Who doesn't dream of speaking more than 1 or 2 languages? Also, did you know that the more languages you speak, the easier it is to learn a new one?
Many people find it hard to make the decision to learn a new language because they think they don't have 'the ability' or in other cases they think 'I already understand and make myself understood'.
When it comes to learning a language fluently, phonetics, grammar, and syntax make a difference. For a Spanish speaker, the languages of the same origin, that is, the Romance or Neo-Latin languages, since they share many structures and lexicon, would be easier to learn.
Are some languages easier to learn than others?
Make no mistake, there is no such thing as an easy language. By sharing the same origin, they will be more familiar to us (for example, Spanish and Italian), which will lead us to think that it is easy.
No language is easy to learn but neither is it impossible.
Before choosing any language, one must take into account the motivation. That is, the why and what for? It also depends on how the learning is going to be done: are you going to do it through a language course or will it be on your own? If the idea is to do it on your own, this trick can help you.
Learning languages, no matter what age, is something incredible. Being able to communicate with others without difficulty is an incomparable feeling, don't you think?
So let's find your next language.
The easiest languages to learn if you speak Spanish.
#1.- Italian
It's not a surprise, right? There is a great lexical similarity between Italian and Spanish.
In Argentina, given the great immigration of Italians, the mixture of Spanish and Italian, among other languages, gave rise to lunfardo. As a result of this, words such as: 'mina' (from femmina, which means woman), 'laburar' (from labor, which means to work), 'Fiaca' (from fiacca, which means reluctance) or 'Pibe' (from pivetto, meaning child).
Let's look at some words:
· De acuerdo / Okay – Va bene
· No comprendo / I don't understand - Non ho capito
· Buenos Días / Good Morning – Buongiorno
#2.- Portuguese
The similarity between Spanish and Portuguese is great in terms of vocabulary. In Portuguese, as in Spanish, the letters almost always sound as they are written and the spelling rules are simple.
It is important to take into account which variety of Portuguese to study: Portuguese or Brazilian. In general, for Spanish speakers, the Brazilian accent may be easier to understand because its pronunciation is clearer.
Let's look at some words:
· De acuerdo / Okay – Está bem
· No comprendo / I don't understand - Não compreendo
· Buenos Días / Good Morning– Bom dia
#3.- French
Another Romance language. Pronunciation is a bit more difficult, due to the large number of nasal and guttural sounds. As with Portuguese, the vocabulary derived from Latin is easy for Spanish speakers.
Furthermore, it is the second most widely spoken language in international relations, after English.
Let's look at some words:
· De acuerdo / Okay – D’accord
· No comprendo / I don't understand - Je ne comprends pas
· Buenos Días / Good Morning - Bonjour
#4.- Romanian
Yes, believe it or not, Romanian is, like Spanish, a Romance language. Although it acquired many words from slave and Hungarian languages, it retains much of the grammatical structure of Latin.
Let's look at some words:
· De acuerdo / Okay – De acord
· No comprendo / I don't understand - Nu înţeleg
· Buenos Días / Good Morning – Bună ziua
#5.- English
English is everywhere! Absolutely everywhere and in our day to day life, we use many anglicisms: sale, chat, e-mail, delivery, to name just a few.
Many consider it difficult to learn, but Spanish and English have many similarities. It actually has a very similar syntax to Spanish and a lot of its vocabulary is based on Latin root words.
Let's look at some words:
· Gracias por su ayuda – Thank you for your help
· No comprendo - I don't understand
· Buenos Días – Good morning
#6.- Afrikaans
Afrikaans is known to be an easy version of Dutch. It has many words that are similar in spelling and meaning to English and Dutch. Phonetics and pronunciation between English and Afrikaans are similar.
Let's look at some words:
· De acuerdo / Okay – stem saam
· No comprendo / I don't understand - ek verstaan nie
· Buenos Días / Good Morning– Goeie more
There are no more excuses!
Now you can choose your next language.