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The "Learn an easy language first" thing | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| Gatsby42 Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 4669 days ago 55 posts - 72 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish | Message 9 of 15 14 April 2012 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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I think it's worth noting that there doesn't need to be a clear cut choice between
"easiest language" and "language you want to learn". A Spanish speaker need not learn Italian specifically, why not another Romance language like French? If you look at every easier option and can't find one you like, go for what you want to learn. Either way, it takes a long time to learn a language. You need to go with something that you can stick with in the long haul, if you compromise for something you aren't interested in, what's going to keep you going? 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5627 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes | Message 10 of 15 14 April 2012 at 11:27pm | IP Logged | ||
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It is also a question of resources. If you are a monolingual speaker of a small language and are going to learn another lesser learned language, you won't find good dictionaries, grammars, lesson books etc. Imagine an Estonian is going to learn Tamil. He need a language like English or French or Hindi to have materials to work with as a stepping stone.
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| Cavesa Triglot Senior Member Czech Republic Joined 5037 days ago 3277 posts - 6779 votes Speaks: Czech*, FrenchC2, EnglishC1 Studies: Spanish, German, Italian | Message 11 of 15 15 April 2012 at 8:14am | IP Logged | ||
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If the guy from the inicial example is really fond of japanese culture and really
attracted by Japanese, than he will either not ask whether to learn it (the question will be "how to learn" instead) or he'll be most likely told to follow the heart. If he's equally attracted by two languages or he plans to learn several, than it he's usually told to start with an easier one to get experience and to be motivated by an earlier success and carry the feeling "it is possible, even though difficult, and I did it!" to the rest of his studies. As Mark said (even though he went to a bit different direction), it is different with non-English natives. Most of us start with English which isn't often the easiest choice (I was lucky to start with French). From my experience with several european languages, I'd say it is much harder than the romance, slavic or other Germanic languages. And I am just Czech native, the more of my admiration goes to all the non-european successful learners. So, I wanted to say that it is nice to choose an easier language first, to gain confidence, but if you won't, the world won't shatter in pieces. 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| zerrubabbel Senior Member United States Joined 4628 days ago 232 posts - 287 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Mandarin | Message 12 of 15 25 April 2012 at 7:50am | IP Logged | ||
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ultimately its up to you to make up your own mind, all people can do is give advice
which sometimes contradicts... Im a native English speaker studying japanese as my first secondary language, and Im not finding it as hard some people hyped it up to be... I guess I just expected any language to be difficult and picked one im interested in... every language has pros and cons... for example, japanese has simple pronunciation, a phonetic alphabet, and lots of material to get a hold of... Its kanji is a challange, as is the word syntax to some extend | chinese (im told) will be easy for the word order, but the pronunciation will be hard because of the tones (ive repeated maybe three sentences in mandarin, and I will not like the tones) so in any case, just expect any language to have difficulties because each of them are different and will have some aspects of them more difficult than others 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Rowerzysta Newbie Poland Joined 4640 days ago 12 posts - 20 votes | Message 13 of 15 25 April 2012 at 3:08pm | IP Logged | ||
That's interesting, as I consider English one of the easiest languages to learn for European speakers, though I can't really comment much on Slavic learners. And obviously this depends on what level we consider, but for a language learned in school I can't think of anything easier than English. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Марк Senior Member Russian Federation Joined 5084 days ago 2096 posts - 2972 votes Speaks: Russian* | Message 14 of 15 25 April 2012 at 3:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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I don't think that learning an easier language will give you more than learning a
moredifficult one. Learning a difficult one teaches you more new things and new languages do not discourage you. For example, I'm not sure that learning Belorussian first will be more useful for developing linguistic skills for a native Russian speaker than learning French first. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Betjeman Groupie Germany Joined 6171 days ago 85 posts - 204 votes Speaks: German* | Message 15 of 15 27 April 2012 at 9:48am | IP Logged | ||
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Although everyone will agree that Mandarin is, at least for most people, considerably harder to learn than
Esperanto, I am not at all convinced that a clear distinction between "easy" and "difficult" languages is possible or even desirable. Motivation overcomes many obstacles, and if you happen to be deeply interested in a "difficult" language - because you're fascinated with the culture, have fallen in love with a native speaker or often go on business trips there - this could be a much easier language for you than for many other people. Other aspects are to be taken into consideration as well. Some languages are relatively easy in the beginning but become much harder later on, and vice versa. Other languages have clear grammar rules with few exceptions but listening comprehension is awfully tough. And so on. So just decide on a goal and make your choice. Remember that it is a lifelong task anyway to become and stay fluent in whatever language. And please, let's forget the idea of time "wasted" on a certain language. If you enjoy languages there is no such thing as a waste of time studying one of them, regardless of which one it is. Edited by Betjeman on 27 April 2012 at 9:53am 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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