How easy is it to learn Sanskrit?
Sanskrit is a classical language of South Asia belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It is the sacred language of Hinduism, the language of classical Hindu philosophy, and of historical texts of Buddhism and Jainism. It has become a language of religion and high culture, and of the political elites in some of South Asian regions. Sanskrit’s status, function, and place in India’s cultural heritage are recognized by its inclusion in the Constitution of India’s Eighth Schedule languages. It is pretty clear that Sanskrit has a rich history attached to it. Many who wish to read ancient or sacred South Asian texts, focus on learning this language to be able to do so.
With that being said, Sanskrit is considered to be one of the trickiest languages to master.
In that case, if you are considering learning the language, you might wonder how tough it really is? In order to understand this, we need to figure out our starting point. Let’s say you’re a native English speaker, Sanskrit is probably harder to learn than, Spanish yet easier to learn than Chinese. On the other hand, if you are natively a Hindi speaker then, you’d have it much easier. Especially because many words in Hindi are derived from the Sanskrit vocabulary. Sanskrit is also known as the Mother of all languages, Therefore, people who speak other Indian languages would also find Sanskrit pretty easy.
Once, you’ve figured out your starting point, you can begin to gauge the difficulty or ease for yourself. One important factor to consider is the way you are either taught or learn Sanskrit yourself. Many people may be under the impression that learning Sanskrit is very difficult. This is mainly due to the fact that it has not been taught properly and that has something to do with the wrong notion that it is not a spoken language. The study of Sanskrit becomes difficult if the learning process is based only on understanding and remembering dry grammar rules and their application in translation exercises. In simpler terms, a “grammar-translation-method”. This kind of method makes it rather difficult to learn any language.
On the other hand, if the learning process is actually based on exposure to the live flow of the language, then it automatically becomes that much more, fun and easy. The most important point is that the growing ability to handle the live flow of language should be the basis of learning grammar and not the other way around. In the simplest of terms, the best way to make Sanskrit learning easy and fun is to adjust our approach by paying attention to the natural way our mind learns new things rather than forcing it to memorize parts that come off as a burden.
Finally,
With all that said, you can gauge for yourself, if Sanskrit is truly difficult or if it is much easier than you thought. It is important to remember than no language learning process is a piece of cake for any individual. Every language comes with its own specific set of difficulties and obviously Sanskrit is no stranger to such a notion. With a dedicated and rigid schedule and the right approach, even a native English speaker can learn this language in no time.