A look at which languages are easiest and most difficult for English speakers to pick up.

“The foreign service institute of the United States Department of State compiles learning expectations for many languages based on the amount of time it takes a native English speaker to achieve speaking and reading proficiency.

Each learner is different.

The time it takes to learn a language depends on a number of factors:

• How complex the language is.
• How close the new language is to your native language or the other languages you know.
• How many hours each week you devote to learning the language.
• The language learning resources available to you.
• You motivation.”

(The website divides up a number of language by Easy, Medium and Hard)

(Images taken from the voxy.com website)

So which country do you live in? What language do they speak there?

There are international school teachers in all easy, medium and hard language-countries.  Is this a deciding factor when you decide whether to accept a position or not or do you actually seek out the challenge to live in one of the countries that speaks one of the “hard” languages?  I actually know some international school teachers that struggle a lot of the learning of one of the “easy” languages.  I also know some international school teachers that don’t struggle at all to learn one of the “hardest” languages.  I guess it does go back to the five factors discussed in the article.  The biggest fact I have seen is the motivation factor.  Having the motivation and confidence to learn an easy, medium or hard language is the key to language learning success!

We have a topic called “Languages of the host city and the level of English spoken there.” in the City Section on the school profile pages on our website.  Members are encouraged to share what they know about the language of the host country.