If you ever wanted to start learning another language, you must have wondered which are the easiest second languages to learn for English speakers. Well, we decided to found out!
When you start learning a new language, you face many difficulties. There are four well-known aspects in the process of language learning and those are listening, speaking, writing and reading. Depending on what type of person you are, some of those things will go smoothly, while with others you will have to struggle a bit more. Moreover, there is never an answer to the question ‘How much time do I need to learn a new language?’, as it varies from one person to another and also from which speaking area somebody comes. For some, it is easier to work in a group, and those people go to language schools, whereas there are also individual types, who like more ‘one on one’ lessons. All in all, every aspect of learning a new language is a story for itself.
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When it comes to choosing a professor, is it always a good idea to have a native speaker? According to some schools, as British Council, many people think that native English speakers are better at teaching. Even though it makes sense, it doesn’t have to be the case every time. Nowadays, there are lots of online language courses, and most of the teachers there don’t teach their mother tongue. To take English, as the most commonly learned and spoken language, for some students, let’s say Japanese, it is maybe easier if the teacher is not native. Why? A person who has experienced the process of studying one language knows the difficulties and barriers of that language, and they can explain it in a more comprehensible way than a native.
Most spoken languages worldwide are English with 1500 million people, Chinese with 1100 and Hindi with 650 million. Right after are Spanish and French. To find out easiest languages to learn, especially for English speakers we consulted About World Languages, the site which has gathered the information about the world’s most populous and important languages. They have classified languages according to difficulty in learning based on the length of time it usually takes to achieve Speaking Level 3 – General Professional Proficiency in Speaking and General Professional Proficiency in Reading for English native speakers. Moreover, in order to create our list we used just languages from the first category, which means it takes approximately 23-24 weeks and in hours 575-600. Additionally, through our research, we saw that many sources such as for example Fluentu, share the same or similar suggestions. Those are Western European languages that are most similar to English and that is why they are considered the easiest to learn for English native speakers. For the additional information about languages, we used as the main source The Ethnologue. If you are interested in comparing the similar research take a look at our previous article of 5 Easiest Second Languages to Learn For English Speakers. Let’s find out the results:
11. Norwegian
Norwegian vocabulary is partially borrowed from German, French, and English. It belongs to the East Scandinavian group of the Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, and naturally, it is similar to Danish and Swedish. Besides Norway, it is also spoken in Canada, Sweden and the US.
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10. Danish
Danish belongs to the same group of East Scandinavian languages, like Norwegian, but it is spoken in more countries: Canada, Germany, Greenland, Iceland, Norway, Sweden, United Arab Emirates and the US. Did you know that English had borrowed some of their words, such as ‘fog’, for example?
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9. Swedish
Third Scandinavian language is Swedish. It is as previous two, from the same family language group. It is spoken in the US, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Norway, and United Arab Emirates. Also, in Finland, besides Finnish, Swedish is another official language.
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8. Afrikaans
Until the 20th century, Afrikaans was a Dutch dialect. Then in 1925, it was officially recognized as a language that is different from Dutch. It belongs to West Germanic branch of the Indo-European language family, and it is spoken in South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Swaziland, and Zambia.
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7. Dutch
Dutch is spoken officially in the Netherlands and part of Belgium, where it is called Flemish. Moreover, it is also spoken in Aruba, Brazil, Canada, Caribbean Netherlands, Curacao, Germany, Sint Maarten, South Africa, Suriname and the US. Even though it sounds similar to German, its grammar is easier.
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6. Romanian
At number 6 on our list of easiest second languages to learn for English speakers is Romanian that is in the Indo-European language family. It is widely used besides in Romania, in Australia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, Finland, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russian Federation, Serbia, Sweden, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, the US and Uzbekistan. It is also official language of Moldova.
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5. Italian
One of the easiest languages to learn for an English speaker is definitely Italian. It belongs to the Indo-European language group, and it has many dialects. It is spoken in other countries besides Italy such as Australia, Brazil, Croatia, Eritrea, Slovenia and much more.
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4. German
We are continuing our list of easiest second languages to learn for English speakers with the German language that had three big changes throughout time. The oldest version was the most similar in its complexity to Latin and Slavic group of languages, whereas the newest version is lighter and more comprehensible. Besides in Germany, it is spoken in over 40 countries around the world.
3. Portuguese
It belongs to the Romance branch of the Indo-European family group and it is one of the world’s most common spoken languages. Portuguese vocabulary is similar to Latin, but there are also some similarities with English, as it is one of the main sources of words-borrowings.
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2. French
People speak French, the next one on the list of easiest second languages to learn for English speakers in 53 countries! It is one of the most commonly learned languages, besides English and Spanish. It is in the same family group as Portuguese, and has lots of similarities with Italian. However, its grammar is considered to be among the hardest ones.
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1. Spanish
First place on our list of easiest second languages to learn for English speakers goes to Spanish, fourth most spoken language worldwide! Besides Spain, Mexico is known for the largest Spanish- speaking population, then also Colombia, Argentina, and the US.
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