<p>fyi Chinese does not have an alphabet…it uses a character system lol.</p>
<p>I do not advise taking German, I’ve heard its very difficult. My mom is fluent in French and Spanish, and says German is very hard compared to those two.</p>
<p>I recommend Spanish because its easy and highly useful.</p>
<p>As a person who has studied languages like German and Chinese and Italian, I’d say definitely aim for Italian or Spanish if you seek an ‘easy’ language. German by far is extremely complex grammatically and having a few words that are similar to English isn’t going to help you learn the language. Spanish and Italian on the other hand are relatively easy. Language experts say that it’s possible, with an hour per day, to become fully fluent in Italian within a year while other languages take much longer. However, in terms of usefulness, Italian in our modern day is severely lacking due to Italy’s international lack of power and influence. Spanish on the other hand is most definitely useful and not as difficult as say French or German, and especially the Middle-Eastern, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and East Asian languages. </p>
<p>Experience: Proficient in about 6 languages, a mix of East Asia and European, along with study but not proficiency in many more.</p>
<p>@Miakaa no…mine just require a semester of literature…but i don’t think that i’ll survive a semester of literature if i don’t know the language at all</p>
<p>@lolcats4 hahaha i’ll try to remember next time ;)</p>
<p>okay…so now German is totally out, and that it leaves us with Italian, French, and (regretfully) Spanish…can you guys differentiate the three? what makes one easier than the other and what makes it more useful than the other FYI, i might be working for an Italian boss after i graduate; he promised me a job after my internship with him…is that a good enough reason to learn italian? (he speaks fluent English though)</p>
<p>i have taken many european languages classes…from my experience, choose Italian
and yeah i think it will be a plus if you can communicate with ur boss in his native language :)</p>
<p>This is largely going to depend where you are located but languages like arabic, japanese, chinese, are the 3 hardest of what you posted- followed by latin and german. Yes german is related in some superficial ways to english but the grammar is far more complex that you are going to be bound to do poorly in the subject. French has the most cognates with english (words that look similar to english words and mean the same) followed by italian and spanish. Realise your grade will largely be affected by your classmates. That is if you live in a place where 10% of people speak fluent french guess who is most likely to be in your beginners french class pretending not to speak any french. I took a beginners chinese class thinking I would learn chinese, by the second week it became obvious that I was the only person not fluent in mandarin in the entire class so I was taking a course I was bound to fail. I had the same problem in my french class, only french speakers were in it and those 10 who were not fluent in french already dropped the course. Luckily french is easier than chinese. I found that the professors will put in content beyond the scope of the textbook if you are in a class with many non beginners. So if you live in Miami and are taking a spanish class, you are likely going to get screwed and should consider Italian or French.</p>
<p>If it is just german and italian, do italian. I “learned” it in grade school and it is basically an easier form of spanish. Less letters, no special rolling rs, for a beginner there is nothing tricky about italian and most italian americans can’t speak italian anyways so you are unlikely to be in a class with fluent italian speakers masquerading as novices.</p>
<p>Spanish will be the easiest and most useful of the three. Pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary would be very easy to grasp.</p>
<p>French would be the second most useful, but probably the most difficult. Pronunciation is hard, but grammar-wise and vocabulary it’s easy, in my eyes at least. French will have the most literary value, however.</p>
<p>Italian would not be very useful unless you plan on living in Italy; pronunciation difficulty is in the middle of Spanish and French, but EVERYBODY loves how Italians sound. Umm… For vocabulary and grammar, I would say it’s similar to French, but not as closely related as French is to English. </p>
<p>If I were you, I would take French. Italian is not that useful, even though it is probably the best sounding language. Spanish, in my eyes, is one of the worst sounding languages. Even though it’s useful, why bother learning a language you don’t have a passion for?</p>
<p>it would be the language with which you are most intrigued. I hated spanish and I got Bs in high school because I was never motivated enough to enjoy it. German, on the other hand, I would have liked.</p>
<p>I’m a french guy and i have to say that english is easier to learn than german or spanish. I would say take german or spanish (easiest one in my opinion, even though english and german are related). Take french if you want to put in the effort, and if you think you like it. French is really hard to learn. Don’t think its easy.</p>
<p>Ya french is very hard to comprehend when you are given listening test because the french blur their words in what are known as liasions. basically it means nothing looks how it sounds. At least in spanish and italian if you read the book, you understand everything because they are so phonetic. In french you will have to practice listening AND reading.</p>
<p>I will admit that Italian is not that useful, but your only taking 1 course and your objective is to pass, not become fluent</p>
<p>Awesome!! thanks you guys! you have all been so helpful 
Italian it is :D</p>
<p>If I recall correctly, there’s a guy on CC who went to Wake Forest and had an awful experience with the Italian classes there. I forget his name now, but he’s still around, I think.</p>