Easier English or Spanish. "Just like an orange!" The easiest foreign languages ​​to learn

The Spanish language was formed on the basis of Latin in medieval Castile. It is believed that this is the closest modern language to Latin, and Italian, Portuguese and other representatives of the Romance group have more differences from their ancestor.

Spanish is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world, with over a million people speaking it. This language is used in 57 countries of the world and on almost all continents: in both Americas, in Europe, in Africa and Indonesia. Even in many countries where Spanish is not, it is widely spoken - for example, in Brazil it is spoken by most students and. Spanish is the official language of the UN, EU, African Union.

Judging from this point of view, it is more profitable to study it compared to Italian, which has such a status only in the Latin Union and the EU and is much less common.

In terms of difficulty, Spanish is almost the same as Italian. It is well given to people who already know one of the Romance languages ​​or English, which has many borrowed roots from Latin.

There are several situations in which Spanish is clearly preferred over Italian. Firstly, if the purpose of learning a language is to use it while traveling, then you definitely need to choose Spanish (unless you are going to stay only in Italy). Knowing Spanish, tourists can easily navigate in many countries of the world. Secondly, some people study a foreign language in order to understand songs, movies and series. To watch series, especially soap operas, you need Spanish - Latin American series are widespread all over the world.

Italian language

In terms of complexity, the Italian language can be compared with Spanish: they have similar vocabulary, similar grammar, but it is believed that Italian is more difficult, although this is a subjective opinion. But the complex characteristic intonation, the opposition of long and multiple vowels, which is unusual for the Romance group, and other phonetic features make it relatively difficult for Russians to study.

But many people think that Italian sounds more beautiful, more romantic, more fluid, while Spanish is more rough and harsh.

Learning Italian can be advised to lovers of classical music, which is much more closely associated with Italy than with Spain. When choosing to learn a language “for yourself”, it is advisable to focus on your tastes, on proximity to a particular culture: for example, if flamenco, samba and tango dances are close to you, and you like to relax in the Canary Islands, then your choice is Spanish.

Every third of us at least once in our lives faced with the choice of language, which had to be learned for one reason or another.

For work, for fun, for communication, to satisfy one's own goals, for quantity - all these are the main goals when learning a foreign language.

It is difficult to immediately say which language is easier than English, it all depends on the person and his ability to learn new things. For example, for me, after English, the first place comes with its melodiousness, fewer words, ease of constructing sentences, but with a completely different grammar. And every time I try to compare English grammar with Italian, I fail because what is written in textbooks is often in fact different from what the Italians themselves say. They call their language illogical, but full of passion, and sentences can be built as they please, which is very reminiscent of their native Russian speech.

Very often they talk about a bunch of Italian-Spanish-French, and you can’t argue with that. "Spanish-Italian" relations are very close, like the Ukrainian - the Russian language, which is fluently spoken by about 60% of the population. The difference between and Italian lies in the pronunciation of individual sounds, which seem more difficult than in the last mentioned.

A huge plus of Italiano is that "as it is read, so it is written." This is just a godsend for those who want to learn a second language. Just a few rules - and voila, you can read and write. Ease ends where grammar begins, which should never be compared with any other grammar, because:

• She needs to be accepted for who she is.
• It needs to be understood and passed through.
• You need to learn it and try to “speak out” a million times at all times

Those who have already mastered Italian will easily overcome Spanish and French, because. their grammar is similar.

Few people think about studying, which, although it seems rough, actually is not. The rules for reading it are quite simple, which cannot be said about grammar, which (to be honest) is a scourge in all languages. So if you need German, don't be afraid to face "Sprechen Sie Deutsch?"

It is worth noting that the languages ​​of the Slavic group will not pose any difficulties for you and me at all. Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian languages ​​can be mastered quite quickly without the help of tutors. Together with them, you can learn Bulgarian, Serbian, Polish,. Yes, you will notice a difference in stress, which is often fixed, unfamiliar lexical units and grammar, but this will not be a problem for those who decide to learn a second foreign language.

