The Top 25 Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers
The Top 25 Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers
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What Are The Hardest Languages To Learn In The World
Have you ever wondered which languages are the most difficult to learn?
Perhaps you are:
Seeking a new year's language challenge?
Need something to help keep your mind sharp and stimulate your brain?
You've been stumped by a relatively simple language like French or Spanish, and you're now wondering just how difficult languages may be?
While many individuals seek out the simplest languages to learn, we recognize that some language learners like a challenge.
That's why I set out to answer another one of the most often asked questions: "What are the hardest languages to learn for English speakers?"
Whether you're a polyglot seeking a new challenge, a first-time learner hoping to avoid troubled waters, or simply curious, I've created a list of the languages experts say are the most difficult to learn if you're from an English-speaking background.
If you've ever been curious about which languages are the most difficult to learn - at least for English speakers – you’ll discover the 25 most challenging languages.
Learning a new language may be enjoyable and provide new opportunities. Maybe learning a new language is something you've always wanted to do. You may also wish to improve your language abilities for use at work.
RELATED: What Language Should I Learn? Take the Quiz To Find Out.
You could even be a frequent traveller who wants to brush up on a few words before heading to your next location. Learning a new language, for whatever reason, can be exciting and, well, hard.
A good challenge excites some individuals. They can take a little longer to learn, but they're well worth the effort! Some languages, however, are simpler to learn than others. What languages are the most difficult to learn? Many people find it difficult to learn English. But what few people discuss is how difficult it is for English speakers to learn other languages.
It's a good idea to think about which languages are the easiest and hardest to learn when you select what language to study next. Whether you consider a language to be simple or difficult is highly dependent on your native language and a variety of other variables. Take Thai, for instance, which is a tonal language.
For a native English speaker who has never utilized tones before, Thai may be one of the most difficult languages to learn. Thai, on the other hand, may be easier to understand for a Vietnamese native speaker who uses tones often. For a native English speaker, I've prepared a list of the 25 most difficult languages to learn in the world - and why.
Certain languages consistently rank as the most difficult for English learners throughout the world, according to studies. Let's start to work on our language skills!
But don’t be put off! Get a free trial of the Pimsleur method and you’ll see how to learn a difficult language in just 30 minutes a day.
What languages are the most difficult to learn? It is dependent on the languages you are already fluent in. When it comes to the ease with which a new language may be learned, no two languages are alike. This is due to the fact that the ease of learning is determined by the native language.
The fact is that all languages have developed in such a way that they are simple to learn, thus there is no such thing as a more difficult language. Languages that come from the same family tree as your mother tongue are easier to learn. People think English is difficult to learn, yet English speakers find learning other languages more challenging.
Some may wonder if English is the most difficult language to learn. It is the world's most widely spoken language. The similarity or difference between another language and one in which you are already fluent determines how easy or difficult it is to learn. If you're already fluent in German, for example, learning Dutch shouldn't take long.
You may now see why Spanish has parallels to languages such as German, Italian, and French, and why Korean has connections to languages such as Mandarin and Japanese. As a result, native Korean speakers will have a different set of languages to study than native English speakers like ourselves. Learning a new language is never straightforward. It's a true mind-boggling task.
However, there are a few things you may do to make language learning simpler. It's also possible to make it more challenging. Learning French or Spanish has its own set of challenges, but the majority of the learning is in new vocabulary and grammar.
If you think studying a little French or Spanish in your spare time is challenging, you have no idea what you're up against when it comes to learning other languages from across the world.
Do you want to learn Hungarian? Or Thai, which has an astounding 44 consonants and 32 distinct vowels in its alphabet? If that's the case, you'd better be ready to study. If you're going to go through that tedious process, you may as well go all-in and learn a more difficult language, where you'll be tested by new alphabets, characters, writing styles, and sounds.
Taking on the added challenge of languages like these puts you in a great position to work as a translator or interpreter in a less competitive (but more sought-after, higher-paying) language combination.
