Learning a language has its pros and cons.
It can be overwhelming to start without any prior knowledge of language learning.
From romance languages to African languages, here are easy to learn languages to target this year.
What makes a language easy to learn?
To cut it short, any common language can be a hard language to learn if you don’t have the right technique and available tools for learning.
Languages that are more closely linked to English have some traits and attributes that make them simpler to learn for English speakers.
Sentence structure, vocabulary, tones and sounds, and writing system are all examples of this.
If you fear that your language skills will be a barrier for you to learn a new language, find language families closer to your native language.
A language is easy to learn when there are…
Materials available to learn
The more you see a book about the beginner, intermediate, and advanced lessons for that foreign language, the easier you will learn that language.
That’s why in every bookstore or online language teaching platform, you’ll see languages such as English, French, German, Spanish, Japanese, and Malay as some of the most popular languages that beginner students study.
On the other hand, if you’re studying an endangered language, chances are, you’ll have to find historians or linguistic researchers
At some extremes, people who are very much into studying an ethnic group or indigenous people have to visit that remote area just to learn their language.
How many people speak your target language
If you’re studying a language just for a new hobby or traveling, you will have to check which countries speak the foreign language you want to learn.
It’s crucial to find these countries as it is related to the first reason we’ve discussed.
You can buy and research available books, dictionaries, and
Another reason to look for a native speaker is finding someone to practice that language with.
If you can find more people to talk German, Italian, or Spanish, you’ll find communities that are eager to discuss anything that will prompt you to speak more.
How you perceive an easy to learn language
Eventually, all languages are relatively easy if your goal is to at least get C1.
It will be a bonus if you become fluent in a year. But some people don’t have that time to learn fast.
The best way to make a language easy is to slowly inject your target language into your daily tasks.
Another important tip to remember is to review all the words you’ve learned for that day before you go to sleep.
A refresher test or short quiz will go a long way in helping you memorize a language faster.
So here are the top 5 easy to learn languages (not in order):
Swahili
Swahili is a Bantu language from the African language family.
Due to widespread exposure to Arabic via Arabic-speaking merchants in the past, a significant amount of Swahili vocabulary is derived from the Arabic lexicon.
A significant portion of this can also be ascribed to Swahili people reading the Quran in Arabic script.
As a result of contact with foreign commerce, Swahili has several terms adapted from English, German, Hindi, French, and other languages.
Swahili is widely spoken throughout Africa, particularly in East Africa.
As more organizations attempt to expand to various regions of Africa for various commercial possibilities, the need for Swahili speakers will rise in lockstep.
Norwegian
Norwegian, or “Norsk,” like English, is a Germanic language, making it easier to learn for English speakers.
It has a large vocabulary in common with English, and unlike certain Germanic languages, most Norwegian words are easy to pronounce.
The sentence construction is likewise, for the most part, equivalent to English, if not identical. The way you check your grammar is simple, with only one form of each verb per tense.
Norwegian is spoken by around 5 million people, the majority of whom live in Norway.
It may be a fascinating language to study, with origins in Old Norse, and proficiency in Norwegian will provide you more access to the country’s rich literary culture and mythology.
Spanish/Italian
Many language learners can comprehend Italian (and Portuguese, for that matter), usually in written form, but also frequently in spoken form.
The enormous similarities between Spanish and Italian allow for mutual understanding, including between these two languages and other Romance languages such as Romanian and Portuguese.
Due to the considerable lexical similarities between Italian and French, learning Italian is also simple for Francophones.
Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese, and Romanian are considered sister languages on grounds of lexical similarities.
To learn between Spanish or Italian is a relevant question. Both are challenging languages if you are not familiar with conjugations and different verb forms and tenses.
Greek
According to beginner Greek language students, Greek is a relative language for learning. That is, it depends on you if you find Greek easy to learn or not.
Greek is an Indo-European language family. This implies that it has numerous similarities with Spanish, English, and Italian.
While the majority of the letters in the Greek script have similar English sounds, there is a handful that does not exist in current spoken English.
In Greek, verbs are conjugated based on the subject and number of subjects in a phrase, the tense, the voice (active and passive voice), and the mood.
As a result, Greek verbs can be found in a variety of forms that convey the aforementioned qualities.
The good news is that, like the English language, the basic sentence structure in Greek follows the SVO pattern (Subject-Verb-Object).
Seek out real-life practice
You won’t get past a language when you only learn passively. To really make any language as easy as it sounds, focus on how to think in that language.
In reality, you’ll get overwhelmed with languages if you’re absorbing as much as you can learn in just a few months.
Take step-by-step learning tutorials and classes, starting from A1 (Beginner) then speak to a native speaker for practice.
At the end of learning a language, you’ll be able to:
- Introduce yourself
- Ask for directions and phrases for traveling around the area
- Describe your hobby, age, and which country you came from
- Talk about your family and friends
- Discover the culture starting with food and drinks
If you want to study as smart and as fast as you can, you can focus on what works well for you, but don’t become too complacent with just learning via flashcards or memorizing vocabulary words only.
Make language learning easier by reading more about tricks to learn languages faster before enrolling in an online course or studying on your own.