Often, in order not to subject languages ​​to mixing, such "pairs" are studied that are completely different from each other, for example, English-Arabic or German. However, if you yourself choose the language to study, give preference to the one that seems closer and more logical to you.

Not so long ago, the British Council published a report that spoke about the languages ​​of the future. So, the authors came to the conclusion that without Arabic, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese, the country will begin to lose ground in the economic and political spheres. It's worth considering, isn't it? In terms of the number of native speakers, Chinese is the leader, followed by Spanish English, Hindi, Arabic, Portuguese and Bengali.

The choice is yours, and we can only advise you to expand your language skills, because with the study of a new language, each subsequent one seems easier.

Now the dominance of English as the language of international communication seems obvious, it is spoken on all continents and it seems that it will always be so. However, do not forget that English has become an international language not so long ago. Now the main rival is Chinese, since the number of speakers in it is much larger, however, it has many disadvantages. Firstly, it is distributed mainly in China and to some extent in Singapore and Malaysia. Secondly, it is divided into separate languages, and if the majority speak Mandarin (northern dialects), then the largest economic zones: Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Taiwan are in the zone of other dialects. It turns out that in order to develop a business, you will have to learn different versions of the language. In addition, the Chinese language is difficult for foreigners and hieroglyphic writing is not very familiar to the majority of the world's population.

The English language has another rival, devoid of such shortcomings. According to the Etnologue website at the SIL International Institute, in 2016 the number of native speakers of English is 339 million people, and Spanish 427. The preponderance is very significant and, in addition, the number of Hispanic population is growing faster than the English-speaking one. Now the English language has an advantage due to the economic power of the English-speaking countries, primarily the USA. and the UK. As a result, many people choose English as a second language, and in terms of the total number of people who know foreign languages ​​to some extent, it is, of course, the undisputed leader (as a second language). However, this is not a very reliable indicator. The second language can be changed much easier than your own, if necessary. If our country used to focus on French and German, and now English, in the future, students can choose Chinese or Spanish, depending on the situation.

The main factor supporting the English language now is the United States. The role of this country in the world is still quite high, although it is declining every year. At the same time, the role of the Spanish language in the U.S.A. grows pretty fast. If in 1980 English was native for 89% of the population, now it is for 80%. The share of Hispanics, on the contrary, is growing rapidly, 5% in 1980, 7% in 1990, 13% in 2015. It is important that the Hispanic visitors do not assimilate, but retain their language. Many of them live compactly and do not need to learn English. The authorities have to go to a meeting, and the Spanish language has already received official status in the state of New Mexico. It can be expected that in other southern states, as the proportion of Hispanics grows, it will be officially recognized. Of course, it is still far from being recognized as the second state, but its role will grow and, perhaps, foreigners who want to do business with the southern states will have to learn it. From the position of the Spanish language in the U.S.A. largely depends on its role in the world.

Another important factor in the advantage of Spanish over English is that English is far from other languages, and Spanish is very close to Portuguese and Catalan, and even Italian is closer to it than German is to English, and British pronunciation is nothing at all. does not look like it. Spanish could well be used by over 200 million Portuguese speakers and, with some effort, by 60 million Italians. In general, there are many more speakers of Romance languages ​​other than Spanish than Germanic languages ​​other than English, and the difference increases over time.

In addition, the Spanish language itself is easier in terms of pronunciation and the ratio of spelling and pronunciation. It is generally considered the easiest to learn. For Russian speakers, it is obviously closer, simpler and more pleasant to the ear. English speech is difficult to understand for several reasons: spelling and pronunciation mismatch, different pronunciations, unusual sounds, less clarity in pronunciation compared to Spanish.

