Top 5 Easiest Languages To Learn For English Speakers

🗣 Wondering about the easiest languages to learn as an English speaker? Well, all will be revealed!
I’m going to tell you about the 5 languages that you'll find easiest to learn, so you can do something amazing in your life! 🙌🏼 ... including:
• An African language
• A Romance language
• An Asian language
• A Germanic language
• A Scandinavian language
📖 LEARN A LANGUAGE THROUGH THE POWER OF STORY
Stories are the best way I have found to learn ANY language (even the easy ones). Forget the boring textbooks and time-wasting apps and learn a language the natural, effective way with one of my story-based courses.
👉🏼bit.ly/storylearningcourses
📺 WATCH NEXT:
Want to know how to learn a language fast? Easy - follow the 10 Rules of StoryLearning:
• The 10 Rules Of StoryL...
✍🏼 BLOG VERSION:
Want to read about even more easy languages? Click here:
👉🏼 bit.ly/13easiestlanguages
⏱TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Intro
00:21 Learn Afrikaans
03:37 Learn Italian
05:55 Learn Indonesian
08:47 Learn Dutch
10:24 Learn Norwegian
🚀 Click here to learn a language with my fun story-based courses: iwillteachyoualanguage.com/la...
My name is Olly Richards, and on this channel I document my experiments in foreign language acquisition.
See some of my previous experiments...
• Learn Italian in 3 months:
kzbin.info?list...
• Learn Thai in 14 Days:
kzbin.info?list...
• Daily Study Routines and Schedules
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZVhh...
Here are some other videos I like about easy languages:
• What's the Easiest Lan...
• Video
• 10 Incredibly Easy Lan...

[@storylearning]

🚀 How to learn one of these languages fast? Follow the 10 rules of StoryLearning: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hqKme4aOfb6nnpo

[@heraldomedrano851]

Top 5 easiest languages for Spanish speakers.

[@heraldomedrano851]

I can some what understand Italy and Portugal.

[@bhangrafan4480]

The only way to learn any language fast is by immersion. That means extensive, continuous contact with speakers. Now that we have KZbin etc. materials such TV shows, interviews etc. in different languages are much more available too, as a learning resource.

[@lolitaapplewhite8128]

Try Greek !! Its not easy but English language is 39,1% made out of Greek in total... So i believe you will find it interesting ! (Okay greek is inside every language but English particularly have a recor of loans out of greek)

[@michelevillafana3008]

My maternal grandmother was Norwegian. Through My Heritage I was able to find a third cousin in Norway. She speaks English fluently, but I think it would be pretty cool if I could Norwegian. Now that I know it isn't a difficult language to learn, I am encouraged to give it a try. Thank you for the video. I am subscribing to this channel.

[@hotrodjones74]

The language you like most is the easiest to learn. There's more to language then study, grammar and vocabulary. Mastering a language is a serious time commitment. You have to spend thousands of hours with it. I've been learning and "using" Russian everyday for 10 years; 6 of them spent in Russia. It was/is a huge commitment that most people simply won't make.

[@Visionery1]

I started Russian a week or so ago after watching Удивительные люди and liking the expressiveness of the language. Even though I'm already fluent in 3 languages (English, Afrikaans, German), Russian is not one of the 'easy' languages.

[@lisa7414]

@@Visionery1 this is not the easiest language but if you like it then you'll definitely be successful. You just have to put a little more effort than with other languages. Желаю удачи ☺️

[@Odinsday]

@@Visionery1 Your knowledge of German should help you out a lot with grammar, especially noun cases. Thankfully, Russian noun cases aren’t nearly as bad some other languages like Hungarian with 18 or Tsez with 64 (That isn’t a joke).

[@Visionery1]

@@Odinsday I came across this link recently, it's a novel way to learn a language, without worrying about annoying things like grammar etc. kzbin.info/www/bejne/n53PcqOdlrGafaM I speak three languages fluently, I know when a sentence sounds right or wrong, but I often have no idea why. In 2014 I spent 6 months learning Hindi (including the Devanagari script), it was an amazing moment when I viewed online newspapers written in the script and could actually read them. Hindi being an SOV language made it even more interesting (if one constantly hears "I John am", then saying "I am John" in Hindi just sounds so wrong). If someone listens to a language - like a baby - long enough, one eventually picks up the correct tenses, sentence structure etc. Spending months learning grammar before actually speaking makes it a boring chore.

[@anonymous-xy5ue]

@@Visionery1 I'm currently trying to learn russian! It's hard but I enjoy it

[@arch3223]

To me, Afrikaans is what English must sound like to people who don't know English. It's like hearing a conversation in a different room where you can't quite make out what is being said.

[@oui9296]

As a non native english speaker, afrikaans more sound like german

[@astonplayshd7522]

@@oui9296 true, my family are dutch afrikaans and i thought they sounded german too

[@ZhuLee06]

@@oui9296 that’s cap I know over 250 languages

[@nofood1]

Same with Dutch!!!

[@Visionery1]

I'm fluent in English, German (home language) and Afrikaans. Comparing Dutch and Afrikaans is like comparing Plattdeutsch and Hochdeutsch. Afrikaans is a beautiful language, if spoken correctly it contains almost no English words, it's also much clearer than Dutch.

[@samsadax230]

Italian is only easy if you already know a romance language (for example French or Spanish). I personally started recently to learn Italian, and since I speak French and Spanish, the learning process has been rather smooth 🙂

[@sarahbasto6520]

It's very controversial when he says "we pronounce the way we read". No, we don't.

[@lissandrafreljord7913]

@@sarahbasto6520 When do you pronounce the closed E and O vs the open E and O in Italian?

[@Idk_imagine_a_cool_name]

@@sarahbasto6520i think its one of the easiest languages to read (at least between European languages, I don’t know others). But it surely isn’t a easy language: the grammar is very complex compared to English and it’s full of exceptions

[@alisonpereira3718]

Speaker of portuguese also think italian is easy

[@cyrillpresler3442]

But you already know a huge portion of vocabulary if you speak Australian or American language, it consists 50% of romance words.

[@wsrahman]

Being a native speaker of Indonesian, honestly I was quite suprise that there's verb conjugations, gendered nouns, articles, even tenses in other languages, because all of those feature doesn't exist in my first language, I never realise how simple the Bahasa Indonesia is until I started to learn another language

[@tsampson6660]

Yeah It's funny. Not one but f those phenomena are necessary either.

[@Erispedia]

But the high school level of national exam for Bahasa Indonesia in Indonesia is harder than the English one 😂.

[@AndreiBerezin]

How can you do without tenses? How do you even tell DID from DOES or WILL DO?

[@Erispedia]

@@AndreiBerezin by the time indicators: yesterday, tomorrow, now, an hour ago, etc. And there’s Indonesian word for “will”: “akan”, and “have”: “sudah” or “telah”. But there’s no change in verbs when using those words.

[@AndreiBerezin]

@@Erispedia that means you cant just say "I was walking", you have to indicate certain time which makes it a very odd instrument. Like having a separate hand for every item you decide to grab. Very uncomfortable

[@animeking1357]

Me struggling horribly to learn Japanese: I live on the edge.

[@fahimahsan3603]

Man Japanese seems really easy to me. But writing it is really challenging. My mother tongue is Bangla, so pronounciating Japanese is not that challenging at all.

[@Marvinmenthol]

@@fahimahsan3603 well Japanese pronunciation is pretty easy what’s hard is kanji and keigo and some more advanced grammar

[@yorybago1035]

@@Marvinmenthol i agree with you.. its easier for me to speak than writing japanese hahaha

[@oldfogey4679]

Anime me too I'm struggling with Japanese! When I go visit my daughter in Japan it won't be so hard?

[@jwlsiee]

@@Marvinmenthol the politeness and onyomi is honestly a pain but yeah daily japanese is fairly easy

[@cillboon]

00:20 Afrikaans 03:35 Italian 05:53 Indonesian 08:38 Dutch 10:18 Norwegian

[@mylah4507]

Thank you

[@zander6699]

Thanks man 😂

[@Mmolesy]

I would of thought German or Hebrew would of been in their somewhere...🤔

[@shohamhadad5033]

@@Mmolesy hebrew would never be on this list TRUST me😂 we have a sound that I’m not even sure that even mandarin speakers can pronounce cause some of their sounds we use but the one I’m speaking about is much much more complicated it’s the ח sound not only is it difficult to pronounce but also you can’t write it in english but have to change it a bit to h which is the closest sound to the ח sound for example: my last name in hebrew is: חדד and in english it’s: hadad which is pronounced differently in english😅

[@Mmolesy]

@@shohamhadad5033 Thankyou for that, you learn something new everyday.😊🇮🇱

[@Cavernvision]

As an American living in Denmark for almost 16 years, I can definitely say that learning Danish is not so easy. Even while living in the country, surrounded by the language, it’s been a real struggle. And I actually use the language daily!

