New Year Resolution? The easiest languages to learn? What about Spanish, Norwegian and Esperanto?

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Babbel gives a great analysis of several easy to speak languages. 

Surprisingly, the Scandinavian languages are easiest. Norwegian

 But they are not necessarily the most useful nor widely spoken by either native speakers or as an intermediate language.

Let me take a quick look at Norway.

Great hotel.

Ibsen. A bit sad.

Munch. The Scream. 

A scream is not my idea of a marketing campaign.  I think the fjords and the food are more my things.

Norway is still on my wish list.

How about Spanish?

Not surprisingly Spanish is in the top three. Some of my family based in the UK are on holiday in Spain right now, despite Covid. 

They make no mention of Esperanto which is completely logical. But a made up language. No country. Find speakers in Hungary, the UK and worldwide.

My friends in Surabaya Toastmasters club, Empire, roll their Rs. So do the Spaniards and Italians.

Useful Websites

 https://www.babbel.com/en/magazine/easiest-languages-for-english-speakers-to-learn

Going from Wikipedia back to original sources I found:

http://www.nvtc.gov/lotw/months/november/learningExpectations.html

Books by Angela Lansbury
How to be the best man. (Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Wedding Speeches and Toasts.(Ward Lock / Cassell.)
Unforgettable British Weekends.
Poetry Workshop Workbook.
The Tailor and the Spy. (Lulu.)
Larry The Talking Labrador. (Lulu.)
Writing Poetry for fun.

Quick Quotations

Who Said What When

How To Learn Languages Free - Which Languages Can I Learn? Memrise and Duolingo?

Problem
I am going to China, sending Chinese New Year cards - and need to know that they don't say Happy Birthday (which happened once when I bought a Chinese card in Singapore, assuming it would be seasonal!) or just a Chinese reaturant looking at a menu, or ingratiating myself with a waiter and creating goodwill so I get a good table - so I want To learn Chinese.

This requires special characters. So fewer websites offer it. Somebody must.

Learning a few words of another language for free is easy. I have been doing brilliantly with Duolingo learning German, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. However, the Chinese course starts with sounds, not attached to words, so I don't remember.

Another learner had the same problem. (I thought of saying she and I were students, but that implies a school.) She said she was going back to Memrise.

I am very keen on Duolingo because it has pictures, encourages you with smiley faces, and you have short lessons. So if you are short of time, tired late at night, ought to be doing some other urgent task, you can still do the minimum every day. Duolingo teaches short sentences, such as the city is big. Or use their Tinycards, learning one word at a time, in groups such as fruits, flowers. You can create your own set on something you want to remember, for yourself and to help others. What about Memrise?

Answers
Memrise offers these free courses. I shall put them in alphabetical order so if you or I are looking for a particular course we can find it quickly.

Memrise gives you a button to click on which is for Babbel, which I think of as a paid for system.

Babbel
Danish
Dutch
English
French
German
Indonesian
Italian
Norwegain
Portuguese
Polish
Russian
Spanish
Swedish
Turkish.

Then I see signs which tell me some languages have free games 'practise'; others are in the PRO section (professional) which cost from $4.90 ((near enough $5) a month. The price is okay if you are a professional translator or need it for business and can  offset it against tax, or your employer is paying. However, I am wary about buying on the internet, unless I have seta out to do so. You could click on something interesting and buy it every five minutes and run up huge debts, a house full of clutter. Back to my search for Chinese and Memrise. I am still stranded on the Memrise search.

Another search shows me Wikipedia. Ah! Gotcha. I have looked at Wikipedia on languages a while back. This will lead me to a simple explanation, not an 'about' section which says we are wonderful, but who are they, who owns what and how long, how many hours does it take to learn a langauge using each system.

Learning Languages On Laptops or Phones?
By the way, why do I prefer the Duolingo version for a laptop? The phone ap works fine for two or three days. Then it fades in train tunnels when you can't get a connection. Finally it disappears altogether and asks me to log in or re-start my phone, which a laptop doesn't do, perhaps because I sit for a long period on a laptop but don't on a train so it keeps cutting out.

You get more features on the 'big' version.

Useful Websites
http://androidpride.com/memrise-learn-languages-free/
https://www.duolingo.com
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memrise
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_language_self-study_programs

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, learner and teacher of languages.I have several posts on learning words in different languages, with memory aids, and inforamtion and links to duolingo.

Learning Indonesian With Babbel - compared to Duolingo

Problems
TIME TO LEARN A LANGUAGE? - HOW QUICKLY CAN I DO IT?
Today I received an email from Babbel asking me if it's possible to learn a language in three weeks - with the results of their survey if I clicked on the link giving the answer. I hesitated. I was supposed to be clearing my inbox of unwanted circular letters and starting my appointments for the day and emails to people I needed to see or contact. What did I do?

Answer
I clicked on the answer. What was it?

Story
As far as I can see you can learn Spanish with their system on fifteen hours, studying one hour a week - or fifteen hours over two days if you devoted your whole weekend. I am learning through Duolingo, five minutes a day.

WHAT'S THE COST?
I clicked on Babbel, assuming that I would have to pay to start the course, or would get only a five minutes lesson before being asked to pay. Never mind. Try the first short lesson.

At the bottom of the page I saw the words: Supported by the European Development Council. That bodes well. I now suspect that at least some of the course will be free if it has a subsidy. Is the subsidy to develop the program, or to offer it free? I shall find out.

I was not asked for an email, only to download a flash drive and say if I wanted it once or every time. I clicked on every time because constantly having to decide is a nuisance.

First, which language? They offered:
French - I already speak French fluently as my second language.
German and Italian - I am already learning those on Duolingo.
Spanish - yes, I want to learn that - but it's too similar to Spanish and will confuse me.
Indonesian - I am less likely to visit - but when in Singapore lots of signs are in Malay, which is the same, so easy to reinforce the language and a constant question in my mind as to what does that Malay word mean.

Whilst I am trying to decide I find I have automatically clicked on Indonesian!

Up comes the Babbel first lesson. The interesting thing was the comparison between Babbel and Duo lingo (no space but I had to insert the space to prevent out correct spelling from changing what I typed without asking). Babbel asked me for the translation of English greeting such as Hello and good morning. I was offered two choices of sets of words. Only two choices to look at. Mostly you can tell by the length of the phrases translated.

Duo lingo offers you three choices, with pictures, so the first pictures are items such as boy and girl.

UPDATE
After the first six words I am asked for my name and email and a password to continue. They say it's free. I find I have already registered.
Then I am told I get (only) one week free.
Does this mean that I have to race through to finish the course in one week?
Does it mean that if I spend more hours I can complete more in the week, or is there a limit so that even if I worked all day on day one (7 hours) I would achieve no more that if I spread my time, over the week, one hour a day for seven days?

Author, Angela Lansbury, teacher of English and other languages. Author and speaker.