Which languages ​​are the most difficult to learn?

Which languages ​​are the most difficult to learn?

The 10 languages ​​most difficult for native English speakers to learn, based on data from the U.S. Department of State's Foreign Service Institute

We've already written about which language is best to learn based on a number of different criteria. The verdict was in French, which as a Romance language is relatively easy for English speakers. (We emphasize the word “relative” because all language learning requires effort.)

Some of the most interesting data in the article comes from the US State Department's Foreign Service Institute (FSI). The FSI trains diplomats in language learning and maintains an internal ranking of language difficulties (specifically, how long it would take a native English speaker to reach proficiency).

Here we examine 10 of the most difficult languages ​​to learn based on FSI rankings.

Most difficult languages ​​to learn

Before we begin, we want to point out that no list like this can be 100% accurate because language learning – and ranking the hardest languages ​​to learn – is subjective. Difficulty levels can vary depending on a person's memory capacity, dedication and motivation.

In short, don't let this list discourage you.

1. Japanese

Lessons: 2,200No. of native speakers: 122 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Japan

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Learners of Japanese must memorize thousands of characters and deal with three different writing systems (kanji, hiragana and katakana) and a number system with two different pronunciations.

Japanese was once classified as an isolated language (a natural language with no genealogical relationship to other languages), but is now classified as part of the small Japanese family along with the Ryukyuan languages, native to Japan's Ryukyu Islands.

Additionally, Japanese is a highly contextual language. The forms spoken with family, with friends, with seniors, by women, men and children are different, so speakers must choose words carefully so as not to be rude or seem inappropriately childlike, feminine or masculine.

Fact: Most Japanese speakers outside of Japan live in Brazil - around 1.5 million in total. (Source: Japao100, taken from Resistance & Integration: 100 Years of Japanese Immigration in Brazil)

2. Chinese (Mandarin and Cantonese)

Lessons: 2,200No. of native speakers: 1.2 billionCountry with the largest number of speakers: China

alt=“Hardest language to learn: Chinese”>

Similar to Japanese, Chinese requires understanding thousands of characters. It is said that knowing 3,000 characters will allow you to read a newspaper, while a highly educated person might understand 8,000 characters - out of a total of over 50,000!

Learners may also struggle with the fact that Chinese is a tonal language, where the meaning of a word changes depending on the tone in which it is said.

Learners also complain about the lack of intuitiveness of the language. Sinologist David Moser writes: "Chinese's weak phonetics will never provide you with the constant memory boost that English's phonetic quality does. Which means you often just forget how to write a character entirely."

Fact: About one in five of the world's population speaks some form of Chinese. (Source: BBC)

3. Korean

Lessons: 2,200No. of native speakers: 66.3 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: South Korea

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Korean has two different number systems and no demonstrable relationship to other languages, making it a language isolate.

Korean is also a contextual language, similar to Japanese. A single sentence in Korean can be said in three different ways based on the relationship between speaker and listener.

Perhaps most complicated is the fact that verbs can be conjugated in hundreds of ways based on tense, mood, age, and seniority. Even more confusing for English speakers is that adjectives are also conjugated with hundreds of possible endings.

Fact: The Korean word for “Swiss army knife” is “maekgaibeo kal”. Kal is a Korean word, but maekgaibeo apparently comes from MacGyver, the '80s TV series about a resourceful secret agent who used a Swiss Army knife and duct tape to escape sticky situations. We're not sure we'll be taken for a ride, but it's a great story if it's true. (Source: charles-wetzel.com)

4. Arabic

Lessons: 2,200No. of native speakers: 221 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Egypt

alt=“Hardest Language to Learn: Arabic Tea Set”>

The Arabic alphabet is much smaller than Chinese or Japanese, but can be just as intimidating. Its cursive script consists of 28 letters complemented by three vowels, but most letters take four different forms depending on whether they stand alone or appear at the beginning, end, or middle of a sentence.

Additionally, the peculiarities of Arabic pronunciation can be difficult to master, most commonly the 'ayn sound, formally known as the "voiced pharyngeal fricative" (those crazy linguists, eh?).

It is also worth noting that a present tense verb in Arabic has 13 forms, combining person (first, second or third), number (singular, dual or plural) and gender (male or female).

Fact: The earliest form of Arabic literature is poetry, which makes sense considering it is such a beautiful language. (Source: Pimsleur)

5. Estonian

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 1.2 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Estonia

alt=“Hardest language to learn: Estonian Skyline”>

Estonian is classified as a difficult language because it uses 14 noun cases. English has largely lost its case system, but the distinction can be demonstrated by personal pronouns: forms such as I, he and we are used in the subject role ("I touched the book"), while forms such as I, he and we are used in the object role ("Maria touched me").

Now expand that to 14 versions and you'll have an idea of ​​why Estonian is classified as complex.

Consonants and vowels in Estonian can come in three lengths (short, long, excessively long) and often change the meaning of a word (lina is "linen", while linna is "city"). In addition, Estonian has 25 dipthongs (when two adjacent vowels occur within the same syllable) and many exceptions to defined grammar rules.

