Which is the easiest international language?

Adam   Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:57 am GMT
Hi! People say that English is easy (grammar) and also Spanish (phonetically). And there are other languages also easy. Which one is easiest?
Helga   Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:09 am GMT
I think is English. But phonetically Spanish and Japanese are also very easy.
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:22 am GMT
I think all Indoeuropean languages are more or less easy to Indoeuropean people. Perhaps, English and Spanish are easier than others.
Sergio / K.T / JGreco / M   Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:39 am GMT
Huevo ké je pù peo. yo joi tonto y ueco.
Franco   Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:58 am GMT
But Spanish isn't international language, only French and English!

Look, French has 70 Francophone countries, Spanish spoken in only 25!

LOL - not! But I'm simply anticipating what sure to happen sooner or later!
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:30 am GMT
Spanish women are easy.
furrykef   Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:37 am GMT
<< But phonetically Spanish and Japanese are also very easy. >>

Japanese distinguishes between long/short vowels and consonants, though. Although, with a little practice, it may be easy enough to hear the distinctions, and to reliably produce them yourself, it's quite possible to say something embarrassing by accidentally saying a word with a short vowel instead of a long one, for example. Imagine confusing "kuusou", which means "daydream", and "kuso", which means "excrement". The only difference is the long vowels. This problem is compounded by many other similar sounding words as well. I once heard of somebody saying "kuso" when they meant to say "kusa", which means "grass". So Japanese's simple phonology can work against it as easily as it can for it.

It would be unfair of me, however, to say this without mentioning that languages like Spanish have word pairs such as "año", meaning "year", and "ano", meaning "anus"... my impression is that Spanish has far fewer confusing word pairs like that, though. But I could be wrong.

- Kef
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 9:42 am GMT
<<Spanish women are easy. >>
Y tu mama también.
furrykef   Fri Jun 01, 2007 11:58 am GMT
What was that about a breast? I think you mean "mamá", not "mama". ;)
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:22 pm GMT
ASS- LANGUAGE
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 12:35 pm GMT
<<What was that about a breast? I think you mean "mamá", not "mama". ;) >>
Thanks furrykef good point. Yes that was my intention: mamá. <spanish accents: they exist for cases like this. Sorry,i'm too lazy>, but we have to allow for that person to be a girl and in this case mama is correct.
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 6:31 pm GMT
<But Spanish isn't international language, only French and English!

Look, French has 70 Francophone countries, Spanish spoken in only 25!

LOL - not! But I'm simply anticipating what sure to happen sooner or later!>

I know you're joking, but it's true. Spanish is not an international language. It's more of an intercontinental language. English and French are the only truly international languages.
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 7:10 pm GMT
French is a Diplomatic language, but not an international language in a wide sense. Actually, it is almost not spoken, including countries where is official.

In a lot of African countries French is not spoken by the population (only 5-10 % of population depending on the country). So, it is spoken by diplomatics, some teachers, civil cervants and two or three policemen, but not the population.

That´s the same in almost all Francophone countries. So, French is a Diplomatic language, but not really spoken by the population. You can see the average:

It is a language spoken by 128 million people (there are other 72 million that speak it partially) in 29 countries (officially). The average is incredibly poor.

In how many countries French is spoken by 51% or more of total population (including first and second language speakers)?

Only France and Monaco.
Guest   Fri Jun 01, 2007 8:01 pm GMT
>>French is a Diplomatic language, but not an international language in a wide sense. Actually, it is almost not spoken, including countries where is official.<<

What a lie. It's more widely spoken than Spanish or any other language except English.

>>In a lot of African countries French is not spoken by the population (only 5-10 % of population depending on the country). So, it is spoken by diplomatics, some teachers, civil cervants and two or three policemen, but not the population.<<

Another lie. French is growing in Africa and if you speak it, you will be able to get around to wherever you need to go.

>>That´s the same in almost all Francophone countries. So, French is a Diplomatic language, but not really spoken by the population. You can see the average:<<

You're so full of shit you don't even know what you're talking about anymore.

>>It is a language spoken by 128 million people (there are other 72 million that speak it partially) in 29 countries (officially). The average is incredibly poor.<<

It's spoken by far more than the number of people you listed.

>>In how many countries French is spoken by 51% or more of total population (including first and second language speakers)?

Only France and Monaco.<<

And those two countries alone are more important, more visited, and better in every other way than any Hispanic country.
Andrew   Sat Jun 02, 2007 12:49 am GMT
In my opinion, I feel that Spanish and French are by far the easiest languages to learn, also the most attractive sounding. I speak English as a maternal language, but French is my second language. But even though I have never taken Spanish, I may someday because it is so similar to French and they help each other out a lot. So stop argueing about which languages are better. So maybe one language is spoken by less educated people, so what. French has an impression for being snobby, but people who speak it in Africa wouldn't fit that stereotype, would they ?