[@chrisd8183]

Your problem is you are an American.

[@faesk]

the pronounciation is the problem right?

[@poisonivory6017]

@@faeskrødgrød med fløde

[@faesk]

@@poisonivory6017 fr tho, every dane asks abt that when you talk to them

[@mattemathias3242]

At its core it is grammatically as easy as Norwegian and Swedish, but the pronounciations of words compared to how they are spelled are english and french levels of ridiculousness

[@quinn6160]

As a South African, I would highly recommend Afrikaans. It's super easy to learn and honestly quite useful outside of SA. I can mostly understand Dutch, fully understand Flemish and get the gist of German. It also helps with learning other languages since you get some interesting sounds that you will find in other languages like the rolled R/guttural G. I'm trying to learn Russian and I think knowing Afrikaans has made it a bit easier. PS: I did not learn Afrikaans I am a native speaker.

[@eastafrica1020]

Afrikaans also help your pronunciation of Hebrew or Arabic.

[@quinn6160]

@@moonknight5743 Why is that? I am South African. I live here I have my entire life. Why is it doubtful that I speak it? Ek kan nogsteeds did praat maar nie regtig skryf nie, dit's my twede taal nogsteeds 😎 PS: Forgive my spelling in Afrikaans, it has been a good long while since I have written it, luckily its mostly phonetic xD

[@WakeyWakeyEggsandBakey]

Is it really that easy to learn or do you find it easy because it's your native language? Lol 😅 In any case, I love how the Afrikaans language sounds and can see how it would help with picking up other languages. Best wishes and good luck in your language learning from England☺

[@quinn6160]

@@WakeyWakeyEggsandBakey 😂Probably a bit of both 😂😂

[@delilahhart4398]

I have studied Spanish, German, and French. Of all those, Spanish is definitely the easiest.

[@ammszz5939]

I find German slightly easier to Spanish but I’m having such a bad, bad time learning Spanish atm because I’m doing Spanish A-level 😂

[@steveharris1740]

Well, German is 100% the most difficult of the three.

[@ammszz5939]

Steve Harris yeah it’s the hardest because the grammar is a bitch but since both English and German are Germanic languages they’re pretty similar 😂

[@felixdom9693]

I must agree! because im learning spanish past 3 month and i can improve and will keep improving since i also learning from music, film and newspaper

[@samuel_leocadio]

They are very similar bcs they are latin languages

[@hadriel1228]

"Dutch linguistically is the closest language to English" Sad Frisian noises

[@dogdemon1522]

I was thinking the same thing!!!! And speaking Frisian would be way cooler than Dutch.

[@hadriel1228]

@@dogdemon1522 a little bit more impractical tho

[@killerbuzzit347]

Dude I actually cracked up. I mean no offense to the Dutch, but it sounded like that woman was drunk!

[@hadriel1228]

@@killerbuzzit347 lol I just rewatched that part rn. You're totally right

[@signorriccio9848]

@@killerbuzzit347 As a dutchman, she spoke a bit dramatically. I wouldn't say it's "drunk".

[@Myemnhk]

Just remember if you're going to learn dutch or Afrikaans the languages are nearly mutually intelligible (90-95% the same). The 2 things you'll need to learn are the different accents and the gendered language for dutch. But it is a nice little 2 for 1.

[@t_plauche]

As a polyglot, I agree. I have told many people that Afrikaans is the easiest language to learn. Indonesian is a surprisingly straightforward and easy language. Good list!

[@13_Kas]

any tips on learning Spanish?

[@BazookaLuca]

​@@13_Kas Immersion Spanish has a lot of great content and stories(Woo Story Learning!) You should also use the language And the great thing about Spanish is that you can easily convert a lot of English words into Spanish with a couple rules Like Tion becomes Ción Words starting with S get an E before them mostly So we go from Station to (la) estación And there are even more tips and tricks There is an audio course called Language Transfer that teaches how to do that but you can also read an article about these tricks

[@TylerMarkRichardson]

I think scots is the easiest language to learn Prove me wrong i dare you

[@S1eepy...]

Only problem is that almost no one talks Afrikaans around the world...

[@bobbychan3750]

@@S1eepy...😂 you sure?

[@keetrandling4530]

Olly, you missed the REAL easiest language: ASL (American Sign Language). It is *not* 'English on the hands,' as it has its own grammer, but the rules are not difficult. (Although, if you do default to English word order you would be understood, like a baby learning to converse.). ASL is literally a visual language, many of the nouns are intuitive hand-shapes & positions, and many of the verbs are intuitive movements. If you can mime, and have good facial expressions, you're well on your way already.

[@lavenderpixel9092]

It’s not the easiest for everyone though if you suffer from joint problems, dislocations or coordination problems or even overstimulation it can be hard for certain people. Asl is helpful to a lot of people but I always see it being suggested to nonspeaking autistic people and I just mean to say it’s not for everyone.

[@ahorsewithnoname643]

Is it only for use in America? How does it compare with International Sign Language. Is it like metrics, an American only version that no one uses outside the US?

[@rickwrites2612]

@@ahorsewithnoname643 oooh good question, i wanna know too

[@nathanielwiens6364]

@@rickwrites2612 My understanding is that ISL is a fairly limited language that can "get by" regardless of which "version" of sign language you use, but most countries have their own flavor. So yes, ASL is primarily used in the USA but it's still a language as compared to metric measurements. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sign_languages

[@pennywisethedancingclown2702]

ASL will count for a 2 year degree but if you want to go higher up with your education it wouldn’t.

[@CarinaCoffee]

I'm German and I speak Mandarin Chinese (as a foreign language, no family connection) and I LOVE that there a no conjugations! It makes it sooo easy to learn the grammar! Personally the tones are the hardest part of Chinese for me.

[@tim3440]

Hi, can you maybe help me with your routine to learn Chinese. Dutch myself, also speak German, but how did you learn Mandarine? Kind regards :)

[@benjiang9789]

Indeed. Spoken Chinese is so easy.

[@TRJK]

@@benjiang9789 indeed, then easy?

[@captainyolowaffle3160]

I'm learning Mandarin too and I agree, the tones and pronunciation are the hardest part for me. Writing is easy, reading is easy, but I can't pronounce it well

[@fractal_gate]

I'm a native English speaker who has learned Spanish and Chinese to fluency. Spoken Chinese is at least 4 times as difficult as Spanish despite the many conjugations in Spanish and none in Chinese. Apart from the tones, the reason is that the way of thinking and vocab are totally different. With Spanish I could often guess how to say new things, but with Chinese you never can guess. This will become more apparent as you move into the advanced level. There are almost zero Indo-European loan words and you will be starting from absolute scratch. I'm not saying Chinese is the hardest language in the world, and this could be something common to all non Indo-European languages, but I'm just saying that just because a language has more conjugations doesn't mean it's more difficult.

[@vorticalca5h566]

I’ve been learning Norwegian since February and I love it. The most difficult part was that adjectives have to agree with the noun and that’s not even that hard to learn

[@duff0120]

where are u from?

[@vorticalca5h566]

@@duff0120 the usa, but i want to visit norway a lot

[@Marit123]

Velkommen til Norge 🥰

[@CO0L_CAT]

@@Marit123 skal vi fortelle han om nynorsk og dialekter?

[@Marit123]

@@CO0L_CAT let it be😂😂 😂

[@alexpartridge807]

I was in the U.S. Navy in the 80’s. We were visiting Norway so we brought along a Norwegian/English dictionary and made up our own sentences. We got along very well and I remember them to this day even with using them. Not fluent by any means but must agree it was relatively easy to begin learning.

[@Kali-Yuga-Peace-Corp]

The Norwegian peoples fluency in English has changed a lot since then. Anyone born after '79 and forward are pretty fluent and the accent is les pronounced every year it seems like. Norwegian is easier when you realize that all the long words are other words put together. Vegetables = Grønnsaker, Grønn = Green. Saker = Stuff. Greenstuff. It's almost comedic.

