Easiest language to learn?

[maron]

I think spanish or English is easier to learn,I wish to learn spanish someday cuz lots of people speak it.

But what do you guys think? What is the easist language to learn, Spanish, English or something else?

[wth1257]

I think spanish or English is easier to learn,I wish to learn spanish someday cuz lots of people speak it.

But what do you guys think? What is the easist language to learn, Spanish, English or something else?

I have always heard from non native speakers that English was really hard to learn:><:


I don't know that this can really be measured to be honest. I mean in some ways Russian is easy, but in other respects it is quite hard and nuanced same thing with Latin (English Latin and Russian are the only languages I have any real knowledge of so I can't say anything outside of them). It just depends on in what respect you mean "easy".

[Woodrow]

That is difficult to say. For most people a language related to their native tongue will be the easiest. While for other people they find a language far removed from their native tongue to be the easiest, as they do not confuse terms.

For myself I found Spanish to be very easy. But, I lived in Texas and Spanish is widely spoken there.

[wth1257]

That is difficult to say. For most people a language related to their native tongue will be the easiest. While for other people they find a language far removed from their native tongue to be the easiest, as they do not confuse terms.

For myself I found Spanish to be very easy. But, I lived in Texas and Spanish is widely spoken there.

wait.

You're a former Roman Catholic who's now a Muslim whand you live in Texas?

Do you have a masochistic streek?:D

good gosh, I though it was difficult being a Roman Catholic in North Carolina:-[

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[Woodrow]

wait.

You're a former Roman Catholic who's now a Muslim whand you live in Texas?

Do you have a masochistic streek?:D

good gosh, I though it was difficult being a Roman Catholic in North Carolina:-[

Former Texan, I moved from Texas back in May. I now live mostly on the Cheyenne River Lakota Sioux Reservation and the Pine Ridge Oglala Sioux Reservation, although my alleged permanent home is in Minnesota. At least for now that is where I pay Taxes, but my car is registered in South Dakota.

[north_malaysian]

Malay/Malaysian Language is the easiest of all...

When I was in primary school, a girl who is an Indian national just came from Delhi (her father was hired as a lecturer in the local university) when we were all in standard 5, she didnt know a word in Malay/Malaysian Language....

one year later she speaks the language as if it's her first language (the best thing is that she has no problem with the northern Malaysian slang), scored A's for Malaysian Language papers and became the school's best student (all subjects were taught in Malaysian Language excluding English classes)...

She told me that her native language is Urdu

[wth1257]

Malay/Malaysian Language is the easiest of all...

When I was in primary school, a girl who is an Indian national just came from Delhi (her father was hired as a lecturer in the local university) when we were all in standard 5, she didnt know a word in Malay/Malaysian Language....

one year later she speaks the language as if it's her first language (the best thing is that she has no problem with the northern Malaysian slang), scored A's for Malaysian Language papers and became the school's best student (all subjects were taught in Malaysian Language excluding English classes)...

She told me that her native language is Urdu

So? I taught myself basic English by the time I was like three >.>

No formal training either:P

I used to know like three words of Malay from a math teacher bu I've forgotten them: (

[north_malaysian]

So? I taught myself basic English by the time I was like three >.>

No formal training either:P

I used to know like three words of Malay from a math teacher bu I've forgotten them: (

now i'll teach you five Malaysian words:

1) Televisyen = Television
2) Bajet = Budget
3) Doktor = Doctor
4) Fi = Fee
5) Bas = Bus

and the pronounciation is just like the British English...:D easy right?

[Strzelecki]

This depends on your mother tongue.
For example, for a Swede, Norwegian would be a synch.

[Silver]

I think arabic is one of the hardest but I'm lucky cos it's my native language. I learnt french at the same time I learnt arabic so I dunno about french cos I was about 2, 3 years old...then I learnt english which was easy because it is close to french. English and italian are easy to learn...
I am not sure which language is the easiest to learn but I know that it is a lot easier to learn any language as a child.

