Spanish vs Chinese: which should you learn?

Estimates for a native English speaker, following the US Foreign Service Institute’s groupings. Languages the Institute does not rank are placed beside their closest relatives. Your own pace will differ.

• You want the widest everyday reach of any language an English speaker can learn quickly, and a base for Portuguese and Italian.
• You will use it in Spain, Mexico, most of Central and South America, and large communities across the United States.
• You want the faster path: Spanish is the quicker of the two.
• You want to read from day one, since Spanish uses the alphabet you already know.

Watch out for: verb endings and the two verbs for to be (ser and estar) take practice.

• You want the largest first-language community of any language and a major business language.
• You will use it in mainland China, Taiwan, Singapore and Chinese communities worldwide.

Watch out for: tones and characters; spoken grammar is simpler than most people expect.

Spanish. It is one of the friendlier languages for English speakers. Many words look familiar, the spelling is regular, and you can say any word you can read. Verb endings and the two words for to be take practice, which is why we have you build and say whole sentences.

Chinese. It takes more hours than most European languages. Tones and characters are the main hurdles. Spoken grammar is simpler than people expect, with no verb conjugation or plurals to learn.

In both, the quickest fix for pronunciation is the same: hear a whole sentence, say it out loud and check how close you were. That is the loop 4ToSpeak runs on every sentence.

Spanish and Chinese are not close relatives, so learning one saves little time on the other. Pick the one you will use soonest, get to a comfortable conversation, and add the second later.

If you cannot decide, start both for a week at 15 minutes a day. After seven days you will know which one you look forward to, and motivation matters more than the difference in hours.

Start Spanish or start Chinese, both free with no card.

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