How hard is it to learn German? Latin?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French and German are easy, French will be most familiar to Spanish learner. Latin is not easy. My kids have studies a range of languages and all say Latin was the most difficult.

Latin often has a really good teacher, which makes it easier.

I don’t think Latin is harder than German.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:French and German are easy, French will be most familiar to Spanish learner. Latin is not easy. My kids have studies a range of languages and all say Latin was the most difficult.

Says the dolt who can't speak it.

The State Department disagrees with you. They say it's a category 2 language, along with Russian and Farsi. French and Spanish (and Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Italian, and others) are all Cat 1.

[Anonymous]

I speak (or read) all of these languages and would argue that Spanish is the easiest. Latin is a very different language - but it is amazing (I took it for 6 years!) and helps a lot in learning other languages. I read Virgil for fun in Latin...It is difficult to figure out what to do without knowing why your kid doesn't like Spanish.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all of the replies! I suspect he doesn't like Spanish because they are on their third Spanish teacher in 3 years. I think he would enjoy the history that would be part of a Latin class. I just worry that I won't be of any help to him with either language. I *might* be able to help just a little bit with Latin since I know some Spanish. I am wondering how hard it would be to find a Latin or German tutor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:German is the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn.

This is laughably incorrect.

It’s very diffikulten

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My kid had the hardest time with Spanish II & she just couldn't pick up on it. It brought her GPA way down & something needed to be done.

We were against latin because we wanted a language that she'd actually use, so we felt German would probably be out also & with most colleges requiring at least 2 years of a language, we were very nervous.

That's when her guidance counselor suggested sign language!
We were happy to hear this because sign language is something she could always use & she will ALWAYS for the rest of her life be able to use it as her chosen career or as a fall back job, as sign language interpreters are in great demand.

Well, as much as she struggled in Spanish, she's THRIVED in didn language! It's a much smaller class, she gets more individualized attention & she's already had job offers even in high school.

It was truly the greatest decision she could make for herself.

Good luck with your son!

I'm impressed that sign language receives the same exact language credits that Spanish, French, German, etc does.

This is a really interesting alternative and I wish they'd make this option more well known!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:German is the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn.

Not according to the State Deparment Foreign Service Institute, which has ranked languages according to difficulty for native English speakers.

The easiest languages for a native English speaker to learn (category 1) are Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

The next level is German (category 2 in difficulty) plus a few others.

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

This is interesting. At my high school, they always told us that German was the easiest language for English speakers, and the kids who took it tended to be the less academically focused kids. I admit I just believed what the teachers told us.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:German is the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn.

Not according to the State Deparment Foreign Service Institute, which has ranked languages according to difficulty for native English speakers.

The easiest languages for a native English speaker to learn (category 1) are Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

The next level is German (category 2 in difficulty) plus a few others.

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

This is interesting. At my high school, they always told us that German was the easiest language for English speakers, and the kids who took it tended to be the less academically focused kids. I admit I just believed what the teachers told us.

Notwithstanding the State Dept. list, I've always heard that Dutch is the easiest language for English speakers to learn.

OP if you have any facility with languages you could pick up your son's Latin textbook and learn enough to help for at least the first few months.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks for all of the replies! I suspect he doesn't like Spanish because they are on their third Spanish teacher in 3 years. I think he would enjoy the history that would be part of a Latin class. I just worry that I won't be of any help to him with either language. I *might* be able to help just a little bit with Latin since I know some Spanish. I am wondering how hard it would be to find a Latin or German tutor.

You will be able to help with Latin because a) quizzing vocab is possible without knowing it because pronunciation isn’t sent the issue, and b) your English grammar skills are probably good since you aren’t as young as a kid. You can read the assignment and explain that kind of stuff. I helped my kid with German (my German is fairly awful) and those were the skills I needed.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My kid had the hardest time with Spanish II & she just couldn't pick up on it. It brought her GPA way down & something needed to be done.

We were against latin because we wanted a language that she'd actually use, so we felt German would probably be out also & with most colleges requiring at least 2 years of a language, we were very nervous.

That's when her guidance counselor suggested sign language!
We were happy to hear this because sign language is something she could always use & she will ALWAYS for the rest of her life be able to use it as her chosen career or as a fall back job, as sign language interpreters are in great demand.

Well, as much as she struggled in Spanish, she's THRIVED in didn language! It's a much smaller class, she gets more individualized attention & she's already had job offers even in high school.

It was truly the greatest decision she could make for herself.

Good luck with your son!

I'm impressed that sign language receives the same exact language credits that Spanish, French, German, etc does.

This is a really interesting alternative and I wish they'd make this option more well known!

Sign language. I’ve been told that because so many parents are opting for cochlear implants and because we don’t get measles anymore (ok, until recently) ASL is likely to be less useful than in the past.

[Anonymous]

Any of them, OP. I am French and studied German and Spanish in school. For a French person, Spanish is easier, but for an English person and since he's already taking a Latin based language... maybe he might be up for a change, and should take German!

My son is taking Latin because he loves the history of the Romans and all their fights. It's as a good a reason as any to pick a language

[Anonymous]

OP, I’ve studied German, French, Latin, and Spanish, in that order.

I found Latin a lot harder than German. However, German is not easy. It’s grammatical structure is totally alien to English, with paragraph long sentences that have the verb at the end. Then again, Latin has so many g*dd*m declensions.

Keep in mind that French will be more useful than German. Relatively speaking, there are more Francophone countries worldwide. German is similar enough to Dutch that I can understand bits of it, especially written Dutch, but here are very few German speaking countries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:German is the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn.

Not according to the State Deparment Foreign Service Institute, which has ranked languages according to difficulty for native English speakers.

The easiest languages for a native English speaker to learn (category 1) are Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

The next level is German (category 2 in difficulty) plus a few others.

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

Huh. I speak German and have enough familiarity with Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, Romanian, and Swedish to disagree they are easier.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:German is the easiest language for a native English speaker to learn.

Not according to the State Deparment Foreign Service Institute, which has ranked languages according to difficulty for native English speakers.

The easiest languages for a native English speaker to learn (category 1) are Danish, Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swedish

The next level is German (category 2 in difficulty) plus a few others.

https://www.state.gov/m/fsi/sls/c78549.htm

Why would Swedish be so far from Danish? Romance languages in between?

[Anonymous]

OP, you didn't say why he doesn't love/like Spanish. Does he not like languages?
I like Latin and Spanish a lot. Latin was all about memorizing the vocabulary and grammar. Spanish is for speaking.
I did not like German at all even though I got all As in high school. This verb at the end does not fit me at all. I need to know what is happening way before the end.
(Stay away from Finnish and Russian.)