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Despite how poorly it's worked out in the past, I've decided to make another go at learning a second language. Yes, I'm using Duolingo (possibly to be augmented by similar applications, iunno).

I have a few problems with this. A lot of it revolves around picking a language to begin with, and then a lot of it is follow-through and actually sticking to it. And... I have actual capabilities to factor into all of this.

So, picking a language, right?

On a personal note, it'd be nice to pick up a language that actually ties into my ancestry (and oh hey, I did a DNA test!). The top options for that would be Irish, French, German, or Swedish. I have no interest in French, so that's out. Duolingo seems to be missing sound for Irish, so that's not helpful. German isn't a top pick just because it often sounds so rough and I've heard the compound words can get pretty crazy, but it does have some similarities to English that I should be able to latch onto. Swedish... seems completely alien to me from the brief look I've had, and that's worrying. But I supposedly have some traceable family in Sweden.

Speaking more practically... Spanish would be at the top. Aside from being one of the more commonly useful languages in the US, it's also familiar (I've taken some intro Spanish classes, though forgotten much), and I have a couple of close friends who grew up speaking it who I could pester for practice. But I keep feeling Spanish wouldn't be that useful to me, personally, and I'm also tied up in some silly hipster-y feelings toward the widely-used language. A runner up for practicality, at least in terms of learning, would be Esperanto, which was supposed to have been designed to be easy to learn and manages to strike familiarity (lot of Latin-base bits in there, and I'm guessing from other languages too) as well, but which never took off the way it was intended to and I have no idea about its actual usefulness.

And at the end of the day, while I'd like to learn a language that manages to be interesting, pleasant-sounding, relevant to me, and can easily accommodate non-binary genders... what I need is something easy to learn. Between ADHD, hidden hearing loss (processing issue rather than structural), and being one of those "gifted"-kids-turned-anxious/avoidant-adult, my choices are "what's easy?" or "what am I super passionate about?" and that second one just... isn't available.

This is the second rewrite of this whole post and I still can't figure out what I'm getting at. Iunno, maybe I'm really just whining.

I should sleep...

Sticking with languages can be tough. Even when you have enough free time to comfortably stick in regular lessons. No doubt there are parallels between ASD and ADHD in this regard (though with ASD, if one has a special interest in languages, then in theory one can easily stay focused), so I can certainly empathise with that. I've been trying to learn Japanese and Welsh for a while now, and am simply unable to stick with them and haven't made any real progress recently. I don't think I could recommend either where ease is concerned, though Japanese is pretty highly structured, with words almost always sounding the same way they're written and grammar fairly uniform (the issue is of course learning kana and even worse, kanji). Welsh is fairly reliable as well, though some words a bit of a mouthful (ysgrifennydd/ysgrifennyddes, for example) and word mutations are pretty hard to keep track of - a lot of words change their first letter depending on what comes before them.

From an English-speaking standpoint, German or Dutch might be fairly easy to learn once you get over all the pronunciation/grammar stuff, because there's a lot of overlap with English.

Hmm... it's going to be really hard to find European languages that are gender neutral. Out of all the languages I speak, English is the most gender neutral.

Duolingo is at least really good for what it is! I started running through a couple of sessions but I always lose interest.... I really want to get back on track though, too. Maybe we can buddy up and do regular check-ins to motivate our progress? Gotta hack those ADHD symptoms somehow.

(Plus I can help you out with German and Dutch if you want to learn either one!)

Edit: I also find it interesting how people always think German is a harsh language. Compared to Dutch, it's buttery smooth.

Duolingo is great! It’s helped me a lot, especially those annoying reminders. But they do get things done.

As someone who is learning Irish/Gaelic: don’t. Do it. I saw something once that said “How to Pronounce Irish words: Step 1. Pronounce. Step 2. WRONG!” Unfortunately, it’s true. There are “r”s that don’t exist in the spelling, most “s” are pronounced like “sh” and all kinds of other crazy things. Save your sanity!

Spanish is a good way to go when considering jobs. However, it can be difficult when it comes to conjugations and how everything has a gender.

German is fun. I did it on Duo for a while before jumping to Irish. I think that might have been the easiest one I’ve done, and it might be a good one to start off with if this is your first new language. It’s not going to come without its challenges, but again, Duo does very well.

As for Swedish - I speak a small amount of Norwegian, and I’m going to guess that it’s similar. It’s (Norwegian) fairly easy, from what I remember, so Swedish might not be too bad. It’s been years, though.

Ultimately, though, I think it might be best for you to consider this: What are you most interested in? The more interested you are, the easier it will be. You’ll be more eager to learn and be invested. And don’t stress over it! You’re not going to become fluent in a day. But if you’re into it, it’s going to be totally worth it.

I hope this was helpful! Good luck in your language escapades! You can do it!

Learning languages can be both a terrible pain and loads of fun! The Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) are rather similar, and I daresay it's almost expected of Scandinavians to be able to communicate with each other in their own language. I'm Danish, and we had both Norwegian and Swedish in school, so we'd be able to communicate with our neighbors. Because of that, and because I've worked a lot with other Scandinavians, I can communicate pretty well with Norwegians and Swedes, which is handy (:

Another thing you should consider, when choosing a new language to learn, is how much you'd be able to use it. Interest is a really good starting point, but it'll be sooooo much easier to practice (and ultimately learn it) if you have the option to use it. I studied Arabic in university, but my Arabic only seriously improved when I studied abroad, and was forced to use it. So, if you want to really be able to use it and practice it where you are, you should probably (as I think you mention?) stick with Spanish (:

If you want to learn Swedish, I suggest you try reaching out to your Swedish family members (if you're able to track them down). Not only would it be great in terms of learning the language, but it'd also be fun to get to know your family from far away (:
Although Swedish may sound completely alien to you, I think you'll discover that it has a lot of similarities to English (I'm assuming you're American here), and often you can actually see a pattern between Scandinavian languages and English! I also think I've heard that Swedish is the easiest Scandinavian language to learn, which is nice.