There are different skills in Skyrim, fit for all types of characters. But which skills should be easier to learn than the others from roleplay point of view? I think the hardest is Conjuration, as it requires communing with Daedra and should be overseen by a mentor for quite a long time. But I can't figure out the easiest. Can you list the skills from easiest to hardest? For reference (not that it's needed in the community of Skyrim fans, but still ):
Alteration
Conjuration
Destruction
Illusion
Restoration
Enchanting
Archery
Block
Heavy Armor
One-Handed
Two-Handed
Smithing
Alchemy
Light Armor
Lockpicking
Pickpocket
Sneak
Speech
Don't know about magic skills, they certainly are very "out of this world" so it is very difficult to determine how hard it is to learn them. I guess the easier is lockpicking since it more like solving puzzles than anything else, the other ones require much more sweat and blood
Speech does require a bit of a silver tongue, I am guessing it is more of a personality thing than something you learn proper. and crafting, smithing may come to par with lockpicking on the easiest, but then again, it does require years of practice, and you only really see if you made a tiny little error and the blade falls apart because you did not heat it enough or cool it equally enough. proper tempering you know. lockpicking is as I said before, a puzzle, one that you can solve on the spot and have immediate results
Ok, lets go by grouping
Magic Skills: Hardest would either be Conjuration or Illusion. Conjuration involves controlling other beings, and Illusion requires messing with minds. The easiest would probably be Alteration or Destruction, because they manipulate the physical world,
Combat: Hardest would probably be smithing, followed by the weapon skills. easiest would be Heavy armor. Wildcard is archery. Depending on either bow or crossbow, it can be easy or hard respectively.
Stealth: Hardest is either Alchemy or Speech. Easiest is either Light Armor or sneak
Overall: Hardest Skills are Magic, followed by the crafting skills, then the weapon skills, then everything else
Easiest to learn would be the thief skills, since you can use these in everyday life - sneaking, pickpocketing, lockpicking, etc.
Probably Archery is an easy one to learn to compared to the others....and sword skills, aswell, but they'll probably take a bit more practice.
I think if you have the strength the two-handed weapons might actually be relatively easy to learn, since there is less impact on accuracy of strikes. Doesn't matter where you hit an enemy with your warhammer it will still hurt. The main focus is how to keep balance after every strike. Archery might be the hardest to learn of all combat skills because of the pinpoint accuracy required of it. Crossbows should be easier though
I was just about to say Crossbows.
You see, crossbows were used to train much bigger armies, so that they wouldn't have to spend resources and money on training them to use bigger and harder equipment. This way, you can just show them how to reload it, and fire it. It also meant bandits and other types of thieves used them since they wouldn't be as skilled in the use of a sword.
I've been learning for the last 3-4 years although i took a year and a half break and have only recently started again, i do use modern composites so i can't really say how hard Skyrims bows would be to use and fire. Accuracy depends on range, as i live in britain and we have such great weather (sarcasm) i'm forced to train indoors so am stuck at one set range
Modern Composite Bows help alot because they're made from a very high quality flexible carbon-fibre like material. It means the upper and lower limbs of the bow are more flexible, making powering it much easier.
The grips these days are significantly more improved, too, since they can use orthopedic hand grips etc. from higher quality and more comfortable materials.
I myself have never tried archery but I am very good at the use of swords. I must say, depending on the weight/style of the blade it could start out being slightly challenging but once you get the hang of it, it becomes relatively easy. One important thing to note however, is if an Imperial were to train his whole life with Steel/Iron swords, if he were given an Orcish or Ebony sword, his skill would be somewhat reduced, due a drastic change in the actual blade design and weight pattern. While that's not essential knowledge it could be useful for some. Of course they wouldn't be useless with the sword, but the swings/maneuvers they were used to with their sword will probably not be compatible or as effective on w different style sword.
I suppose it would depend on a few factors. The first being that the usage of swords is much more common in Tamriel than it is in modern-day Earth. So it is probable that there are more people to teach it, and to some degree it is quasi-common knowledge. With this, if someone could get the basic movements and footwork down, it should come fairly quickly. That being said, the footwork is probably the most important part to defending against a more skilled enemy. Of course you'd also need to be able to read someone's body movements to predict their next move and have good timing/ accuracy. Assuming we are talking about someone living in a non-military lifestyle, it shouldn't take too long. (The following is assuming this someone with some innate skill, but enough to be a soldier/etc,) Perhaps a few months to get most basic skills down. An entire year to learn more advanced/brutal/useful techniques. Then even more time to be able to use everything quickly, correctly, and being as defensive/offensive as the moment takes. Particularly with split-second judgment calls whether to attack or not, mostly due to the fact that it is extremely probable that your enemy wants you to attack to counter.
All in all, it wouldn't take extremely long and depending how much time into it, it could be extremely quick. That being said to go on for a lengthy fight with an experienced enemy you'd need good reflexes, speed, stamina, footwork, timing, accuracy, and judgment on the situation.