At the same time, of course, the main factor still remains the role of countries in the global economy. Spanish-speaking countries are developing faster than English-speaking countries, but their share is still several times smaller. If ever the countries of Latin America find a way to accelerate their development and experience economic growth comparable to that of China, the Spanish language can greatly displace English and even come out on top.

Many who decide how to learn a language and are given a choice - a school of foreign languages ​​or independent studies are wondering what the top of the easiest languages ​​​​in the world to learn looks like? Similar questions are asked by many ordinary people and specialists, both those who are going to take up the study of a language, and professional linguists.
In this article, we will discuss a number of characteristics that usually determine how easy a particular language is to learn. It should be noted right away that the most important thing in the process of learning a foreign language is the motivation of the student and the fact whether you like to speak this new language for you. These factors determine which languages ​​are the easiest for you. Spanish, French, Esperanto or ... Chinese. If you take on the study of a language that you are deeply uninterested in, then learning it may seem difficult and tedious to you, even if in fact it is not. Learning a foreign language, like everything else in study, must include interest and pleasure, otherwise there will be little sense. Of course, you can find additional factors that will make learning a non-native language easy for you. Read the following material, and then decide for yourself which languages ​​are the easiest for you.
According to the State Department, the easiest languages ​​for people in English-speaking countries are those that require about six hundred hours of class time (we mean more or less high-quality language proficiency). Specifically, these are the languages ​​of the Germanic and Latin language groups. However, the German language itself takes more time, about seven hundred and fifty hours: the grammar of the German language is very complicated.


English
The English language is considered to be quite simple: it has no cases, no word agreement, no gender. English grammar is also quite simple. Also, English is the most widely spoken language, it is spoken almost everywhere. Words in English are short, verbs change exclusively for the third person. Native speakers of this language are quite calm about the language mistakes of foreigners, since there is a very large number of people learning English as a second language. Thanks to all this, English is one of the easiest languages ​​in the world to learn.

It is estimated that there are about 60 English-speaking countries in the world, i.e. without knowledge of English today it is difficult to get a job, so it is gaining immense popularity in preschool institutions. The main English-speaking states today are Great Britain, the USA, Canada (excluding Quebec), Australia and New Zealand. Also, English is one of the two official languages ​​of India, and besides that, it is spoken in most of the southern island states and African countries.

French
The French language is also not difficult. Many French words are similar to English words. The French language is widely used all over the world. It is not difficult to find an opportunity to learn French and speak it. Given these factors, it can be argued that the French language also belongs to the list of those languages ​​that are easy to learn.
People who learn French are called Francophones. There are 18 countries in the world where French is spoken. The main French-speaking states are France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada (Quebec). In 14 African countries, this language is the only or one of the two official languages.

Italian
The Italian language is also simple, it has no cases, its pronunciation is quite simple, the vocabulary has the roots of the Latin language, in other words, it will be familiar and close to those people who speak one of the languages ​​​​of the Indo-European group.
Learning Italian will be useful for those who at least know or have studied Latin, one of the two official languages ​​in the Vatican City State. Italian is the language of music. True, the Italophone world is not too large in its area: the language is spoken only in Europe and only in four states: Italy, the Vatican, San Marino and Switzerland. Small Italian-speaking minorities outside of Europe live in Argentina (oriundi).


Spanish
The easiest language for a foreigner to learn is Spanish. His vocabulary is similar to English, the spelling is very simple (the way it is written is the way it is heard). Spanish is similar to Italian and is quite widely spoken. It has very simple grammar and pronunciation. Spanish ranks 3-4th in terms of prevalence, number of speakers and its use in speech after English, Chinese and Hindi; it is spoken by about 0.5 billion people, most of whom live overseas. The record holder for the number of Spanish speakers is not Spain, but Mexico! There are 130 million Spanish speakers in Mexico. The largest Spanish-speaking countries are Spain (in Europe), and overseas Mexico (in North America) and Argentina (in South America).