Fact: Estonia has the (joint) second highest literacy rate in the world at 99.8%, ahead of the UK (99%), USA (99%), Canada (99%) and Australia (96%). (Source: CIA World Factbook)

6. Finnish

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 5 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Finland

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Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family with Estonian and Hungarian all appearing on this list. Although this language family is rooted in Europe, it has no Germanic or Latin influences, making it difficult for English speakers.

Similar to Estonian, Finnish is difficult because it deals with numerous cases - 15 to be exact.

Barry Farber, author of How to Learn any Language, has studied 25 languages ​​and says Finnish and Korean are the two most difficult languages ​​he has ever mastered. In a 2005 interview he confided:

"Finnish [is hard] because of the complexity of the grammar - a lot of people bleed their noses over the six noun cases in Latin/Russian, seven in Serbo-Croatian, you have 15 noun cases in the singular and 16 in the plural. I like to joke that I spent five days in my hotel room in Helsinki to learn enough to get down."

Fact: The longest Finnish word consists of 61 letters. “Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas” means “assistant mechanic, non-commissioned officer, in training”, “aircraft jet turbine engine”. (Source: This is Finland)

7. Hungarian

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 13 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Hungary

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In Hungarian, possession, tense and number are indicated by 18 case suffixes instead of word order. This means that a sentence can take on multiple meanings if the suffixes are slightly changed.

Hungarian has many unique vowels (á,é,ó,ö,ő,ú,ü,ű,í) and consonant pairs (ty, gy, ny, sz, zs, dzs, dz, ly, cs), making it difficult for English speakers to read and pronounce the language despite the use of the Latin alphabet.

Fact: According to some theorists, one of the earliest fragments of Hungarian was found in Nova Scotia, carved into the runestone. This has never been confirmed, but if true would prove that European explorers reached the Americas long before Columbus. The Yarmouth County Museum remains neutral. (Source: Yarmouth Country Museum)

8. Mongolian

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 5.7 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Mongolia / Inner Mongolia

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The Mongolian writing system has evolved through several iterations and is currently available in two main variants: the traditional Mongolian alphabet, which is read vertically and used in Inner Mongolia, and the Cyrillic alphabet, which is read horizontally and used in everyday life and on the Internet

Mongolia is a challenge because it also works with numerous cases. Eight cases are used and distinguished by suffixes. Changes to these suffixes can change the meaning of entire sentences.

Fact: The earliest known text in the Old Mongolian language is the Stele of Yisungge, dated to around 1224 AD. Fortunately, it is not a religious text, but a sports report chronicling the archery achievements of Yisungge, Genghis Khan's nephew. (Source: Mongolia by Guek-Cheng Pang)

9. Vietnamese

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 68.6 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Vietnam

alt=“Vietnamese man”>(Image: © Saad Alfarhan | Dreamstime)

Similar to Chinese, Vietnamese is a tonal language. There are six tones, indicated by different symbols (e.g. a grave accent, an acute, a hook, a tilde, or a dot under the word).

There are several different incarnations of a single word, each conveying a different meaning through its tone. This means that sentences like “Ban bạn bán bàn bẩn” make grammatical sense (“Friend Ban sells dirty tables”). In addition to memorizing the written markings, learners must also learn to recognize the different sounds spoken.

Fact: Vietnamese is an officially recognized minority language in the Czech Republic. (Source: Government of the Czech Republic)

10. Thai

Lessons: 1,100No. of native speakers: 20.4 millionCountry with the largest number of speakers: Thailand

alt=“Hardest language to learn: Thai boats”>

Thai makes the list because it is also a tonal language and is often considered one of the most difficult languages ​​to learn. It uses five different tones that can change the context of what is being said. Pronunciation is also very important. The Thai characters ก, ข, ฃ, ค, ฅ, ฆ correspond to the letter K, but all have slight differences in pronunciation.

Journalist James Goyder tells this anecdote in The Telegraph: "When I first moved to Thailand, I lived on Kata Beach in Phuket... On one memorable occasion, I tried to tell a motorcycle taxi driver at the market in Chalong that I wanted to go to Kata, one of the island's tourist hotspots, only to be met with a look of complete understanding.

He called over some friends to try to decipher what I was trying to tell him, and more and more motorcycle taxi drivers gathered around me as I repeated the word "kata" over and over again, hoping that one of them would eventually understand.

I had probably tried saying it about 20 times when the penny finally dropped and one of them realized I wanted to be taken to Phuket's second largest beach. His face lit up and he turned to the others and shouted triumphantly, "Ga! Ta!"

Fact: Thai words usually only have one syllable. Polysyllabic words came into the language from Sanskrit or Pali, the language of Buddhism. (Source: Culture Shock! Thailand: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette by Robert Cooper)

Hardest Languages ​​to Learn: Full Ranking

See the Foreign Service Institute's Language Difficulty Rankings.

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(Mission statement: Luftikus/Shutterstock; additional photos: Dreamstime)

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