What is the easiest and hardest European language to learn not including Spanish?
January 21st, 2010 | 
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A V asked:
I want to learn five languages so that I can maybe one day live in Europe. I already know English and some Spanish.
Easiest Way To Learn Spanish
I want to learn five languages so that I can maybe one day live in Europe. I already know English and some Spanish.
Easiest Way To Learn Spanish
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easiest idk. try french its pretty easy and there are a lot of programs to teach you. As for the hardest, i would pick a language like russian because its off the Cyrillic alphabet, and there aren’t as many cognates.
The hardest is probably English lol. Followed by Dutch followed by French followed by Portuguese followed by some Nordic languages followed by German. I don’t really want to consider gaellic or scots “real” European languages as they aren’t widely spoken. Russian would be the most difficult if you count them as European. Some slavic languages would basically be above english on the hard scale. And just because you know Spanish doesn’t mean you know Spain’s Spanish. It’s a bit different.
I’m not an expert on the topic, but I’d say Finnish/Estonian/Hungarian are the most difficult seeming. They are Finno-Ugric languages and unlike most other European languages (which are Indo-European), are not like or related to anything else.
Cool. I know a lot of Europeans who only know their native language. It’s definitely and advantage to know more, though. Makes travel a lot easier.
As to your question –
If you know some Spanish, you will find Portuguese, Italian and Romanian to be quite a piece of cake. The only problem would be making sure you don’t start speaking Portuguese when you want to speak Spanish, or mixing up Italian and Romanian, because these two pairs are particularly similar.
If you want to go for some toughies, Elfina is right — Finnish and Estonian are THE most difficult, with Hungarian close behind. The grammar is completely foreign, the vowels are insanely difficult for a native English (or Spanish, or German, or Russian) speaker to attempt to pronounce, their idea of putting a sentence together is completely different. These are highly challenging languages. But if you learn Finnish, Estonian is apparently quite easy to pick up – so you kill two birds with one stone, so to speak. Hungarian would still be a bit of a challenge, though.
The Slavic languages are not easy, either, but the above three are much more difficult. And of the Slavic languages, Russian is by far the easiest because there are a lot of cognates. Cyrillic is no big deal to learn, you learn it in a week and that’s that. It’s not like Chinese, where you spend your whole life learning hieroglyphics.
Basically, none of all languages is easy or difficult, the best or the worst. Most importantly, there is no difference between what is useful and what is not, no duration limit in how long it takes to be fully proficient, and no age limit in when a person can learn a foreign language. The most important thing you need to remember while learning any foreign language is you learn and apply with confidence (maintain your morale), determination (keep up with your good fight against all odds), and patience (control yourself even during a difficult time). Learn to make mistakes; you can’t improve yourself without making mistakes first. Practice frequently with full consistency and you will overcome any obstacles, large or small, in life. Don’t worry if you are a slow learner; everyone learns in different speed and style and learning a new language takes time. So know yourself first in how you learn and how you can utilize your skills to maximize your learning potential. Remember to maintain your interest in the language you are learning. Also, always manage to use your native language and second language(s) equally in respect to your schedule so you will retain you native language and second language(s) easily.
For more information on how you can learn a new language, try the webpage Language Learning Tips from Omniglot (www.omniglot.com, an excellent informational website on languages run by Simon Ager, an Englishman with tremendous interest in foreign languages). You will like Simon Ager and his website after you read those information if you haven’t visited his website before.
Language Learning Tips from Omniglot
Also, if you want to know about how you learn, I recommend you to understand theory of multiple intelligences by Howard Gardner. You will be surprised by how much you haven’t known about your secret self.
Theory of multiple intelligences (from Wikipedia)
There are also plenty of websites where you can get yourself tested on your preferred learning method for free. Just use your favorite search engine and type “Theory of multiple intelligences” or “multiple intelligences” and it will do the searching quickly and easily.
Regarding how many languages one should strive to learn at one time, the answer is simple. The sky is the limit! The more languages you learn, the better you can communicate with others, particularly in international traveling and employment. (In other words, “The more, the merrier!”) If you can handle this, do it; otherwise, learn one language at a time until you are ready for the next one.
Most importantly, you must be proficient in reading, writing, speaking, and listening in each language to be considered as fluent. If you are not proficient in at least one of the four categories of a particular language, then you are not fluent in the particular language, even though you can only speak another language without flaws. Imagine you are lost and you try to find a place to stay in Russia. The address you have is in English but the street names are in Russian. It is really horrendous when you can’t read Russian, especially when you are stranded in the middle of the frigid, winter night (brrrr!). So, therefore, learn to read and write just as you learn to speak and listen, even if it is difficult.
Also, master every aspect of the language you are learning, including pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and expression. Get it wrong and expect something unusual to happen. Finally, keep practicing with consistency. It will make you better in using another language while practicing, whether you are at home, work, or traveling.
Some languages have phonetic alphabet that is not found in most languages, which makes most people having difficulty in mastering some of those languages without knowing the exact pronunciation first. If you have that difficulty in pronunciation, I suggest you use IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) as a guide for correct pronunciation. For those of you who don’t know what is IPA, it is a set of alphabet where each letter represent only one sound for consonants and vowels and other symbols as changes in the way a consonant or a vowel is pronounced. It is traditionally used by most linguists around the world as the most standard form of phonetic alphabet and now used in many foreign language textbooks where the foreign languages do not use Latin alphabet (including Russian, Greek, Hebrew, and Japanese). If you can find it, I encourage you to buy it, or at least borrow it. Alternatively, go to Wikipedia or Omniglot (you can use any search engine to find it) and find the language you are learning; many languages now have pronunciation guide in IPA. Just look for the pronounced words closed by two square brackets like these [ ] on most webpages, including Omniglot, or two slashes like these / / on many webpages of Wikipedia but not in Omniglot.
Good luck and happy learning!