Portuguese
Portuguese is one of the easy languages. At least there is no one who would not watch Brazilian soap operas, which were once popular among our grandmothers. The pronunciation is almost the same as Spanish, except that Portuguese is slightly sibilant, unlike its Eastern Pyrenean counterpart; this is if we talk about the classic (European) version, which is widely used not only in Portugal itself, but also in African countries: Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome, Goa, Angola and Mozambique. In the world, Portuguese is the sixth most popular language, despite the fact that the population of this country is only about 10 million, which is even less than the population of Moscow. The Brazilian version differs significantly from the standard (for example, there is no sound "sh"). Although these languages ​​are similar to each other, the Spaniards do not always understand their neighbors, so the Portuguese sometimes have to write what they say.
Those who study Portuguese are called Lusophones (from Lusitania; the ancient name for Portugal). In total, there are about 1/4 billion people who speak Portuguese (250 million speakers)


Esperanto
You will probably be very surprised, but Esperanto holds the palm for ease. In it, as in Spanish, "as it is heard, so it is written exactly." This language is artificial, that's why it's so simple. But the bad thing about it is that so far relatively few people speak it (about 2-3 million worldwide) - compared to languages ​​such as Spanish, French or English. However, if you speak Esperanto, other Esperanto speakers will be very fond of you.
Esperanto is NOT an official language IN ANY COUNTRY OF THE WORLD! That is why knowing and studying it, you can find friends absolutely anywhere. Linguists have conducted studies that it takes only a month to master colloquial speech, and in order to know it perfectly - from 3 months to six months, while the basics of the same English will have to spend at least a semester or a year. I will add that next year, at the end of July, this language will celebrate its anniversary - 130 years since its birth! Recently, a petition appeared on one of the sites to make Esperanto the official language of the European Union! Anyone can sign it, including you!


Summary
An additional set of conditions that can make the language easy for you personally:

1) Is the new language similar to your native language? In the event that the chosen language is similar to yours, has a vocabulary (vocabulary) and grammar similar to it, then this language will be easier for you personally. For example, a person who speaks Arabic will learn Farsi more easily than Spanish, even though Farsi is considered very difficult.

2) Do you personally like to study? If the answer is yes, any language can be simple - or at least interesting. And this circumstance will help you learn the language faster.

3) Availability of additional resources. With their help, you can achieve more effective and faster results. Additional resources include vocabulary and grammar books, audio, conversations with native speakers, and so on.

The material is based on an article by Frantisek Langer.

So, what language to learn after English? There can be a huge number of options, but it all depends on the goals, objectives, prospects, expected career growth, approach to the language and other things. We'll talk about this.

There are more than 3,000 languages(or 7,000 languages ​​including dialects) of which only 95 are recognized.

Let's start with the classics. It is necessary to learn those languages ​​that belong to one language group. Firstly, you don’t have to spend a lot of time learning grammar: once you understand it, everything will be the same in all languages ​​belonging to the same language group. Secondly, many lexical units will be consonant. This approach to language learning is suitable for those who want to simultaneously master, for example, Italian and Spanish. However, it is not recommended to study two similar languages ​​at the same time in order to avoid confusion.

Languages ​​of the Romano-Germanic group were and will be popular. They are similar because they have a common basis - Latin. But if you know French, then Spanish will go like clockwork. Please note that after three languages ​​mastered, the fourth, fifth and each subsequent one will be given easily due to the developed system. This is confirmed not only by teachers of foreign languages, but also by polyglots.

A little about language families and groups. There are 9 language families: Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Afroasian, Altaic, Niger-Kordofanian, Darvidian, Austronesian, Uralic and Caucasian. Each family is divided into groups, which in turn belong to the peoples of the language group. Indo-European language family remains the largest. It includes the Germanic, Slavic, Romance, Celtic, Baltic, Greek, Albanian, Armenian and Iranian language groups.