[north_malaysian]

I think arabic is one of the hardest but I'm lucky cos it's my native language. I learnt french at the same time I learnt arabic so I dunno about french cos I was about 2, 3 years old...then I learnt english which was easy because it is close to french. English and italian are easy to learn...
I am not sure which language is the easiest to learn but I know that it is a lot easier to learn any language as a child.

you're an Arab? I'll teach you another 5 words in Malaysian Language:

1) Mahkamah = court
2) Aman = peace
3) Hikayat = story
4) Hakim = judge
5) Ayat = sentence

:D

[Silver]

1) Mahkamah = court
2) Aman = peace
3) Hikayat = story
4) Hakim = judge
5) Ayat = sentence

Hehe!!! So malaysian is close to english and arabic?? :D I might try to learn it if it's easy :)

[Woodrow]

you're an Arab? I'll teach you another 5 words in Malaysian Language:

1) Mahkamah = court
2) Aman = peace
3) Hikayat = story
4) Hakim = judge
5) Ayat = sentence

:D

Years ago, in fact so long ago it was before I was born. Malayan Pidgin was very close to being a universal language as the early sea traders throughout the Pacific used it to communicate on all of the Islands they did trade with. Malaysian is a very fascinating language, I don't speak it, but it surprises me that often I can pretty much understand what is being said when I hear people speaking it.

[north_malaysian]

Years ago, in fact so long ago it was before I was born. Malayan Pidgin was very close to being a universal language as the early sea traders throughout the Pacific used it to communicate on all of the Islands they did trade with. Malaysian is a very fascinating language, I don't speak it, but it surprises me that often I can pretty much understand what is being said when I hear people speaking it.

Malay language was the lingua franca in southeast Asia especially during the Sultanate of Malacca (1400 - 1511 CE)...

In the urban areas, people love to mix Malaysian and English...

[north_malaysian]

Hehe!!! So malaysian is close to english and arabic?? :D I might try to learn it if it's easy :)

Actually Malaysian is so close to Indonesian (like 80-90% similarity) and Tagalog (20% similarity?)...

But it's easy to master it as most of the vocabs came from Sanskrit, Arabic, English, Portuguese, Chinese and more languages...

[Woodrow]

Malay language was the lingua franca in southeast Asia especially during the Sultanate of Malacca (1400 - 1511 CE)...

In the urban areas, people love to mix Malaysian and English...

I may have to give your language a serious try. thinking back and remebering hearing people speaking it and reading some of your posts, it just may be the easiest language to learn

[north_malaysian]

even the grammar is so simple...

for example:

verbs, Makan (eat), Minum (drink), Bunuh (kill)

for Past Tense, you just have to put "telah" before the verb... ie. "telah makan" (ate), "telah minum" (drank), "telah bunuh" (killed)

for Present Tense, you just have to put "sedang" before the verb .... ie. "sedang makan" (is eating), "sedang minum" (is drinking), "sedang bunuh" (is killing)

for Future Tense, you just have to put "akan" before the verb ... ie. "akan makan" (will eat), "akan minum" (will drink), "akan bunuh" (will kill)


Ali is eating - "Ali sedang makan"
Fatimah is eating - "Fatimah sedang makan"
I am eating - "Saya sedang makan"
You are eating - "Anda sedang makan"
They are eating - "Mereka sedang makan"
We are eating - "Kami sedang makan"
He is eating - "Dia sedang makan"
She is eating - "Dia sedang makan"

[north_malaysian]

The Malay language has many words borrowed from Arabic (mainly religious terms), Sanskrit,Tamil Persian, Portuguese, Dutch, certain Chinese dialects and more recently, English (in particular many scientific and technological terms). Some examples follow:

