The complexity and simplicity of learning a particular language, of course, will depend on what nationality and native speaker the student is. It is logical that it will be easier for a German to learn Dutch than a Korean. An Englishman will learn German faster than a Chinese.
No language can be considered simpler or more difficult than another. Because there are no absolute criteria for assessing the complexity of a language. Every language consists of grammar, phonetics, certain rules writing words. And if in Chinese If, for example, spelling is very complex and there are tones in phonetics, then in the same language grammar will not cause you any difficulties. And in Italian, along with simple pronunciation lots of irregular verbs.
What languages for a Russian person will seem easier to learn and understand?
The Russian language, along with Belarusian and Ukrainian, are included in the Slavic group of languages and are called East Slavic. As you know, the vocabulary, phonetics and grammar of these languages are almost identical to Russian. Therefore, learning these languages will not be a huge task. And the understanding of Ukrainian and Belarusian is understandable almost on an intuitive level, even for those who have not encountered them at all.
In Serbo-Croatian (used in the countries of Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia, Slovenia) and Bulgarian similarities in terms of vocabulary and grammar are noticeable. The phonetics of such languages is more difficult to write. The written word (usually in Latin) of such languages is very similar to the spelling of Russian words only with Latin letters(for example: zaprto - closed, locked (horv), otprto - open (horv)) Pronunciation will be more difficult here, it will be necessary to work with stress, which may not be located on the same syllable as in Russian, even if the spelling of words is practically identical. Such languages have an extensive system of tenses and unstressed particles, which are unusual for the Russian language.
The most difficult of the Slavic languages for the Russian mentality will probably be Czech and Polish. There are more unfamiliar words here, which are no longer very similar to identical Russian ones, because part of the vocabulary is borrowed from German. But the situation is easier with the accent. It is practically fixed in words: on the first and second syllable from the end.
The situation is slightly more complicated with the Baltic languages (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia). If in the lexicon they are a bit like Slavic languages, but with the study of the richness of their grammar will have to work hard.
Among the Germanic languages it will be easier to learn English. Slightly more difficult is German and Dutch, which will have difficulty in grammar. Greatest difficulty will fall into the Scandinavian languages. There are practically no words of international origin in them and you will have to memorize almost the entire vocabulary. Also, the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish) are distinguished by complex offerings and inconsistent spelling of words.
Among the Romance languages, it will be easier to learn Italian or Spanish, Portuguese than French, which is very complicated rules pronunciation and spelling.
What languages are difficult for Russians to learn?
Turkic (Turkish) and Finn-Ugric languages (Finnish, Hungarian) have strict and logical spelling rules. However, these rules differ from the Russian spelling of sentences. Their verbs usually stand on last places in a sentence, there are no prepositions at all, and case and number are expressed different indicators. Moreover, in these languages great amount cases (there are 20 in Hungarian).
Other difficult languages include Arabic and Hebrew. Both grammar and pronunciation are difficult. Writing does not convey vowels, there are also many exceptions and irregular verbs that will have to be memorized.
Chinese and Japanese languages complex due to hieroglyphic writing. To write or read something in Chinese, you will have to learn several thousand characters, and when studying Japanese, you will have to master as many as 2 alphabets - katakana and hiragana.
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Order of study
Much depends on how many languages you already know which language group, is it similar grammatical structure etc. It also matters for what purpose you need this or that language: hobby, work, etc. Today we will consider such an aspect as the study of foreign languages by a Russian person, we will find out what is easiest for him.
Senior lecturer and methodologist at the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State Humanitarian University, Candidate philological sciences Nikita Petrov believes that for a Russian-speaking person foreign languages are divided into five groups, the last of which includes the most difficult to perceive.
According to Petrov, who developed a mnemonics technique that helps in learning languages, it is easiest for a Russian person to master the Slavic languages and Esperanto. At the same time, the specialist clarifies that the Slovak and Polish language easier to master after mastering Czech. Petrov included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian into the second group of foreign languages, and also added Latvian. The third section includes English, Dutch, Lithuanian, Yiddish, French and others not included in the second group Romance languages. It is noteworthy that, according to the author of mnemonics, English is easier to learn after French, and Dutch goes better with prior knowledge of English. Whereas Petrov recommends mastering Yiddish after German and Slavic languages.
In the fourth group according to the degree of ease, he attributed German and others Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek, Altaic and Indo-Iranian languages. The fifth group includes all other languages of the world. There is also a caveat here: Nikita Petrov advises to start learning Persian and Hebrew after Arabic, and Korean and Japanese after Chinese.
