How far away the country that the language belongs to (both physically and culturally) can also be an influencing factor in how easy or difficult a language can be to learn. can take anywhere. Or, for a more step-based lesson book, try Learn Persian (Farsi) Step by Step: Level One Beginner (Steps 1 to 10) by Fruzan Seifi, available in both kindle formats and physical copies. Though Persia does not exist as a nation today, per-say, it does live on in the Middle Eastern countries that were created because of it. So the way it's written is the way it's said. But according to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), French is a category 1 language. Can you guess what English word this resembles? Here, the native name of the language is known as Farsi. Manage Settings Learn about the best language resources that I've personally test-driven. Welsh, the language of Wales (Englands neighbor) is a beautiful ancient language spoken by around 29% of the population in Wales. This makes it easier to get to grips with if you already have prior knowledge of any of them. Persian is most likely known to you under one of the names of its dialects. ), using the Cyrillic, Arabic, or Kana System (among many others) instead. We love hearing from our readers. German 2. Unlike many other languages in the world, Persian does not include grammatical gender, and pronouns are not marked with natural gender, either, making them all gender-neutral. Although Frisia no longer exists, Frisian, which actually consists of three main dialects, is still in use in parts of the Netherlands and Germany., English and Frisian share many similarities in terms of sentence structure and vocabulary. Because of this, many words can change meaning entirely when a suffix is added! As well as looking and sounding similar, there are masses of resources out there to help you learn French, and it is spoken widely around the world. It is known as the "daughter language" to Dutch (it shares 90 to 95% of its vocabulary with the language. Though Persian expansion arrived at a standstill after a failed attempt to colonize Greece during the Greco-Persian Wars following the Ionian Revolt of 499 BC, the Persian defeat at Marathon, and Dariuss death, his successor was still determined to continue the legacy of previous kings. Although it doesnt seem so at first, Norwegian is one of the easiest languages for English native speakers. Members of this language family tend to have complicated grammatical rules and more than double the amount of vowels that the English language uses. Should you go for a more widely spoken language like Spanish or Mandarin, a politically relevant one like Russian, or one you can We have history to thank for this. For conversation and community-based lessons, opt for Mondlys courses that help you get fluent quickly and easily! Other notable kings of Persia include Darius the Great, who presided over the Empire when it was at its peak. Today, there are many versions of the Persian language, depending on where you are in the world. According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), linguists, and learners, all the languages we mentioned today are fairly easy to learn. The most challenging aspect of this language for English speakers will likely be the pronunciation., In Belgium, Flemish, which is the dialect spoken in the Flanders region, is actually identical to Dutch. There are dialects of French even here in the States and of course, in Canada. Whereas Dutch demands verb conjugations like those in Englishfor instance, I am, you are, it isAfrikaans doesnt bother you with the details. Its one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, with around 534 million speakers scattered all around the globe. However, some languages are generally considered less demanding for English speakers. 1. We have mentioned Arabic many times already as the Arabic script is used in many different languages. He expanded on culture and infrastructure by building roads, introducing standard currencies, weighing and measuring systems, and pronouncing Aramaic as the official language of the Empire. What will help you to persevere even when it starts to get difficult? Kanji is a character-based system with thousands of characters to learn. So many languages are arguably easier to pick up than others for English speakers. (Download). To do so, its time to journey back in time to the roots of many countries in the Middle East Persia itself, and the Persian Empire. Similarly, demy has lessons from native Farsi speakers that allow you to fluently speak and understand the language. Even so, French is still one of the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. 10 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. It is full of mutations and consonants that are unfamiliar to an English speaker, but with some memorization and an eagerness to learn, it is certainly possible. Nevertheless, it is very difficult for a native English speaker to learn Russian. This is one of the reasons why Persian speakers sound so melodic when pronouncing words aloud. This is because you have less chance of being able to interact with other speakers as you go about your daily life, and also because the language may incorporate cultural concepts that you are not familiar with. Like Norwegian and Swedish, it has fairly straightforward grammar rules and a lot of vocabulary that will be familiar to English speakers., For example, Gode tidende sounds a lot like Good tidings, and the word dyre, which means expensive, is similar to the word dear, which is used in English when something is considered too pricey. That might seem a bit confusing, but it can actually be an advantage since there is often no single correct way to pronounce a certain word. If the grammar structure of the language you are learning is similar to your native language, it will undoubtedly be easier for you than if it were not. Even so, French does share many similarities with English, especially when it comes to the vocabulary. You and your buddy will be able to help each other. But even if youre not familiar with any other similar language, Portuguese will be relatively easy to learn. To view the purposes they believe they have legitimate