.

English from 5th to 11th grade, then 1 year abroad in NC/US including graduation from HS, then 12th & 13th grade in Germany.
Now I've been doing English studies at university for years to become an English teacher... It will never stop!

French 7th to 11th grade, then 1 year abroad in NC/US including graduation from HS. Haven't spoken it in years although I sometimes watch some TV or even a movie (that I already know!) in French.

(I did take some Spanish classes in evening school in 11th grade but forgot most of it so I won't really count that: I can order beer and say that I don't speak any Spanish...)

English is almost natural to me now whereas I have to work hard on understanding French. While I wouldn't say that English is easy, it is a lot easier than most other languages I have so far encountered ;)

English and French. I also took some Turkish classes (not enough to make me even comprehend the language).
Since I speak a two Romance languages, I understand between probably 30% to 90% of any other Romance language - depending on the language. Funny thing is that, of the languages supposed to be closest to my native Romanian, I understand least (you probably never heard of them, but they include Istro-Romanian and Aromanian),

I'm learning French and Spanish, but I'm not gonna for my GCSE's. I wanna learn Japanese and German.

3 years of Chinese. The intonations and occasionally unfamiliar vowell are pretty brutal. I can only assume I sound like a retarded monkey from alabama with a rock in its mouth. I read and write it better than I understand it, and understand it better than speak it. I could probably purchase food and find a place to crap, or order my friend the military attache a Mai Tai, but ain't no way I'm tracking down Gubo and Palanka in Bejing.

But looking like Grizzly Adams and throwing my two bits in on a mandarin conversation I wasn't a party too was occasionally priceless. (I'd always do so in english so they never knew how bad my I really was.)

I have been taking Spanish since 9th grade (I am now a freshman in college), but I do not really count my high school classes as actual instruction as we were never even taught the subjunctive form. My comprehension and speaking ability has tripled two-fold in these two short semesters of college instruction.

I also plan to take Portuguese in my junior and senior years.

I started learning english before I went to school.
Russian was next after that, been learning it for close to 6 years now but I've hardly learned anything...
I started learning german last year and I can speak german better than russian...
I also understand a bit of finnish, which is close to my native estonian, but I've never learned it anywhere and I probably couldn't speak much of it anyway

Irish and French.

I took 5 years of French in HighSchool and was going to take French in college but I decided against it.

Latin in High School (4 years), French in college, Hebrew and Yiddish growing up. Also, Sinuhue's thread taught me a hell of a lot about Spanish.

2 years French in highschool, 4 years self taught. took 1 year of hebrew.

Currently English and Swedish. I have also tried to learn German, but at the moment I can hardly introduce myself since I've forgotten almost all of it.

German, French, Greek and ancient Greek, in addition to English. :)

Vote and discuss!
Are some easier than others?

I took German and Spanish, and of the two, German was by far easier.


I want to learn Dutch now.

I have taken and interest in linguistics and phonetics. I've gained the ability to pronounce almost any sound in any language, to bore people to death talking about the relationship between English phonology and how we write the language, and even to construct a vaguely Celtic-style language - http://www.safalra.com/special/nationstates/ek/.

Yes! I've finnally found someone with the same experience! /fonEtIksMAks/!

Other than that I know some latin, enough to make a region devoted to the language, and I'm attempting (with only slight success) to learn Japanese.
I have a ConLang (http://home.earthlink.net/~booko/OkunoLang/Ksenax/index.html) that, while I don't speak it or even know a lot of it, I am the authority.

I'm an American, I don't need any other languages. ;)

Seriously, my foriegn languages were a joke. I started off at a high school that taught 6 weeks of German, 6 weeks of Spanish, and 6 weeks of French. I transferred to another school after 8 weeks, and wound up in a Spanish class 6 weeks behind everyone else.

Spanish, 4 years in high school and 1 year during my undergrad studies.

French, Latin, Ancient Greek and English.

iam learning spanish...but i really want to study latin:(

English, German, French, Latin and Ancient Greek...

And after school: Modern Greek and Italian

iam learning spanish...but i really want to study latin:(

You really don't, its tedious, but if you do, I'm willing to help.

Irish, German, and now some Hungarian, for my sins.

Sajnos nem szeretek nyelveket tanulni, inkább szeretek szaxofónon játzni.

iam learning spanish...but i really want to study latin:(

you sort of are studying Latin

Hebrew and Spanish. Spanish was a lot easier than Hebrew.

I used to be fluent in Spanish when I was younger and lived in Southern California, but since then, I have forgetten alot of it and had to retake Spanish in high school...I'm trying to work back up to fluency. I also used to know some Hebrew, I can read it, but cant speak it nor translate it. And, next year, when I go to college I am going to take German and Russian.

