Why language learning is tough or easy

Each language spoken on this earth has its own set of characteristic features that make it either easy or difficult to learn. The easiness or toughness of learning a language depends on your native language and what languages you already know.

The language surrounding that you enjoyed while growing up is the crucial factor in deciding how you can learn other languages. Languages that share some or many of your native languages will be easier for you to learn. You will invariably find it tougher to learn those languages that have very less features in common with your language. For instance, English is a Germanic language and Dutch, German and Scandinavian languages are very closely related to English. It is therefore very easy for English speaking people to acquire these languages. Some of the other languages related to English are Italian, Spanish and French, while those that are distant to English include Irish, Welsh, Russian, Greek, Urdu, Hindi, Farsi and Pashto.

Since English does not share its ancestry with languages like Korean, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese, these languages are deemed difficult to learn for English speaking people. Related languages often share similar grammar. For instance, verb conjugation and word order in Swedish are similar to that of English while German has a striking difference with respect to these features. Therefore, while both the languages are equally related to English, English speaking people find it easier to learn Swedish than learning German. The Romance languages comprising the set of French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian share several features in common. Commonly, people who are exposed to any one of these languages are pulled automatically to learn two or three more in the set. The similarities shared by them make you feel you can learn them with the least effort.

Very strangely, distant languages can share commonalities with respect to grammar while related languages might have prominent grammatical differences. Chinese for example has lot of similarities in grammar with English. This factor makes up for some other difficulties for English speaking people in learning Chinese.

English has borrowed much of its vocabulary from Latin and French. Since all Romanic languages have much vocabulary in common, it is easy for English speaking people to learn Romanic languages. Even distant languages might have a bulk of borrowed vocabulary. Though all human beings use basically the same sounds, each language has its own set of peculiar sounds. Though these factors render learning of a language easy or difficult, taking active interest always helps in overcoming the difficulties in learning a new language.



About the author:

The writer is an expert in free translation online and provides excellent tips as a Free online language translator. His in-depth knowledge of a language helps him create wonderful articles.