Although we have listed here the 9 easiest foreign languages to take in college, do not relax and expect a miracle in learning a new language. It is actually very hard to define the terms of difficulty and easiness when it comes to language learning, and explain what an easy language to learn is in the first place. Every language has some special qualities which can be defined as difficult or easy to learn for non-native speakers.
Mandarin (a dialect of Chinese), for example, has been marked as a very easy language to learn because of its simple grammar. Words in this language do not change their form when grammar rules are applied, but new words are used instead. So, basically, people learning this language does not need to bother them by acquiring complicated grammar rules. Instead, they are forced to learn a very long list of new words. On the other hand, according to some language teachers, Spanish has the easiest pronunciation among the popular languages in the world, but the grammar is much more difficult than that of the English language. The difficulty level of every language is usually evaluated in terms of reading, writing, speaking and listening and these four language skills are necessary to master in the process of language acquisition. If we want to evaluate the level of easiness of every language, we should observe each of these skills separately. However, that is simply not enough. There is still a subjective feeling of how difficult or easy each language is for each of us.
gpointstudio/Shutterstock.com
Learning a new language depends on the native language of the learner, too. It is easy to acquire a language which is similar to our native language or has cultural similarity with our culture. Native English speakers could see that many languages are related to English, so these are easy for them to learn due to a large number of similar words and grammar rules. That is why we consulted sites and blogs which advised the easiest foreign language to learn for English speakers.
The speed of adopting a new language depends on the language you have learned before. If you followed our list of the 6 Easiest Dead Languages to Learn and have learned some of the languages from there, like Latin, for example, it should be easier for you to learn any of the languages from the Romanian group, like French or Italian. So, if Latin was easy to learn to you, then French would be, too. However, we have tried to find languages with simple grammar, like those without verb conjugation to make the best list of the easiest foreign languages to take in college.
However, the time you will need to learn a new language and get “A” on the final exam mostly depends on your motivation, the other subjects you have chosen for studying and surely the learning methods. It would be much easier if you can find someone who speaks that language already, or it is his or her native language. The internet could help you to find native speakers of any language in the world, so use it to learn the language as easy as possible. If you have a lot of friends in the same language course as you, form a group where you will speak and read only in foreign language, heckling each other in grammar, reading, and pronunciation. Finally, if you are really interested in adopting a foreign language, you may consider of traveling to the country where that language is the native one. That could be a start of the great adventure and maybe the future professional career. The period of time needed for acquiring a new language well enough to be able to use it easily also depends on the learner’s motivation to learn a particular language. There are many people who learn a new language only because it is their hobby or they have a constant need to improve themselves and change their subjects of interest, while other people find learning a new language to be a proof of their intelligence and wide knowledge. In addition, some people think learning is a good way to prevent dementia or Alzheimer disease and some just want to show off in front of their friends. Their motivation to learn a new language is lower than that of someone who has to learn a new language because of a new job opportunity or moving to another country. As a result, we collected the necessary information about the period of time needed to learn a new language from language schools because people who pay to learn a new language do their best to learn it as quickly as possible.
The starting point for making the list of the easiest foreign languages to take in college was the data we collected from language schools about the period of time needed for learning a new language and the number of students who applied for a particular language, but the data are not precise and do not show the precise number of weeks or lessons needed for learning a certain language. Instead, we used their lists of the easiest languages which are based on the level of difficulty of their vocabulary, punctuation or grammar and then did some comparison among these lists. We also consulted blogs and forums for some advice and recommendations. So, take some time and start learning a new language, it could be a great adventure. Keep in mind that learning a new language is even easier all over again after you have previously learned some other new language.
