Easiest languages to learn on your own
Key Takeaways
- If you are determined to learn a new language, there will never be a better or more opportune time to do it than right now no matter what.
- Mastering a new language will expand your cultural horizons, provide you with more career opportunities as well as improve your cognitive skills.
- If you have a good English level and continue working on it, this can serve as a nice facilitator and a good starting point for conquering some other languages.
- One of the options is the Spanish language with its Latin roots, which considerably simplifies the process of understanding and memorizing words.
- An even better choice might be Norwegian or Swedish, as they belong to the Germanic language family just like English, therefore their lexical and grammatical systems have quite a lot in common.
- Despite being not close to the English language, Indonesian and Malay are considered quite easy to learn quickly due to the use of the Latin alphabet and fairly simple phonetic, grammatical, and structural systems.
- Probably the easiest of the easiest languages to learn is artificially created Esperanto since it has only 16 basic grammatical rules with no exceptions, a clearly defined word order, and a very simple phonetic spelling.
- No matter where your motivation stems from, conquering a new language will undoubtedly be an extremely rewarding and successful experience if you are consistent and persistent in your learning journey.
As the saying goes,
“Every day is a school day.”
There will never be a better or more opportune time to master new things and acquire new knowledge than right now, no matter how old you are or what you do.
Learning a new language is no exception. Not only will this activity help you develop your cognitive skills and keep your brain in good shape, but also contribute to expanding your cultural horizons and establishing new rapports, and even provide you with the opportunity to study, work, and advance your career abroad.
But with so many languages to choose from, how should you decide on the one to devote your time to? While each foreign language has its own unique set of challenges, the reality is that some of them come easier to those who are good at English. Thus, a strong background in English can serve as a nice facilitator and a good starting point on the way to conquering some other languages.
Since the globalization processes have made it necessary to gain at least basic knowledge of English as an international language, virtually everyone is familiar with it. Yet, in case you do want to enhance your English level, try these tips. By the way, these methods will be effective for any language you choose :)
So, here we would like to offer you a few languages that you may find easy to learn on your own.
Spanish
Although Spanish is a Romance language, it still shares Latin roots with English. Due to this fact, a large number of lexical units have similar roots, which considerably simplifies the process of understanding and memorizing words. For example, importante means important, famoso is famous, responsible is responsible, etc.
Another benefit is that Spanish is considered a phonetic language, meaning that most words are spelled the same way they are pronounced. Besides, the sentence structure is similar to English and not even that strict, which implies more ways of composing sentences. However, Spanish has a more complex verb conjugation system compared to English. But in no case should this be a deterrent for you.
It is worth mentioning the fact that Spanish is quite widespread in the world as it has about half a billion speakers, which is definitely an advantage in favor of learning it.
Norwegian
If you are familiar with English, Norwegian is also an easy option to pick up. In this case, the bright side is that both languages belong to the Germanic family, which determines the similarity of their vocabulary. In addition, when constructing a sentence, the identical order of words can often be preserved. For example, Could you say that again? can be translated as Кan du si det igjen?. The Norwegian language also has a good deal of dialects, which greatly facilitates the process of uttering words since there is no single correct way to pronounce them.
Swedish
Another of the easiest languages to learn also comes from Scandinavia and the Germanic family of languages. Due to the linguistic proximity of Swedish to English, it shares many lexical and grammatical aspects with the latter. When translating the same sentence Could you say that again? into Swedish, we also get a similar structure: Kan du säga det igen?.
Thus, with an understanding of the English language rules and knowledge of its lexicon, you will not need so much time and effort to master the Swedish language. However, you will surely come across some linguistic surprises when learning Swedish vocabulary. For example, the word gift has one of the meanings of poison, but certainly not the one of present.
Malay and Indonesian
Indonesian and Malay belong to the group of Austronesian languages, which are spoken by millions of people in Southeast Asia. However, despite being quite closely related they differ somewhat in spelling, pronunciation, and lexical variety. Nevertheless, they are considered simple enough to be learned quickly. Both languages use the Latin alphabet and are pretty straightforward phonetically and structurally.
In Indonesian, there are no genders, verbs are not conjugated, and plurals are formed by just repeating a word: child is anak, and children is anak-anak. The simplicity of Malay grammar, conditioned by the absence of verb conjugation, tenses and genders, and its easy pronunciation, enables one to master Malay within a few months.
These languages are great options to learn if you struggle with grammar. And who knows, maybe one day you will really decide to travel to mysterious Jakarta or fascinating Kuala Lumpur.
Esperanto
Esperanto is an artificially created language, so it is well thought out, logical, and without any exceptions. Esperanto is based on 16 basic grammatical rules and international words that are often understood even without translation. Its alphabet consists of 28 letters corresponding to 28 sounds, so it has a very simple phonetic spelling. In addition, Esperanto applies models with a clearly defined word order to build sentences, therefore there shouldn’t be any difficulties with this.
Although it has a relatively small number of speakers (about 2 million) and is not an official language of any country, Esperanto is a great option if you want to quickly and easily enrich your linguistic toolkit.
All in all, whether you’re motivated by curiosity, a passion for traveling, or a desire to communicate with a wider global audience, studying a new language will undoubtedly be an extremely rewarding experience. Yet, keep in mind that knowledge acquisition is a very individual process and everyone learns differently. Just be consistent in your learning journey, put in enough effort, and be patient. Then, you will inevitably succeed!
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