For quite some time now, I've been trying to determine which of the big three (Italian, French, and Spanish) is the easiest for English speakers to gain at least a minimum fluency. I think I'm definitely leaning toward Spanish. ¿Por qué? Because it seems to be more flexible. When I get French and Italian texts returned and corrected it looks as if there's been a car wreck: red all over the place. Words switched around. Long explanations of why a phrase or sentence is incorrect. All very discouraging for a novice language learner. But when I get my Spanish reviewed and corrected, the damage is not nearly as critical. I may get a few suggestions for improving the grammatical structure of a sentence or an occasional recommendation for a better vocabulary word, but all in all, Spanish seems more forgiving. It allows for several constructions, whereas Italian and French seem to require a certain amount of precision. Either the sentence is correct or it's a total failure.
Having cast my vote for Spanish, though, I will say that Italian is the easiest as far as listening to it is concerned. In Spanish, especially in peninsular Spanish, the sounds are often vague and run-together. Italian isolates and clearly enunciates every word, every syllable. In Spanish even a seemingly easy sound like 'g' presents difficulties. Often in a word such as 'agua,' the 'g' is so softly uttered that it's barely there. I hear 'awa' more than 'agwah.' This takes some getting used to. And then there are endings that are clipped off such as 'Usted' often sounds more like Usteh.
My goal has always been to attempt to speak, read, write, and listen to a foreign language with average fluency. Perhaps Spanish is a good place to start. Then I can tackle Italian.
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