What is an Easy Language?
There are a number of features which make some languages harder or easier for English speakers to master:
1. Languages with an alphabet are easier than ones without, such as Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.
2. Languages with a similar alphabet to English are easier than completely different ones like Russian and Greek.
3. Languages with phonetic spelling are easier than ones with a lot of variation in the pronouniciation of letters, depending on their position in the word and the history of the word- as in English and French.
4. Languages with simple grammar are easier to learn. For example, in some languages every noun has a gender and in some languages one must use different words for the same idea depending on the status of the person you are addressing, others lack even a plural.
5. Languages with many exceptions to the rules and many irregular formations of , for example, verbs- are more difficult to learn.
6. Languages with familiar common roots are easier to learn. Romance and Germanic languages easier for us than Indonesian in this respect.
This is not the way a linguist would explain the difference but I hope that it is enough to establish that "easier" is not a matter of opinion but something that can be predicted and assessed objectively. (It does makes a difference if one has already learned another LOTE, but this does not apply to the majority of primary students in Australia.)
Of course easiness is not enough reason to learn a language in itself. Learning the easiest language, Esperanto, first is worth doing for:
1. Languages with an alphabet are easier than ones without, such as Mandarin, Japanese and Korean.
2. Languages with a similar alphabet to English are easier than completely different ones like Russian and Greek.
3. Languages with phonetic spelling are easier than ones with a lot of variation in the pronouniciation of letters, depending on their position in the word and the history of the word- as in English and French.
4. Languages with simple grammar are easier to learn. For example, in some languages every noun has a gender and in some languages one must use different words for the same idea depending on the status of the person you are addressing, others lack even a plural.
5. Languages with many exceptions to the rules and many irregular formations of , for example, verbs- are more difficult to learn.
6. Languages with familiar common roots are easier to learn. Romance and Germanic languages easier for us than Indonesian in this respect.
This is not the way a linguist would explain the difference but I hope that it is enough to establish that "easier" is not a matter of opinion but something that can be predicted and assessed objectively. (It does makes a difference if one has already learned another LOTE, but this does not apply to the majority of primary students in Australia.)
Of course easiness is not enough reason to learn a language in itself. Learning the easiest language, Esperanto, first is worth doing for:
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