There are even entire books about why Americans love France and all things French.Īnd our college language choices are a reflection of that.
How many Americans think French is a beautiful language? With 76 million speakers, the language of love has been long beloved by Americans, even right down to their accents. How could a country’s opinions about languages affect your personal ability to study Spanish? Let’s look.įirst, a question. So why is that? Languages are undervalued Monolingual societiesįor citizens who live in societies where only one language is promoted ( even if many others are spoken there), learning a second language can be difficult.īut it’s not the difficulty of having a second language. So what’s the difference between English-speaking schools and those in countries like Malta or Switzerland? If you failed to learn Spanish, French, or any language in school, it’s not your fault. So what does this have to do with Spanish being hard or easy to learn? (Which, of course, doesn’t count how many of them may also speak Italian, Russian, or any other language.) And countries like Germany, Poland, or France that only recognize one language as their national language? (Even if many more are spoken there?) As far as English goes, 56% of Germans, 34% of Poles, and 39% of the French say they can hold a conversation in English.64% of Swiss citizens say they use more than one language on a weekly basis, 38% use two or more languages once a week, 19% use three or more, and 7% say they use 4 or more languages every week. Switzerland has 4 federal languages (French, German, Italian, and Romansh).Their public schools also offer Arabic, German, Russian, and Spanish as additional languages. In the island nation of Malta, on top of their own Maltese language, 88% of the population speak English, another 66% Italian, and 17% can speak French.So is Spanish hard to learn and we should just give up reading here? This must be because languages are super hard right? In legally bilingual Canada, only 24% of Canadians can speak both of the country’s national languages despite all Canadians having to take English and French in public schools.250 indigenous languages are believed to have existed when Europeans first conquered the island. And Australia? 73% of the nation speaks only English at home.Despite the British Isles being the home of 7 home-grown languages, (not even counting Manx or the three recognized sign languages), 62% of British citizens only speak English.And there are no statistics on how many of that 20% can actually communicate the language they study.
In the US, only 20% of Americans ever study a new language.Past failuresĮnglish speaking school systems are notoriously known for producing monolingual children despite years of language training. So let’s look at why some people might be wondering if Spanish is hard to learn. And if you’ve lived surrounded entirely by English your whole life, a new language might seem like another world.) (If you’re new to languages, the term monolingual refers to one (mono) tongued (lingual).
Starting a language can seem like a daunting project, especially if you live in a monolingual bubble. Let’s investigate if learning Spanish is hard together. I failed out of high school Spanish, now I learn languages (and blog about them) as a hobby. Click the title to see the main article, or click here to see all French vs Spanish articles.
#List of monolingual countries series
This article is part of a larger series called French vs Spanish. Let’s dive into Spanish grammar, vocabulary, tools, common problems, and more! I’ll illustrate it with tons of interesting examples, and you’ll learn a bunch about languages. The deciding factor for if Spanish is hard or easy to learn may be with you–the learner–more than with the language itself.īut if you’re considering beginning to learn Spanish ( or relearn it), we have a great quiz for how long does it take to speak Spanish.īy the end of this article, you’ll know (1) more about what external factors make Spanish hard or easy to learn (2) what you can do to make Spanish easier to learn for yourself and (3) what makes Spanish as a language a bit easier than other types of languages. With the growing use of Spanish in the US and Canada, more and more English speakers have begun to ask themselves: is Spanish easy to learn? Or is Spanish hard to learn?
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