interest for, or to object to this data processing use the vendor list link below. Learning a new language takes time, regardless of its difficulty. By this, we mean some may not use what is known as the Latin alphabet (A, B, C, D, etc. The multi-state system set up by Cyrus continued, including tax districts, infrastructure, communications, and transportation, all important to sustain such a massive expanse. With many languages not connected to the Latin alphabet, you'll need 1,100 hours of practice to proficiently speak Category III languages, according to Rosetta Stone. So if you're curious about the easiest languages to learn, I've got 10 great suggestions to help you out. Your next task, if you're up for it: Choosing among many options. Some of the many benefits of learning an easy language includes: Travel with ease. And it is extremely phonetic. Since French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, youve probably come in contact with it one way or another. Malay(bahasa melayu) and Indonesian (bahasa indonesia) are similar languages that share a root language and language group but are still different, as they have their own vocabulary, pronunciation, spelling and more. The Arabic alphabet was adopted for writing Persian words with slight adaptations after the Islamic conquest of 642 AD, which means that the literary tradition within the language has been fairly uniform for the past centuries. For instance, polisi is police and baiskeli is bicycle., There are also some key differences, of course, but if youre looking to gain fluency in one or more African languages, Swahili is an excellent one to start with.. However, you can use this as ageneral guide. Nevertheless the language is a beautiful one, steeped in history. Italian 7. A Russian word could look identical to another when it is written down, but may have two very different meanings. Originally, Persian was the language spoken by the rulers and people within the Empire of Persia, stretching back for thousands of years. In fact, Dutch sounds a bit like a mix of English and German. Too easy for you and looking for something more challenging? There are plenty of German language resources available online. If you would like to change your settings or withdraw consent at any time, the link to do so is in our privacy policy accessible from our home page.. The 10 Easiest Languages to Learn for English Speakers. An example of this is the Russian words and . Its also an official language of 29 countries, including Switzerland, Luxembourg, Seychelles and Rwanda.. Creole, for example, both Haitian and Louisianan are derived from the French language. Now that you have an understanding of the history behind the Persian language, the influence it carries, and some basic Persian structure, let me go over some general tips for learning the language. There are a number of different dialects of Georgian, depending on where you are speaking it, but the most common is the one spoken in Georgia itself. Persian is the easiest, and there is little dialectal difference compared to Arabic where each type is basically its own language, though as always in language learning, personal interest trumps everything else. Instead, think of it more as a head start if you decide to pick up the other one. Oh, and it is also a Romance language, meaning it sounds oh-so-romantic. Indeed, fluency doesnt happen overnight, no matter which language youre learning. Just like Norwegian, Swedish, and English, Dutch is a Germanic language. Although estimates vary greatly, Swahili is thought to be spoken as a native language by around 16 million people, and as a second language by up to 80 million people., In fact, if youve watched the Disney classic The Lion King youll already be familiar with a number of Swahili words such as rafiki (friend) and simba (lion). And that will make your learning process a whole lot easier. This selection may also come as a surprise, but Indonesian has several qualities that make it a logical choice for English speakers. Because it is a part of the Indo-European language tree, such influence is common, but not everyone knows the origins of certain words. Brief history of Persia and the Persian language, University of Londons SOAS Language Center, Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Beginner to Intermediate Course, Learn Persian (Farsi) Step by Step: Level One Beginner (Steps 1 to 10). Weve used data from the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) to rank them from the easier to the somewhat more challenging., Frisian is thought to be one of the languages most closely related to English, and therefore also the easiest for English-speakers to pick up. Therefore, you should be able to master the basics and learn how to speak French in no time. The Persian language uses the Arabic script, something that native English speakers are unfamiliar with. Learning a language becomes fun and easy when you learn with movie trailers, music videos, news and inspiring talks. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. Here are some good titles to get you started on Farsi lessons! Some languages do not use the alphabet as we know it. Sure, it is a little more difficult because it takes around 900 hours, but the alphabet is Latin script, meaning it is something you will be used to, and the words are phonetic meaning they are said how they are spelled. Portuguese 4. Under Xerxes, Persia took over large parts of Northern and Central Greece in the 480s BC, and the Empire was only shaken by the conquest of Alexander the Great by 330 BC. However, whilst it is very close to England, that does not mean the languages are similar. Download our free German essentials eBook to see the similarities. This is because the grammar, pronunciation, and even writing of Hindi is very difficult to get to grips with as it is so unfamiliar. Services such as Custom Writings can also help with these learning these methods, as well as provide assistance with college or university assignments. So child is anak and children is anak-anak. Easy right?, Malay is spoken by more than 200 million people throughout Southeast Asia. It technically belongs to the Uralic family, just like Hungarian and Sami (the indigenous