# Spanish, easy? Really? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 7, 2014, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240 "2014-06-07T02:00:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/21 "2014-06-08T03:15:30Z")
> [@SciFiSam](#): > > _Written_ Spanish is a lot easier to learn than in many other languages, because it looks more like it’s spoken more than most languages do. And that helps your general language learning. > > There are also tons of resources available for learning Spanish, which makes it easier. A few years ago I made an attempt to learn Bengali as a foreign language and gave up without knowing a word. The only resources for beginners’ Bengali I could find were absolutely fucking terrible; the audiotapes were entirely in Bengali, which meant I just switched it on and listened for a bit without having a clue what they were trying to teach me. Perhaps they believed in learning by osmosis. > > Spanish learners have a hell of a lot more than that to help them. Yeah maybe people are mistaking lots of resources for difficulty level. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/22 "2014-06-08T13:35:06Z")
the Defense Language Institute ranks languages as to how hard they are, on average, for a native English speaker 30-40 years old, to learn to a professional proficiency. Spanish is in Category 1, which are the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. On average languages in Category 1 take 600 class-hours at DLI to reach the professional proficiency standard. (Their coursework is extremely intensive - don’t compare to the results you get at your local community college). > **[Language Learning Difficulty | About World Languages](https://www.mustgo.com/worldlanguages/language-difficulty/)** > > 1’ People often ask: How long will it take me to become proficient in language X? This question is impossible to answer because a lot depends on a person’s language learning ability, motivation, learning environment, intensity of instruction, and... This doesn’t mean that everyone will find learning spanish “easy”. Some people have very little facility for language, others have a high native ability, and everything in between. But by the objective measurements which are available – the military’s long experience with such matters – Spanish is one of the easiest. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/23 "2014-06-08T13:55:52Z")
So, if you say something in Spanish with the wrong verb conjugation, do you just sound like a dumbass and the listener gets what you’re trying to say from context, or does it render the whole sentence meaningless? ---
**Author:** ![KarlGrenze](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dbc845/32.png) [@KarlGrenze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGrenze)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/24 "2014-06-08T14:05:18Z")
We had that discussion recently in another thread. Depending on the variations, the change may slightly alter the meaning of the sentence. Or it may be understood as a conjugation mistake. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/25 "2014-06-08T14:33:22Z")
…and with past-anterior and future-perfect-subjunctive and other such gems of verb tense, even the native speakers miss it at times. > [@Hello\_Again](#): > > the Defense Language Institute ranks languages as to how hard they are, on average, for a native English speaker 30-40 years old, to learn to a professional proficiency. Spanish is in Category 1, which are the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. On average languages in Category 1 take 600 class-hours at DLI to reach the professional proficiency standard. (Their coursework is extremely intensive - don’t compare to the results you get at your local community college). > > [Language Learning Difficulty | About World Languages](http://aboutworldlanguages.com/language-difficulty) > > This doesn’t mean that everyone will find learning spanish “easy”. Some people have very little facility for language, others have a high native ability, and everything in between. But by the objective measurements which are available – the military’s long experience with such matters – Spanish is one of the easiest. Category one being essentially all the major Romance and Germanic languages(\*), which of course share a lot of grammar construction and root vocabulary with English. Notice though that they own up that German seems to be the toughest in the group due to grammatical complexity (case declination, sending half the verb all the way to the end of the sentence, etc.). (\*Note 1: What, no Catalan?) (\*Note 2: Afrikaans ends up in Group 1 and Icelandic in Group 2 – probably because the one spun off from Dutch at a late date while the other is closer to a much older root tongue) ---
**Author:** ![nani](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/58956e/32.png) [@nani](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nani)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/26 "2014-06-08T17:01:28Z")
My anecdotal experience has been that Spanish is a harder language than English to get started in. However, it is an easier language than English to master. I’ve met several people who started to learn Spanish post-adolescence and speak it extremely well. I’ve had less experience with people who have similarly mastered English, even though a very large part of my circle is non-native English speaking. Learning Chinese is made more difficult by not being able to verbalize unfamiliar characters that you see on signs or whatever, but it’s not very hard. Russian grammar, though… ---
**Author:** ![Batistuta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/58956e/32.png) [@Batistuta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Batistuta)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/27 "2014-06-08T18:45:54Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > (\*Note 1: What, no Catalan?) I’ve noticed that Spain’s regional languages tend to get ignored on lists like this. It’s also noticeable that Basque is not mentioned, even though it would probably fall within category 3 (or maybe 4?) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/28 "2014-06-08T19:01:48Z")
Something that people forget when they evaluate “language learning” is that in the immense majority of cases, the purpose is not to speak it perfectly (something I personally don’t even expect to achieve with my own native language), but to communicate. Given the amount of Spanish that’s crawled into American English, the amount of Spanish anybody living in the US can read side-by-side with its English translation, the amount of media available casually, and when you add that the two languages are relatively close, yes, I expect that for an American (less so for a British or Australian), Spanish is relatively easy. Nobody is expecting you to pronounce the r’s perfectly (just don’t over-roll them please), and as **JRDelirious** said, natives mix up conjugations too. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/29 "2014-06-08T19:34:52Z")
> [@JRDelirious](#): > > (\*Note 2: Afrikaans ends up in Group 1 and Icelandic in Group 2 – probably because the one spun off from Dutch at a late date while the other is closer to a much older root tongue) My guess would be because Afrikaans, Dutch and English are all branches of the same family, while the most recent common ancestor to Icelandic would be farther back than the most recent common ancestor to German. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/30 "2014-06-08T19:37:22Z")
> [@Hello\_Again](#): > > the Defense Language Institute ranks languages as to how hard they are, on average, for a native English speaker 30-40 years old, to learn to a professional proficiency. Spanish is in Category 1, which are the easiest languages for English speakers to learn. On average languages in Category 1 take 600 class-hours at DLI to reach the professional proficiency standard. (Their coursework is extremely intensive - don’t compare to the results you get at your local community college). > > [Language Learning Difficulty | About World Languages](http://aboutworldlanguages.com/language-difficulty) > > This doesn’t mean that everyone will find learning spanish “easy”. Some people have very little facility for language, others have a high native ability, and everything in between. But by the objective measurements which are available – the military’s long experience with such matters – Spanish is one of the easiest. Note that all Cat 1 Languages are Romance or Germanic\*. Since English is a Germanic language with heavy influence from Romance languages, that should be no surprise, I guess. \*And all the major Romance and Germanic languages are listed in that category. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [June 8, 2014, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240/31 "2014-06-08T19:46:55Z")
> [@Batistuta](#): > > I’ve noticed that Spain’s regional languages tend to get ignored on lists like this. It’s also noticeable that Basque is not mentioned, even though it would probably fall within category 3 (or maybe 4?) From the link: “It is important to note that the categorization is limited to languages taught at the Foreign Service Institute.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/spanish-easy-really/690240.md?page=1)