In just moments you’ll discover:
25 Most difficult languages to learn
What’s the hardest language to learn
We'll concentrate only on the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn (hint: they're in separate linguistic branches than English!).
Some of the many benefits of learning a difficult language includes:
Travel with ease.
More job opportunities, including a higher income with being bilingual or multilingual.
Being able to communicate with loved ones (family, romantic relationships, make new friends).
Not as many people may be up for the challenge or haven’t learned a difficult language, whereas you could fit into a small population of people being able to speak a difficult language that could lead to more opportunities.
Learning a language allows you to communicate with people from all over the world. If you're willing to put in the work and effort, you'll be able to learn even the most difficult languages quickly and effortlessly. Some people believe that a certain language is the most difficult to learn in the world, but it's all a question of perspective.
What you find difficult may be easy for someone with a different language background. If you learn and master a difficult language, more opportunities will arise for you as far as jobs with an increase in pay, making travelling easier, and being able to communicate with loved ones, including family, relatives, and friends. If you want to master one of these languages, be prepared to devote some serious study time.
I've prepared a list of the most difficult languages to learn in order to help you determine which language to choose. Without further ado, here are the twenty-five languages that are the most difficult (but also the most gratifying) to learn.
Why Learn a Hard Language?
Languages allow us to be the social creatures that we are. We rely totally on language to connect and comprehend each other, from "hello, how are you?" to "bye, see you later," and learning a new one may open you up to new cultures and experiences.
There are thousands of languages, each with a different level of complexity, and our capacity to communicate has allowed us to progress as communities and civilizations. Some languages are easy to learn, while others are difficult to grasp.
If you're wondering why you should learn a difficult language, consider the following:
Why would you want to learn another language in the first place?
The most common reason is communication, however there are other benefits to learning a language (particularly one that few people would learn).
Increase Your Mental Capacity
Did you know that learning a new language enhances your memory and critical thinking abilities significantly?
Here are some of the additional skills you'll gain by learning one of the world's most difficult languages:
Skills in listening
Mental adaptability
Skills in social interaction
Multitasking and problem-solving abilities
Learning a new language can help you make more reasonable and well-informed choices.
Why Some Languages Are Easier or Harder Than Others
There are several linguistic elements that influence how simple or difficult a language is for various speakers. However, the reasons are often divided into six categories:
Grammatical concepts: Does the language's grammar resemble those of the native tongue? Is there any new terminology, such as gender? Or are there variations in word order, verb tenses, or other topics?
Language family: Does the language belong to the same family as the others? Do you have any cognates and/or borrowed words? Is it easy to recognize vocabulary words?
Sounds and tones: Is the language using the same sounds and tones? Are there any new or unusual sounds? Is the language tonal (that is, various inflections of the same sound to convey different meanings)?
Writing system: Is the writing system used in both languages the same? Is the script written in a different order (for example, from right to left)? Is there a lot of memorizing in the script?
Cultural distance: How culturally distant is the language from the native language? Is there any evidence of substantial cultural differences in the language?
Resources for learning languages: Is it easy to find language resources? Is it easy to find primary resources (music, movies, books, and newspapers)? Is the product of good quality?
These are the major factors for determining whether a language is easy or difficult. Keep in mind that all of these categories are dependent on the individual's linguistic background.
When it comes to learning a language, you are in charge. Every language needs work and practice. Even the simplest languages are difficult to master. Whatever happens, you'll have to put in the effort! On the other hand, don't be put off by the fact that a language is one of the most difficult. If you're interested in learning a language, you'll learn it faster.
While you may think about how long it will take you to master the language and how helpful it will be to you, the biggest indicator of language learning success is how enthusiastic you are about studying it (and maintaining that excitement over the long-term). It's helpful to know if a language is simple or difficult to create expectations, but it's still subjective. Remember that learning a language is not impossible. You've got this!
