Why Learning a “Simple” Foreign Language Can Actually Land You in Hot Water

We've all heard the old chestnut: thinking of learning a new language? Pick one that’s “related” to your mother tongue, and it’ll be a breeze.

For instance, many Chinese speakers reckon Japanese is a good starting point because of the heaps of Hanzi (Chinese characters). Likewise, for a French speaker keen to pick up Spanish or Italian, it sounds like “easy mode” – they all stem from Latin, like long-lost rellies.

On the surface, it definitely seems like a shortcut. “How are you?” in French is Comment ça va?, in Italian it’s Come stai?, and in Spanish, it’s ¿Cómo estás?. See? They’re practically family, aren’t they? Words and grammar structures share heaps of similarities.

But today, I want to share a bit of a counter-intuitive truth with you: sometimes, it’s precisely this “similarity” that turns out to be the biggest trap on your language learning journey.

The Most Familiar Stranger

It’s a bit like a Mandarin speaker trying to pick up Cantonese.

You see “我今日好得闲” (I’m free today), you recognise every character, and can even guess the gist of it. You think, “Too easy, mate!” But when you confidently open your mouth, you suddenly find that the pronunciation, intonation, and even the core meaning of some words are chalk and cheese compared to Mandarin.

That frustrating feeling of “I can read it, but I mess it up the second I open my gob” – that’s the biggest pitfall when tackling “related languages”. You reckon you’re taking a shortcut, but you’re actually dancing in a minefield.

The “False Friends” in these languages are the biggest landmines. They look exactly like words you’re familiar with, but their meanings are completely different.

Take this for instance: In French, “colour” (couleur) is a feminine noun. So, when a French speaker is learning Spanish and spots the word color, they’ll naturally assume it’s feminine too. But guess what? color is masculine in Spanish. A tiny slip-up, but it exposes a bit of mental laziness.

These sorts of pitfalls are everywhere, mate. The more you lean on your mother tongue’s “experience”, the quicker you’ll tumble into one. You reckon you’re taking a shortcut, but you’re actually going completely off track, heading in the opposite direction.

The Real Challenge: It’s Not About Remembering, It’s About Forgetting

When you’re learning a completely new, unrelated language (like Chinese and Arabic), you’re like a blank slate, ready to humbly absorb all the new rules.

But when it comes to learning a “related language”, your biggest challenge isn’t “remembering new knowledge”; it’s about forgetting old habits.

1. Forget your muscle memory: French pronunciation is smooth and words have even stress. Italian and Spanish, however, are full of bouncy rhythms and strong stresses. For a French speaker, it’s like asking someone used to walking on flat ground to suddenly dance the tango – it just feels clunky and awkward.
2. Forget your grammatical intuition: You’re used to a particular sentence structure, and it’s tough to adapt to the subtle differences of a “relative” language. These differences might be small, but they’re key to telling a local from an outsider.
3. Forget taking things for granted: You can’t just assume, “Oh, this word probably means that, right?” You’ve got to approach every detail with a sense of awe and curiosity, as if it’s something entirely new.

How to Dodge These “Beautiful Traps”?

So, what’s the go? Should we just ditch this “shortcut”?

Nah, not at all. The right way to think about it isn’t to avoid them, but to shift your mindset.

Treat this new language like a relative who looks a lot like you, but has a completely different personality.

Acknowledge the family resemblance (similar vocabulary), but more importantly, respect its independent personality – its unique pronunciation, grammar, and cultural nuances. Don’t always think, “It should be like mine,” but rather get curious and ask, “Why is it like this?”

When you hit a snag, say you’re chatting with a Spanish mate and you’re not sure if a certain word’s usage is the same as in French, what then? Just have a stab?

Luckily, we live in an age where technology can help us bridge those gaps.

Instead of quietly stewing over it in your head, why not just grab a tool? Like a chat app such as Lingogram, which has real-time AI translation built right in. When you’re yarning with international mates, it can instantly clear up those misunderstandings that crop up because of “too much similarity”, letting you chat confidently and learn the most authentic usage from genuine conversations at the same time.

Ultimately, the real joy of learning a “related language” isn’t about how “simple” it is. It’s about how it helps you get a deeper understanding of language itself – how it shares common roots, yet blossoms into such wonderfully different and beautiful flowers in its own unique soil.

Drop the arrogance of “taking things for granted”, and embrace the humility of “ah, that’s how it is!”. Only then will this journey truly become a cruisy and captivating one.