language of Lapland). There are more than 22 million native Amharic speakers and about 4 million L2 speakers worldwide. Here are the top 7 languages for Arabic speakers to study. This was the empire of Cyrus the Great, of Darius and Xerxes, and of the elite forces who fought the 300 Spartans within the pass of Thermopylae during the Greco-Persian Wars. This means that once English speakers have had a chance to learn some basic rules, theyre usually able to pick it up quite quickly. This dialect was very similar to Semitic languages and actually used Aramaic script for its alphabet. Their words also tend to have more syllables than English words. That means most learners wont find many words they cant get their mouth around! easiest languages to learn for persian speakershockey team plane crash cannibalism . Over 2000 of them are commonly used, so you need to know at least all of those. It shares many similarities with English, including a common alphabet, comparable sentence structure and familiar vocabulary. Iceland is known to have some pretty difficult words to pronounce, from place names to everyday words. Once the fundamentals are down, you should be more than ready for basic conversations and childrens books. However, a welcome difference between Polish and other Slavic languages is the fact that it uses an alphabet that you will be more familiar with: the Latin script. Tones are very important in some languages and are used to alter the meaning of the same sound. For example, if you are learning Korean, find yourself some Korean movies or TV shows to watch. You say what you see. Norwegian is another Germanic language just like English and so it is relatively easy to get to grips with as a native English speaker. After Cyrus the Great transformed the groups of nomadic tribesmen into Persians and unified the lands under the name of an Empire, nearby Middle Eastern kingdoms like Media, Babylon, and Lydia soon fell under his rule to create the first superpower of the ancient world: the connection of Mesopotamia, the Nile, and the Indus Valley. The most challenging part of learning Dutch is pronunciation, but thats nothing you cant master, especially if you have some experience in learning other languages. There are many Mandarin Chinese language resources available online. Swedish 5. "The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.". From that perspective, there are no easy and hard languages. If you are interesting in learning Korean, it is worth looking at the Rocket Korean language course, part of the Rocket Languages series. Italian and English use a similar sentence structure in most cases, and fortunately, the pronunciation is quite logical. Because of its Latin roots, Romanian does share some cognates with the English language, and because of its phonetic form, pronunciations are easier to get to grips with. However, if the writing style is very different from what you are used to then you may well struggle to get to grips with this at first. Apply for a place in courses that take place in Yerevan, Armenia through Aspirantums Language School, or opt for classes run by the University of Londons SOAS Language Center. In fact, Italian vocabulary is widely used in English, and youre probably already familiar with more Italian words than you may realise, from those relating to food, such as gelato and panini to others like diva, solo, finale or fiasco.. If youre looking to learn a language that will enhance your travel experiences and boost your employability, learning Spanish online is a great choice. Many Japanese language apps teach users the various fascinating aspects of Japanese culture whilst also teaching the Japanese language. However, it's a different story in the United States. The Spanish language is phonetic (meaning the spelling tells you the pronunciation of the word). Some shared cognates include katt which of course means cat, busk which means bush, and our personal favorite (because it is so simple but looks so much more pleasing to the eye than our boring spelling) sn which means snow. FluentU brings a language to life with real-world videos. Hungarian. If you want to learn Persian online, there are many great options available to you right at your fingertips. Or, if you want structured lessons on all things Farsi that will help you start speaking it in 30 days, check out Reza Nazaris channel to achieve your fluency goals! As with the Vikings English got lots of Scandinavian words and are also Germanic languages like English sharing the same core words. This app Compared to Korean and Japanese, grammar is much easier to learn, mostly because their writing systems make learning challenging. Georgian is a language that is very unique as it has its own script. Italian Demonstrative Pronouns And Adjectives (With Examples), French Vocabulary And Phrases For Military Personnel, 9 Best Sites To Find (And Schedule) Spanish Tutors, Chinese Isn't That Hard To Learn (Here's How Long It Takes), How To Ask For Help In Mandarin Chinese [Essential Phrases], How To Ask 'How Are You' (And Respond) In Greek. Also, if youve been taking Spanish lessons, Portuguese vocabulary will be much easier to learn. The Korean hangul will need to be memorized when you first begin to learn the language. There are some shared cognates such as ' ja ' which means ' yes ' and ' veld ' which means ' field '. Thats why Norwegian words like morgen, glass, and papir sound so familiar. The tones and sounds of a language can have a direct impact on how difficult you find it to learn. The stress placed upon words and sounds is also important. This is where, to keep the sounds in harmony, suffixes are added to words. Of these, Spanish and Italian are the easiest for native English speakers to learn, followed by Portuguese and finally French. On the bright side, the spellings are largely phonetic, and once you have learned the grammar rules the language becomes easier. We are no longer in Scandinavia, but a little further south in the Netherlands. Swedish grammar is another advantage. Learning Mandarin Persian language will help you in learning Traditional Persian Language in an effective way. Like English, Norwegian or "Norsk" is a Germanic language, which makes it easier for