What Makes a Language Hard To Learn?
What Makes a Language Difficult To Learn?
There will always be various linguistic features that will pop up depending on the type of language you’ll learn, and their presence in a language might be a strong indicator of how difficult it will be to learn it.
For example…
Grammar that is difficult to understand may make things harder.
Case-based languages, in particular, are regarded as difficult.
Pronunciation might be a stumbling issue for some people.
And tonal languages are extremely difficult to learn if your native tongue lacks tones.
Learning a new writing system can be challenging at times, however this is mostly dependent on the language you are studying.
Taking on a more challenging language might add to the difficulty rating since progress will be hard if you don't have materials to learn from and people to practice with.
What’s The Hardest Language For You To Learn?
What Is The Most Difficult Language In The World To Learn?
Languages that are closely connected to your own mother tongue are typically considerably easier to learn than more distant languages. As a result, for example, a native Chinese speaker's ranking of the most difficult languages would be rather different.
Finally, because everyone is different, the second important variable is you. While some people may go crazy attempting to master tones, others may regard cases as their worst nightmare. Making a ranking of the world's "hardest" languages is a subjective task. I could have easily included a lot more.
But don't worry, if you're searching for something to do with your spare time, any of the languages on this list will keep you occupied! My final thought is that no language is impossible to learn if you know how to approach it.
If you try to learn Chinese, Japanese, or Russian, the difficulties of the writing, tones, and cases will rapidly fade away if you practice every day. Even if you study one of the so-called "easy" languages but just practice once a week, mastering the language will be a lengthy and difficult process.
Mandarin Chinese
The irony is that Mandarin, one of the most difficult languages to learn, is also the most commonly spoken native language on the planet.
What Makes Mandarin One Of The Hardest Languages To Learn?
Mandarin is one of the hardest languages to learn - from learning how to write or type in alphabets you don't recognize, to mastering the many tones that make up Mandarin.
What Is The Hardest Language To Learn For English Speakers
1. Albanian
Albanian is an Indo-European language spoken in Kosovo, Albania, Bulgaria, and Macedonia. This is a centuries-old language that was initially spoken by ancient Montenegrin, Italian, and Greek populations. Other languages, such as German and Greek, have comparable word characteristics. Its vocabulary, on the other hand, is considerably different from that of other languages.
2. Arabic
Arabic, which is also one of the top five most spoken global languages, comes next on the list of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers. Arabic is spoken natively by about 300 million people in 31 countries. Arabic is predominantly spoken in the Middle East, although it is also spoken throughout Africa.
For starters, there are hundreds of different variations of Arabic, which are typically classified by the location or country in which they are spoken and can be very different from one another. The Arabic spoken in Egypt, for example, differs from that spoken in Saudi Arabia.
There are two types of Arabic: Modern Standard Arabic, which is used in print, the media, and internet material, and spoken Arabic, which encompasses a variety of regional dialects. So the first step is to pick a dialect to study, but that's the easy part. When conversing with native speakers, though, it’s important to consider where they are from.
An Arabic speaker from Morocco, for example, could have a hard time comprehending an Arabic speaker from Egypt. Many colloquial dialects of spoken Arabic make it difficult to communicate in the language. If you learn conversational Arabic in Egypt, you could have trouble understanding (and being understood by) your Saudi Arabian coworker.
If the sheer quantity of native Arabic speakers in the globe isn't enough to persuade you, consider the growing demand for Arabic in the United States. Because so few Americans choose to study Arabic, learning this language sets you out from the pack, regardless of your industry.
In order to handle the complex political, economic, and military challenges that surround the United States, Europe, and the Middle East, U.S. government agencies have stated a rising need for Arabic speakers, and studying this language may help you obtain a very excellent government job.
In order to comprehend the expanding market, an increasing number of firms and organizations are looking for the same thing, and there is now a much larger supply than demand.
