hardest languages to learn

Of course, a language teacher has effective techniques to speed up your learning. Hungarians are the worst in foreign languages in the EU, and it's because for a Hungarian to learn foreign languages is about as hard as to learn Hungarian for a foreigner Disclaimer: while probably being one of the most difficult official languages in Europe, it's nowhere near the most difficult counting the countless isolated languages Thai may be one of the hardest languages for a native English speaker who has never used tones before. The major difference between English and Hindi is in the sentence structure. Regardless of the ranking, you’re the boss when it comes to learning a language. Even though Basque Country is located in Europe, Basque isn’t related to. Persian, which you may known by the dialect names Farsi (Iran), Dari (Afghanistan) and Tajik (Tajikistan and Uzbekistan), is spoken by 110 million people. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. Yikes! To top it off, Japanese takes the top spot as the fastest spoken language in the world! You’ll find useful vocabulary and get the feel for natural phrasing. First, Korean follows a SOV word order, so you’ll have to get used to ending the sentence with the verb. Well, it’s an Indo-European language, which means there are some useful cognates between Persian and English. , which depending on the inflection can mean mother, horse, scold or hemp. The more experience you can get with real-life conversation, the better. That makes figuring out new vocabulary easy, since the spelling tells you how to pronounce it. Mandarin also uses characters for the writing system, which entails lots of memorization at first. Gaelic starts out on the right foot: it uses the Latin script, has phonetic spelling and follows consistent grammar rules. Eyjafjallajökull was so difficult for them to pronounce that most shortened it to E13. For our ranking, we used the six categories above to show why a language can be easier or harder to learn. You’ll learn any language more quickly if you’re interested in it. Does the language use the same writing system? The most common of them is Mandarin which is the most spoken language in the world. However, Persian is one of the hardest languages to learn because of its writing system. In addition, you’ll have to watch what you say when addressing your superiors. Does the language use the same sounds? Add that to the fact that Chinese is a language rich in homophones and full of idioms and aphorisms picked up o… Pronunciation may require some practice. Another benefit is that Afrikaan verbs don’t conjugate by person, so there are fewer endings and noun genders to learn compared to Dutch. Like Japanese, Korean has a lot of endings to show respect for authority, which means more verb endings to remember. Hotly debated as the most beautiful language in the world, Portuguese is a Romance language with some overlap with English. From fisch for fish, bruder for brother and haus for house, you’re already halfway there with your vocabulary. Number of native speakers: 195,000 (57,000 Scottish, 138,000 Irish). For many it’s considered one of the hardest languages to learn because it’s a language isolate. No wonder the Foreign Service Institute estimates a whopping 2,200 hours to learn Arabic! Experts estimate that it’ll take 2,200 class hours to achieve proficiency. Swahili is one of the few African languages without tone, which makes it one of the easiest languages for native English speakers. According to the Foreign Service Institute, Japanese is the most difficult language for a native English speaker to learn. Last but not least, Swedish is one of the easiest languages because it shares Germanic roots with English. Instead, it adds affixes to verbs to indicate tense and subject. which sounds like it should mean push, but actually means pull. Besides that, however, Hindi has some challenging differences in terms of grammar, pronunciation and writing. Chinese is a group of languages spoken by the people of China. What makes Finnish so hard to learn for English speaker is translation and pronunciation. Even though Basque Country is located in Europe, Basque isn’t related to any Indo-European languages. As a Germanic language, Norwegian and English share tons of cognates (like welcome). In addition, their writing system, Devanagari script, has 47 characters including 14 vowels and 33 consonants. . Does the script build or require heavy memorization? It takes a real amount of hard work to translate from English, and even when that happens the result probably won’t be up to the mark. Unlike them, Danish has only nine verb forms. For an English native speaker, Afrikaans is fairly straightforward and one of the easiest languages. However, other features make it one of the hardest languages to learn. Esperanto is an unusual language because it was created by a single man, L.L. Are they high-quality? By the way, you won’t find any cognates either. German also has consistent verb tenses and only one present and past verb, which is a big help. Cognates are commonplace between Portuguese and English, thanks to the influence of French on English. That’s not all: adjectives have 6 cases, pronouns have 7 cases and it has a complex way of declining numerals. This language isn’t as distant from English as you may think. You may even be an avid traveler wanting to pick a few phrases before arriving at your next destination. Even the word car comes from càr in Gaelic! First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else) accustomed to the Latin alphabet. However, it is also undoubtedly a very beautiful language. In addition, their verbs have three persons, two numbers, two tenses and two moods. Learning a new language is always fun, especially for those who are language lovers. for city. Gaelic starts out on the right foot: it uses the Latin script, has phonetic spelling and follows consistent grammar rules. different inflections of the same sound for different meaning)? The languages included in this list are spoken in different countries of the world. Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! This can be both a blessing and a curse, as Portuguese is known for having lots of “false friends,” words that sound similar but mean something different. Turkish is a distinctive language with some quirky rules. While it doesn’t use the Cyrillic alphabet, Czech is part of the Slavic language family and takes complexity to the next level. The first difficult aspect is writing in Japanese. While many people think that English is the world’s most spoken language, Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. The only tricky part? Mandarin is probably one of the most difficult languages in the globe for an English speaker to learn. Luckily, there is some overlap with English, since Ireland and Scotland are neighbors to England. In addition, it has some finicky rules about consonants, which change spelling depending on endings, especially the letters k, p and t. Learners may also be put off by the way words can be inflected by verbs, nouns and adjectives. Are language resources readily available? Regardless of the language challenge, it’s a feat that is amazingly impressive for those who speak Mandarin fluently. Hindi language has ten vowels and 40 consonants and is characterized by bars on top of symbols. German also has consistent verb tenses and only one present and past verb, which is a big help. In other words, go for the low-hanging fruit. Here are the 25 Most Difficult Languages To Learn In The World! Let’s get linguistic! Linguists think it’s one of the oldest languages in the world, which is why it’s a bit old-fashioned. There are plenty of examples! Not only are there thousands of cognates, but also similarities in the grammar, syntax and vocabulary. A practical example is a sentence like “I read books” when spoken in Korean changes to “I books read.” This change in sentence structure makes it very difficult and sometimes confusing to English speakers. Mandarin is famous for being one of the hardest languages to learn. Polish is also stuffed with consonants. bus, train, man, dog etc. But there’s no doubt that this sing-song language is within your reach. Cognates are commonplace between Portuguese and English, thanks to the influence of French on English. Romanian is also consistently phonetic, so words are pronounced as they’re spelled. Mandarin is a Chinese language that is often referred to as the most difficult to learn. to Norwegian! Atención: since it’s a Romance language, you can expect lots of cognates to boost your vocabulary too. Indonesian is a popular language that’s easy to pick up. (To say speed limit in German, it’s this mouthful. The language is in the Finno-Urgic language family, so it doesn't have any Latin or German influence to help you guess what something means. Best of luck! Not to mention that compound words are likely to freak you once in a while. There are only three verb tenses in Polish: present, past and future. Almost everything about Mandarin can be overwhelming at first (although the grammar rules are thankfully fairly simple). Well, it’s an Indo-European language, which means there are some useful cognates between Persian and English. Polish is also stuffed with consonants. Hindi is a language spoken by approximately 260 million people across the world. For example, Japanese might be one of the hardest languages out there for a native English speaker (or so I’ve often heard), but for a Korean person learning Japanese, this latter will be infinitely easier than to learn English, simply because Japanese and Korean have so much more in common than Korean and English. Icelandic has an unusual noun system, with four cases, three genders and two numbers. Our favorite English word from Dutch is koekje, meaning cookie. Before we begin, we’d like to note that no list like this can be 100% accurate as language learning – and assessing the hardest languages to learn – is subjective. As a Scandinavian language, it’s similar to Norwegian and Swedish, but with a few twists. It also tacks on participles and pronouns to show subject and object within the verb. It is also the official language of Fiji. Once you’ve determined the why, you can speed up your language learning with these tips: At the end of the day, learning a language can be tough, but also rewarding. Speaking and Writing: Very Difficult You’ll have to do the work no matter what! Asian languages have inverted syntax from English meaning that you first have to first learn the syntax before learning the language. Then there’s the grammar. For English speakers, some languages may appear harder than others to speak and comprehend. To make matters worse, the language is rich in homophones (words that sound the same but have different meanings). too (just like English). Finally, Mandarin is known for its many homophones and idioms, which can be culturally distant from English. Korean also has some difficult pronunciation, such as the double G, double P, double J and double K, which can be challenging to say fluidly. Dutch is in the Germanic language family, which includes German and English. To further complicate things, each of these systems has a different alphabet. Mamma mia! However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it. Finally, spelling is super intuitive, with many words written halfway between Dutch and English. Like English, Polish isn’t too consistent with phonetics either, so the same sound could be spelled in several ways. The language is made difficult to learn by the fact that thousands of characters have