What language is the easiest to learn?

Question

I have a lot of time on my hand. And I'd like to learn a foregin language.

My family is from Germany. I was wondering if German is a good language to learn. And I want to be fluent in German. How long will it take me to learn German?

Answer 1

Well I learned some german and I thought is was really hard because there are cases which mean a word can change depending on what it is in the sentance, but I thought that Japanese was quite easy, so it all depends on what kind of a person you are. Norwegian is supposed to be the easiest language to learn. I learned some of it and at first I thought it was very hard but it got very easy! Now I think that it is the easiest language to learn.

Answer 2

German is the basis for English, so it is fairly easy to pick up.  "Das ist," for instance, means "that/this is."  ("Mansch" translates into "man", "nein" means "no", and "ya" is "yes.")  

The rate at which you pick it up depends on a whole bunch of things such as the number of languages you already know.  A year should be sufficient for intermediate usage.

Answer 3

i learn german. it's kinda like english in structure. but italian is the easiest by far. you'll just love it.

buena fortuna!!!

Answer 4

Esperanto!

Here is a language that was designed for simple, expressive communication. Learning Esperanto first makes learning other languages easier as you will see through the last web site listed below. As of 1995 it was estimated to have over 2 million speakers, and that has probably grown by leaps and bounds with the rise of the Internet. You're probably asking yourself right now "What's the point?' Again, below you'll see how useful it truely is. Be sure to read all the way down.

Here is a short and sweet lesson so that you can see for yourself how simple Esperanto is. More detailed on-line courses are available below as well as mail courses. Esperanto clubs are readily available in most areas. Correspondence is also readily available.

Each Esperanto letter has only one sound, always. Here is a guide to some of the sounds. The stress is always on the next-to-last syllable of a word.

A - pronounced 'AH' as in palm

E - pronounced 'EH' as in there

I - pronounced 'EE' as in three

O - pronounced 'OH' as in glow

U - pronounced 'OO' as in too

c = ts (as in lots); oj = oy (as in boy); G = g (as in go)

kn are always pronounced separately: k-nabo = boy

Just to drive the point home. Letter sounds 'NEVER' change and 'NEVER' have more than one sound.

Numbers and colours:

0 nulo (say: noo-lo)

1 unu (say: oo-noo)

2 du (say: doo)

3 tri (say: t-ri)

4 kvar (say: k-vahr)

5 kvin (say: k-veen)

6 ses (say: sehs)

7 sep (say: sehp)

8 ok (say: ohk)

9 naÅ­ (now)

10 dek

11 dek unu

...

20 dudek

21 dudek unu

...

30 tridek

31 tridek unu

...

100 cent (say: tsent)

flava (flah-vah) yellow

verda (vehr-dah) green

blua (bloo-ah) blue

blanka (blahn-kah) white

nigra (nee-grah) black

griza (gree-zah) grey

bruna (broo-nah) brown

ruĝa (roo-jah) red

("ĝ" as in "gem", "gentle")

All nouns end in 'O'

All adjectives end in 'A'

All adverbs end in 'E'

All past tense verbs end in -is (say: ees)

All present tense verbs end in -as (say: ahs)

All future tense verbs end in -os (say: ohs)

Example:

La bona (adjective) knabo (noun) trinkis (past tense verb) malrapide (adverb).

(The good boy drank slowly)

By applying markers to the words it allows us some flexibility in word order. (Remember, Esperanto is intended as a language that can be spoken by many different groups, and they don't all use the subject - verb - object word order. For example, German usually places the verb at the end.)

Word construction follows a very easy system which uses a small system of prefixes and suffixes. For example

By placing the -in- suffix before the final 'O', you make it feminine.

Patro - Father

Patrino - Mother

Filo - Son

Filino - Daughter

Frato - Brother

Fratino - Sister

By placing the prefix Bo- in front you get the in-laws (or out-laws depending on your point of view.)

Bopatro - Father in law

Bopatrino - Mother in law

Bofilo - Son in law

Bofilino - Daughter in law

Bofrato - Brother in law

Bofratino - Sister in law

By placing the -id- suffix before the final 'O', you make it an off-spring.

Hundo - dog

Hundido - puppy

Kato - cat

Kitido - kitten

Koko - chicken

Kokido - chick

By placing the prefix Mal- in front you get the opposite.

Bona - good

Malbona - bad

Seka - Dry

Malseka - wet

This system stays the same throughout.

Below I've listed just a few sites of interest, including a Brazilian site that has a free down loadable instructional program with interactive pages; a very good program. You can sign up for tutors on this site.

Here's something interesting.

There are even native speakers of Esperanto. The number is considered to be in the 2000 range. These are people who are the product of couples who have met through Esperanto and each speaks different languages. Therefore the house hold language is Esperanto.

Search for speakers with Pasporta Servo the International Hospitality Service using Esperanto.

http://www.tejo.org/eo/ps

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasporta_Se...

With these services available you can visit many countries very cheaply, find a plethora of friends and more importantly learn about their culture and language.

There are a wide range of cultural materials available also. I spend a good deal of my time listening to Esperanto music. I find it helps in tuning my ear to it. Also, there is no lack of original and translated written works to enjoy.

Like the Klingon said, 'you haven't lived until you've read Shakespear in it's original Klingon.' (Please note tongue firmly planted in cheek). Yeah well, wait till you read him in Esperanto.

By all means, research and draw your own conclusions.

Ĝis!

Answer 5

German might be good for your family but it's pretty difficult! Dutch is very similar to English but not that useful. If you live in the US you should learn Spanish!

Answer 6

in my opinion the easiest language to learn is canadian french!your welcome!

Answer 7

french is the easiest language to learn. So is spanish.

Answer 8

Germany would be a good language to learn if your family is German. I think they will be very impressed with you if you can speak German. There's a language learning programming called Rosetta Stone that's suppose to be pretty good. Try online and looking it up.