Learning a new language may not be your priority, but it sure does help you remember grammatical rules.
Even the English language can benefit from a different language learning process.
Is it easy to learn German as an English speaker? Diving into that language without hesitation is always an excellent choice.
What else is harder than German?
The German language is considered one of the hardest languages in the world.
One reason might be the German grammar. Compared to English grammar, you will have to memorize tons of vocabulary, feminine nouns, masculine nouns, and even spelling rules.
If you’re coming from the French language, you’ll have an easier time learning German vocabulary since French is part of its roots.
But, contrary to general knowledge, there are more languages harder than German for an English speaker.
Some say Mandarin Chinese is as hard as taking German lessons.
Some languages even have different phonetic characters such as Russian.
Even familiar languages like Polish, Welsh, or Afrikaans might surprise you with their long words (Afrikaans has a word with over 136 letters, and Polish even tops that with a 173-letter word).
But no matter what these languages look like, it is just relative to how you’re motivated to learn that language.
The real deal with Germanic Languages
German comes from the West Germanic group of the Indo-European language family. Hence, you’ll notice how German speakers can understand English very well.
There are many English words similar to German. This is what language experts call cognates.
Cognates are words that have similar meanings and are spoken or spelled similarly in two distinct languages.
For a native speaker of English, you’ll enjoy learning cognates since many words are recognizable!
These contain all of the months of the year, as well as a plethora of other commonplace words.
A language tip: Always consider memorizing gender nouns as their conjugation rules follow
What if your native language is from Asian Languages?
Being a native English speaker might feel like a limitation. However, there are easy languages to learn even if you’ve been monolingual your entire life.
You can try learning the German language since both English and German have many similarities.
German learners coming from the Asian language should not find German courses hard to learn.
In fact, many people in Southeast Asia are efficient language learners because of how diverse their culture is.
Although being an English speaker in Asia is common too. You may even find different German language classes in Asia more than what you might see in Europe, Africa, or New Zealand.
Seeing the pattern? It takes interest and the right German teachers to continue learning Germanic languages wherever you are.
Consistent practice in learning a foreign language
Overall, an English speaker should not feel discouraged if they always hear German as the hardest language to learn.
It varies from person to person on how much they take time in learning German on their own without needing a teacher.
Nevertheless, there is an opportunity for practice if you can dedicate at least an hour to learning grammatical genders (feminine nouns and masculine nouns for conjugation) and the difference between indefinite and definite articles.
You should not skip listening to native speakers since German pronunciation varies too.
Just don’t get stuck with grammar rules and enjoy learning along the way.