In addition, in his opinion, when mastering any foreign language, you must first master the alphabet, reading rules, several dozen of the most common words and expressions. Then turn to basic grammar and vocabulary on the main everyday topics. After that you can start reading. adapted texts and their discussion. At the end of the grammar course, Petrov recommends choosing additional lexical topics taking into account the profession, interests, etc. And the crowning achievement of learning a foreign language should be reading works of art in the original and easy communication with native speakers.
How many people, so many opinions
Not everyone agrees with such a calculation of the groups of foreign languages that are the easiest and most difficult for a Russian person. Yes, deputy dean Faculty of Translation MSLU Anna Kravchenko is sure that there is no such thing as consistency and ease in learning foreign languages. According to her, each of us has his own abilities and features of the mindset. However, she believes that after mastering three foreign languages, the fourth and subsequent ones are easier to master, since a person has his own system for studying them.
Head of the Department of Theoretical and applied linguistics Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State Humanitarian University Sergey Gindin also notes that general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages, their accessibility for a Russian-speaking person is not. Only relative lightness between the two is possible. similar languages. For example, one who has studied French it will be easier to give Spanish, which also belongs to the Romance group.
Another specialist in foreign languages, simultaneous interpreter Dmitry Petrov, who has been hosting the popular program “Polyglot” on the Kultura TV channel for several years, believes that the certain complexity of the Russian language gives us, its native speakers, a big plus when learning foreign languages. Whereas the Englishman in this regard is much more difficult.
However, for Russians there are languages with such categories that are absent in Russian. For this reason, it is not so easy for Russian-speaking students to master Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages with a different logic. But Dmitry Petrov emphasizes that the difficulty of any foreign language is mostly a myth and, if desired, you can master any. Moreover, it is quite acceptable to study two languages at the same time. He also calls not to be afraid of the accent, since every person in the world, even on mother tongue speaks with an accent. For example, in the UK there is classic version, the so-called royal English, in which working time say announcers, some politicians and the Queen. Otherwise, there are dozens of absolutely incredible dialects and accents, including London.
However, many believe that when learning a foreign language, one should be guided not by ease, but by its relevance. As you know, at present this is English, it is also studied by a significant part of Russians. But the future is not for him. So, Gennady Gladkov, head of the language training and Bologna process MGIMO, I am sure that in 50 years the most topical language there will be Chinese in the world, which will overtake English thanks to the growth of the population and economy of the PRC.
It is generally accepted that Chinese is one of the most difficult foreign languages for Russian speakers. However, those who dared to master it argue that this is not so. In particular, it is not at all necessary to know more than 80 thousand characters, most Chinese do not know them. For example, for reading, it will be enough to master only one thousand of them. And, of course, it is important to liberate yourself, free yourself from psychological clamps and barriers, because there is no foreign language that would be completely inaccessible for learning. Polyglots are sure: the main thing is to remember the language core - basic vocabulary and frequently used grammatical and syntactic constructions, and then everything will go like clockwork.
When you are faced with the task of learning a language, you often wonder which of the languages is still the easiest? TravelAsk decided to make a small selection.
How were the easiest languages determined?
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs refers to simple languages those requiring approximately 600 hours of study. Of course, we are talking about quality ownership.
First of all, they refer to easy languages Germanic and Latin language groups. However, German itself will be more difficult: on average, in order to master it sufficiently, you need to spend about 750 hours studying it. It's pretty complicated grammar.
But do not forget that the degree of difficulty is still individual for everyone and in most cases depends on personal motivation and interest.
English language
One of the simplest is English language. Judge for yourself: its grammar is not so complicated, it has no cases and gender, and words do not need to be coordinated. And the words themselves are quite short and concise. Add to this all the widespread: it is spoken almost everywhere. Well, native English speakers who live in different parts of the world are quite calm about the mistakes of foreigners.
French
The French talk like they sing, don't they? But from the outside it seems that you can’t approach it, such a pronunciation ... But, according to experts, it only seems. After all, many words in French are similar to English. In addition, the language is very popular and is used in many places.
Spanish
Spanish is probably one of the easiest languages to learn. It is very similar to English, and its spelling is much simpler: as I hear, so I write. Many native Russian speakers who memorize dictionary spelling from the first grade will only envy this rule)
Well, Spanish is quite popular, and its pronunciation is simple. As is grammar.