Finally, studying Arabic may provide you with intriguing and useful insights into a widely misunderstood culture and religion, as well as assist you in becoming a better educated global citizen. According to the Foreign Services Institute, learning Arabic might take up to two years. It's no surprise that the Foreign Service Institute predicts that learning Arabic will take you 2,200 hours!
Arabic is as far apart from English as you can go in terms of linguistics and culture. Those who are familiar with Hebrew or Hindi, however, will find Arabic a little easier to learn, as Hebrew's written language has some similarities to Arabic's, while Hindi has some vocabulary with Arabic. Many Arabic terms are difficult for English speakers to understand, making pronunciation a big issue.
Arabic has quite distinct speech patterns and sounds than English. Some of the sounds employed, such as noises generated in the back of your throat, don't exist in other languages or are just unknown to English speakers. Another language having a non-Latin script is Arabic.
It uses a completely different alphabet. Furthermore, the script and reading direction are difficult for people to understand. The difficulty in studying Arabic stems from the fact that you must master a new alphabet. Individuals struggle with new speech patterns and sounds that are not found in English, in addition to having a completely different alphabet, both in writing and reading direction.
There are similar vocabularies and cognates when studying other Germanic languages, however this is not the case with Arabic and English. Those who have even a rudimentary understanding of the alphabet must be able to recognize the vowel markings, which can significantly alter the meaning of a word.
Prepare to read and write backwards: one of the most challenging elements of Arabic is that it is written from right to left, which is the polar opposite of what we English speakers are accustomed to. Furthermore, depending on where they're placed in a word, most letters assume 4 distinct forms, and vowels aren't included while writing.
Although the 28 script letters are easier for English speakers to understand than the hundreds of Chinese characters, learning a new writing system takes time. The absence of most vowels in Arabic words makes reading and writing in the language extremely difficult for beginners. There are many words with more than 10 synonyms, the majority of which have the same meaning.
This indicates that a single meaning may be conveyed using several words. There are numerous grammatical rules, even a small alteration in words or a letter can completely change the meaning. It's not just about the writing, though; it's also about the Arabic you're learning. That is why it is so difficult to translate written Arabic.
3. Cantonese
Cantonese is a Sino Tibetan language that is spoken by more than 100 million people worldwide, mostly in Hong Kong and Macau. It is widely spoken in Chinatowns across the world. It relies heavily on tones to distinguish between words, which makes it a difficult language to learn.
While Mandarin has four distinct tones that make it difficult for English speakers to understand, Cantonese has twice as many tones as Mandarin—eight in total. You won't be able to learn to read phonetically because of the visual writing style.
Furthermore, because Mandarin is a simplified version of Cantonese that is widely spoken throughout mainland China, there are less resources available for learning Cantonese. You'll also have to cope with traditional Chinese script rather than the simplified version used on the mainland if you learn it in Hong Kong.
4. Chinese (Mandarin)
Mandarin Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn, yet it is also one of the most widely spoken native languages on the planet, with over 1.2 billion speakers. China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Singapore all speak it as their official language. The People's Republic of China (PRC), the Republic of China (Taiwan), and Singapore all speak Standard Chinese.
Based on the Beijing dialect, Mandarin Chinese is the standard literary form and official Chinese language. This language, which is spoken by roughly a fifth of the world's population, is regarded as one of the hardest to master, particularly for English speakers. As a result, if you learn this language, you will be able to communicate with 13% of the world's population.
Even yet, learning Mandarin is a major issue for a natural English speaker. However, just because something is hard doesn't mean it's not worthwhile — learning Mandarin, as one of the world's most commonly spoken languages, is a task worth taking on. What does this imply for students?
Mandarin is a little easier to learn because there are so many speakers to practice with and learn from, but that's about it. The Foreign Service Institute ranks Mandarin as one of the hardest languages to master for English speakers.
If the sheer quantity of native speakers isn't enough to persuade you to study Mandarin, consider this: Mandarin is anticipated to be one of the top 10 most important languages in the future, according to a recent British Council report.
