Learning another language can be hard, but knowing mastering one language can help with others, what are the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers?
Well, it is safe to assume that you already know English well enough and you are now looking to expand your horizons a little bit by learning even more languages. As you can see from the title, today we will be talking about languages that will be much easier to learn for Spanish speakers. To be honest, there isn’t the easiest language to learn in the world. However, there are languages out there which share similarities with Spanish, when it comes to vocabulary and grammar. So, as a Spanish speaker getting the hang of those languages will be much easier for you. Similarly, there really isn’t the hardest language in the world either, although many people consider Mandarin to be it, but people who are native speakers of languages of the same branch as Mandarin will find Mandarin to be much easier to learn. While talking about learning new languages, one might think “is English the easiest language to learn?” But we will not talk about English on this list, as it is obvious you already know English well enough since you are reading this article. If you are a native English speaker, then you should definitely check out the 11 Easiest Second Languages to Learn for English Speakers.
nito/Shutterstock.com
Spanish falls into the Romance branch of languages, and all Romance branch languages are derived from a dialect spoken by the common people in the Roman Empire. So naturally, it will be much easier for you to learn other languages in the Romance branch. There are quite a few languages in the Romance branch. However, we are not going to cover all of them, as some are not spoken by many people. We will primarily be focusing on languages that will allow you to connect with a greater number of people and we will also be focusing on a lexical distance of languages from Spanish. If you are wondering what lexical distance is, don’t worry, we’ll get to that too.
To find out the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers, we sought help from various websites like How to Learn Any Language, FluentU and About World Languages. We also put Google’s trusty search engine through its paces for additional information as well. After we had all the necessary data at hand, we had to come up with a good way to rank our findings. Well, to be honest, the only viable way we can rank how easy it is for a native speaker of Spanish to learn other languages is through lexical distance or linguistic distance. By definition, linguistic or lexical distance refers to how different or similar one language is from another. The closer one language is to Spanish, the easier it will be for a native Spanish speaker to learn that language. However, difficulty does not only depend on Linguistic distance alone, as there are a lot of other variables at play here, like the person’s level of skill and prior exposure to other languages. But, for the purposes of this article we will stick to linguistic distance alone. This map will show you a visual representation of linguistic distance of all major language branches. So basically we ranked the easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers based on its linguistic distance from Spanish.
Without further ado, let’s get the list of easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers started.
7. Romanian
Romanian is the most distant language from Spanish in the Romance branch of languages. So in theory, it would take the most effort for a native Spanish speaker to learn Romanian among all the other languages that share similarities with Spanish. Over 24 million people spread across two countries speak Romanian. However, the biggest demographic of Romanian speakers are from Romania itself.
Papa Annur/Shutterstock.com
6. French
Next up we have French, the official language of France, and it is also spoken widely in a few other countries in the continent of Africa. It is also an official language in Canada as well. There are about 70 million native speakers of French in the world and around 50 million non-native speakers. On top of that, French has a lot of words that are from the Spanish vocabulary, making it even easier for a Spanish speaker to learn French.
LiliGraphie/Shutterstock.com
5. Italian
At number five on our list of easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers, we have Italian according to lexical distance. If you go for Italian, you will be able to communicate with around 62 million people in their mother tongue. But, since we are talking ease of learning, the number of people speaking said language is not of concern. According to the map of lexical distance, Italian will be much easier for a Spanish speaker to learn compared to French or Romanian.
Copyright: tpabma / 123RF Stock Photo
4. Provençal
We are halfway through our list of easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers, and at number four we have Provençal. In terms of native speakers, Provençal is not that popular. Only about 350,000 people speak this language in southern France, mostly in Provence. However, according to the map of distance, this language will be much easier for a native Spanish speaker to learn and master. Although we do not recommend learning this language as there are not many native speakers, but you will definitely find it much easier to grasp.
Copyright: kbuntu / 123RF Stock Photo
3. Portuguese
The third position in our list is held firmly by the wonderful language, Portuguese. There are around 200 million Portuguese speakers in the world if you count those who speak it as a second language. However, the language is commonly spoken primarily in Portugal and Brazil. After Spanish, Portuguese is the most spoken language in the Romance branch of languages. Therefore, we highly recommend that you give Portuguese a try. Since we are ranking the languages based on their lexical distance, we did not put Portuguese at the top spot.
Copyright: eikotsuttiy / 123RF Stock Photo
2. Catalan
This language is native to Spain itself. Catalan, also known as Catala, Catalan-Valencian-Balear, and Catalonian is commonly spoken in Barcelona, Catalonia, Valencia provinces, Balearic Islands, Carche region, and the Murcia Province. There are over 12 million Catalan speakers in the world if you count those who speak Catalan as a second language. All in all it’s a great language to learn, especially if you are a native Spanish speaker.
romantitov/Shutterstock.com
1. Galician
If you are a Spanish speaker, then according to the lexical distance, you will find Galician the easiest second language to learn, as the lexical distance between Spanish and Galician is less than 25 units. Galician is also spoken in Spain, mainly in the region of Galicia, an autonomous community located in northwestern Spain.
Photographee.eu/Shutterstock.com
This wraps it up for our list of 7 easiest languages to learn for Spanish speakers. We sincerely hope that you found our list helpful. We had a lot of fun making this list, and wish you all the success in your endeavor of learning a new language.