By the number of native speakers of course Chinese leader. Today, about 1.5 billion people speak Chinese, which is one-fifth of the total population. In addition, China is literally capturing the world market. Almost all products, with the exception of a few companies, are manufactured in China. However, only 10 million Chinese speak English. The Chinese language is spreading around the world at lightning speed, primarily thanks to businessmen who act pragmatically and thoughtfully. Of course, business people certainly know the world language of politics, culture, cinematography, but the world is changing and becoming more demanding on ongoing processes. And those who speak Chinese will certainly succeed and have a competitive advantage over those who do not speak Chinese.

Note that Chinese is spoken in mainland China, Taiwan and Singapore, and it is also the second dialect in Hong Kong and Macau. In addition, it is one of the six UN languages.

Choose, what language to learn after english, can be based on the principle of job search. If you know that you will have to cooperate with the Germans, then look towards German, and if you know that you will have to work with the Arabs, then you need to learn Arabic. Of course, many may say that knowledge of the English language will be quite enough, but recently more and more scientists are trumpeting that English will soon begin to lose ground. He will be replaced Chinese, Arabic and Spanish. It is interesting that the British themselves claim the same thing, justifying everything to those who the world will be fed up with English by 2050. This is what David Graddol, an expert in the field of language teaching, says. This will happen because too many people will know English, and it will no longer be considered foreign, and then Chinese will take a leading position. But the conclusions, of course, are up to you.

At the same time or with a slight difference in time, you can learn opposite languages e.g. English-Turkish, English-Arabic, English-Chinese.

The demand for foreign languages ​​also depends on real estate. People with financial capabilities and a broad heart who want to buy property abroad, of course, know not only the country and its many regions, but also partly the language, culture and traditions. So, the most popular countries are Bulgaria, Turkey and Spain. In the last two countries there is no sharp change in climate, it is always warm and cozy. The advantages of Bulgaria are obvious due to the minimal language barrier. Having bought a property, it is possible to obtain a residence permit.

After English is logical learn spanish. Why? Because it is the most widely spoken language after Chinese and English. In addition, having mastered Spanish, you can easily understand Italians and vice versa. However, I can argue with those who say that Spanish is the easiest language. It is a little more complicated than Italian, in which everything is transparent and understandable. Just a dozen rules, and you can read and write. Grammar is also easy, especially considering that there is no Progressive tense as such in Italian. Therefore, as it claims, for happiness you need Present, Past and Future. Well, about 500 more words to start and about 50-70 common phrases.

But back to Spanish. This language is popular in North America, it is studied in schools and many people speak it at home. For those who decide to do business in Latin America, Spanish is the salvation of a drowning man. The world is developing, nothing stands still, and many South American countries are already actively demonstrating economic growth and an emerging market. Going to Paraguay and Ecuador, you can become the owner of cheap land and acquire subsistence farming.

Spanish is spoken in Spain, as well as in Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Guatemala, Bolivia, Honduras, Paraguay, El Salvador, Panama, Equatorial Guinea, Puerto Rico, Cuba and Costa Rica.

During the time when English language is a solid logic and classics, learning spanish language due to the demographic crisis in Europe. Italian for work, they learn much less often, it is rather a language of feelings, but this does not interfere with its assimilation. Despite all the complexity, interest in Chinese language is constantly growing, and recently it is more of a macroeconomic trend. Scientists note that literally in 50 years the situation may change radically, and Chinese will become one of the main languages. You and I will just have time to master it well.

Let's turn our attention to, which is spoken by residents of more than 30 countries. Arabic is the native language of 240 million people, while another 50 million people speak it as a second language.

So, summing up, we note that after English it is easier to assimilate Dutch, after German - Scandinavian languages, after French and Latin - Spanish, Italian, Portuguese and Romanian, after Czech - Polish and Slovak, after Slavic languages ​​​​and Hebrew - Yiddish, after Arabic - Hebrew and Persian, after Chinese - Korean and Japanese.