[@haraldodunkirk1432]

Problem with Dutch and Norwegian is they’ve all got flawless English...

[@Islandicus]

I learnt a technique years ago to get over this. I am British but look like a Slav so when a Dutch person speaks to me in English, I reply in Polish, "Nie rozumiem. Jestem polakiem. Dobrze?" It works every time.

[@eiriks680]

@@Islandicus Good idea. Just pretend you don't know English and you should be fine. I will totally use this technique

[@jellevm]

@@Islandicus Do you then also speak Dutch with a Polish accent? haha

[@Islandicus]

@@jellevm To be honest, I don't know. i just know that I am very good at hiding my English accent. My Flemish friend says i speak with a kind of Dutch accent from the south. I don't say melk, I say melek as in Belgium for instance.

[@stevedavenport1202]

True. Probably a waste of time to master Dutch if you are only looking to be a tourist.

[@HizumiUna]

The way this guy just gets to the point instead of filling the first 2 minutes with an eternal introduction depicts a great channel.

[@kameelperdkol]

As an Afrikaans first language speaker, I thank you for this video. Many mock Afrikaans for being kitchen Dutch, but you learned a lot about it and show it respect. Baie dankie.

[@admiralbenbow5083]

They are not mocking the language dutchman. They are mocking you.

[@SkyeAten]

Lol nobody mocks it that way anymore... "kitchen Dutch" is an old outdated term used as early as the mid-18th century and as recently as the mid-20th century. The term is irrelevant now. People only mock Afrikaans for being such a small language. You can only use it in SA and there are only about 7 million speakers....

[@critically.panned]

Kjæresten min og jeg elsker kanalen din. I found this video about two months ago, and we are both now somewhat conversational in Norwegian! Så, tusen takk for de forslag!

[@kiwiiikotiro8437]

just a tip when learning languages: don’t stop practicing! even if you don’t need to use that language, not keeping up the practice can really deteriorate your skill when speaking it. I’m fluent in english, and i used to be semi-fluent in spanish, german, czech republican, japanese, māori, samoan and tongan, but due to lack of practice i’ve forgotten most of my knowledge about 5 of those 7 languages. learning a new language takes a lot of dedication so remember to practice often ☺️

[@gabrielaj2066]

You’re so right

[@TakahashiQR]

Yo me sabía 20 idiomas pero me chingué la rodilla y se me olvidaron

[@dmore]

I can’t back this up enough!

[@SuperSpecies]

The language from the Czech Republic is called Czech ;)

[@stianjohansen7555]

My english teacher knew 7 languages, and spoke 5 of them fluently. He was always trying to learn and pick up words from new languages. I remember him telling us that the key to knowing so many languages was using them all the time. Keeping it fresh so to speak

[@sippintea1513]

By learning Indonesian, you won't get lost in Brunei, Malaysia, Southern Thai & Singapore 🥰

[@sippintea1513]

@Nhân Trần Thành Nguyễn ya, cus we can understand each other

[@khairulazhar8118]

@Nhân Trần Thành Nguyễn yes, because the language actually are Malay language. Indonesian just don't want to believe it's actually from Malay language.

[@hubertamisola9140]

@@khairulazhar8118 true, its a malay origin language, we filipinos can understand some words in malay/indo

[@adzriekunyu]

It’s also true vice versa; learn Malay and you can get around relatively well in those countries too :))

[@syeraisya5346]

I am from Malaysia, and this is true. They’re may be different but we pretty understand each other.

[@johnnielund4889]

and a little bonus.... if you learn Norwegian, you can also generally understand and be understood by Swedish and Danish speakers

[@Kali-Yuga-Peace-Corp]

Some Finn's and Icelanders aswell, as some of them speak Swedish and Danish.

[@giovannacasadio9600]

I am Italian but grew up in Kenya speaking English and I don't think Italian is as easy as you think. The grammar is very difficult as it has not only gender but also 6 different tenses if you want to speak it properly. I still make mistakes after 40 years living here. I also speak Swahili which I think is a lot easier to learn. 😊

[@yonamwakiluma5025]

Mambo vipi😊

[@chrysaignadu6135]

Sono insegnante d'italiano per stranieri e sono assolutamente d'accordo con te.Neanche gli stessi italiani lo parlano correttamente a causa della sua molto difficile grammatica.È un'altra cosa capire una lingua o farsi capire e un' altra parlarla correttamente.Figuriamoci poi come si comportano gli inglesi e i francesi con un tuo errore di grammatica ,del lessico o della pronucia della loro lingua verso gli stanieri.Facendo un confronto con gli italiani,loro sono gentilissimi e felicissimi con chi parla la loro lingua,non lo mettono in disaggio anzi cercano di aiutarlo per questo la maggioranza pensa di parlare bene e che l'italiano sia una lingua facile.

[@nozuchan]

As an Indonesian, at the start of this video I think to myself "I think Indonesian is easy to learn, Right?" And actually seeing it on this list makes me happy The reason why indonesian is easy to learn is because it's designed that way, indonesia has hundreds of local/regional language, because Indonesian consists of a lot of different tribes and ethnicity. So they have to make the law that every Indonesian has to speak Indonesian, as a tool to unite the nation by eliminating language barriers between regions. Indonesian language is made out of modified Malay added with local language words from java and dutch and English

[@avernion]

That’s very cool :)

[@mari97216]

I know a few random words:) its a fun language. Selamat pagi, selamat datang. Teri makhasi, Apa kabar? baik baik. Sama sama. I wish to learn it some day. 😊

[@thediandilouis7004]

@@mari97216 It should be terima kasih

[@mari97216]

@@thediandilouis7004 oh yeah I forgot. Thanks

[@cuggsbach3998]

@@mari97216 what a missed opportunity.... You should've said "Oh yeah, i forgot. Terima kasih."

[@anna-cv1wv]

The fact that Afrikaans is one of the easiest languages for me to learn makes my marks even more depressing

[@AA-vr8ve]

Dw about it. Languages are hard. Source: am immigrant, had to forget native language to learn eng

[@lizziantiz]

honestly 😭😭😭

[@bernices9923]

You poor thing. I'm Afrikaans but my kids speak English cause dad is English. My kids hate learning Afrikaans at school, the biggest fights in our household are always about Afrikaans homework. They expect me to magically program it into their brains and I just want to run for the hills. My youngest was very proud when in grade three she had the lowest Afrikaans mark in her class.

[@helenenicholson6099]

I am Afrikaans and yet it was my worst subject.. You're not alone!

[@GretheRosseaux]

It's not easy.

[@gondebrabander8709]

I am from the Netherlands and speak Dutch. About 10 years ago I started learning Norwegian (Bokmål). It is not only an easy language to learn, but also a beautiful language!

[@shader26]

I’m an American that moved to Norway. It took me a while, but I just worked through to learn it fluently. At the time because of my job I spent a lot of time in the Netherlands too. Was getting confused but also noticed how similar the two languages are. I learned some Dutch. Many words that are the same (like betale, where it is just the pronunciation that is different) while others just seem spelled different. When I got better at Norwegian I had an easier time reading Dutch even though it was still hard to understand the spoken Dutch.

[@Po0pypoopy]

Don’t forget useless also

[@shader26]

@@Po0pypoopy how so?

[@Po0pypoopy]

@@shader26 where else would you use Norwegian? Hmmm? Asia? Africa? The Americas? Only 5 million people speak it

[@SamsungGalaxy-vz6kh]

@@Po0pypoopy Yes it's quite useless, but let's be honest, most people nowadays don't learn an extra language to use, but cuz it's cool

[@jazzmusician46]

I went to live in China a few years ago, and only knew Ni Hao. By the end of the first week I had learned numbers out of necessity (not being ripped off). I lived there for 5 years, adopted a little girl and became pretty good at basic conversation. It was necessity and the tones weren’t that hard, although I did make some embarrassing mistakes: Completely different words! I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned there having been home now for 12 years. I went back a few years ago, and a lot came back to me. I found Pimsleur a great fall back. Don’t be afraid of tonal language. It’s fun to learn, but be prepared to make mistakes. In Mandarin Chinese, there are only 4 tones. With practice, you’ll get it. 😃

[@larrydi9441]

Try reading and writing.

[@jazzmusician46]

@@larrydi9441 I eventually did. I traded lessons in English with my students while they taught me to read and write basic Chinese.

