Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Multilingual People Explain Which Foreign Language Was The Easiest To Learn

Multilingual People Explain Which Foreign Language Was The Easiest To Learn

People become polyglots for a variety of reasons.

Some people grow up bilingual, with one language being spoken at home and another being spoken out in the world.


Others take it upon themselves to learn more languages. And every language has its own various challenges.

u/hunchbackweeb asked:

Polyglots of reddit: What was the easiest language for you to learn and why?

Here were some of those answers.

Bibbidi Bobbidi

Giphy

Italian.

Just get an Italian girlfriend and download Italian language versions of RPGs you've already beaten. Congratulations, you're now qualified to eat pasta.

LonelyPauper

Slang Game

I literally learned English by watching cartoons since a really young age. I spoke a lot of Russian and learning another language at the time. Then developed my vocabulary through literature. The hardest part was getting used to the slang. I couldn't understand a word my first year in England.

Sayor1

Cut From The Same Cloth

Giphy

Hindi - I grew up in a household speaking Punjabi, but learned Hindi from watching Bollywood movies. The languages share some roots, so it was like learning Italian when you speak Spanish.

GidhaRani

Idioma facíl

Spanish. I'm a French speaker. Spanish is simplified French with lots of "o"s and "a"s Oh, and intonations too.

moon-angel

Formulas

I like Spanish, as it is not so difficult knowing if a noun is masculine or feminine.

In German or French, you need to learn the gender of each noun, word by word. Sometimes you have a clue, but it's far more difficult than in Spanish.

ballena8892

Even The Language Is Imperialist

Giphy

English because it was omnipresent, and I feel like I just learned it by hearing it on TV all day and reading Harry Potter books because I didn't want to wait for the translation. I never felt like I put any real effort into learning it, it just sort of happened.

Of the language I actively learned I think Spanish was the easiest (relatively simple grammar, not many crazy exceptions to the rules), but it certainly helped that I spoke French already

Inevitable-Aardvark

Groupings

It depends on your native language and /or on what foreign language you already know.

Romance languages are close enough to allow you to pick another one up relatively easily. I've never studied Spanish, yet I can understand it well and can stumble my way through a basic conversation, based on my knowledge of Italian.

Ditto for Scandinavian languages. I'd probably become fluent in Swedish within a few months of practice and even the trickier Danish is much less nonsensical when you approach it as a Norwegian speaker.

English is odd... Easy to butcher, tough to master.

German, as all inflected languages, is more intimidating and definitely has a steeper and longer learning curve.

Kalle_79

Roots

Latin. By the time you've picked up one or two of the Romance languages, Latin words are pretty easy to recognize. Sentence structure is a bit less easy, and while pronunciation may look hard at first with some words, every letter is pronounced in Latin so there are no 'tricky' letters or sounds. Of course, it's a dead language, so there's that...

temporalwanderer

Word Order

Giphy

Easiest was Spanish, but most surprisingly easy was Mandarin. I am by no means fluent in Mandarin or close to it, but the sentence structure is surprisingly similar to English (both are SVO) and verbs are never conjugated, so memorizing and learning all the conjugations just isn't a thing. You of course have to learn how to mark time and tenses, but it's not as complex as for languages in which every verb is conjugated for every tense and every person.

Sure there's the tones and the characters and the measure words and all that, but on the whole was surprisingly less difficult than I anticipated.

Robearsn

When Things Mix Inside Your Brains

Well i have two first languages: English and Japanese.

So Italian is easy because it's alphabet is similar to English. Korean is easy because Japanese has the same grammar structure and even some similar words. Totally different alphabet and slightly more confusing honorific system, but nonetheless easy in general.

On the other hand, Spanish can be a huge pain in the butt for me sometimes because it's TOO similar to Italian. I'll mix up the vocabulary far too often lol

kaede1101

More from People

Sylvester Stallone and Jennifer Flavin Stallone
Bryan Steffy/Getty Images for amfAR

Sylvester Stallone's Wife Ripped For Her Bizarre Comments About Trans Kids In Hollywood

Sylvester Stallone’s wife, Jennifer Flavin, sat down with Stephen Miller's wife, Katie, for an appearance on an episode of the conservative, right-wing The Katie Miller Podcast.

Flavin, who married Stallone in 1997, gave her unqualified opinion about why some celebrities have transgender children. Despite having no experience or training in psychology or medicine, the former model—who began her relationship with Stallone when she was 19 and the action star was in his 40s—opined that celebrity parents’ children are transgender because of a lack of “structure” in their lives.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of MAGA woman from viral TikTok
@therobbieharvey/TikTok

MAGA Woman Berates Couple For Speaking Spanish At Missouri Pizza Hut Because 'English Is The Capital Of America'

A woman at a Pizza Hut in Gladstone, Missouri, went viral when she was asked to leave after she was caught on video berating a couple for speaking Spanish instead of English, declaring that she's "standing up for America" because "English is the capital of America."

The couple are Puerto Ricans—born U.S. citizens—but that wasn't enough for the unidentified woman, who told them they should "go back there" and insisted they were Mexican while continuing to push back even after a restaurant employee moved to kick her out.

Keep ReadingShow less
Karoline Leavitt
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Karoline Leavitt Dragged For Laughably Juvenile Text Reply To Journalist's Question

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was criticized after she shared a text exchange she'd had with Huffington Post reporter S.V. Dáte in which she gave a laughably juvenile response to his question about who chose Budapest for President Donald Trump's now-canceled meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump announced last week that he and Putin planned to meet in Budapest within two weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine. A preparatory meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had been scheduled for this week, but the White House said the two instead spoke by phone and that an in-person meeting was no longer “necessary.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Sean Hannity and George Santos
Fox News

Sean Hannity Asked George Santos If He'll Pay Back Money He Stole—And His Answer Says It All

Disgraced former New York Republican Representative George Santos didn't surprise a soul after he gave Fox News personality Sean Hannity a waffling answer when asked if he'll still pay back the hundreds of thousands of dollars he stole from victims of his financial schemes.

Santos' short-lived political career was derailed by allegations of fabricating his background, misusing campaign funds for luxury items and Botox, and leaving a trail of victims behind him as a known fraud and identity thief. He received a seven-year sentence for crimes that the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York argued “made a mockery” of the electoral process.

Keep ReadingShow less
man in white dress shirt and woman in red top
Gama. Films on Unsplash

Married Couples With Double Incomes And No Kids Reveal How Their Lives Are Going

The term DINK stands for "Double Income, No Kids." It refers to a growing number couples choosing not to have kids while both partners work full-time. DINKS cite financial concerns, increasing costs of raising children, and the desire for personal freedom.

Two incomes with no children provides more disposable income for travel, hobbies, and investments. DINKs generally have a higher net worth compared to people with kids and can focus on career development.

Keep ReadingShow less