I was just wondering, if your a native English speaker, what do you people think is the easiest language to learn? Is it Spanish, German, or something else?

I'm a native English speaker and I find German to be pretty easy.

I'm a native English speaker and I find German to be pretty easy.

Easier than Spanish?

(I did take some Spanish classes in evening school in 11th grade but forgot most of it so I won't really count that: I can order beer and say that I don't speak any Spanish...)
Isn't it bizarre how, in a language you don't speak, the one thing you actually can say is "Sorry, I don't speak the language"? :p


Learned English & French in school (English for 9, French for 5 years). Looong time ago, so I forgot most of the French, sadly.

Studied Burmese in university for a couple of years, but forgot everything.

Started Spanish classes a couple years ago but was too lazy to really get into it. Bummer.

Would love to learn Italian. I'd have a killer Italian accent, requisite hand gestures included. :)

Studied Burmese in university for a couple of years, but forgot everything.


Coolness! Where did you do Burmese?

I studied French, German, Latin, Ancient Greek, and a bit of Spanish at school. Now in university, I study Arabic (both classical and modern) and modern Armenian (Eastern dialect). Over the course of my travels I've picked up a little Persian, Turkish, Italian, Dutch, and Polish - although any conversation I could have would be bloody limited.

One day I hope to have a bash at Scottish Gaelic, and at Hebrew.

I had 3 years of French in high school, but then took a 4 year break in learning it while in the Army. Now I'm back at French, hopefully to become either a French teacher or a TEFL teacher in somewhere in the French speaking world.

I take Spanish in school, French at the French Alliance. The foreign language department at my school is a joke. Spanish is MUCH easier than French (maybe because I took French first and a lot of things are similar, and also because in Spanish you pronounce all of the letters.)

Also, for those of you who are American, don't you hate that American high schools only let you take one foreign language?

I took about 5 years of Spanish in elementary school, and remember remarkably little of it.

I also took probably 7 years of German, total, and remember enough to get by passably, but not great. I think I'd pick it up pretty easily if I were to go live there, though.

As an american though, I get very little chance to practice any of it. Well, I could try spanish again, but I don't want to. German is more interesting anyway, and a much cooler country than mexico. At least if it were spain spanish it'd be an interesting place to go.

Coolness! Where did you do Burmese?
Fluffles for the "Coolness!" :). Usually, all I got was a blank look.

Studied it at Berlin Humboldt University (they probably scrapped the program long ago because the city's broke). We were only 3 students - one not so good, one really good (that was the one who also studied Hindi, Urdu, Arabic and Thai - all while simultaneously getting his MA in physics...) and - me.
I never would have thought it could be so hard to learn a language... I've always been a more intuitive learner, i.e. quickly getting a feel for what "sounds right", and never bothering to really learn grammar (let alone grammatical terms).

Turns out while that approach may work just fine for fellow Germanic and Romanic languages, it sucks big time for everything else. Burmese was just so foreign, there was no way to "feel yourself into it". To me, it almost felt more like studying math - kind of what I imagine studying Latin must be like.

The death knell came with the two guys going off for a year to study in Myanmar while I went off for a year to study in the US for my major. Came back and had forgotten everything, while they were fluent. Great.

About the only thing I remember is how to say "Thank you" and the names of some fruit...

But I still think it's the most beautiful alphabet in the world. :) [/almost-hijack]

Im learning spanish but I am just in it for the two years that most colleges require, because the teacher is horrible (as I hear most spanish teachers are) and I have no interest in learning that praticular language.

I learned french and german. I even have 2 o'levels in said subjects. (2 Bs).

I can read Le Monde pretty much, but my prose and spoken french are embarrassing. They are just bad.

I might well have never taken german for all that I can remember.

So much for the vaunted british education system.

Also, for those of you who are American, don't you hate that American high schools only let you take one foreign language?

My school only offered Spanish and French, and at the time I didn't really have any use for Spanish, so I guess I wasn't too upset.

Yay! Go French! I am preparing for a Mardi Gras party tomorrow as we speak...

Im showing my age, but I took Latin at my school'

I have taken and interest in linguistics and phonetics. I've gained the ability to pronounce almost any sound in any language, to bore people to death talking about the relationship between English phonology and how we write the language, and even to construct a vaguely Celtic-style language - http://www.safalra.com/special/nationstates/ek/ - I still find it difficult to actually learn foreign languages. I could tell you about the interesting syntax of Chinese, but I'd have difficultly constructing anything more than a basic sentence.

Maybe this is a method issue. How are you trying to study? Are you teaching yourself? Are you taking a class? Are you reading a book? Software? What?