[@giuliariommi8643]

As an italian i think our language is fairly easy to learn up until you get to the level of true proficiency that enables you to understand fancy lectures or books and poetry. You do have to stick with us for the verb tenses.

[@simonwelser6973]

Hey, I‘m from Switzerland learning Italian right now. I must say, Italian is certainly easier than French but still not very easy, at least for me. Especially verb forms drive me nuts sometimes. As you say, you need to stick with them. The Italian way of cutting off the personal pronouns (e.g., «sono» instead of «io sono») can be quite a challenge when you have to focus twice on one word what verb you use, and about who you speak, only depending on the ending. I think French is a bit more straightforward here with using pronoun + verb, but I guess it is mainly because I‘m used to this structure since all languages I speak use it that way.

[@giuliariommi8643]

@@simonwelser6973 thanks for giving me some new prospective. Yes, be careful as to which pronouns verbs are referd to, it's mainly understandable due to context clues and concordance with the other parts of the phrase

[@julioconsuegra1351]

Agree 💯 I understand Italian even when is spoken fast or with different accents. I used to play Calcio (soccer) with an Italian team and my coach spoke in Italian to me and I spoke to him In Spanish and we understood each other pretty well.

[@lipeeefl]

Is it similar to Spanish? I am Brazilian and thinking of learning Italian as a 4th language.

[@irenestar9256]

@@lipeeefl as a native Spanish speaker, I can understand most of what's being said in italian, there are many similar words, as well as some similar words that have a different meaning in each language.

[@vincentguy2721]

I was exploring the streets of Amsterdam, back in the sixties before English was quite so pervasive, when a woman stopped me to ask the way somewhere. I said that I had only been there a couple of days but that perhaps blah blah... She was chatty like me, and we talked for several minutes before we were suddenly pulled up short when I didn't understand a phrase of hers. We gawped at each other and only then realised that we had been talking seamlessly in two tongues! I in my English and she in her Dutch. She had no doubt done English at school, and my ear was probably flexed by having heard as a kid my great-grandparents speaking proper Scots; but the charm of the moment was not that we strove and MANAGED to comprehend, but that we dopily hadn't even noticed.

[@rashidah9307]

That's a cool story! :)

[@keppscrossing]

Yep. Similarly, when I learned French and lived in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg for two years i would frequently realize that I didn’t know which language I had just been thinking in; French or my native English.

[@namegoesfirstthenlastname1785]

That's so cool

[@dustincrum1]

I've been studying ancient Albanian sign language 14 hours a day for 23 years straight and it's worth it. I can now speak a whole 12 words!

[@amyjohnson2973]

😆

[@BrookieCookieBrobro]

That’s so cool because I took 3 years of Spanish and am currently in my second year of French. I’ve also self taught myself both Italian and Dutch so that got me really excited with both on the list

[@foreverlearningfrench]

I need to learn Afrikaans. You had me at no grammatical gender and only three tenses! French has a lot of gender rules and tenses.

[@FloweijFR]

Can confirm as a native French

[@FloweijFR]

@Remmington Johnson what ??

[@FloweijFR]

@Remmington Johnson i dont understand mate

[@ErikVSV]

You should change your username to "Finally Learning Afrikaans"!

[@duvian77]

Yes, you are right.

[@chibatadayoshi278]

Afrikaans is like a child of three parents: English and Dutch vocabularies, with Malay grammar. Bahasa Indonesia is relatively easy (to speak especially) because it must be an easy language to learn for everyone. Because for most Indonesians, it is not their mother tongue. Decision to use Low Malay as the based of national language was very smart.

[@christinalucia6321]

Interesting, Im learning Afrikaans.

[@gertvanderstraaten6352]

Afrikaans also has maritime Dutch words, like kombuis is kitchen in Afrikaans but in Dutch strictly a ship's kitchen. Also it probably developed from a Zeeland dialect because they also say ons (us) instead of wij/we.

[@lizrunciman3695]

Also the grammar is closer to Indonesian/Malay than it is to Dutch, eg formation of past and future tenses. Word order though is similar to Dutch and German, not English: verb goes at the end of the sentence.

[@IErfanCN]

...

[@eugenec7130]

Malay is similar to Indonesian. It is a very easy language. Everybody in Malaysia (including non-Malays) picks it up from young naturally. But English is a different kettle of fish. Although everyone knows that English is an important language, most Malaysians struggle to learn and use the correct English. English is an unfriendly language.

[@Aboz]

Growing up in rural North Dakota, I'd often hear Norwegian spoken in the street. Most of my schoolmates had at least one grandparent born in Norway.

[@joymckenziewendt4013]

My daughter and her husband moved to Italy a year ago with my three granddaughters so I think it would be good for me to learn Italian. I spent four years in high school learning French which I think could also help me with the Italian. And my dad is half Norwegian and my sister took time to learn Norwegian so maybe I’ll learn it just so I can sometimes speak to her in Norwegian but I’m really motivated to learn the Italian right now

[@jeeves9233]

As a Norwegian, I can say that this made me happy! Also, benefits of learning Norwegian is that you'll unconsciously start to learn to understand Swedish and Danish as well! Pretty cool isn't it? Wish you all the best of luck when learning Norwegian. ❤😊

[@Arthur0522]

Hi ...I interested in Norwegian language. Is it easy to learn plz. could you give me some information about your language, thanks in advance!

[@Mercinater]

I love Norwegian I’ve been learning it for years 😋

[@stineandersen56]

I was gonna comment, that if you are gonna learn Norwegian, you might as well learn Danish and Swedish too, since they are all similar in many ways, but you beat me to it! I'm Danish myself, and I will admit that Norwegian would be the best thing to learn first, before starting with Danish and Swedish xD

[@Mercinater]

@@stineandersen56 Oh I’m learning those too but I know some already

[@thisperson8441]

Ahhh yes Norwegian is underrated!

[@alanoken3097]

Indonesian has two levels: tourist Indo and the real deal. Tourist Indo is pretty easy as you say Olly…you just need a good memory for only about 250 words. BUT real deal Indo is a highly complex language, quite sophisticated actually and quite difficult to understand as people tend to speak quickly, in fluent slang, and in distinct regional and class accents. I have been living in Bali for many years and speak fairly well (somewhere between very good tourist Indo and real deal) but take me out of Bali and the regional accents and slang are very challenging. Norwegian and Italian, spot on…pretty easy to learn. Thanks for really good videos.

[@nine3430]

Wow, you can describe it well. As Indonesian, I think we're trying to be simple but mostly we make it more complicated without realizing. And it's just for fun

[@gudseygood3622]

But don't worry Just use basic formal Indonesian and everyone will be understand. If you talk with basic standard language, people will answer you in standard language too.

[@Ed19601]

Yes but a small mistake can cost you your life as an english traveller found out in the 19 century when in rural indonesia he mixed up potong kelapa with potong kepala

[@bagassatriyou.7267]

wkwkwk gue spendapat sma loe

[@loganalleinora3385]

@@Ed19601 Wkakakakak Potong Kepala 🤣 please dont make it horrifying. When I was a kid my dad used to have old books still written on Dutch letters, that was why I knew how to read Bahasa Indonesia which was already simplified 😂. I know... I know... we are the reason why your history books are thick 😭 But hey cuman pandai bahasa Manado saya.

[@LomienEngelbrecht-yg9lq]

As a South🇿🇦African, and native Afrikaans speaker, with English as 2nd- I agree that Afrikaans is less complicated compared to it's "sister" Germanic languages such as Dutch, Flemish and low German- or even English. I'm in the process of learning German and Dutch, which is easier for me as an Afrikaans speaker, because of all the similarities in phrase construction and either the spelling and/or sound of words that mostly translate to the same meaning... Learning Afrikaans FIRST would actually help a person understand Dutch and German more quickly and easily.

[@vincentsmith2900]

I'm also a native Afrikaans speaker, currently living in Germany. Knowing Afrikaans helps a whole lot when learning German. Afrikaans also helps with the Dutch when travelling.

[@SeverityOne]

What's the reason that South Africans consider Flemish to be a separate language? Because nobody else does - not even the Flemish themselves. To clarify, native speakers can immediately tell whether somebody is from the Netherlands or from Flanders, with maybe a few exceptions when it comes to the border regions (Limburg, Zeeuws Vlaanderen, etc). And the Flemish use certain words and phrases ("solden" for sales instead of "uitverkoop", for example) that the Dutch don't use. But the official language of Flanders is Dutch.

