German, Swedish, Dutch, or Norwegian? (Or Russian?)

[Herrebrugh]

Honestly, if you want to learn a language as close to English as possibly, you should learn Frisian. At least the type spoken in the Dutch province.

But ease is only one catagory.... I'm guessing Frisian is one of the least useful Germanic languages, other than like Faroese, no?

But furthermore do people agree that German is the easiest of German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch?

No... Dutch isn't that hard. There are only a couple of stupid rules, but they can be ignored a bit. German has a very difficult grammar system. I don't know enough about North Germanic languages to comment on those.

[Papait]

The Thing is though.

When you go outside europe dutch is more usefull.

German is oonly spoken by small pockets in Namibia and Argentina.

Dutch is spoken on the Antilles, Surinam, some indonesians know it,
as well as people who speak afrikaans

[Alosteq Diin Nastja]

Most people are taking only utlity into account, but that is only one of the three things I posted on the OP...

Remembers it was

1. How easy is it to learn?

2. How Useful is it?

3. How interesting is the culture?


I'm guessing that German is significantly harder to learn than Norwegian, Swedish or Dutch, no?

Swedish

1. Fairly easy. The grammar isn't hard, but the spelling is just about as insane as English spelling, so that makes vocabulary hard to pick up.

2. Not very useful, as nearly everyone in Sweden speaks English and there isn't too large of a non-Swedish Swedish speaking population.

3. It's very interesting once you really get into it. They focus heavily on equality, but are a very laid back (It's casual day at work every day ). Excellent place to raise a family and grow old, due to their somewhat Socialistic society. Swedes are a generally outdoorsy type, and this is encouraged by the Freedom to Roam policy. They don't like talking about politics very much so keep that in mind if you plan to learn Swedish. Of course, these are just generalisations (There are always the exceptions)

[The Alma Mater]

But ease is only one catagory.... I'm guessing Frisian is one of the least useful Germanic languages, other than like Faroese, no?

But furthermore do people agree that German is the easiest of German, Norwegian, Swedish, and Dutch?

No... Dutch isn't that hard.

Dutch is extremely hard to speak and write correctly.
Just being understandable however is indeed not hard at all for most foreign speakers.

[Herrebrugh]

No... Dutch isn't that hard.

Dutch is extremely hard to speak and write correctly.
Just being understandable however is indeed not hard at all for most foreign speakers.

I was going for the first, in which case it is certainly easier than German.

[Acroticus]

Most people are taking only utlity into account, but that is only one of the three things I posted on the OP...

Remembers it was

1. How easy is it to learn?

2. How Useful is it?

3. How interesting is the culture?


I'm guessing that German is significantly harder to learn than Norwegian, Swedish or Dutch, no?

Swedish

1. Fairly easy. The grammar isn't hard, but the spelling is just about as insane as English spelling, so that makes vocabulary hard to pick up.

2. Not very useful, as nearly everyone in Sweden speaks English and there isn't too large of a non-Swedish Swedish speaking population.

3. It's very interesting once you really get into it. They focus heavily on equality, but are a very laid back (It's casual day at work every day ). Excellent place to raise a family and grow old, due to their somewhat Socialistic society. Swedes are a generally outdoorsy type, and this is encouraged by the Freedom to Roam policy. They don't like talking about politics very much so keep that in mind if you plan to learn Swedish. Of course, these are just generalisations (There are always the exceptions)

Interesting. Do you live in Sweden or speak Swedish?

[Valerion]

Just be a hipster and learn Flemish.

Flemish is just a dialect of Dutch, not a language on it's own.

[Herrebrugh]

Just be a hipster and learn Flemish.

Flemish is just a dialect of Dutch, not a language on it's own.

It's generally not even that. It's as much a dialect as "Rotterdams" and "Amsterdams" are dialects.

[Alosteq Diin Nastja]

Swedish

1. Fairly easy. The grammar isn't hard, but the spelling is just about as insane as English spelling, so that makes vocabulary hard to pick up.

2. Not very useful, as nearly everyone in Sweden speaks English and there isn't too large of a non-Swedish Swedish speaking population.

3. It's very interesting once you really get into it. They focus heavily on equality, but are a very laid back (It's casual day at work every day ). Excellent place to raise a family and grow old, due to their somewhat Socialistic society. Swedes are a generally outdoorsy type, and this is encouraged by the Freedom to Roam policy. They don't like talking about politics very much so keep that in mind if you plan to learn Swedish. Of course, these are just generalisations (There are always the exceptions)

Interesting. Do you live in Sweden or speak Swedish?

I speak Swedish, but I don't live in Sweden. Wish I did though. I forgot to add in the culture section, Antisemitism is gaining popularity in Southernmost Sweden, and is especially prevalent in Malmö. That's the only drawback.

[Valerion]

Flemish is just a dialect of Dutch, not a language on it's own.

