<p>i have to take a literature class in one of these languages: Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Latin...here's the kicker, i don't speak any of those language...i only speak fluent English and Indonesian (my native tongue)...and in order to graduate, i have to take one LITERATURE class in one of those foreign language...so which do you think is easier to learn?</p>
<p>Which language do the dumbest people at your school take?</p>
<p>I’m not trying to imply you’re dumb or anything like that, but I imagine that would be the easiest one.</p>
<p>I’d say one of Spanish, French, German or Italian. Arabic is notoriously difficult, and I’d think that with the different alphabets Chinese and Japanese would be hard as well.</p>
<p>German? It’s probably the closest to English, from what I’ve heard. (Though I wouldn’t know; my HS foreign language was Spanish, and I’m fluent in English and Chinese.)</p>
<p>German, Spanish or French.</p>
<p>I’d like to say that while Spanish/French/Italian might be easiest to learn if you’re trying to learn a language, but that doesn’t mean the class will be the easiest. For instance, learning Chinese should be much harder, but then the expectations of what you can read in Chinese should be lower than what they are for Spanish/French/Italian.</p>
<p>@QwertyKey the language the dumbest people would take at my school is English…it’s pretty much the easiest for us to learn</p>
<p>so okay…we’ve narrowed down chinese, japanese, and arabic as the hardest due to the fact that they have different alphabets…i can however read arabic because of my religion, but i do not understand any of the word lol 
so is that an advantage for me?</p>
<p>and what about latin?</p>
<p>^What? Why don’t you just take English then? Is there some reason they let others get away with English lit and you have to take some other one?</p>
<p>Just reading? I’d suggest German or Spanish. German is closest to English and will be easy to learn if you don’t need to bother about the complex case system. Spanish is another option - widely spoken and easily understood - or French (many English words come from French). However, odds are that the more challenging lit classes will allow you to read novels in translation. Look into that first.</p>
<p>I’ve studied Spanish, German, French and Latin myself. The latter is only interesting for people who like languages and grammar in particular.</p>
<p>sign language</p>
<p>Italian. German grammar’s a ***** and Spanish and French are too irregular.</p>
<p>@QwertyKey i meant my high school in indonesia hahaha i’m an incoming freshman; the university needs everyone to learn a language that is foreign to the US lol :P</p>
<p>@LogicWarrior if it was offered, i’ll be the first in line ;)</p>
<p>crap…i looked again, and my college doesn’t offer arabic…so now it’s down to German and Italian…i didn’t include spanish because i’ve had bad memories in Spain once so i’m not really excited with the idea of learning the language of a man who kicked me in the balls with a soccer ball -_- how would you separate German and Italian in terms of reading AND writing?</p>
<p>I would agree with Spanish or French, those are probably the easiest for someone who already speaks English.</p>
<p>I would guess Italian?</p>
<p>If ALL you have to do is read, then choose French. So many English words come from French (which is derived from Latin, so it’s relative to other Romance Languages, but primarily French) and sentence structure is very similar. But if you have to speak, listen, and write, and just want an easy class, pick Spanish.</p>
<p>German is very closely related to English, specifically in its grammar rules (they are both Germanic). French would be the closest vocab-wise though.</p>
<p>NOOO German’s grammer is a B!TCH!!! I take it and im done after this year but seriously, even if you understand what the words mean (unlikley since there are so many false cognates) you wont get what the ■■ it means cause the words are all jumbled up. The grammer isn’t anywhere near english. ^Obviously never took german.</p>
<p>^ umm…no…try Arabic…it’s rules for grammar are a total *****…even though arabic is my second language lol…it’s kinda hard (not really though, if you try).</p>
<p>Are you sure you have to learn the language for the class? At my school, we had language literature classes and you didn’t have to be an expert in the language.</p>
<p>Lots of colleges require 2-4 semesters of a language, yours doesn’t?</p>
<p>I’d say take Latin or Spanish. I took Latin in college and wasn’t particularly good at it (the grammar is difficult, but the vocab is really easy). I ended up having to take a Literature course and it was mostly the teacher translating it and us memorizing the story well enough to translate it on the test. Some of the books we had to read were hilarious!</p>
<p>german grammar is pretty wierd, but knowing german is much more useful than knowing Italian, unless you plan on spending a lot of time in italy.</p>