[@francoiskeulen]

​@@SeverityOneyes you are right. Dutch and Flemish are basically the same language. The difference is in accents and some words only. More like American and British English are siblings who can understand each other when speaking standard school Dutch.

[@sarumano884]

Number one: Esperanto. I'm a linguistic dunce- still at speak a sentence level in French and Spanish after at least four years of lessons, but I discovered that I was fluent in Esperanto after only eighteen months with a "Teach Yourself ..." book that I bought out of curiosity. Speaking with an ex-American Army person, I also learned that Esperanto is used (was used?) by the US Army to identify people who can easily learn other languages, and it is (was?) used by them as an "enemy" language. A man of your talent should be fluent in about three weeks...

[@doigt6590]

Even better, learn Lingua Franca Nova which is much easier to learn than esperanto or even all IALs out there combined because it has a more forgiving grammar, which is directly taken from creoles, and pronunciation, which is officially tolerant of all kinds of pronunciation (the official grammatical guide outright tells you that as long as the sounds are audibly different, it counts).

[@callllllllllico]

Indonesian actually pretty interesting to learn too because a lot of the words here are loaned from other languages like Sanskrit, Dutch, Arab, and a lot more!

[@fisicogamer1902]

great to see indonesian in the list! after trying to crack my head open with japanese, it is super energizing to learn indonesian in a so much faster rate! Also, it sounds so cool and direct! I love it! The only hard part is the slang and the acronyms that are almost endless.

[@storylearning]

Yes, but I suppose it's the same with any language!

[@PotatoKernels]

bagus

[@michaelschrute2346]

Mantap

[@tokosuburselalu8689]

As a native speaker i can say most milenials here speak indonesia slang. Also, indonesia language has no tenses 😄

[@PotatoKernels]

@@tokosuburselalu8689 but the acronym tho. As a native speaker i still have not learnt a what all the acronyms stand for

[@carolynmcpherson2667]

This the first time I have visited your site, and I found it to be thoroughly enjoyable. Thank you!

[@jeremybatterson211]

This is great! I actually studied Afrikaans ("Ahfrikahns" is how it is pronounced.) as an American in S Africa as a boy, and found it quite simple, but didn't expect to hear from it now! I was surprised recently when trying to learn Spanish on how close it is to English. You might also say something about Chinese, which although difficult, has far simpler grammar than English. I will look into your other videos for insight.

[@robertschlachter3724]

Glad to see Indonesian on your list. I was assigned that language at the Army language school in Monterey, Ca. when I was in the military. I agree, it was easy to learn. Unfortunately, I graduated in '68 so I've forgotten most of it.

[@storylearning]

It's still in there somewhere, Robert!

[@TS29er]

I am just curious...do you speak any German?

[@judasthepious1499]

wow.. uncle Bob, if you wanna refresh the memories maybe you could ask the embassy or some NGO for some voluntary works.. that is if you are interested.. As far as I know there is still a lot of english native speaker needed for teaching english.. but not in the cities, mostly they are needed in the jungle villages or some remote island

[@rinaldskalvis5071]

I mean, I know a bit of Dutch. Reading Afrikaans is almost like reading Dutch but with a lot of spelling errors. At least, I can understand almost everything perfectly.

[@vamplizzard]

Same, as someone who is Afrikaans, Dutch feels like a dyslexic version of Afrikaans

[@thethrashyone]

That's exactly how I feel when reading Asturian or Catalan, I get the sense that I'm reading regular Spanish riddled with typos.

[@sarah-ut1dh]

as someone who spent like 8 years learning dutch, i was able to understand to a certain extent my afrikaans friend

[@ameliebischoff2204]

yeah, my dad's side of the family all speak Afrikaans and he describes it as 'drunk Dutch'

[@gay_minor]

Hi, I only learnt about your channel yesterday, this is encouraging me to start doing more Spanish. Thanks!

[@BDGKruger]

South African here 🇿🇦! Nice to see my language Afrikaans being promoted, thank you.

[@sheenakaleb642]

Whoop whoop! Afrikaans made it to the list. Edit: I'm South African and speak Afrikaans as a second language :)

[@keanancupido]

Same. Afrikaans is ook my tweede taal. Ek is só bly dat Afrikaans op hierie lys is T^T

[@lisanarramore222]

@@keanancupido Myne ook! Uiteindelik, die wereld gee om!! Haha.

[@keanancupido]

@@lisanarramore222 jaa natuurlik hahaaa XD

[@user-sl4pj5ti6z]

so funny that i can understand what you all are saying, my native language is Dutch :D

[@sheenakaleb642]

Same! I can understand Dutch but I think it would confuse me if I had to learn to speak it.

[@igorantonelli8558]

Currently speaking three languages, i also have to say that even those languages close to my native idiom are challenging, don't fall easy for italian, some grammatical rules can trap you and i gotta say learning a language is commitment and the fuel is how much you want to learn it

[@dunruden9720]

I gotta...? Boy, Ah say Boy...!!

[@fahimahsan3603]

And here I speak 4 different languages while gaming,,, '3 My mother tongue also have 8 main dialects to speak with people of different regions.

[@mahatmaniggandhi2898]

@@fahimahsan3603 😯👍what languages?

[@rosdiono]

Already speak 3 languages too as we Indonesian basically speak at least 2 languages plus English, and now learning Italian. This video inspired me to learn more after at least I can communicate in, let's say, standard Italian for foreigner. Dutch, Afrikaan and Norwegian sound interesting!

[@darktimesatrockymountainhi4046]

As a symphony musician & conductor, I’m very familiar with many Italian & French words - though I don’t speak those languages. Many of these words have cognates in other languages, so I’m sometimes able to figure out foreign phrases I don’t know. Learning & speaking German actually improved my understanding of English grammar, so my German & music education prepared me to become an ESOL tutor.

[@AmorLingo]

Olly! Your video on the top 5 easiest languages for English speakers to learn is super insightful! I appreciate your thoughtful selection, taking into account both the ease of learning and the uniqueness of each language. Afrikaans, Italian, Indonesian, Norwegian and Dutch - what a diverse and fascinating list! I've always been attracted to Italian, and your mention of it as one of the easiest languages to learn is encouraging. I've found Italian to be not only beautiful, but also relatively straightforward in terms of grammar and pronunciation, which matches your criteria for easy languages. Your approach to language learning, which emphasises efficiency and effectiveness, resonates with my own experience. I've found that following certain rules and strategies can significantly speed up the learning process, making it more enjoyable and rewarding. Thank you for sharing your expertise and insights! Carry on the great job!

[@bradyday6964]

I picked up studying a little Indonesian about two months ago as an accompaniment to my main language (French). It’s very fun! Indonesians are lovely people too, you get some great reactions when you’re from Northern Europe and can speak some Indonesian 😂

[@storylearning]

Thanks for sharing!

[@stevedavenport1202]

The way their accent sounds, seems like they have some nasal congestion.

[@xolang]

From my experience, among western Europeans I've heard speaking Indonesian, surprisingly it's been French who managed to sound closest to the way Indonesian is spoken in the (current) capital. I guess it has something to do with the way words and sentences are stressed in French.

[@rifkynda8588]

Lol thats true Indonesian glad to meet foreigner especially from europe or America idk why. if you ask the locals the address they are going to they will try to show you even if they don't speak english. and don't be surprised if you go to Indonesia suddenly you become an artist because Indonesian people like to take pictures with foreigner wkwkwwk

[@ngabersbersahaja9602]

@@rifkynda8588 that is embarrassing emotion which should not be happened. Don't show the colonized mentality

[@umbertovanstaden2651]

I'm Afrikaans my fiancé is Mexican and I have to say she learned Afrikaans so easily. Thank you for the great video.

[@lavo-ld4wm]

Thanks for this video, as I'm presently learning Norwegian!

[@angharadhafod]

You are right about Norwegian and passing because of all the regional dialects. I've learnt Norwegian, and it really works, just like you said. It's rare, once you've got to an intermediate level, for them to twig that you're not Norwegian (or at least Scandinavian).

[@rosaliebosma]

For people wanting to learn Dutch that love satire, I really recommend that you watch Zondag Met Lubach. Many videos have Dutch and/ or English subtitles.

