As a native English speaker, I hear things like “this” language is hard/easy to learn. Does this mean it is only hard/easy to learn coming from an English background, or would someone who speaks Spanish also find it similarly harder/easier to learn as well?
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Most languages share some characteristics with each other, from the writing system, sounds, words or elements of grammar.
Some share a lot more with each other. Some share very little.
Obviously a language that shares more things with what you already know will usually be easier to learn.
History can tell us a lot about how languages have changed over time and how most modern languages have roots in multiple languages that have influenced each other and merged in some ways. For example, English took a lot of words from French after the Norman invasion (who had invaded France a bit before already) as the elites spoke Old French that with time gave a lot of words we find in English today. So if you know English, you can guess a lot of French words.
As French mostly evolved from Latin like Spanish and Italian, both languages also share a lot with English.
But a language from a country very far away like Chinese shares almost nothing with English, only some loanwords that came quite late.
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