Are Some Languages Easier To Learn Than Others?

When people are thinking about learning a language they always ask what the easiest language to learn, or if one language is harder than another.

The truth is all languages are about equal. They all have just as many hard parts as easy.

The difficulty of any language is solely based on the person wanting to learn it. We are all different and what I might find difficult, you could find really easy and vice versa.

I will go through some factors that might make a language seem “easier” for you to learn compared to others.

Similarities With Your Native Language Will Make Some Languages Easier To Learn

How difficult you will find a new language basically comes down to how similar it is to what you already know.

Basically your mother tongue is going to hugely affect how easy you find certain languages compared to others.

Similar Vocabulary

Many languages have a shared or very similar vocabulary. Obviously the more words that are in common, the less difficult it will be for you to understand.

There is various statistics about French and English, I’ve seen anywhere from 20-40% of the words in English come from the French language.

If we settle in the middle of this, it basically means that before you even decide to learn your first word in French, you can probably already understand a third of the language.

That’s a huge amount!!

When you compare that to a language where there are no words in common, you can really start to understand how an English speaker is going to find French a much easier language to learn compared to something like Korean or Chinese, where there is no similarities with the vocabulary.

Similar Alphabets

Alphabets are the building blocks of languages. If the language you already speak has the same alphabet as the one you are trying to learn, it is going to give you a huge head start.

English speakers usually find European languages a lot easier to learn as they have the same alphabet.

However, once you start getting into the Greek or Russian alphabet it can become a little more difficult for them. Half the alphabet suddenly becomes very distance and strange looking.

When English speakers start to look at Arabic or Asian alphabets, it loses all meaning and now reading a simple word has no context at all. It can be impossible to even try and establish any sort of meaning what so ever when you don’t know the alphabet.

This doesn’t mean it’s impossible, it just means you have to start from scratch and slowly learn all the new letters, just like when you where young. This is going to make the whole process of learning the language harder and slower, since you really are starting from zero.

Similar Reading Patterns

Some languages read in a slightly different pattern to others. As you know, English reads from left to right. Whereas Hebrew basically reads backwards to this, going from the right to left.

You also have languages like Japanese that read up and down the page, rather than across.

This little change might not seem too significant, but if you are not used to this, it will be quite difficult to rewire you brain to read in a different direction.

Reading is a fairly automatic process by the time you are an adult, so you literally have to fight your unconscious to change how you read, which can be very difficult at first and again will make the whole process seem that little bit harder. 

Grammar

All languages are made up of grammar, but not all grammar is the same. Some of the rules for one language are completely different to others.

How similar your own languages grammar is to the one you are learning will affect how difficult you find a new language.

I am forever being confused when speaking French to know what gender an inanimate object is. It’s just not in English grammar to do this.

The same is true for my French friends when they speak English; they are forever referring to imamate things by using pronouns like “Him”. We both just can’t break the habit of the grammar rules we have ingrained in our brains form our native language.   

The same is also true for the conjugation of words, the more similar your language is, the quicker you will be able to understand and grasp these sorts of rules.

Tones And Pronunciations

How languages are spoken can also play a role in how difficult you find it. Languages have different sounds and vocal patterns and tones.

This is why we as learners struggle with sounding like we have a native accent and pronunciation in general. 

The muscles in our mouths need to be literally trained to make new sounds. The more similar your own language is to one you are learning, the easier you will find it to pronounce what you are trying to say in your new language. 

Cultural Similarities

Sometimes culture and language are very intertwined. How and what you say to someone may be totally dependent on the type of interaction you are having with that person.

These are like unwritten culture rules that if you do not have in your own country, can be very difficult to understand and pick up on when you are learning the language.

In English we do not really have rules like this. The best way to describe this is like when you go for a job interview. It’s basically expected that you will wear a shirt and tie and it’s a little bit more formal than meeting a friend in the pub.

However, this is like a pre arranged thing that you are ready for in advance. In some cultures meeting certain people on the street may require different levels of formality and respect in how you speak to them, which just makes no real sense to someone from outside the culture.

These subtle changes in how the language is used can really be difficult if you are coming from a totally different culture.

You will see this a lot in Japanese. They have these different levels of respect when talking to different people and as English speakers it can be very difficult for us to work out when to use the different types of language, as it’s just not in our own culture or language.        

Your Individual Differences Can Make Some Languages Easier To Learn

The differences I spoke about above are pretty broad and basically apply to any one who speaks a certain language. I’m basically saying something like ALL Italians will find it easier to learn Spanish and then ALL Norwegians will find it easier to learn Swedish, just based on their general similarities of their own language, compared to the language they are trying to learn.

However, your native language is only half the equation. You as a person also plays a huge role in how difficult or easy you find a certain language.

I am a native English speaker, and even if you are too, we may have different experiences with learning a certain languages just based on our individual differences, which I will go through below.  

Already Knowing A Second Language Can make Things Easier

If you already speak a second language it will make learning another one a lot easier.

Firstly the chances of you having some similarities in a new language with what you already know will be higher as you know two languages already.

Secondly, you have experienced learning a language already. Consciously learning a new language as an adult is so much more different than acquiring any languages as a child.

This experience is huge. You will have experienced what it is like to try and master a new set of grammar rules and pronounce words differently to how you normally speak.

Learning a language teaches you much about learning in general and when you go to learn a 3rd or even 4th language, you will be so much better at it.

You will probably find it a lot easier to learn a “harder” language compared to someone else who just has the same mother tongue as you, but who has never learned another language before.

(You can read more about – Is There A Limit To How Many Languages You Can Learn?)

Your Own IQ Makes A Difference

Some people are just smarter than other people and that’s okay and it will make language learning “easier” for some people.

In general, English speakers should find learning a language like French or Spanish a lot easier, as they are pretty similar to English. Everyone should be able to achieve this, which is probably why they feel comfortable teaching these languages at school.

However, that does not mean that it is impossible for us to learn any of the more “difficult” languages.

For us English speakers, an Asian language or Arabic is probably going to be quite difficult, but there are many English speakers who have mastered these with no problems and it’s the only language they have tried to learn.

I would argue these people probably have an above average IQ and this is why they were able to do this. Although, they may just argue that they just put more work in.

Either way some people will just naturally find learning languages like this not  to difficult for them, while for others, it will be too much to process and do feel IQ will play a part in that.

I don’t think this should stop you though.  Anything is possible, so just because everyone thinks it is hard, including you, doesn’t mean you won’t see success.

Your Motivation Levels Make A Difference

Motivation is huge when it comes to learning a language. If you have the right reason to do something, anything is possible, especially in language learning.

As I said before Arabic is in general really hard for English speakers to learn, however, given the right motivation you will make it work.

Maybe you need to learn for work or maybe it’s because you are in love, but having that extra level of motivation will give you that extra determination that will make you get the results.

You will also see this on the other end of the scale. Those who don’t really have a good reason for learning a language usually give up after a while. Motivation really can make all the difference.  

Conclusion

How easy or how difficulty a language is to learn all comes down to the specific language you are trying to learn and how it relates to your mother tongue and then your own personal experience on top of that.

Everyone is going to experience learning languages differently. However, with enough time and effort anything is possible.

If someone says a language is too hard, don’t believe them …If someone says a language is easy, don’t believe them.

Learn the language you want to learn and just allow yourself to take as long as it takes. If you trust the learning process and put in the work you can learn any language you want.

(You can read more about – What Is The Best Language To Learn? (How To Decide What One To Learn))