English-speakers to learn. Danish 3. They also write right to left, which is very different from English writing. Romanian 8. We also participate in other affiliate advertising programs for products and services we believe in. Plus, with a wide base of modern content, and a proud literary tradition that stretches back for centuries, you will have no shortage of material to read, watch, and listen to in order to improve your comprehension and practice the Persian language. Spanish also uses the same alphabet as English, and many of the words are pronounced just as they are spelled., Another benefit of Spanish for English speakers is that the sentence structure is not only similar to English, but its also not as strict as it is in English, which means there are often multiple ways a sentence can be put together.. The grammar used in the Finnish language is complex, with around 15 grammatical cases and countless word endings. However, the language family it belongs to is the relatively small Kartvelian. Many Swedish native speakers can speak English quite fluently. Download our free French essentials eBook to accompany your studies. Swedish 5. It shares quite a bit of vocabulary with English, and unlike some Germanic languages, the pronunciation of most Norwegian words is fairly straightforward., For the most part, the sentence structure is also quite comparable to English, although not identical. Malay and Indonesian 10. Like the Persian language, Hindi has no capital letters, which in itself is very unfamiliar to native English speakers. Another popular language school is the International Language Institute, offering multiple levels of classes to learn Persian and Farsi in Washington, DC. The very easiest for you to learn, though, is the one you're most excited to learn. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. Cognates are when a similar-sounding word has an identical meaning. Even though its an artificial language, its 2 million speakers, several hundred thousand Wikipedia articles and organizations worldwide would argue that it still counts. But if youre new to language learning and youre looking for a relatively easy language to learn, any of the languages on this list would be great to start with. 2023 Enux Education Limited. There is also a welcome lack of verb conjugation, which is great news for learners, especially since this means that the sentence structure stays simple and short. Spanish 6. You wont have to spend a lot of time developing reading skills. I have read the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, Online English self-study + private lessons, Online Spanish self-study + private lessons, 15 of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers - ranked. However, it will take considerably less time to learn conversational Spanish. English, for example, has many similarities to other Germanic languages (think German and Dutch). In addition, Swahili, Farsi (Persian), Pashto and Kurdish are languages that an Arabic speaker can get the hang of without much effort. This is because the Dutch were some of the first colonizers of the States. In this post, we have put together a full and comprehensive list of the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn for English speakers. 1 Language and diplomacy 2 Easiest (about 600 hours of study) 3 German (750 hours) 4 Malay and Swahili (900 hours) 5 Hungarian (1,100 hours) 6 Greek (1,100 hours) Spanish "As a native English speaker, you will likely get on well with a language that uses the same alphabet as you. Another member of the Germanic family of languages that is considered easy to learn is Swedish. It is a beautiful language from a country steeped in history and, as such, many of the traditional ways of speaking still stand. Continue with Recommended Cookies. The Complete Modern Persian (Farsi) Beginner to Intermediate Course by Narguess Farzad is a go-to resource for learning the language from a book. The script that they use (Devanagari) is vastly different from Latin and even Arabic script. For example, tonal languages can be difficult for someone who has no prior experience of tonal languages (for example, most of us English speakers). 11 Of the easiest languages to learn for English speakers. The Romanian language is a beautiful amalgamation of Russian sounds and Italian sounds, resembling each of them in different ways. SHOW ME HOW! There are many reasons for which certain languages can be easy or hard for an individual to learn. Thai has five tones while Chinese has four. And to rule the vastness of the Empire, Persia needed kings. But, as with many foreign languages, its often simply a matter of getting some practice in. When it comes to the verbs, Persian uses these words to denote tenses and the grammatical aspect of how the action will continue over time, such as the continuous imperfect (I was loving) or the bounded perfective (I loved). It is something you can keep on developing over time and once you have learned a second language, you will have an appetite for learning more, which will become even easier when you have more languages under your belt! However, this is not a hard and fast rule, and there are also many other contributing factors. Like Indonesian, its an Austronesian language. There are many shared cognates between the two languages, making the words easy to recognize and pronounce, as well as having simple ways of creating tenses and possessives. Malay is spoken in Malaysia and Indonesian in Indonesia. With a good teacher or reliable Italian online lessons, youll learn how to order pizza in Italian in no time. There are a whole 35 different cases in this language; they also follow the unfamiliar concept of vowel harmonies. According to the FSI, professional working proficiency in this set of languages might take 23-24 weeks. Learning a new language can be made much easier when immersed completely, so opting for an on-site language school is a great option. In their Latin script, they also include an additional nine letters, which look a lot like letters you are familiar with, but still require memorization and learning in order to fully understand and use them. As a Romance language, Spanish derives from Latin, just like many English words.