• abjad - alphabet/alefbet (from Arabic abjad)
• ahli - community (from Arabic ahlil)
• agama - religion (from Sanskrit agama)
• almari - cupboard (from Tamil almari)
• anggur - grape (from Persian انگور/angur)
• askar - soldier (from Arabic عسکر /askar )
• bahasa - language (from Sanskrit bhāshā)
• bandar - port (from Persian بندر/bandr)
• bangku - stool (from Portuguese banco)
• bas - bus (from English)
• bendera - flag (from Portuguese bandeira)
• biara - monastery (from Javanese derived from Bihara in Sanskrit or Pali)
• bihun - rice vermicelli (from Hokkien bi-hun)
• biola - violin (from Portuguese viola)
• biskut - biscuit (from English)
• bomba - fire brigade (from Portuguese bomba, "pump", or bombeiro, "fireman", lit. "pumper")
• boneka - doll (from Portuguese boneca)
• buat - do (from Sanskrit wuat)
• buku - book (from Dutch boek)
• bumi - earth (from Sanskrit bhumi or from Sanskirtam "buumi")
• cawan - cup (from Mandarin cháwǎn)
• dakwah - sermon (from Arabic da'wah)
• dekan - dean (from Portuguese decano)
• dewan - hall (from Persian دیوان/diwan "administration")
• duka - sadness (from Sanskrit duhkha)
• dunia - world (from Arabic dunyā)
• falsafah - philosophy (from Arabic falsafah)
• gandum - wheat (from Persian گندمGandm)
• garpu - fork (from Portuguese garfo)
• gereja - church (from Portuguese igreja)
• gratis - for free (from Portuguese)
• guru - teacher (from Sanskrit)
• had - limit (from Arabic hadd)
• halal -permitted (from Arabic)
• haram - forbidden (from Arabic)
• hisab - counting/arithmetic (from Arabic حساب /hisāb
• huruf - word character/letter (from Arabic ḥurūf)
• ilmu - knowledge/science (from Arabic alm/ilmi)
• jawab - to answer (from Arabic jawāb)
• jendela - window (from Portuguese janela)
• Khamis - Thursday (Arabic al-khamis)
• kamus - dictionary (from Arabic qāmūs)
• kaunter - counter or desk (from English)
• keju - cheese (from Portuguese queijo)
• kemeja - shirt (from Portuguese camisa)
• kepala - head (from Sanskrit kapala "skull")
• kereta - carriage, car (from Portuguese carreta)
• komputer - computer (from English)
• kongsi - share (from Hokkien kong-si 公司)
• korban - sacrifice (from Arabic Qur-ban)
• kuda - horse (from Sanskrit)
• kuih - cake (from Hokkien 粿)
• kurma - date (from Persian خرما/Khurma)
• limau - lemon/orange (from Portuguese limão "lemon")
• lobak - carrot (from Cantonese 蘿蔔)
• longkang - drain (from Hokkien流失)
• maaf - sorry (from Arabic Ma3fu)
• maha - great (from Sanskrit)
• makmal - laboratory Arabic
• mangga - mango (from English or Portuguese )
• manusia - human being (from Sanskrit manuṣya)
• masjid - mosque ( (from Arabic masjid)
• mentega - butter (from Portuguese manteiga)
• mee/mi - noodles (from Hokkien miᴺ)
• meja - table (from Portuguese mesa)
• muflis - bankrupt (from Arabic muflis)
• miskin - poor (via Arabic miskiin
• najis - excrement (from Arabic)
• nama - name (from Sanskrit naam)
• neraka - hell (from Sanskrit naraka)
• nujum - astrologer (from Arabic al-nujum)
• nanas/nenas - pineapple (from Portuguese or Arabic ananás)
• nusantara - archipelago (esp. the Malay Archipelago) (from Javanese)
• paderi - priest (Christian) (from Portuguese padre)
• pahlawan - hero/warrior (from Persian پ*ﮩ*لوان /pahlawān)
• perpustakaan - library (base word "pustaka" is the Sanskrit word for "book")
• pau - bun (from Hokkien pau 包)
• pesta - party (from Portuguese festa)
• perdana menteri - prime minister (from Tamil Pardama Mantiri")
• pita - tape (from Portuguese fita)
• puasa - fasting (from Sanskrit "upavasa")
• putera - prince (from Sanskrit putra "son")
• purba - ancient (from Sanskrit "purva/poorv" meaning past)
• raja - king (from Sanskrit rāja)
• roda - wheel (from Portuguese roda)
• rokok - cigarette (from Dutch roken "to smoke")
• roti - bread (from Sanskrit roṭi)
• sabun - soap (from Arabic) sàbuun
• sains - science (from English)
• sama - same (from Sanskrit)
• salji - snow (from Arabic thalji)
• sama-sama - together (derived from loanword sama through reduplication)
• sekolah - school (from Portuguese escola)
• seks - sex (from English)
• selamat - safe, well-being (from Arabic salamat, used for greeting phrases as 'selamat pagi', etc)
• sengsara - suffering (from Sanskrit saṃsara)
• sepatu - shoe (from Portuguese sapato)
• singa - lion (from Sanskrit)
• soldadu - soldier (from Portuguese soldado)
• syariah - Islamic law (from Arabic shāri`ah)
• syukur - thankful (from Arabic shukr)
• syurga - heaven (from Sanskrit swargam)[9]
• sistem - system (from English)
• suka - happiness (from Sanskrit sukha)
• tali - string (from Sanskrit)
• tangki - tank (from Portuguese tanque)
• tauhu - beancurd (from Hokkien tao-hu)
• tarikh - date (from Arabic tārīkh)
• teh - tea (from Hokkien tɛ)
• teksi - taxi (from English taxi)
• teko - teapot (from Hokkien tɛ-ko)
• televisyen - television (from English)
• topi - hat (from Sanskrit toppi)
• tuala - towel (from Portuguese toalha)
• tukar - to exchange (from Portuguese trocar)
• unta - camel (from Sanskrit ushtra)
• utara - north (from Sanskrit uttara)
• warna - colour (from Sanskrit varnam)
• waktu - time (from Arabic waqt)
• wanita - women (from Spanish Juanita)
• zirafah - giraffe (from Arabic zirāfah)

from wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malay_language

[ardianto]

I think a different between Malaysian language and Indonesian language is :
If Malaysian language is British English, Indonesian language is American English.

Benar atau salah hal ini, brother north malaysian ?

[Wyatt]

If you speak English, Scots will be the easiest, guaranteed. lol

Anything else, I would say Spanish because it's simple. But, I prefer German which may be a little harder, but way much cooler! :D

If you're looking to a language that is the easiest, yet far away from English, I'd say Japanese. I've also heard Bahasa Indonesia is easy as well... maybe even Korean. They all have really simple pronunciation.

[Whatsthepoint]

even the grammar is so simple...

for example:

verbs, Makan (eat), Minum (drink), Bunuh (kill)

for Past Tense, you just have to put "telah" before the verb... ie. "telah makan" (ate), "telah minum" (drank), "telah bunuh" (killed)

for Present Tense, you just have to put "sedang" before the verb .... ie. "sedang makan" (is eating), "sedang minum" (is drinking), "sedang bunuh" (is killing)

for Future Tense, you just have to put "akan" before the verb ... ie. "akan makan" (will eat), "akan minum" (will drink), "akan bunuh" (will kill)


Ali is eating - "Ali sedang makan"
Fatimah is eating - "Fatimah sedang makan"
I am eating - "Saya sedang makan"
You are eating - "Anda sedang makan"
They are eating - "Mereka sedang makan"
We are eating - "Kami sedang makan"
He is eating - "Dia sedang makan"
She is eating - "Dia sedang makan"

Is malay an artificial language?

[Whatsthepoint]

Esperanto.

[Wyatt]

Esperanto.

Haha, that can not be considered a real language. :P It has absolutely no cultural significance nor any other characteristics a language should have but words. And the reason behind it all of its existence is that it will only connect European language speakers. :raging:

But, it is probably the easiest. :blind:

And it sounds weird. +o(

:rollseyes

[Edit: By the way, 100th post and I spent it complaining about Esperanto. XD]

[north_malaysian]

I think a different between Malaysian language and Indonesian language is :
If Malaysian language is British English, Indonesian language is American English.

Benar atau salah hal ini, brother north malaysian ?

I dont know about Indonesia, but at school we use British English... I've seen students being scolded for using American spellings..

[north_malaysian]

Is malay an artificial language?

Maybe?

the "Ancient Malay" language was heavily influenced by Sanskrit and was used starting the 7th century. Sanskrit was also the official language of a powerful pre-Islamic Malay empire called Srivijaya (based in Sumatra)...

I dont know what the language they used before 7th century, but my lecturer said that there is only 3 words originally Malay, as others were imported from other languages... the words are ubi (cassava), babi (pig) and padi (paddy).

the pre-Islamic Malay used "Kawi script" with is originated from Sanskrit script...

During the Sultanate of Malacca (15th century), when Islam became the official religion, loads of Arabic, Persian, Tamil and Hokkien words were brought into Malay language as Malacca was a very important seaport in southeast Asia...

Then in 1511 the Portuguese colonised Malacca, in 1641 it was under the Dutch and finally the British came to Malaysia in 1786.

[ardianto]

Easiest language to learn ?
Maybe......., English without tenses.