[@mrpetebojangles21]

I find Dutch so fascinating. I’m American, but I lived in SW Germany for almost 2 years, went to a German Gymnasium etc. When I spent time in Maastricht, Utrecht and Amsterdam, I had a very very good idea of what strangers around me were saying. It was so cool. I felt like I’d had a stroke or something where I couldn’t tell exactly what people were saying, just a real good idea. To me it sounds like a drunk American speaking German! I find the Dutch accent to have a very similar pronunciation to American English more so than Oxford English. I loved this video as Norway and The Netherlands are 2 of my favorite places in Europe and I’d have a very tough time deciding which of these languages to learn.

[@irissupercoolsy]

as someone who speaks native Dutch and knows English... German just sounds like someone drunk.

[@CarinaCoffee]

As a German that knows English, the first time I went to the Netherlands and read Dutch it felt like someone had just thrown German and English into a blender and got Dutch out of it 😂 When Dutch people speak really fast it can be a bit difficult to follow, but generally speaking, if you know German you can sort of grasp Dutch. I remember when I went to a store in Rotterdam from a company that shut down their stores in Germany and I had asked for help in finding a certain item (in English mind you, as I know very little Dutch and think it's offensive for Germans to just start talking in German to the Dutch and expect them to understand them). The clerk then came to the till with me as she was apparently teaching a new employee how the till works and she told the new employee about how their stores in Germany closed the year before. I understood exactly what she was saying, that was really a weird moment for me, because that was the first time that happened. I talked a bit more with them in English after that. The Dutch are so good with English though! I think they don't dub shows and movies over there? Because their pronunciation is always so spot on.

[@mrpetebojangles21]

@@CarinaCoffee haha super cool. I agree about the pronunciation, I think Dutch vowels and lip movements generally provide an easier transition to English. Sounds pretty natural to most Americans.

[@bomhof2002]

@@CarinaCoffee yes we have subtitles. We dont dub 🙂

[@kfelix2934]

@@CarinaCoffee I cracked up on your comparison, buy you are right that Dutch is like some one took English and German put it in a blender.

[@Quickdraw_Punslinger]

I got excited when I saw Afrikaans and Dutch on the list, as I am currently learning both. But imagine my surprise when seeing Norwegian on the lost, which is my country of origin/birth. Fantastic list!

[@jimdrummer816]

We LOVE the Norwegian language! Glad this was number one on your list.

[@michaeljameson920]

My biggest problem is when I'm reading a different language I try to translate it back to english in my head instead of just picturing what the word means.

[@jclyntoledo]

You're still in the beginner beginner stage, once you get past that you won't do that anymore. Maybe try consuming more content but make sure you understand and try not translate it but just understand it.

[@michaelshort2388]

I'm the same.

[@eiriks680]

Read more, and try to read without stopping to translate. Just let the words flow, and when there are things you don't understand because you don't stop to translate, just let it go. When I started letting go of translating, I made huge progress. It was actually because of Matt vs Japan that I changed my tactic. He talked about Mindese which made me realize we don't need to translate to understand it. Just read a lot. Listening is good as well because you can't stop in the middle of the sentence to translate, you just have to understand it.

[@michaelshort2388]

@@eiriks680 this is true, through watching Korean Dramas i've started to notice words that sometimes don't mean exactly what they literally translate to. For example "아니" literally means "no" but sometimes koreans will say it at the start of a sentence to mean . well... :)

[@GarnetsWeb]

@@eiriks680 Excellent advice.

[@generikadeyo]

I love that Dutch is so phonemically similar to English with different enough vocabulary that it nearly sounds simglish

[@typicalasian2730]

I am learning german it is easy too

[@arcticblue248]

you mean dunglish ? :-P (Dutch/English)

[@mariebcfhs9491]

I'm currently learning German because I love it, without any other reason. And Afrikaans is like Simplified German for me, which is great because now I can learn two of them parallel to each other!

[@marcosesteban4392]

Swedish is also not a bad language either and in many ways is quite similar to Norwegian. My mom's family is Svensk and Swedes are happy to help you learn the language as well. They love it when we attempt to speak it. And yes, they know of the "Swedish Chef" on the Muppet show over there too but tend to take it in stride. They know we anglophones sometimes consider Swedish to be a bit "singsongish" by the high and low tones/accents often heard.

[@Kali-Yuga-Peace-Corp]

Swedish has a lot of French loanwords that don't exist in Norwegian. These French words has also been "Swedified" so they are almost impossible to recognize if you already speak French.

[@Noor_Jacobs03]

As a Coloured South African, Afrikaans is very easy, like you said. It's my second language, and 1 of our 11 official languages here in SA.

[@johannduplessis3467]

There is a lot of english people living in South Africa who can't speak Afrikaans. It sounds quite terrible when they attempt to speak Afrikaans.

[@Noor_Jacobs03]

@@johannduplessis3467. As long as they're trying boet.

[@NightWollff1]

Ja. Hulle moet net probeer. Baie mense is te skaam om te probeer.

[@Noor_Jacobs03]

@@NightWollff1 . Ja. A lot of them are scared to try because you get people like Johann du Plessis who mock them instead of helping and encouraging them.

[@hkrohn]

Hosepipe is literally "garden snake" in Norwegian too: hageslange.

[@ilseawesomeness9828]

In Dutch too: tuinslang

[@justinjanecka3203]

You mean water hose? 🤣

[@svenmorgenstern9506]

Ah, but how do you say "danger noodle" in Norwegian?

[@natsunohoshi7952]

@@justinjanecka3203 I thought 'hosepipe' was odd as well. Do they really call it that in the UK? Because I was like, "That's a garden hose!"

[@arcticblue248]

@@svenmorgenstern9506 farlig nudel ...

[@amayatsuki5673]

I started learning Danish last year and can say, the Scandinavian Languages are all really similar.

[@inhocsignovinces8061]

As a Finn who learned to speak Swedish at school, I can understand almost every word of Norwegian as well. So learning Swedish is really a two-for-one deal.

[@TheFrontyer]

Should be able to atleast read danish too

[@HalValla01]

Native Norwegian here! Norwegian is a pretty easy language to learn and speak, yes, but almost impossible to understand just because of the vast variety of accents and dialects. To anyone considering it, kudos!

[@simonwelser6973]

If I want to learn a Scandinavian language, what would you consider going with? Swedish, Danish or Norwegian? I have often heard Norwegian is somewhat easier than Swedish in standard form to learn, but in reality, accents and dialects are much harder in Norwegian than Swedish.

[@HalValla01]

@@simonwelser6973 you’ve heard correct😂😂

[@aerialpunk]

Is it that much worse than English? I mean, I'm from western Canada and I have to focus very hard to understand people from the east coast, and I moved to Australia where the slang and accent made me feel like I was half learning a new language anyway, haha. Same goes for people with heavier accents from Scotland or Ireland... I couldn't even get through the British Office cos I just didn't understand like a quarter of what they were talking about. There's really a lot of accents in English, they're just often spread around a bit instead of all in one country

[@HalValla01]

@@aerialpunk Take a look at the Trøndelag accents XD

[@kristin123a]

@@simonwelser6973 You don't need to learn all the dialects. You just choose to learn either the most common "dialect" found around Oslo or the local dialect wherever you choose to live. "Standard" Norwegian or Bokmål will get you a long way.

[@sittingindetroit9204]

I once worked with a guy from Sweden that could speak 9 languages fluently and 6 partially. I asked him if he “translated “ it his mind and he said not the fluent ones. I then asked him when in the process does he “know” he is fluent and he said when he dreamt in the language.

[@HeroOfTime303]

I have had a dream in fluent German, but I am not fluent in German.

[@cloman7199]

To keep it short, fluency means you can understand and use a language without much thinking and / or scrambling for words. Becoming fluent is relatively easy if you allow yourself to make mistakes. Reaching proficiency is the hardest part. It's when you're able to express the same idea in a plethora of different ways. Basically, acquired bilingualism. When you're proficient, it almost feels like you speak your mother tongue.

[@DidierDidier-kc4nm]

yes ,Scandinavians and dutch have a special or bigger brain to learn languages they are very clever (not like me and us '''french'')

[@cloman7199]

@@DidierDidier-kc4nm No, they just have more reasons to learn other languages. Just take a look at how many people speak Norwegian, Swedish, Danish or Dutch. English gives them more access to media. Plain and simple. And once you've learned a language well enough to be fluent, you'll have an easier time learning other languages. They do have exemplary education systems, of course. But a lot of it has to do with the pressure of speaking a rather rare language. I'm not saying this to discredit multilingual people up there but to emphasize how important immersion is when learning a language. They're not inherently smarter, they just have a loooot more points of contact with other languages than native speakers of "large" languages with dozens or even hundreds of millions of native speakers.

