@ Nebi,

You surprised me... I admire your ability - the Polish 'contortions' you give virtually without error.

Do you believe, like me, that languages ​​related to mother tongue are easier to control than the languages ​​of other language groups?

I believe that different factors have to be considered:

1) indeed, the linguistic factor: I suppose that the second language to be acquired should possess systematic similarities with the original language what is the case between two languages belonging to the same language (sub-)familiy;

2) cultural or conceptual factor: the - so to speak and in order to refer to research in linguistic anthropology - the "world views" articulated through the two considered languages shiould possess systematic similarities;

3) pragmatic factor: the opportunities to use and enhance one's competence in the considered second language;

4) personal factors: personal motivations as well as personal capacity to appropriate new languages, ...

What is your experience with learning a foreign language?

My mother tongue is German, French is my second language and English my working language. All these three languages are not so distant from each other. But I don't have any experience in learning languages rather distant from these three ones - languages such as, for instance, Chinese or Japanese.

Peter,

Which language have you learned easier: French or English, and why?

Dear All,

I have prepared a very simple and subjective comparison among languages which had earlier the function as scientific lingua franca.

You can find it here: https://www.researchgate.net/post/Which_language_can_be_an_ideal_or_optimal_lingua_franca_for_science

I have tried to analyse these languages also from point of view of this discussion.

I note: my mother tongues is the Hungarian, I use German, French and English as working languages and read Spanish, Russian and Italian. I have experienced that learning Spanish was the most difficult because of its very similarity to French. Earler I have learned Arabic which is a very difficult language.

Dear all

I think that , in a contrastive point of vue, easiest language to learn as a second or foreign language is the language wich have a similar representations system that the mother tongue ( phonological, syntaxic...etc)

Dear Fetita,

I am sorry, I have not still found the language similar to my mother tongue...

@Fetita

How hard is for someone whose mother tongue is Arabic to learn to speak and to read Hebrew, and vice versa, how hard is for someone whose mother tongue is Hebrew to learn to speak and to read Arabic?

@András

From your perspective as a Hungarian, which language was easiest to learn: German, French or English?

I think it depends on from continents you hail from

Dear Nebi,

Of course, the German. Because Ordnung muss sein.

It happened to me long time ago: I was a student and spent a lot of time in Spain and I had to talk Spanish. One night I met German students and they asked me some small favour in German, we had a German chat and I thought I was speaking Hungarian. I like very much German belles-lettres and I have translated a good deal of German poems.

Dear András, send me some of your translations. I´ll really apreciated them.Thanks and greetings Hanno

Dear Hanno,

These are Hungarian translations. I will send you some from Kurt Tucholsky, Heine, Goethe or Morgenstern. I wanted to translate Das doppelte Lottchen but I could not find the original novel on internet. I like really the short epigrammas of Goethe and old German authors from the 15th century or the Eulenspiegel stories.

That is an open ended question since ones past experience with other languages prior to learning a second language is contingent upon whether the person was exposed to a second language while developing languages in the primary stages of language acquisition. We know that individuals who are bilingual early on have different brains. Another factor to consider is the level of exposure, level of education of language users, time of onset of languages and what languages are we talking about.

Distinctive features of languages affect how easy or hard it it to acquire that particular language as well

Dear András,

Yes, "there must be order".

Dear Angel,

Yes, that is an open-ended question, and I’m expecting to get different answers.

My mother tongue is Albanian and I have learned and studied for many years English and Serbo-Croatian as my second languages. I also completed two courses of German language and had the opportunity to compare the three languages in terms of their acquisition complexity. Though each of the three languages are quite complex and have their unique specifics in terms of their syntaxes, phonetics, morphological and lexical aspect, I consider that the German language is the easiest to learn because of the very strict rules and orders which once you master well you can easily apply in both written and verbal communication.

The easiest language I have ever learned is Persian. The grammar is extremely regular and simple, and the phonetic system is quite easy. The language is also very beautiful. The next easiest are Malay and Indonesian which have very simple grammars and easy pronunciation. Chinese is also very easy from a grammatical perspective, though the tones, some consonants and of course, the writing system make it difficult.

Dear Caka,

I think the easyness or difficulty of a language depends on many factors: mother tongue, other language learning experiences (background), attitudes toward the target language, age (I believe in Critical Period Hypothesis), and many known or unknown factors.