Furthermore, because China is presently contending with the United States for the world's greatest GDP and Mandarin is the second most popular internet language, it is a very useful language in the commercial and IT worlds. If you include Mandarin on your cover letter, you'll wow potential employers and will open you to a whole new world of employment possibilities.
There are numerous Chinese dialects, including Cantonese, which is spoken largely in southeastern China, as well as Hong Kong and other regions of Southeast Asia, and has its own set of written characters and pronunciations. It is also extremely difficult to master.
According to the FSI, learning Mandarin takes an average of about 88 weeks (one year and roughly 8 months) of intense study and over 2,200 hours of study for a natural English speaker. Why is it so difficult: It may be the most widely spoken language on the planet, but English speakers face unique challenges. Mandarin Chinese is difficult for a variety of reasons.
To begin with, Mandarin is a tonal language that is exceedingly difficult for an English speaker to grasp. With four tones in Mandarin Chinese (the most popular dialect), one word can be pronounced four distinct ways, each with a different meaning. A change in tone or intonation of your voice, similar to Cantonese, can completely transform the meaning of a phrase.
Mandarin is exceedingly difficult to learn because of these tones; the tonal structure of the language makes it difficult to pronounce. This language has its own alphabet, which adds to the fun! First and foremost, English speakers (and anybody else) used to the Latin alphabet will find the writing method exceedingly challenging.
People studying Mandarin must memorize hundreds of unique characters, unlike those encountered in Latin-based languages, in addition to the typical challenges that come with learning any language from the start. Literacy also requires the mastery of thousands of characters. Because Mandarin is not a phonetic language, learning and writing the words might be difficult.
In China, simply searching up Chinese words in a dictionary is considered a skill, which should indicate how difficult the language is! Mandarin is a character-based language with about 20,000 characters in written form.
While certain key characters are represented by other symbols (almost like root words in many Western languages), reading and writing Mandarin requires a great deal of study and memory of very complicated characters. To make matters even more complicated, unlike many other languages, the written version of the language has no phonic link to the spoken form.
There are also a number of terms that have no clear English equivalent. However, there is one advantage to learning Mandarin: grammar. Mandarin is considerably easier to learn than Indo-European languages since words have just one grammatical form.
Chinese is a one-of-a-kind language in that it is largely reliant on grammatical structures and the speaker's tone. In other languages, novice speakers with a rudimentary knowledge of grammar may get by; but, in Chinese, a grammatical error can lead to a misunderstanding.
Furthermore, the writing system and the spoken system are distinct entities, thus reading and writing must be addressed separately from communication. However, writing isn't the only challenging aspect of learning Mandarin. It's also filled with idioms, aphorisms, and homophones, making it difficult to master without also understanding some culture.
5. Croatian
Croatian is a standardized version of the Serbo-Croatian language and one of the European Union's official languages. It is based on the Eastern Herzegovinian dialect, which also serves as the foundation for many other languages such as Montenegrin, Standard Serbian, and Bosnian.
6. Czech
Czech is a member of the Slavic language family and takes complexity to a new level, while not using the Cyrillic alphabet. Don't be fooled by the Latin alphabet; it's a famously difficult language to master. It's easy to mistake it for Russian to the untrained ear.
And, like Russian, it uses cases – this time a total of seven. It also has four genders, so be prepared to be baffled by Czech grammar.
Czech nouns, for example, have 15 times the number of possibilities as German nouns! Not only that, but adjectives have six cases, pronouns have seven, and there is a complicated manner of decreasing numbers. Then there's the matter of pronouncing it correctly.
Czech is also one of the most difficult languages to learn due to the way consonants cluster in words, making pronunciation difficult! Some Czech noises, notably the ř sound, are impossible to imitate. Many people consider this sound to be the most difficult in any European language. It will be easier if you know another Slavic language, but otherwise it will be difficult.