Italian language
Another language that is included in our rating is Italian. There are no cases, a fairly simple pronunciation, the stress is fixed. Well, the language itself has Latin roots, so it will be familiar to many people. And it is also related to Spanish, so if you want to become a polyglot, then choosing close languages will help you achieve your goal in more short term)
Esperanto
Well, the easiest language to learn is Esperanto. Perhaps someone will even be surprised by the existence of this language, but yes, it exists. And do you know why it is the easiest? Because it was developed specifically as a second language for each person, it was even originally called that - an international language or a language for humanity. It is spoken, according to various estimates, from one hundred thousand to ten million people.
Esperanto grammar is very simple, there are no exceptions at all. And, of course, its undoubted plus is that it is neutral, since it is not tied to any state. Perhaps its only drawback is that it is not as common as English).
Knowing two or more languages today is one of the main conditions for developing a good career, but learning all languages is not enough life. What languages can be learned faster than others? We help beginner polyglots.
Order of study
Much depends on how many languages you already know, what language group, whether the grammatical structure is similar, etc. It also matters for what purpose you need this or that language: hobby, work, etc. Today we will consider such aspect, as the study of foreign languages by a Russian person, we find out what is easiest for him.
Senior lecturer and methodologist at the Institute of Philology and History of the Russian State Humanitarian University, Candidate of Philological Sciences Nikita Petrov believes that for a Russian-speaking person, foreign languages are divided into five groups, the last of which includes the most difficult to understand.
According to Petrov, who developed a mnemonics technique that helps in learning languages, it is easiest for a Russian person to master the Slavic languages and Esperanto. At the same time, the specialist clarifies that the Slovak and Polish languages are easier to master after mastering Czech. Petrov included Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Romanian into the second group of foreign languages, and also added Latvian. The third section includes English, Dutch, Lithuanian, Yiddish, French and other Romance languages not included in the second group. It is noteworthy that, according to the author of mnemonics, English is easier to learn after French, and Dutch is better with prior mastery of English. Whereas Petrov recommends mastering Yiddish after German and Slavic languages.
He placed German and other Germanic languages, Hebrew, Greek, Altaic and Indo-Iranian languages in the fourth group according to the degree of ease. The fifth group includes all other languages of the world. There is also a caveat here: Nikita Petrov advises to start learning Persian and Hebrew after Arabic, and Korean and Japanese after Chinese.
In addition, in his opinion, when mastering any foreign language, you must first master the alphabet, reading rules, several dozen of the most common words and expressions. Then turn to basic grammar and vocabulary on the main everyday topics. After that, you can already start reading the adapted texts and discussing them. At the end of the grammar course, Petrov recommends choosing additional lexical topics, taking into account the profession, interests, etc. And the crowning achievement of learning a foreign language should be reading works of art in the original and easy communication with native speakers.
How many people, so many opinions
Not everyone agrees with such a calculation of the groups of foreign languages that are the easiest and most difficult for a Russian person. Thus, Anna Kravchenko, deputy dean of the Faculty of Translation at Moscow State Linguistic University, is sure that there is no such thing as consistency and ease in learning foreign languages. According to her, each of us has his own abilities and features of the mindset. However, she believes that after mastering three foreign languages, the fourth and subsequent ones are easier to master, since a person has his own system for studying them.
The head of the Department of Theoretical and Applied Linguistics of the Institute of Linguistics of the Russian State Humanitarian University Sergey Gindin also notes that there are no general rules in the sequence of mastering foreign languages, their accessibility for a Russian-speaking person. Only relative ease between two similar languages is possible. For example, a student of French will find it easier to learn Spanish, which also belongs to the Romance group.
Another specialist in foreign languages, simultaneous interpreter Dmitry Petrov, who has been hosting the popular program “Polyglot” on the Kultura TV channel for several years, believes that the certain complexity of the Russian language gives us, its native speakers, a big plus when learning foreign languages. Whereas the Englishman in this regard is much more difficult.
However, for Russians there are languages with such categories that are absent in Russian. For this reason, it is not so easy for Russian-speaking students to master the Finno-Ugric and Turkic languages, which have a different logic. But Dmitry Petrov emphasizes that the difficulty of any foreign language is mostly a myth and, if desired, you can master any. Moreover, it is quite acceptable to study two languages at the same time. He also calls not to be afraid of an accent, since every person in the world even speaks his native language with some kind of accent. For example, in the same UK there is a classic version, the so-called royal English, which is spoken during working hours by announcers, some politicians and the queen. Otherwise, there are dozens of absolutely incredible dialects and accents, including London.