I found German the hardest language. The reason may be my age since I learned it recently. My mother tongue is Azeri which I acquired unwantedly. My second language is Persian which is our formal language and for me the easiest. Then comes Arabic my religious language. I have acquired Turkish but I learnt French. No matter acquistion or learning. For me Persian the easiest and Deutch the tough one.

Phonlogically, syllabic languages appear to be the easiest.

Lexically, thoese languages which have low count of vocabulary. As a whole the more interactions are between morphology, phonology and syntax, the more difficult.

French because its easy and understandable.

Dear Nebi

Learning a new language is not easy, but why some are more difficult than others? Two reasons. First, the distance between them in the family tree of languages​​. The closer, easier to learn. Other criteria include as alphabet and pronunciation. But the second reason is motivation, according to linguists and teachers. It makes a difference. A lot of patience is required.

Languages ​​with the same origin are more similarities. The Romance languages ​​are like cousins ​​who grew up together, but moved away. French is harder than Spanish and Italian because we had Germanic influence (eg chic comes from the German schick). English is the language that was coming and now is in everyone: we are more likely to learn the language that is everywhere.

We take into consideration language systematics.To my experience, Lettish, Swedish, Ukrainian, Czech, Latin, German, Spanish, Italian, English, Belorussian are relevant..

I can't think of an easy language but of all the languages I am acquainted with, I would say Italian is the most difficult (it becomes somewhat abstract - there are many creative ways for expressing an idea - and very sophisticated when you get to a relatively high level; people speak fast although intelligent people are recognizable by their perfect articulation and intonation; pronunciation is not easy as opposed to the initial impression) and French is the easiest (pronunciation is very easy, at least to me; it is very logical - i.e. very few deviations from established grammar rules; people don't speak fast; it's close to English from a lexical point of view - many words in English actually derive from French and Latin). I wouldn't underestimate English - it only looks easy but it is not, there are a lot of nuances and the standard way of expression - short and concise sentences - requires fast reaction, thinking and precision.

Learning a language is not as difficult as practicing what is already learnt. In addition to all other factors such as talent (more important than motivation), time, intensity, etc., what matters as well is the direction - e.g. it is easier to start with English and then learn French than the other way around, at least as far as speaking is concerned. The reason behind this is that when people start learning a new language, they tend to think of the previous ones. Ideally, though, it would be best to consider any new one as a separate unit, think of it as an abstraction (or even better - don't think of it at all), at least until a basic level in all four sections has been attained.

Dear William,

Thank you for sharing with us your experience of learning foreign languages.

Dear Mahnaz,

I find reasonable your conclusions about easiness or difficulty of learning. I’m interesting to know also about your experience concerning the easiness or difficulty of learning Turkish language, which belongs to the same family of languages (Turkic languages) as Azeri language, your mother tongue.

Dear Mahnaz,

I agree with your point that the easiness or difficulty of a language depends on many factors, including the mother tongue, other language learning experiences (background), attitudes toward the target language, age etc.

In addition to these factors, I would also add a very important influence of social and cultural environment that an individual is surrounded with on a frequently bases during the second language learning. This means that if people spend more time in an environment where the second language is spoken, it will undoubtedly have a good impact and make the language learning much easier rather than those who are not in direct contact with the native speakers of the respective language.

Dear Nelson,

I agree with your point that French could be more easy to acquire for those who are familiar with German language, because of their similar origin as you state. However it would be interesting to learn a bit more about your own experience during French language acquisition and share with us which grammatical, lexical or other structural terms make French more difficult versus Spanish and Italian to learn.

Dear Irina,

Which language from those you mentioned you learned easiest?

Dear Hristina,

A agree with your statement: “Learning a language is not as difficult as practicing what is already learnt”. In this respect I’m interesting to know how easy is for you as Bulgarian to learn and to practice another Slavic language and which one was the easiest.