I feel English is easy to learn, but I still have a problem with tenses, because there's no 'past tense' there's no 'present tense' and there's no 'future tense' in my origin language. And in English I found 16 tenses (or maybe more ?).
Sometime I think I'm the only member who speak in 'Broken English' in this forum, and sometime I think other member are laughs when they read my post. But I dont care about that, because they always understand what I'm talking about.
Of course, in the near future I hope I can speak in very good English.

[north_malaysian]

Of course, in the near future I hope I can speak in very good English.

ameen...

[Yanal]

:sl:
Easiest to write or speak?

[Grace Seeker]

Years ago, in fact so long ago it was before I was born.

That really is a long time ago, Woodrow. :bump1:

Sorry, but it was just sitting there and I finally had to respond.

[transition?]

English must be the easiest because nowadays, so many people speak it and it's all over even in a lot of foreign television. It's easy to pick up.
I think in Germany it's require to learn English.

[Whatsthepoint]

English must be the easiest because nowadays, so many people speak it and it's all over even in a lot of foreign television. It's easy to pick up.
I think in Germany it's require to learn English.

It's a compulsory subject in most of the world's schools.

[transition?]

It's a compulsory subject in most of the world's schools.

that probably makes even more 'easier.' With your parents pressuring you with grades and such. ha. :exhausted

[Silver]

English must be the easiest because nowadays, so many people speak it and it's all over even in a lot of foreign television. It's easy to pick up.
I think in Germany it's require to learn English.

Yeah, english is everywhere. I think it is really important for people to speak english. Even though in my school the 1st language taught was french, whenever I needed information for projects I couldn't find anything in french books.
Now it's the same thing in university. All good books are in english and I don't like the french translations! All french medical books in the library are old and their texts are more complicated than the english texts...
English is easy :)

[elee]

I think in Germany it's require to learn English.

No, where did you heard that??

[north_malaysian]

It's a compulsory subject in most of the world's schools.

including Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam

[sister herb]

:sl:

This is funny topic. It depends by the person who is study some languages is it easy or not. Some people can learn and understand languages more easy than some others.

:bump1:

For me, one of the most difficult language as arabic is easy; I learnt to write it an one hour. My own language is Finnish and arabic are the most far from each others.

:D

Here is two possibilities: I am genius or I was motivated to learn it.

[doorster]

Easiest language to learn?

1. your mother tongue
2. any of its related languages

for example

If your first language is English, it will take you around 30 days of study to be able to speak to and understand Spanish or German or French person, because like ***someone said that English is a badly spoken/mispronounced and misspelt version of French, German and Spanish etc. (or vice versa).

*** Click Here to find out more

[islamlover_girl]

yes I think that related languages to ur mother tongue is easier to be learned.
also related languages to a a language u know.

[convert]

Spanish is very easy. I haven't spoken it fluently in a few years but I have no doubt it would come back to me in a couple of days.

[جوري]

I have always heard from non native speakers that English was really hard to learn:><:

It took me exactly two months to learn English, the rest is just perfecting it and amassing new words.. I'd say it is one of the easiest (but that is my personal opinion)


peace

[The Ruler]

It took me exactly two months to learn English, the rest is just perfecting it and amassing new words.. I'd say it is one of the easiest (but that is my personal opinion)

I would agree with english being the easiest language to learn. I remember the days when my teacher used hand motions to tell me to 'sit down'. I knew all the alphabets but not a single word of english then. Heh.

It didn't take me long to grasp the language and become fluent.

Japanese is a relatively easy language to learn just by listening to it, IMO. Though, it's easier to understand the words than construct sentences.

[Banu_Hashim]

It took me exactly two months to learn English, the rest is just perfecting it and amassing new words.. I'd say it is one of the easiest (but that is my personal opinion)


peace

Would you say that you use English more than your mother tongue nowadays? Is it Arabic? (your mother tongue).

[جوري]

Would you say that you use English more than your mother tongue nowadays? Is it Arabic? (your mother tongue).

Arabic is a very difficult language, I am still struggling to learn parsing as it can get complicated...
but it is a beautiful language, I am certainly grateful that it is my mother tongue.. I don't wish to tell of some of my struggles with it back in the day.. just glad they are behind me and unfortunately I have forgotten a great deal of those Jama3 moanath salim, and the special things of the Quran like idgham, iqlab, izhar and the rest but I can vaguely recall things and can always go back and learn for pleasure.. but it is certainly not as easy as the so-called Latin languages..

and Allah swt knows best

w:

[جوري]

addendum to above.. I use Arabic and English equally..