to be learned before one can write in Japanese. In case you didn’t know, Romanian is a Romance language and linguists say it’s 80% Latin. Danish is favorite for polyglots and one of the easiest languages for English learners. On the bright side, Hungarian only has three verb tenses: past, present and future! So, for a simple sentence like “I am going,” Swahili speakers would say “, Hindi is highly phonetic, which means it’s spelled the way it sounds – score! Eyjafjallajökull was so difficult for them to pronounce that most shortened it to E13. Though within Europe, Finnish isn’t part of the Indo-European languages. That means plenty of Latin roots and cognates to look forward to, such as. My advice, don’t try learn this language especially if you speak English. However, it’s also heavily influenced by Bantu, Persian, English and Romance languages. Interested in learning Chinese? Some linguists also say that the rhythm of Italian makes it easy to learn in conversation, as intonations make meaning clear. For instance, Basque doesn’t simply change the end of the verb, it changes the beginning too. Maybe learning a new language is on your bucket list. For many it’s considered one of the hardest languages to learn because it’s a language isolate. Afrikaans was then infused with indigenous languages and other linguist influences. There are only three verb tenses in Polish: present, past and future. In addition, the language has three different writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Daily goals? In fact, one linguistic study found that 40% of German words sound similar to their English equivalent. For example, to make plural nouns in Spanish, you add, like English. The hardest part about Spanish is the huge variety of dialects, as it’s officially spoken in, . For example, to make plural nouns in Spanish, you add -s like English. , meaning “I’m wondering if I should eat something.” The silver lining of Finnish is that it’s fairly phonetic! Finnish has 15 grammatical cases and each verb can have 200 possible endings given all the endings! Swahili is one of the few African languages without tone, which makes it one of the easiest languages for native English speakers. It also has VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be hard to keep straight at first. In addition, Arabic is read from right to left, has a unique alphabet and requires you to learn new sounds. Named the easiest Romance language, Italian has different grammar than English, but it’s consistent and often simpler to create sentences. The biggest difference is likely the new sounds, including sch and ij. Overall, Dutch is English’s closest cousin. Without Germanic or Latin influence, Finnish vocabulary is completely alien to English speakers. The most unusual aspect of Swahili is the lack of verb conjugations. While it doesn’t use the Cyrillic alphabet, Czech is part of the Slavic language family and takes complexity to the next level. Knowing whether a language is easy or hard is good for setting expectations, but it’s still subjective. Zamenhof purposely wanted to make an easy-to-learn language for all people. Take for example the word star, written as setareh in Persian. Tagalog. It’s a unique language with 35% of its vocabulary coming from Arabic. Oh, and it’s definitely got similar sounding words to English. Instead, it adds affixes to verbs to indicate tense and subject. This script system is quite distinct from the English alphabet because it doesn’t uses letter case (so no caps here!). Icelandic has a reputation for difficult pronunciation, due to its long words and new sounds like Þ and Ð, which can be either voiced or voiceless. On the other hand, don’t be discouraged by seeing that a language is one of the hardest. Since Japan is a polite culture, it’s important to use hierarchical forms to show respect to authority figures, too. This means that when you see a Chinese text, each character is its own word, ie. Even the easiest languages to learn won’t be a piece of cake. While you may consider how long it will take to learn the language and how useful it will be for you, the best predictor for language learning success is being excited about it (and maintaining that excitement over the long-term). For example, the word happiness in Polish is szczęście, which has six syllables. First off, Polish has 9 additional letters – ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż – which can be challenging to get right. It also has quirky grammar because of its geographical isolation, which allowed it to keep old rules and forms. With so much time on our hands during lockdown, many of us have entertained the idea of learning a foreign language. 7). Like English, Polish isn’t too consistent with phonetics either, so the same sound could be spelled in several ways. It is spoken by approximately 422 million people around the globe. To make life easier, Indonesian doesn’t have distinct verb endings, and adds prefixes and suffixes onto words to change the meaning. Not to mention that compound words are likely to freak you once in a while. This is due to its tonal sound and abundance of characters, words, and rules. Nowadays with apps like WhatsApp, it’s easy to record and send audios of yourself. This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty. – a close relative of Dutch. It is highly phonetic, unlike English. Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Regardless of the ranking, you’re the boss when it comes to learning a language. In addition, their writing system, Devanagari script, has 47 characters including 14 vowels and 33 consonants. Today, we’ll go through the 28 easiest and hardest languages to learn – and why – for a native English speaker. All you need is -är to form verbs for everybody. 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