Easy Languages to Learn: Do Not Choose to Learn a Language Because It Is Supposedly Easy

Ease of learning is probably the worst reason to learn a particular language. Here are three reasons why.

1. If ease of learning is your only reason to learn a particular language, you probably lack the right motivation

To keep up your motivation for learning a language, you need to have a more compelling reason than simply because it is not taking you too much effort. Many people learn a language out of pure interest, or because it is a necessity to survive.

These are two compelling reasons to keep the learning process going. Even if you feel the grammar of the language you are learning is relatively straightforward, you are still going to have to learn an entirely new vocabulary.

2. No language is easy to learn

Despite what you may see in advertisements for many language learning methods and classes, there is no silver bullet to learn any language without effort. Sure, there are effective teaching methods that can help you to progress faster, but no one can really master a language without investing time and conscious effort.

Even among languages that are closely related, such as German and Dutch for example, you will still need to put in considerable effort. Sometimes ways of saying things appear to be the same across two similar languages, while in actual fact there is a slight-but-very-important-difference.

3. You will not know how "easy" it is to learn the language before you try

How do you know whether a language is easy to learn, before you start learning it? The only thing you can do is ask other peoples' opinions. But if you ask 5 different people, you'll get 5 different perspectives. Some people will feel any language is "easy" to learn simply because they have an aptitude for learning languages in general. Others may tell you a language is difficult, but it could be because their mother tongue differs from yours or they may have a lesser talent for learning languages than you have.

Conclusion

If you are thinking of learning a new language, choose your language based on your interest, the usefulness of the language to you or its necessity for your work or private life. Do not fall into the trap of choosing to learn a certain language because it's easy, or being discouraged from learning a certain language because it has a reputation for being difficult.

A Dutchman currently living in Singapore, Guus has so far studied 7 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Ancient Greek, Latin and Mandarin). He is passionate about travel, culture, languages and learning.

He founded Yago Singapore, a company that lets people in Singapore find and book Singapore's best language courses online.

Have a look at his blog for more resources about language learning.