However, many believe that when learning a foreign language, one should be guided not by ease, but by its relevance. As you know, at present this is English, it is also studied by a significant part of Russians. But the future is not for him. Thus, Gennady Gladkov, who heads the Department of Language Training and the Bologna Process at MGIMO, is confident that in 50 years the most relevant language in the world will be Chinese, which will bypass English due to the growth of the population and economy of China.
It is generally accepted that Chinese is one of the most difficult foreign languages for Russian speakers. However, those who dared to master it argue that this is not so. In particular, it is not at all necessary to know more than 80 thousand characters, most Chinese do not know them. For example, for reading it will be enough to master only one thousand of them.
Who among us has not dreamed of learning at least one foreign language? But someone was lucky enough to chat almost from birth in several languages, and someone cannot learn English for a lifetime, which is spoken on all continents.
There are many reasons why a foreign language is not given: lack of ability, bad memory, laziness, incorrectly composed educational programs, lack of motivation and the complexity of a particular language for you. The more similar this foreign language is to your native language, the easier it is for you to learn it. If you know Russian, you will quickly learn another of the Slavic languages. If you speak Farsi, you can easily master Arabic language is one of the most difficult in the world.
Of course, it is easier for Europeans to learn languages that are written in Latin or Cyrillic rather than in hieroglyphs. But everything is relative. The determining factor in any new business, including language learning, is motivation. If you like to learn Japanese or Arabic, you will find this language much easier than, for example, English or German, which you had to cram for 10 years at school.
TOP-5 from American researchers
And yet, the US Department of Foreign Affairs compiled the TOP 5 easiest languages \u200b\u200bof the world. There was only one criterion - the language is simple, if it takes no more than 600 hours of intensive study to study it. If more time is needed, the language is difficult. It is important that this rating was compiled for those who speak English.
According to this classification, one of the easiest is considered English language. Because there is no gender and case in it, the words do not need to be coordinated with each other. In Russian, we do not hesitate to change the endings of words, but for foreigners this is more difficult than solving problems in higher mathematics and quantum physics taken together. 
English words are relatively short compared to, for example, Finnish. The grammar is very simple and colloquial speech it further simplifies. Often, native speakers themselves deviate from academic rules and specifically do not use complex speech structures. Confirmation that English is a simple language is obvious - it is spoken by the whole planet. Over 60 countries! Even in India, it is the second state.
It is considered simple Spanish language. There is no need to learn transcription: as the word is written, so it is read. Also in it simple grammar, there are almost no exceptions. It is easy to learn for those who know English - these languages are similar in many ways. If you want to learn a foreign language, start with Spanish. Connoisseurs say that he learns easier than all European ones. Today it is spoken by approximately 0.5 billion people, many of whom live in Mexico and Argentina. 
Similar to English and Spanish yet Italian, which is also called one of the easiest. He, like the rest of the Indo-European languages, "grew" from Latin. Therefore, it also lacks cases, declensions, and agreement of words. are written Italian words just like they sound. If you want to learn how more languages, after Spanish, start learning its "relative" - Italian.
To simple languages American explorers include and French. But this is a moot point, because the grammar in it is more complicated than in English. It is also difficult for a foreigner to learn to “burr” and pronounce the grassing “r” correctly. French is easy for those who know English or German. But, if it becomes your first foreign language, you will have to spend a lot of time learning it. By the way, French was once more common than English, but then took second place. Today, French is spoken in 14 countries, and in total - 130 million people. 
Closes this list artificial languageEsperanto, designed specifically for international communication. It is based on words that are understandable without translation, and in total 16 words are used. grammar rules. To master it, you will need no more than 6 months. It is not official in any state, therefore it is not very common. Esperanto is spoken by no more than 3 million people - almost none compared to English.
Polish is considered one of the easiest languages for Russian speakers. And Greek will be easier to learn for those who know the Slavic languages. But the English language of Hellas will be more difficult. 
The ease of a language also depends on the environment in which you learn it. It is ideal to go to the "homeland" and study it there. In three months in Germany, you can learn German better than in all the years of study at school and university. If possible go to language practice no, you can try to artificially immerse yourself in language environment: watch movies without translation and read books, communicate with foreigners online. Today the Internet gives us endless possibilities to learn any language. The main thing is your desire and motivation. If this is not the case, any foreign language will seem difficult.
It is believed that any language is easier to learn in the game than cramming and trying to remember new words and grammar. To be honest, I couldn't put it down! Try it! I'm sure one difficult language less for you!
I wish you good luck in learning your favorite foreign languages!
