Choosing a language to learn

If you want to learn another language, how do you choose which one? According to www.ethnologue.com there are 6,909 languages currently spoken in the world. That doesn’t include ‘dead’ languages such as Latin. That’s a lot of languages to choose from.

A lot of people ask which language is easiest to learn but there is no simple answer. If you are motivated to learn something and have a reason to do so then it will be easier for you to learn, you will be more likely to put the work into it. Likewise if you have access to the language, via other speakers, printed or recorded media etc, then your proficiency will improve faster. Languages have been graded by the US State Department as to how many hours they take for an English speaker to become proficient. The Latin and Germanic languages (basically, Western European languages) are rated as the easiest, with German slightly harder because of its more complicated grammar.

General agreement is that Esperanto is the easiest language to learn. It is an artificially created language but speaker numbers are low. It is also quite difficult to find Esperanto classes. After Esperanto, Spanish and Dutch top the list of easiest languages for English speakers. Dutch is the language most closely related to English and a lot of words are similar, although they have different spellings. Spanish grammar is fairly straightforward, especially if you have studied other Latin languages (French, Italian, Romanian etc) previously. It’s really easy to find Spanish evening classes or even free online courses.

The other factor that might influence the language you learn is how many people speak it in the world. Mandarin Chinese has the most speakers worldwide, and Chinese courses are becoming popular. If you don’t like grammar and prefer to learn the spoken language then Chinese could be a good option for you. Spanish is the second most widely spoken, and English is third. Hindi and Urdu, which are very similar, come in at 4th place, and Arabic is 5th. Indian languages aren’t too difficult to learn the basics of if you are not worried about reading and writing. Arabic grammar is very difficult though, and it is a very challenging language to learn. Classes in all these are becoming more common. The sixth most widely spoken language is Bengali, another Indian sub-continent language, but Bengali classes aren’t very common, although you may be able to find a teacher for private lessons if you want to learn it. Portuguese is next but classes in Portuguese are not as easy to find as they should be. Russian is number 8, with classes widely available. It is a difficult language to learn, not so much because of the Cyrillic alphabet but the very complicated grammar. It’s easier to learn if you have already learned German, or an Eastern European language such as Polish. Japanese is 9th most widely spoken and it is possible to find part time classes. German is 10th and a very popular language for English speakers to learn, although the grammar isn’t easy.

Whichever language you choose, the more languages you learn, the easier it gets, so jump in and get started!

Paula is a qualified EFL teacher who has taught in the UK and abroad. She has also taught adult literacy and numeracy in prisons and is now combining a small amount of private teaching with writing.