:w:

[Banu_Hashim]

Obviously your English, is way better than the average person. I actually had to look up "addendum"and "parsing", which I now know is "Syntactic Analysis" in linguistic terms. :p

[Bint-Al-Islam]

The easiest language to learn is your mother tongue and the languages that u grew up with..

[3isha]

easiest language is ENGLISH, with basic foundations of grammer,
non native speakers of english e.g arabs, only find is hard to learn coz theyr grammer and laguage is soo rich that they are unable to find exact translations etc.

[saba muslimah]

Mother tongue... easiest Language.then 2nd one is english

[syilla]

malay of course ... huhu

[north_malaysian]

malay of course ... huhu

I've told them earlier.. LOL

[dianayusof]

i honestly think that Bahasa Melayu[Malaysian,Indonesian] is the easiest language to be learned. Honestly. Firstly, the reading/writing is easy as the letters are in Roman. no cases and no apostrophes here and there or no dots above below letters whatever. just plain abc until z. the pronunciation is also easy not like English. it’s like when you read Romaji in Japanese. Yep. it is that easy. so that makes speaking/listening easy too. the spelling of the noun (and verb) does not change either by gender (like Arabic) or by number (like Arabic, English). what’s great of all, it has no past/present/future tense! Seriously, i claim that it is the easiest language in the world.

I’ve learned English since primary school, and did attend the Arabic class back in secondary school. so that’s how i come up with the comparisons above. to me, Arabic is indeed the toughest language to learn (i merely passed the exam). Right now in college I’m taking Mandarin. with all the characters and many ways on how to pronounce a single character, i now declare Mandarin [and other Chinese dialects] as the second toughest language. However, as Malaysian, i’m eager to learn the language as i watch lots of Chinese dramas (j-do and k-do too). Japanese i can see it’s like Bahasa. easy to pronounce and also easy grammar. the only difference is that it still has characters for reading/writing. Except for Kanji, Katakana and Hiragana are easier. so i say, Japanese is the easiest language that has special characters for it’s writings. Hehe.

I'm a native speaker of Bahasa and am fluent in English. To me, English is not easy to learn. Though it is spoken widely and is taught in most schools throughout the world, it still, does not mean it's the easiest. and just because I'm a native Bahasa speaker does not mean that I'm biased. i've observed the foreign students in my college. they are made compulsory to learn Bahasa as a requirement. they just learn basic Malay only. i've watch their textbook only contains the major greetings, common day to day nouns/verbs and some simple grammar. and yet, towards the end of the 1st semester, they are able to order food at cafes and have their heads turned to see which of us local have spoken stuff about them. See! Bahasa is easy.

[جوري]

Obviously your English, is way better than the average person. I actually had to look up "addendum"and "parsing", which I now know is "Syntactic Analysis" in linguistic terms. :p

parsing is what we call in Arabic 'I'3raab'
most people don't know what that is in Arabic or English :haha: but remember I wrote before about not wanting to recall back the difficult days of learning?

let's just say I had a very strict teacher (my dad) and there was no room for error with him ;D
I think what he tolerated less than not knowing is feigning knowledge that certainly earned extra demerits and demerits were met with :X:X:X:X

I think I get that from him too, my impatience with people whom I feel lag behind, don't want to make an effort, don't want to pick themselves up or just plain lazy...

:w:

[north_malaysian]

[banana] malaysian language is the easiest!!!

[/banana]

[ardianto]

Sister Dianayusof is right, bahasa melayu (basic language of Malaysian and Indonesian language) is easy to learn because it has simple grammar, no tenses, no gender, no plural (just repeat the word). Of course there is a difference in word arangement if it compared with English.
In English : Adjective + Subject/object. In Melayu : Subject/object + adjective. In example, in Melayu, green is 'hijau' and mountain is 'gunung'. And, green mountain in bahasa Melayu is not 'hijau gunung', but 'gunung hijau'.

Brother north_malaysian told us several times, difference between Malaysian and Indonesian language is 20%. Actually, that is in daily or super slang conversation, both in Malaysian and Indonesian language. However, in official conversation like in newspaper, this difference is less than 6%.