I have never thought of learning another Slavic language. I know many people who tried to learn Russian (it was offered as a third foreign language at the university where I did my Bachelor's in Int'l relations) - they were excited about it. I cannot tell you whether they actually learnt it. I am not attracted to Slavic languages. I must feel some curiosity or attraction in terms of sound (as a person who is addicted to music) in order to start learning a language. Next on my list are Spanish (which is 'on hold' for quite a while), Portuguese and Chinese but they will have to wait - for the time being Japanese is definitely keeping me busy. I might even try more exotic languages - language learning is an area which tempts me a lot. I love experimenting with methods and techniques such as intuitive learning (slow learning through observation), learning though sound (lots of listening exercises), learning a lot of lessons at once, trying to study even when I'm tired or not in the mood, etc.

Dear Caka,

Turkish is easy to me because: 1) its phonology is completely close or roughly the same to Azeri. e.g. sounds of ö, ü, é are the same. The existing of these sounds makes the language learning easy to me but difficult to my Persian citizens. 2) its culture. This includes many interconnected factors, such as vocabulary ( lexicon, expressions or idioms, even insults and taboos), grammar ( syntax: head, projections,...). By and large, when i think about Turkish is see it as my mother tongue in English script which has been acculturated in English environment.

As simple it is, I think that the easiest language to learn is the language we are 'exposed to" and love to practice it in real context of communication.

Dear Nebi,

Perhaps in the issues raised by you can be traced to differences specific to individual nations.

It seems to me, that in my country - Poland - quite a common view is that the easiest way you can learn the languages ​​related to their own mother tongue. Slavs therefore the easily learn other Slavic languages, and Germanic peoples representatives - other Germanic languages​​. I think there is some truth in this. For me personally it was easiest to master the Russian language, and even with the Czech languages I do not have a very big problem, though I never studied it systematically.

Dear Andrezej,

Some thirty years ago I started to learn some languages on my spare time as a hobby, among others Polish, which I found very attractive. From that time I still remember the following:

Polish Tongue-Twisters (Łamaniec językowy)

• Nie pieprz Pietrze wieprza pieprzem, bo przepieprzysz wieprza pieprzem.

Peter, don't pepper the pork with pepper because you'll over-pepper the pork with pepper.

• W Szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie i Szczebrzeszyn z tego słynie.

In [the town of] Szczebrzeszyn a beetle buzzes in the reed, for which Szczebrzeszyn is famous.

• Król Karol kupił królowej Karolinie korale koloru koralowego.

King Charles bought for Queen Charlotte coral-coloured corals.

@ Nebi,

You surprised me... I admire your ability - the Polish 'contortions' you give virtually without error.

Do you believe, like me, that languages ​​related to mother tongue are easier to control than the languages ​​of other language groups?

@ Andrzej,

My mother tongue is Albanian, an Indo-European language in a branch by itself in ‘The Indo-European Family Tree of Languages’ with no other extant language, so I can’t conclude from my own experience that “languages related to mother tongue are easier to control than the languages of other language groups”. I’m expecting from the others to confirm or to deny that.

I think, all the languages are simple for learning in childhood, especially in the language environment. During my childhood I could understand a lot of languages in the countries, where I lived.The most sensitive ages are the early childhood, early school years and adolescence. In my youth it was rather productive to learn Latin and Roman-Germanic and Slovenian languages.But it depends on linguistic abilities. There were interesting two facts in my life. After clinical death I absolutely lost my beloved English- it was a catastrophe for me (I had excellent marks at the University, was one of the brightest students). I decided to restore my knowledge- it was rather hard work- step by step of titanic work .Another fact...It was my first visit to the conference, where all members spoke English in 2011.During my first day I kept silence, my brain suffered horror, the second day I tried to speak a little, the third day I read and tried to discuss my thesis with peers, the fourth day I had a talk with everybody, the fifth day I began thinking in English,- as if it was my native. Language immersion is very important.

Dear Ms. Irina,

I am impressed with your unique experience and even more with your ability for such a prompt English language reconciliation. Was this the similar experience with the other foreign languages that you used to know before your clinical death?

Even Old Church Slavonic (passive), even Ukrainian (active). It lasted 3 min.4 sec.My native language didn't come to harm. I had been for 14 days in the resuscitation department in the maternity hospital. I read a lot and had a talk and joked with doctors and nurses there in my "free time".My creativity and thirst for knowledge became more intensive.After that I wrote a lot of poems, articles,original conceptions, creative scenarios.Writing became my passion.Other languages remained applied and they were not required in my work. In Germany I tried to restore my communicative skills in German.Nowadays I can understand the texts in other languages with vocabulary.