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Language is divided into categories, which will be easy to determine their degree of difficulty to learn based on the native language you speak. (ex. If you speak French, it may be easier for you to learn a similar grouped Italic-based language such as Catalan or Italian, because much of the rules are the same.)
Agreed, if you speak an 'italic' language (the Dutch term is 'Frankian', don't know the English variant...anyways, it's based on a tribe called the Franks, so I guess it should be something like 'Frankian'...), it's easier to learn another 'italic' language than to learn a 'Germanic' language.
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If you took a look at all languages abstractly, they are just as difficult equally. They all have their rules, and even their much hated exceptions. As I had stated above, degree of difficulty has much to do with your native language. It's easier to relate to the similarities in the words, grammar rules, form, and usage. If you are a native English speaker, going completely out of your category and learning a Sanskrit language is going to give you a lot more trouble than trying to learn Dutch or German. Sanskrit has its own alphabet, very dissimilar to the English alphabet, and trying to relate the similarities would be far more difficult, even if it is an Indo-European language, it is far different, based on different things...etc.
Again, I don't agree...If you take all languages abstractly, they are NOT as difficult equally imo: Dutch, English and German are in the same categorie, but I didn't think anyone was going to argue about the fact that German is more difficult than English: of course there are a lot of English expressions....but so are there in German... The simple fact that Germans stilll use cases makes it more difficult than languages that don't use use cases, no? Or the simple fact that German still is 'gender enabled'... that makes it more difficult, no?