[north_malaysian]

Sister Dianayusof is right, bahasa melayu (basic language of Malaysian and Indonesian language) is easy to learn because it has simple grammar, no tenses, no gender, no plural (just repeat the word).

some words have gender:

seniman/seniwati (artist), peragawan/peragawati (model), olahragawan/olahragawati (athlete), biduan/biduanita (celebrity), ustaz/ustazah (religious teacher), muslim/muslimah (moslem)

some words have plurality:

ulamak (religious scholars), pepokok (trees), bebunga (flowers), muslimin/muslimat (moslems), jejari (fingers)...

in my dialect:

hang (you - singular), hangpa (you - plural)
dea (he/she), depa (they)

Brother north_malaysian told us several times, difference between Malaysian and Indonesian language is 20%. Actually, that is in daily or super slang conversation, both in Malaysian and Indonesian language. However, in official conversation like in newspaper, this difference is less than 6%.

It could be 0% difference when it comes to Malaysian Language at schools because we are allowed to use Indonesian words in essays...

[MSN]

Between English and French and Arabic,English is the easiest.imo

[doorster]

Between English and French and Arabic,English is the easiest.imo

that is right (according to me too) there is hardly any chance of misunderstanding a conversation in modern English whereas older languages are/can be distorted according to need of a(ny) particular grouping of people

[ardianto]

some words have gender:

seniman/seniwati (artist), peragawan/peragawati (model), olahragawan/olahragawati (athlete), biduan/biduanita (celebrity), ustaz/ustazah (religious teacher), muslim/muslimah (moslem)

some words have plurality:

ulamak (religious scholars), pepokok (trees), bebunga (flowers), muslimin/muslimat (moslems), jejari (fingers)...

in my dialect:

hang (you - singular), hangpa (you - plural)
dea (he/she), depa (they)

It could be 0% difference when it comes to Malaysian Language at schools because we are allowed to use Indonesian words in essays...

You right about gender. (Why I forget it ?).

About plurality, you also right. But in Indonesia we usually repeat the word.

About 20% and 6% difference. I compare Malaysian language that used in online newspaper and in blog. Sometime I can't understand conversation that I read in a Malaysian blog, especialy in short sentence.

Thanks for this clarification brother. :)

[north_malaysian]

Thanks for this clarification brother. :)

Conclusion... both our languages.. Malaysian and Indonesian are the easiest languages to learn...

[Ramadhan]

I definitely agree that bahasa Indonesia/Melayu is the easiest to learn for the reasons mentioned by brothers in the previous posts, and not just because i hail from Indonesia :)

but because I live in jakarta, the version of the (spoken) language that we speak here has branched out differently from that spoken in Malaysia.

[north_malaysian]

but because I live in jakarta, the version of the (spoken) language that we speak here has branched out differently from that spoken in Malaysia.

you speak in Betawi?

Malaysia is a tiny nation, but our Malay dialects are too many...:D

[Ramadhan]

no, I dont really speak betawi, as my ethnicity is Javanese and i am able to speak Javanese
but here in Jakarta we speak bahasa indonesia with Jakarta slang :)

i visited Malaysia twice last year for some road trip and diving holidays at perhentian islands, and I actually did not understand people conversation in the regions outside KL

[ardianto]

you speak in Betawi?

Malaysia is a tiny nation, but our Malay dialects are too many...:D

A Malaysian - If I'm not wrong, she is Sheila Majid - said "Betawi dialect (Jakarta slang) became a trend in Malaysian youth". Is it right ?

[ardianto]

I come again. :)

I hear, at least there are six official languages in United Nation.
Those are English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Chinese, and.......Esperanto !

Esperanto is not an official language in any country, but why Esperanto became an official language in UN ?. Is it because Esperanto is easy to learn ?.

[north_malaysian]

no, I dont really speak betawi, as my ethnicity is Javanese and i am able to speak Javanese
but here in Jakarta we speak bahasa indonesia with Jakarta slang :)

i visited Malaysia twice last year for some road trip and diving holidays at perhentian islands, and I actually did not understand people conversation in the regions outside KL

The east coast of peninsula Malaysia speak different slangs...

[north_malaysian]

A Malaysian - If I'm not wrong, she is Sheila Majid - said "Betawi dialect (Jakarta slang) became a trend in Malaysian youth". Is it right ?

iye...iye...:D

Betawi dialect is kinda popular among the youth... thanks to Indonesian songs, movies and sinetrons...