[@canadagood]

I enjoyed a glass of wine and afternoon snacks at that same outdoor restaurant when I visited Venice in 2010. It was October and the chairs had colourful shawls to snuggle into as one enjoyed the sunset on the Grand Canal. This made me look at old photos and dream of returning one day to learn Italian...

[@mrananas233]

Well, as a Dutch native speaker (from Flanders) I can confirm that learning English language was easy. Living in Belgium I also speak French fluently and I have to admit that my knowledge of French (and high school Latin) really helped out in learning Spanish and Italian. But nothing helped me when learning Japanese... I still struggle to this day.

[@DewHope]

I've mastered Thai, but probably because I was born there. Joking aside, I lived in Indonesia for 18 months and did find Bahasa Indonesia relatively easy to learn and definitely to read and understand. Terima kahsi.

[@storylearning]

I've met lots of people who learned Indonesian and they're always pleasantly surprised!

[@michaelschrute2346]

Terima kasih

[@lazvegaz]

Terima kasih kembali.

[@jiptsu9631]

Sama-sama. Aku pengen bisa bahasa Thailaaand!!

[@judasthepious1499]

pantesan Jirayut cepet banget bisa ngomong pake bahasa Indonesia 😂

[@JacoWiese]

From South Africa here, really enjoyed your description of some of the Afrikaans words! Well done!

[@raymondwalters2723]

As a native Afrikaans speaker who is learning Dutch and German, I definitely agree. I might even go as far as to say it is the single easiest language for a speaker of English, Dutch or German to learn. Pros: - Very closely related to English, and actually also later somewhat influenced by English. - No noun case. - No noun gender. - No verb conjugation. - Only 3 main tenses which are dead easy to form. Future tense: 'sal + '. Past tense: 'het + ge' (or 'het + ' for verbs that already have a prefix). - Only 2 irregular infinitive verbs (het, is -> hê, wees). The rest of the infinitives are the same as the regular verb. Cons: - Very high chance that the person can also speak fluent English. - Only spoken by a handful of people mostly in southern Africa. - Somewhat difficult phonetics for English speakers like the hard consonants and many vowels and diphthongs. Thanks for the mention either way!

[@ConstructiveMinds100]

Amzing. Finely someone with logic made a video on difficulty of learning a lenguage. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@SerpantVenomMC]

I’ve been studying Norwegian for a few months and I love it! I have dabbled in lots of languages from Greek, to Japanese, to German, to Korean, etc. I love learning Norwegian because it’s genuinely fun and intuitive. It has a few irregularities but no grammatical ones that change all the time. It’s straight forward and a blast to learn! I’ve also found that I can now intuit Dutch and some other Scandinavian languages as well!

[@ocwill]

It is a fun language with, truly, HUNDREDS of dialects. You can even choose whether you want to roll your R’s or swallow them, like Danish. Lol. Norsk er flott!

[@leoaraujo8590]

man I learn German since 2014 and Norwegian, Dutch and Russian since 2017 (I didn't commit to Dutch and Russian) and I must say, even though I have less hours learning Norwegian than I have learning German, Norwegian flows so easy, I have less trouble speaking Norwegian on the spot than German.

[@leoaraujo8590]

@@ocwill the first time I heard "Ka som skjedd? eg må veit" my bokmål only brain just melted.

[@SerpantVenomMC]

@@leoaraujo8590 If you don't mind my asking, what resources did you use to learn Norwegian?

[@leoaraujo8590]

@@SerpantVenomMC Duolingo. Yes it's reliable, those who talk shit about the app are not consistent enough and/or don't use it properly.

[@zacheray]

I’ve been studying Italian for 5 years as my first second language. It was really hard to get close to fluent for two main reasons: nightmare level verb conjugations with like 7 tenses to choose from (still don’t know remoto) and the big one.. the way they convey and construct thoughts is fundamentally different from English.. one example is the numerous ways they use reflexive verbs where we don’t, but it goes way beyond that. They have a preference to make their sentences feel elegantly crafted.

[@just_kiri1278]

Don’t worry even the Italians don’t know passato remoto, unless you’re in Naples

[@jfrancobelge]

@@just_kiri1278 Same in French; our conjugations are a nightmare, but in practice we only use a few of the tenses, and most French people are just unable to use the intricate, very literary ones such as past subjonctive (and I'm one of them). But you do have to know how to use the reflexive form.

[@oscaro.350]

Exactly the same in Spanish hahaha

[@matteobertotti]

@@jfrancobelge Italian and French share 90% of the grammar, syntax and lexicon.

[@lavenderoh]

@@matteobertotti Spanish too.

[@stormybear4986]

as a largely self-taught linguist who speaks 12 or so languages, among them Mandarin, Thai, and a bit of Dutch, I made a similar observation about Dutch, it's as though someone put German and English in a big pot with butter and melted it all together and what came out was Dutch. I knew a Dutch exchange student in college and I used to practice with her. I learned a remarkable amount of Dutch in a very short time. I lived in Thailand for several years and I speak Thai quite fluently, and every few months I would have to leave the country to renew my visa, I'd usually take the train to Penang Malaysia and picked up quite a bit of Malaysian which is very similar to Indonesian and you're quite right. Very easy language to pick up.

[@zareien2290]

Moved to Norway 3 months ago and am taking the B2 exam in 2 days. Learnt the language almost from scratch in that time. Wish me luck!

[@richardyudist]

Learning Indonesian is easy, no complicated rules..But in school, Indonesian language subject is one of difficult subject to master because in daily basis mostly we use local language mixed with informal Indonesian, not mentioning adding some English, now Korean words etc...Some locals (mostly elders) do not clearly understand Indonesian. Indonesian languages is a melting pot of languages around the world, refleting our harmonius culture.

[@prestokrs1]

I came in thinking: "No way he gets me into Afrikaans." Two minutes later. Three tenses, Camel horse... Where do I sign up? 😂

[@steveharris1740]

That’s the thing though. Where DO you sign up to learn Afrikaans???

[@dunruden9720]

Buy a donkey!

[@meganholloway1536]

@@dunruden9720 candy floss = spookasem (ghosts’ breath).

[@lospollos5303]

Haha goodluck :)

[@PuppyL07]

​@@steveharris1740 I can teach Afrikaans. There's just one problem. I actually am not the best at it because it's my second language.

[@solascripturaPR1517]

Dutch definitely sounds exactly how you described it. Currently learning it; for a time-- soon-- that I could voyage there.

[@drtidrow]

8:50 For major languages, Dutch probably is closest to English, but I believe that Frisian is even closer than Dutch to English. You can make sentences in both Frisian and English that not only mean the same thing, but sound almost identical, pointing to a deep connection between the two.

[@jasperkok8745]

I came here just to see if anyone had already made that comment. I’m not a Frisian speaker, but I always thought it was even closer to English than Dutch is.

[@endthisnonsense7202]

No clue if it is true or not, but I guess it is. I've heard Native Frisian speakers can read and understand medieval English more easily than English Native speakers.

[@mep6302]

The main difference between both languages is that Frisian is very Dutch-like and English is very French-like. This is the reason why English is the least Germanic language because it was heavily influenced by Old French and Latin.

[@drtidrow]

@@mep6302 Indeed - the Norman Conquest in 1066 basically made Norman French the language of the (new) English nobility, which eventually filtered down into the language of the common folk. Modern English is basically a hodge-podge of Old English (essentially what the original Anglo-Saxon settlers spoke, and much more Germanic), French (at least the Norman dialect), and a fair amount of Scandinavian influence (the Normans were originally Scandinavian, and the Danish among others invaded eastern England, putting their stamp on the language as well). No wonder it can be a tricky language for foreigners to learn.

[@antoinemozart243]

The Normans were not Scandinavian, only a tiny part who settled in a very limited part of present day Normandy. This is why they all spoke French after 20 years.

[@theferalboy9563]

I'm happy to see Norwegian getting some love. I'm slowly learning it and it's such a fun language to speak. Initially I was thrown off by how "not useful" it is where I live (deep south US) but honestly it doesn't matter. It's just a fun language and it really opens the door on other languages as well!

