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Learning to read multiple languages?

So I’m looking to teach myself a European language as a personal project (just to read, rather than speak, at this stage) but my experience with languages other than English so far is extremely basic Japanese… All my multilingual friends are adamant that (1) some Euro languages are somewhat easier to learn than others, and (2) learning a third language is much easier than learning a second language, especially when the second language and the third language are of the same family.

I’m looking at learning one of French, Italian, or German (I don’t have any preference about which one I’d like to learn the most… they all hold about the same level of interest for me) but in the long term I’d like to be able to at least read two of them (not least because of the possibility of postgraduate reading exams if I ever study in the US, not to mention their general helpfulness in postgrad research…). I’m already at university (hopefully starting a second degree soon) and am conscious of the fact that my language-absorption ability is rapidly declining.

So….. I’m wondering whether it would be preferable to start with a supposedly “hard” option like French to begin with, or an “easier” option like Italian, to smooth the process of possibly learning harder languages in the future. I’m leaning towards the “harder” options of French or German to begin with. What would TSR linguists do in my situation?

Thanks!

Reply 1

ScarlettDangerfield

I don't think Italian is any easier than French or German.. they've all got their easy parts and more difficult parts. However I think your language learning would really suffer were you to only learn to read and nothing else- by all means focus on reading but I think it would be a real shame to be competent at reading a language but to not be able to speak it in a real-life situation.

Reply 2

WrigglyMammoth

Original post by ScarlettDangerfield

Italian would be easier than French or German, as its words relate to english/latin derivatives far more than German does

Reply 3

Xurvi

I don't see how Italian would be easier considering on the contrary English and german share the same germanic language ancestor. English-speaking people actually usually say they find german easier, but ultimately, it's down to personal preference.

OP: reading only is probably okay, but don't neglect pronunciation in case later you want to speak the language - saves you loads of time trying to get rid of bad pronunciation habits. Also, while you may want to have skills in reading only, I strongly suggest you do a little speaking and writing as well as it will improve your language skills overall.

Reply 4

chinaberry

Good for you!

And I think French is easier for an English person.

Reply 5

Spanishdream

For those who are saying Italian would be/is easier, it is not by any stretch.

I've recently started university and took on Italian. I major in it, and I am required to speak fluent Italian in four years (or less). I take three major languages. (see my signature).

Italian is not an easy language to learn but like everyone has already said, each language has it's easiest parts and it's difficult parts.

The amount of exceptions to the gender of nouns and the noun articles is astonishing. Verbs seem to have very little pattern unlike Spanish or French.

The best thing about the Italian language is that it is phonetic, so once you have the alphabet down and certain sounds when a 'h' is placed after a 'c', you're good to go.

I would say that German or French would be the best options. French is easy in my opinion, however German can be tricky.

Also, it is true that languages become easier if you have already learnt one. Italian would be so much more difficult for me if I hadn't already known French or Spanish. They help me a lot. Spanish for the vocabulary and French for the grammar.

Any questions, give me a PM. :smile:

Reply 6

Mrs Cullen

I learned French and German at school, and now I'm studying French and Italian at university, and so I've got some experience of all of them. It is definitely down to personal preference to which is the 'easiest' language to learn, and it mostly depends on whether you have a good teacher for that language, or whether you are motivated enough to put in the work.

Personally, I found French and German about the same in terms of difficulty overall. German was more difficult at the beginning, getting the grammar rules straight, but it becomes easier over time. I would say that French was easier from the beginning, but by the time I got to A levels in both of them, they were on a par really.

I've found Italian much, much easier than either of them, but I think that was down to the fact that it is so similar to French and as I knew a lot of French already, it just seemed easier. Starting it from scratch would probably have been just as hard as French or German.

I do disagree with some people who say that the germanic aspects of English make learning German easier. Yes, there are some similarities but not really enough to make it so much easier than the others. I would say that with vocabulary there are also many similar words between French and English.

I would say though, that if you are planning on learning two languages eventually, then French and Italian (or even Spanish) complement each other so much better than German and Italian/French. There are absolutely tons of similarities between the French and Italian, and so learning the second one would be much easier. Having said that though, if what you're looking for is a bit of variety, then you could go for a German-French/Italian combo.

The 'easiness' of a language is very subjective. None of it will be easy, and so the best advice I can give you is to pick the language/culture/literature that mosts interests you. Then at least you will enjoy reading the literature in that language when you have mastered it, and enjoying yourself whilst you do it will give you some motivation for learning.

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about any of the languages!

Reply 7

Anatheme

If you want to use them to have more breadth when researching, definitely go for French or German, because they're the main research languages, with English. Now, I really can't tell you which would be easier, because it depends on the person, and they it's reallye asy to find material to learn both anyway. Just try to give them both a go and see which you prefer.