by ACCOUNT CLOSED on February 7th, 2008

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What is the least difficult new language for someone who only speaks English to learn? (natural languages, not invented ones like Esperanto)

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by Midgardsormr on February 7th, 2008
I found Latin to be very easy, but it's not terribly useful!

edit: After thinking about it a bit, I'm going to concur with everyone else and suggest German. It is very similar to English, and it's nearly as well organized as Latin or Japanese. That rigid structure makes it a bit easier to learn.
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by Jeztyr - whispering in the ears of kings on February 7th, 2008
From experience I'd say German then Italian. They're a lot more structured, but many words and sentence structuring are similar. I always found French more difficult because of the pronunciation.
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- Interesting. My French teachers always said French is even easier to learn than english; after six grades of it, I remember greetings, numbers, colors, days & months...that's about it.
  
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  by ACCOUNT CLOSED on February 7th, 2008
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by Andy Is Wicked Married to Penal Colony on February 7th, 2008
Spanish, French, German, and Italian. There is actually a difficulty level used by the Foreign Intelligence Language Roundtable that agrees with this. I did my time at er. . ."school". I picked up a lot of trivia in the process.

There are other languages that are easier to learn and are considered "natural languages". However, that is due to a lack of vocabulary and wide usage.

Also see AB category Learning Languages:

http://www.answerbag.com/c_view/1862
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- Thanks for the answer, but what exactly is this "Foreign Intelligence Language Roundtable"? I googled it, and all I got was a bunch of unrelated agencies
  
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  by ACCOUNT CLOSED on February 7th, 2008
- Oh, sorry, they decide for (State Dept., CIA, NSA, etc.) what the language testing and teaching guidelines are. They use other sources to decide though. Spanish and French are the 2 easiest by most standards though. Google Berlitz or LLE (langauge schools). They might have some info. for you :)
  
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by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on February 7th, 2008
something that is based in the romance languages I would think would be the easiest. stay away from tonal languages. I find them the hardest.
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- Thanks for the tip, but could you please clarify? I know Chinese is a tonal language - what else falls into that category?
  
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  by ACCOUNT CLOSED on February 7th, 2008
- I'm not entirely sure...I know that there are some African little used languages that are tonal..but any of the (what 100??) languages of China are tonal....I don't think Japanese is tonal at all. We do use tones in everyday English but they do not impart the same importance as in Mandarin(the one I am familiar with)..but Romantic languages: French, Spanish, Portugeuese..all have common roots in a lot of places with English which, at least to me, made them easier (at least french when I was learning it).
  
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  by DA BEN DAN yanggui zi on February 7th, 2008
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by Nelson - Jetpacking from bed on February 7th, 2008
All languages are invented. German and Spanish were the easiest for me.
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- True, but most "invented languages" like Esperanto were intentionally created to be easy to learn. Theoretically very useful, but...who speaks Esperanto?
  
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  by ACCOUNT CLOSED on February 7th, 2008
- I've read up on it, and I know a few people who have as well. But I have never met anyone who actually knew it.
  
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What is the least difficult new language for someone who only speaks English to learn? (natural languages, not invented ones like Esperanto)

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What is the least difficult new language for someone who only speaks English to learn? (natural languages, not invented ones like Esperanto)

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