[@dabtican4953]

Maybe you can visit some places where it is spoken like in Minnesota

[@norwegian52]

fellow norwegian learner here. Yes. I agree its fun. And if you're looking for someone to have a conversation with, There are many Norwegians that would love to help. Some have been discouraging and not that nice about it, but the majority of Norwegians love and appreciate you wanting to learn their language. Good luck

[@Hypez_Gamez]

As a norwegian I love it when people try to learn about our culture, language or country

[@Thomasromer2002]

Forstår du hvad jeg skriver her når jeg skriver på dansk? 😜 (Do you understand this, when I write in danish?) It’s one of the cool things with Scandinavia language, we share a lot of words.

[@Istarikit]

@@Thomasromer2002 Förstår du detta, när jag skriver på svenska? :)

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

One of my friends learned Esperanto first because it gives you the basic skills of learning a language, but is a very easy language to learn, every word is based off of their roots and does not deviate from its basic rules.

[@robsen.87]

Esperanto estas tre bona lingvo. ;-)

[@kayekaye251]

Where is Esperanto spoken?

[@legoboy-ox2kx]

@@kayekaye251 nowhere as a first language, but a lot of people know it because it's easy to learn

[@MarcioSilva-qe1vd]

@@kayekaye251 Anywhere

[@ChilapaOfTheAmazons]

Esperanto has some interesting ideas but it's also built on a big mistake: its alphabet has 28 letters and includes sounds that are very rare in most of the world. This single flaw makes it unnecessarily harder to learn with no upsides for the added complexity. It would have been much more sensible to create a language with 18-20 letters, and probably would have been more successful without losing versatility and pleasant sounds. Esperanto is a big missed opportunity.

[@SherlockHolmesCologne]

I was glad that you mentioned "afrikaans" as the first language to learn in your video 👍😊

[@doodlezjay]

I know English and have grown up surrounded by my german mother- so I've picked up on a few things but I'm no where near being fluent, especially when it comes to pronunciation. I've been interested in learning Dutch and especially since it's similar to the both of them, it seems like a good language to learn- and an easy one!

[@katherinemcintosh7247]

I lived in Leeuwarden, Friesland on a semester abroad back in 1993. I desperately wanted to learn how to speak Dutch, but did not have the life experience to go about learning it when every Dutch person I came in contact with spoke English fluently. This experience informed how I addressed my desire to learn German when my family and I moved to Germany almost 20 years later. We were there for 5 years and by the end of 3 years I was fluent enough for all day to day use and spoke the language confidently. How did I do this? I learned enough before we arrived to be able to tell people, “I understand you speak English, and I understand English, so you may speak it to me. However, I am living in Germany now, so I must learn to speak German. I will only speak German to you so I can learn. Please excuse my bad German.” People stopped speaking to me in English fairly quickly and helped me learn. I also managed to make friends with a Russian immigrant who could not speak a lick of English. That was the biggest help of all.

[@katherinemcintosh7247]

@Alex Alex gut…viellleicht…ich weiß nicht. Wann ich spreche Deutsch, mein Mann sagt mir, “Kathy du spricht Deutsch wie du ins gefagnes haben gelernen.” Ich sage, “wann man kann mich verschtehen, das ist genug…” So, you tell me. Lol!

[@cristobalbaehr2661]

Have a look at Tagalog Ollie!! You will be amazed how they use numbers. Prices in English, time in Spanish, the rest in Tagalog. The Philippines were 300 years under Spanish rule and 50 years under US rule. That is why they speak that way

[@joannaremaneses]

Right! Most of our nouns are from English and Spanish so Filipino ("Tagalog", according to many) vocabulary will be a piece of cake for some people who can speak English and/or Spanish.

[@snsaccount7871]

The tricky part would be the ever-changing slangs that we have HAHAHAHA

[@rhoxdethxyrhonemercado2509]

Yeah Filipino is the easiest way because Philippine language is compose mostly of English, Spanish and Filipino Languages (not tagalog because Filipino is the easy version of Tagalog while Tagalog is a deep version of it specially when you go to Quezon and Batangas Provinces where most people speak deep tagalog in this provinces.) however if you are a foreigner and you speak Filipino in other parts of the PH they might not understand you or they might understand you because PH has a lot of Languages however as i study PH Languages there is always a borrowed word mostly from Spanish or it is a direct Spanish word but different spelling and i can say if Filipino's want to study Spanish it is very easy for them.

[@belstar1128]

Yea the language its easy by non European standards but i ran into 1 big problem i can't find any interesting media that appeals to me in Tagalog so now i am forgetting everything even the Scandinavian languages at least have some websites and podcasts.

[@joannaremaneses]

@@belstar1128 I'm not sure whether Filipino shows will be your cup of tea. I find them a bit too cliched and predictable sometimes. However, you might wanna check out this application: WeTV. There are TV series and movies from The Philippines, South Korea, China, etc. It's free and the VIP subscription is very cheap (approximately $1.2 per month)

[@gingershrimp4024]

Thanks. Since ive watched this video ive learned australian, canadian, and american.

[@tultrapfighter]

"Dutch is linguistically the closest language to english" Frisian and Scots: Are we a joke to you?

[@dougsundseth6904]

"Camelopard" was the Middle English word for what we now call a giraffe. ("Giraffe" is originally from an Arabic word.) And in fact _giraffa camelopardalis_ is the standard binomial for giraffe in biology. So the fact that Afrikaans uses a similar word is interesting, but possibly not in the way that you expect. 8-)

[@69Mikage]

So a camel leopard....

[@alumbo]

@@69Mikage That's what I thought. "Camel with spots."

[@Alex-fv2qs]

And it was formerly called kameelpardelin Dutch

[@ivymelanie39]

Indonesian is my first language, and I learned English in school as foreign language. Based on my experience (comparing the pronunciation, grammar, etc), Indonesian is easier to learn than English 🤓

[@andres-vb7js]

I'm colombian, I'm studying indonesian from duolingo and some other places, it's super easy, but almost every word is totally new, that's the downside

[@drdal]

@@andres-vb7js I am Norwegian and I think Norwegian is the easiest language to learn for an english speaker because this to languages are near related to each other. But austronesian languages (like Indonesian) are easy to learn. My wife speak is filippina and she gave me a dictation in filippino and even I not have learn the language at all, I write much of it rigth because the pronunciation and writing is almost the same in austronesian languages. In english it is absolutely not so.

[@markthompson3398]

As a New Zealander who speaks a smattering of Māori, which most of do if only a little in NZ, I was hugely lucky to find that the vowels in Māori and Turkish are pronounced almost identically. My vowel tones were commented on and marked me regionally as someone from Istanbul who was well educated. Turkish has other advantages, it’s relatively new use of the script I am writing this in now, makes it so that the pronunciation of every vowel is totally consistent. So once you have learned the vowel sounds you can read, you may not know what you are saying but you can read it. Add to that no blends, for example a c with a tail is the letter to describe our ch. These two items described made it relatively easy for me to learn Turkish.

[@markcraine4213]

Despite what people say spoken Turkish is not always pronounced correctly. When i is at the end of the word it is not pronounced as ee but i as in it. Lots of Turks also make a sh noise when pronouncing r at the end of words. On a plus point it has almost no irregular verbs which can be a pain when learning other languages.

[@markcraine4213]

Also, ay sounds like eye

[@mattgage4418]

Kia ora bro 🤙

[@jonathanemery3203]

This is my first time watching your videos. One of the best segues into the “Like/Subscribe” ask I’ve ever heard!😂 You earned them!😂

[@hkrohn]

Very cool that you included Indonesian in the list! I've been studying it for a couple of years now. I don't agree at all on the "small vocabulary" part though; Indonesian has soooo many synonyms, and that is definitely the hardest challenge for a learner!

[@keydem6494]

and the slangs and shorts too indonesian knows how to make their slang words

[@thediandilouis7004]

@Zane Goebel - Everyday Indonesian I am Indonesian and this is my first time heard about Kin "Bang" is the standard to calling older brother If its regional language, is it counted as Indonesian language?

[@healthrevolution4163]

Wow. This is really good content. I studied nederlands and bahasa before. The same things that I thought that make them easy to learn were so carefully and completely explained. This is truly a wonderful find!

[@aiedle007]

I was learning German and wanted to learn Dutch, I see a lot of similarities between them. Maybe in or after those three, maybe I'll learn French or Italian. To be honest, I took latin in high school, and it has helped me with Italian, but I might go Italian and then French because of the close relation between romance languages.