Features of the Language You Should Learn Next
Suppose you want to become a bi- or multilingual. In that case, you should learn a language that is grammatically similar to your current language(s) and has easy to moderate difficulty with resources available where you live. Frisian, Dutch, and Spanish are the best options for native English speakers as they match the mentioned criteria.
| Language | Similarity to English |
| German | 60% |
| French | 27% |
| Russian | 24% |
Picking the Language to Learn with a Quiz
With all the affecting factors in mind, it’s still challenging to decide what language to learn. That’s why we created an expert-level quiz to do the hard work. It analyzes everything—from your current tongue to your desires and goals—to determine what to learn.
Becoming multilingual is challenging. And some even compare the process to choosing what to major in. But with the help of our linguistic test, you’re likely to select the best language with a 70%+ satisfaction rate.
Here’s what happens when you participate.
Analyze your mother tongue.
Most linguists suggest that learning a language with a similar grammatical structure to your native tongue is easier. The quiz tries to understand the primary grammar rules you already know before suggesting any languages to study.
See what’s best to learn based on your personality.
“What language should I learn based on my personality?” is a popular question among multilinguists. We’ve got you covered, even if it’s not a reliable filtering method. Our quiz does go over some of your characteristics and traits to produce even better results.
Define your purpose of learning.
It’s essential to know why you want to study a new language. Is it a career decision, are you doing it for fun, or are you planning to move abroad? The quiz does its best in understanding your goals and offering solutions accordingly.
Compare your likes and dislikes.
“Learning is most effective when it helps you understand something you already love.” With that in mind, the questionnaire is designed to value your interests and deliver results that you’ll like. Despite the difficulty, it’s often a better option for an anime lover to learn Japanese than French or, say, German. That’s because your enthusiasm is even more critical than the lexical similarities.
Find the perfect language you should start learning.
During the final stage of the quiz, the algorithm overviews your answers, compares them to our database, and delivers a list of customized options. Unlike most other quizzes, we don’t want to limit you to only one suggestion. So, the results often include a couple of languages we think you should learn based on your responses.
The Most Popular Languages by the Number of Learners
One way to decide which language you should learn is by seeing what other learners are doing. Currently, Spanish, French, German, and Japanese are the most popular languages by the number of college and university enrollments. Surprisingly, American Sign Language is also one of the preferred languages, with over 107,000 students in 2016.
| Language | Popularity Among Learners |
| Spanish | 50.2% |
| French | 12.4% |
| American Sign Language | 7.6% |
| German | 5.7% |
| Japanese | 4.9% |
Choosing What Language to Learn Based on the Difficulty Level
For many learners, the primary criterion is the time required to speak and comprehend the new language. Openculture.com has a brilliant map showing how much time it takes to learn foreign languages. And you can use it to plan your linguistic journey and pick a hard- or easy-to-learn language. (See the table below for more info).
| Difficulty | Language(s) | Hours to Learn |
| Easy | Dutch, French, Italian, Spanish | 575-600 h |
| Moderate | German, Indonesian, Malaysian, Swahili | 750-900 h |
| Difficult | Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean | 2200 h |
Questions That Matter More than “Which Language Should I Learn?”
It requires at least 500 hours of study and hard work to become fluent in a language. So, you should consider all the factors before jumping into learning a foreign tongue. You are better off without making an impulsive decision. And it’s best to ask yourself the following questions in advance.
– What is the linguistic category of language(s) you currently speak?
Knowing the language families allows you to pick the easiest ones to learn. The closer a tongue is to your native language’s family, the faster you master it. The primary families are Indo-Iranian, Hellenic, Celtic, Italic, Balto-Slavic, and Germanic.
– Will you be actively using the new language?
Some studies show that students could become less fluent after not speaking the foreign language for six months. So, before selecting what to learn, ensure you’ll be actively using it, or you’re prone to forgetting it.
– Are the resources accessible where you live?
Of course, with the help of the internet, you can easily access the right resources for almost any language. But you still want to pick an option with available and accessible schools you could attend in-person.
– Does the language you pick excite you?
You can’t learn things you don’t love. So, it’s often a better idea to go with sounds, rules, and vocabularies that tickle your enthusiasm for the language.
– Are you okay with the culture of that specific language?
“To have another language is to have another soul,” said Charlemagne, King of the Franks. So, don’t opt to learn a foreign dialect so long as you don’t like the culture that it comes with.
Ready to Become a Polyglot? Take the Quiz Now
Don’t forget that over 7000 languages are being spoken all around the globe. So, don’t expect a quick answer to things like, “What language should I learn?” The fastest method you already got is participating in our quiz, though.
Disclaimer
QuizExpo is not associated with any of the organizations mentioned in the ‘Which Language Should I Learn Quiz.’ No affiliate links are included in the test, and the results are 100% AI-generated.