Took Latin for four years and loved it only to come to college and be told it doesn't count for shit.

Right now I'm struggling with German because they're almost polar fucking opposites. I hate life.

French.

English and German aren't foreign languages to me.

I took German and Spanish, and of the two, German was by far easier.I found the opposite, funnily enough. It was more to do with the grammar than the vocabulary; I never got my head around dative cases in German, for example, but managed to master the Spanish subjunctive!

That is to say, I managed to master it for long enough to pass my 'A' Level.

Maybe this is a method issue. How are you trying to study? Are you teaching yourself? Are you taking a class? Are you reading a book? Software? What?
Book, tape, guide to Chinese phonetics. When I was at univeristy I knew a Chinese girl who helped a little - apparently my pronuncation was perfect, it was just that I was taking a long time to learn vocabulary. I guess I'm better at learning structures (grammer) than details (vocabulary).

In school, I only had German (duh), English and Latin.
I've learned Italian all by myself and am now learning Japanese in university.

Usually, all I got was a blank look.

I know what you mean...telling people I do Arabic usually isn't so bad, it's when I roll out the Armenian that they start to glaze over!

We were only 3 students

Yiii, I sympathise there aswell - you're reading the typing of Oxford University's only undergraduate in Armenian. According to the internet, no other unversities in Britain offer Armenian either, leaving me as the only undergraduate Modern Armenologist in Britain! There's a few Classical Armenologists (mainly graduates) around, though, so I'm not alone!

But I still think it's the most beautiful alphabet in the world. :)

I agree with you there...to an extent...Burmese is gorgeous, but I fell for Arabic and can never come back from that love! One of the reasons I like Armenian is 'cos it's not 'classically beautiful', but just has a feeling of 'correct' about it...at least when I look at it!

Was Burmese your major? or was it just part of the degree?

Isn't it bizarre how, in a language you don't speak, the one thing you actually can say is "Sorry, I don't speak the language"? :p


Learned English & French in school (English for 9, French for 5 years). Looong time ago, so I forgot most of the French, sadly.

Studied Burmese in university for a couple of years, but forgot everything.

Started Spanish classes a couple years ago but was too lazy to really get into it. Bummer.

Would love to learn Italian. I'd have a killer Italian accent, requisite hand gestures included. :)

i picked up a bunch of Italian while there several years ago. It's really similar to Spanish (makes sense -- Ostrogoths and Visigoths shaping Latin just a bit differently).

problem is, i can't spell italian.

say this to your woman (or man): Tu see molto cara. (Too say molto cah-rah)

I've done Latin for five years at school, as well as French - which I can read and write reasonably, but speaking a foreign language to a native speaker makes me feel stupid like I'm getting it wrong (especially when I hear them speak), even if they understand me...
I can read cyrillic and Japanese (to an extent, sometimes I make mistakes with the katakana, and there are so manykanji...).

Good news to linguists: I've heard that learning languages can help you live longer (something to do with activating some area of the brain etc...)

Also, for those of you who are American, don't you hate that American high schools only let you take one foreign language?

I'm not sure what you're talking about. My middle school only offered Spanish -- took two years of it in 7th and 8th grade. But in high school, I took two years each of Latin and Spanish and three of French.

(However it would take me a considerable amount of effort to get back to being conversational in any of them.)

I did a highschool exam in English and French after six years of lessons. Even though I studied German only for three years, I speak it to an acceptable level. I taught myself Italian. Furthermore I did some exams in Latin and (Ancient) Greek is currently being studied alongside Arabian and Hebrew. One day, I hope to be abled to read Spanish as well. The poems of Jorge Luis Borges look especially promessing.

I learnt French and German to a small degree, and have forgotten most of that. If I had time, I would learn them properly, and many other languages too. I am interested in linguistics, however. I've started a few conlangs but never continued the projects. I never really tried using more than a couple of non-english sounds in conlangs though.

I've gained the ability to pronounce almost any sound in any language

Did you use sound effects from a website or did you actually speak to people who could pronounce the sounds?

English is almost natural to me now whereas I have to work hard on understanding French. While I wouldn't say that English is easy, it is a lot easier than most other languages I have so far encountered ;)

Probably because English is a germanic language, whereas French is latin-derived.

I have studied French, am currently in my second year of Latin, and someday might decide to learn a bit of Swedish-I think that'd be cool.

