Why learning an 'easy' foreign language can actually lead you into more pitfalls.

We've all heard the advice: thinking of learning a foreign language? Choose one that shares roots with your mother tongue, and it'll be much easier.

For instance, many Chinese people find Japanese easy to pick up, as it contains a large number of Hanzi characters. Similarly, for a French speaker, learning Spanish or Italian might sound like 'easy mode' – after all, they all stem from Latin, like long-lost brothers.

On the surface, this indeed seems like a shortcut. In French, "How are you?" is Comment ça va?; in Italian, it's Come stai?; and in Spanish, it's ¿Cómo estás?. See? Don't they look like family? Both the vocabulary and grammatical structures share many similarities.

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

The Familiar Stranger

This feeling is like a Mandarin speaker trying to learn Cantonese.

You see "我今日好得闲" (I'm free today), you recognise every character, and you can probably guess the general meaning when they're put together. You think, "This is too easy!" But when you confidently open your mouth, you discover that the pronunciation, intonation, and even the core meaning of some words are vastly different from Mandarin.

This frustration of 'understanding when reading, but making mistakes as soon as you speak' is the biggest pitfall when learning 'related languages'. You think you're taking a shortcut, but you're actually dancing in a minefield.

These languages' 'false friends' are the biggest landmines. They look exactly like words you're familiar with, but their meanings are completely different.

For example: In French, "colour" (couleur) is a feminine noun. When a French person learns Spanish and sees the word color, they'll naturally assume it's also feminine. The result? color is masculine in Spanish. A small mistake, but one that exposes a certain intellectual laziness.

These pitfalls are everywhere. The more you rely on your native language's 'experience', the easier it is to fall into them. You think you're taking a shortcut, but you're actually heading in the opposite direction.

The Real Challenge: Not Remembering, But Forgetting

When learning a brand new, unrelated language (such as Chinese and Arabic), you're like a blank slate, humbly accepting all new rules.

But when learning a 'related language', your biggest challenge isn't 'remembering new knowledge', but "forgetting old habits".

1. Forget your muscle memory: French pronunciation is smooth, and word stress is even. Italian and Spanish, however, are full of vibrant rhythms and distinct stresses. For a French speaker, this is like asking someone used to walking on flat ground to dance the tango – it feels entirely awkward and unnatural.
2. Forget your grammatical intuition: You're accustomed to a particular sentence structure, making it difficult to adapt to the subtle differences of its 'relative'. These differences, though minor, are key to distinguishing between 'locals' and 'foreigners'.
3. Forget taking things for granted: You can no longer assume, "This word must mean this, right?" You must approach every detail with reverence and curiosity, just as you would with something entirely new.

How to Avoid These 'Beautiful Traps'?

So, what should we do? Abandon this 'shortcut'?

Of course not. The right approach isn't to avoid them, but to change your mindset.

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

Acknowledge your kinship (similar vocabulary), but even more so, respect its independent personality (unique pronunciation, grammar, and cultural nuances). Don't always think, "It should be just like me," but rather be curious, "Why is it like this?"

When you encounter confusion, for example, chatting with a Spanish friend and unsure whether a certain word's usage is the same as in French, what should you do? Guess?

Fortunately, we live in an era where technology can bridge such gaps.

Instead of silently wrestling with it internally, it's better to turn directly to tools. For example, a chat app like Lingogram, which has built-in real-time AI translation. When you're communicating with foreign friends, it can instantly help you bridge those misunderstandings caused by 'too much similarity', enabling you to communicate confidently while also learning the most authentic usage from real conversations.

Ultimately, the true joy of learning a 'related language' lies not in how 'simple' it is, but in how it allows you to understand language itself more profoundly – recognising that while it shares common roots, it has blossomed into distinctively beautiful flowers in its own unique soil.

Let go of the arrogance of 'taking things for granted', and embrace the humility that comes with genuine understanding – 'Aha, so that's how it works!'. Only then will this journey truly become effortless and captivating.