It's generally not even that. It's as much a dialect as "Rotterdams" and "Amsterdams" are dialects.

Trust me when i say that someone from west-flanders will not be understandable by someone from the netherlands.

[Acroticus]

Interesting. Do you live in Sweden or speak Swedish?

I speak Swedish, but I don't live in Sweden. Wish I did though. I forgot to add in the culture section, Antisemitism is gaining popularity in Southernmost Sweden, and is especially prevalent in Malmö. That's the only drawback.

Have you ever lived in Sweden? If not how did you learn?

[Zerra]

Arabic, Spanish, and Mandarin are the three most important languages to learn;

Arabic/Mandarin: Business language

Spanish/Arabic: A lot of people speak it

Mandarin/Arabic: good to know if in military, government, or political jobs

[Alosteq Diin Nastja]

I speak Swedish, but I don't live in Sweden. Wish I did though. I forgot to add in the culture section, Antisemitism is gaining popularity in Southernmost Sweden, and is especially prevalent in Malmö. That's the only drawback.

Have you ever lived in Sweden? If not how did you learn?

I did, yes. The antisemitism is a recent thing though; I picked that up through the Swedish news after I was living in Sweden.

[Acroticus]

Have you ever lived in Sweden? If not how did you learn?

I did, yes. The antisemitism is a recent thing though; I picked that up through the Swedish news after I was living in Sweden.

How many languages do you know? How easy did you find Swedish to be?

[Nervium]

Pennsylvania Dutch.

[Alosteq Diin Nastja]

I did, yes. The antisemitism is a recent thing though; I picked that up through the Swedish news after I was living in Sweden.

How many languages do you know? How easy did you find Swedish to be?

I know English (obviously), Swedish, Spanish, and Russian. Swedish was easier than Spanish (I'm not very good at the Romance languages, so it would probably be reverse for you), but Russian was easier than Swedish (I'm good with Slavic languages, but it probably helped that I knew Russian Cyrillic alphabet for two years before learning the language).

[Islamic republiq of Julundar]

OP already spikka da English. Dutch is closest to English and easiest to learn. Once you've got 2 Germanic languages, it will be easier to learn German and then Scandiwegian.

Belgian Flemish and Netherlands Dutch are very similiar as written languages, but as for the spoken languages...

Belgians think "That's nice, the foreigner is making an effort." so they talk slowly and clearly. Dutch think "The only people who speak Dutch are Dutch themselves." so they gibber incoherently like a treeful of monkeys.

[Meryuma]

Norwegian is the coolest sounding and is spoken in the coolest country imo. The grammar is very simple. Swedish is similar to Norwegian but with somewhat more unusual grammar and phonology. A cool thing about Swedish is it's not really gendered, instead having something closer to an animate/inanimate object distinction.

German is the most practical to know and has the most famous philosophy, literature, film, etc. However it's quite grammatically complex compared to most modern Germanic languages.

Dutch (IIRC) is the closest to English out of the three.

[Kwadai]

I would go for German if I were you, I speak German, I know loads of people who speak German it is definitly the widest spoken of your options, being not only spoken in Germany but in Austria and Switzerland and many other parts of Europe.

[Herrebrugh]

It's generally not even that. It's as much a dialect as "Rotterdams" and "Amsterdams" are dialects.

Trust me when i say that someone from west-flanders will not be understandable by someone from the netherlands.

West Flemish is different from what's generally known as Flemish, and is a dialect, as far as I know.

[Herrebrugh]

I would go for German if I were you, I speak German, I know loads of people who speak German it is definitly the widest spoken of your options, being not only spoken in Germany but in Austria and Switzerland and many other parts of Europe.

Yet, as someone else has noted, Dutch is spoken in several parts of the Carribean, Suriname and (indirectly) South Africa and Namibia. While it doesn't have as many speakers as German, it's certainly more spread out.

[Rio Cana]

Way more people speak German, learn German.

Maybe in Europe but not in the Americas with the possible exception being Chile which still has some small areas of German closed communities. The ones in Bolivia. Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil have generally all dropped German for Spanish or Portuguese.

But yes OP, try learning Aleman(German). Some say Germany and China are the next economic powers. Thus learn German and Chinese.
This says it all - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7ecXFytM1k

[Camelza]

Norwegian/Danish and Swedish are two different, but mutually intelligible by their speakers, dialects of the same Scandinavian-Germanic language.
Learn Dutch, I like the way they sound.

[Herrebrugh]

Norwegian/Danish and Swedish are two different, but mutually intelligible by their speakers, dialects of the same Scandinavian-Germanic language.
Learn Dutch, I like the way they sound.

Gggggggggggggg

[Camelza]

Norwegian/Danish and Swedish are two different, but mutually intelligible by their speakers, dialects of the same Scandinavian-Germanic language.
Learn Dutch, I like the way they sound.

Gggggggggggggg

Yes, that kind of sexy sound I'm talking about.