What languages did I learn at school? Well, I was taught French, Latin and Classical Greek. Whether I learnt them or not is another issue :p

Well, I was taught English in my dutch school (only went there two years), but was sort of useless seeing as my english was nearly better than the teachers (had only been to a british school before that for about 5 years). Then in my British school we got taught Arabic (was in saudi arabia), french, and i can't remeber if there were any other languages we could take apart from english, i think maybe german. Then in my international school (in the netherlands) i took Dutch (my dutch till that point pretty much sucked), german, french, and there was the possibility of taking italian, spanish, i think russian but only in certain cases, then persian i think too but also only in certain cases, english of course too for the people that couldn't speak english yet... i think that was it

Totally forgot, i was learning russian too :D , but that was from a friend so i guess it doesn't really count but it was at school.. But she gave up on me because i only remebered useless stuff and she told me russian people would think i was crazy

Did you use sound effects from a website or did you actually speak to people who could pronounce the sounds?
For the consonants all you need is good diagrams of the tongue positions - and it helps that English uses most of the places and methods of articulations anyway, so you just need to combine them in different ways. The vowels are trickier (as the vowel space is continuous) so I found a website with recordings.

For the consonants all you need is good diagrams of the tongue positions - and it helps that English uses most of the places and methods of articulations anyway, so you just need to combine them in different ways. The vowels are trickier (as the vowel space is continuous) so I found a website with recordings.

Ok, I've read the pages about vowels and consonants on Wikipedia, but its not always clear what they're supposed to sound like.

I studied French in high school, but hated every second of it.I'm more interested in Russian or oriental language's.

But looking like Grizzly Adams and throwing my two bits in on a mandarin conversation I wasn't a party too was occasionally priceless. (I'd always do so in english so they never knew how bad my I really was.)
That's why I want to learn Irish. Pity I can't find a course in it at any college or university. It's such a beautiful language too. Gaelige rules!

Living in Switzerland, we had German lessons all the way through school. For me personally 13 years, plus as foreign lagnuages 9 years French (and almost competely forgotten by now), 7 years English, 3 years Italian (couldn't order pizza grammatically correct).

Spanish, I only studied for a semester, but became fluent through travel, and by marrying a Chilean. French I studied for years, but never used, which means I can read it and understand it just fine, but I suck at constructing setences. Cree I've never studied, though I plan to, in order to get a more conscious understanding of the grammar and syntax. My oral skills are good.

So the one language I've studied, I suck at, and the two I didn't, I'm great in:)

Mandirin Chinese, not great with characters because we use pinyin liking the class a lot.

German (mother toungue): 1 - now (13)
English: 4 - now (13) (A-Level)
French: 7 - 11


I quit French in grade 11 because I couldn't stand any of the French teachers. I think my ideas were too progressive for them... Apart from that it was far too theoretical, no real conversations or political discussions or anything comparable in French, just analyzing literature and grammar. Was quite good (13 out of 15 possible credits) and still speak it at an acceptable level but I had to quit. It just annoyed me.

I was just wondering, if your a native English speaker, what do you people think is the easiest language to learn? Is it Spanish, German, or something else?

As a native speaker of English, Spanish and German are in fact the ONLY other languages I've studied. (And by "studied" I actually mean "took one or two classes and never reached fluency.") Both are probably easier than English because spelling and pronunciation are more consistent, but of the two I find myself most comfortable with German. At least my pronunciation of German was much better, and my English accent was better disguised.

My boyfriend, who grew up in Venezuela with some Italian heritage, speaks English, Spanish and Italian fluently, and is decent at French. He mentioned that some of the poorer folks living in the south of his country could speak English, Spanish, Portuguese, as well as a local creole language, and yet I'd imagine those people aren't very well educated by US standards. Something to think about. Probably the single most important factor in learning a language is necessity--if everyone in your geographic region (and/or family) speaks the same language, then foreign languages probably aren't going to stick.

Well, I am learning German now for about 23 years, but since I'm German that's no big deal...:rolleyes:

Right now, I'm studying Japanese, Dutch. Before, I learned Norwegian. At school I took English lessons with less success than I hoped for, and I had to survive five boooooooring years in a Latin class. But that's no language, that's a disease!

Japanese is my favourite so far (after four years of suffering, trying to remember all those Kanji), but If somebody would chop of my hands I'd never ever be able to order a beer in Japan again...
Dutch is cool. Even if it wasn't, I'd continue to learn it just to be able to visit Dutch-classes in Japan to listen to Japanese trying to pronounce "goede dag" :D

as far as easiness is concerned...

I've studied a fair few languages (some to fluency, some really not so) and I think the easiest I've studied is definitely Spanish. I have this feeling that even the irregular verbs are regular, and I personally find the noises much easier than the other toungues I've toyed with.

Spanish is great-sounding too. I with I'd been offered it at an earlier age too.

with German - (studied it 4 years, did 'A-level' standard.. ) it was bloody hard 'cos of confusing grammar and verbal structures, while spanish seemed to follow my train of thought...