7. Finnish
With good reason, Finnish has a reputation for being a difficult language to learn. It takes a lot of effort to learn and master this language, but it's well worth it. With 5.4 million native speakers, Finnish is the official language of Scandinavian nations such as Finland and Sweden. Finnish is one of Europe's most difficult languages.
Finnish is not an Indo-European language, even though it is spoken in Europe. Because of its complicated case and vowel systems, strict grammatical rules, and significant differences from its Latin and Germanic equivalents, it is often regarded as one of the most difficult languages to pronounce and learn.
Because the language belongs to the Finno-Ugric family, there is no Latin or German influence to help you figure out what anything means. You won't discover any cognates or shared origins here. Many people consider Finnish and Estonian to be close relatives in terms of speech and language characteristics.
While Finnish is a little easier to learn for newcomers than Estonian, the two languages have a lot in common when it comes to language acquisition difficulties. Then there's the matter of grammar. There are 15 grammatical cases in Finnish, and each verb might have up to 200 different endings!
It also has certain fussy restrictions concerning consonants, notably the letters k, p, and t, which change spelling depending on endings. Learners may also be turned off by the way verbs, nouns, and adjectives may inflect words. There are 15 distinct cases, but only three in English: subjective, objective, and possessive.
One thing that helps is that it's written in the same alphabet as English, so it's a bit easier to learn. Pronunciation is also very simple in theory, although it's easy to get hung up on lengthy vowel and consonant sounds. There are 29 letters in all, with some additions to the standard Roman alphabet.
Because compound words are used, the terms are quite long, and the language is known for having one of the world's longest words, with 61 letters. The grammar of the Finnish language is the most difficult after that of Hungarian. While the writing and pronunciation are close to that of English, the grammar more than makes up for it.
Because you put one word after another with no alterations to the root nouns or verbs, English is easy. However, the syntax makes it considerably more difficult than English.
And just when you think you've figured out how to translate Finnish to English, you'll discover that current Finnish speakers have their own method of expressing feelings that isn't the same as the conventional translation! Because of its pronunciation and writing, it sounds and looks a little like English.
8. Gaelic
This Celtic language, also known as Scottish and Irish Gaelic, is spoken by the people of Scotland and Ireland. Because it uses a Latin character, this language is a little easier than the others on the list. Because Ireland and Scotland are neighbours to England, there is some overlap with English.
Because Gaelic has strong ties to England, it shares several words with the English language. However, because of its numerous grammatical cases and dialects, it is one of the most difficult languages to learn.
This language is difficult to learn due to its grammatical complexity and the presence of numerous Gaelic dialects. In Scotland and Ireland, there are less than 200,000 native Gaelic speakers.
9. Greek
The alphabet is the most difficult aspect of learning this language. It has no relation to several other languages in the region and is the forerunner of many more. With several odd conjugations, a lot of rules, and gendered nouns, the grammar may be a little hard.
Pronunciation also takes considerable practice because certain sounds in English do not have an equivalent. Greek is responsible for almost 12% of all words in the English language. There are still certain parts of the language that new speakers may find difficult.
To comprehend the sounds and pronunciation of Greek, a non-speaker needs a lot of native experience. Many people are perplexed by the stress necessary when speaking to guarantee that the other person knows what you're saying. Improperly placed stresses completely alter the meaning of the word.
10. Hebrew
Hebrew is a Semitic language that has written records reaching back to 1200 BC and is also used in the Bible. It is a member of the Afroasiatic family of languages. It was initially employed in the 10th century BCE by ancient Hebrews and Israelites.
Despite its age, the standardized version of Modern Hebrew is still used to speak and write the language today. It is the state of Israel's primary language. Around 9 million people speak the language around the world, with 90% of them being Jews in Israel and some Israeli Arabs, as well as in the United States.
11. Hindi
There is no shortage of motivation to study one of the world's most commonly spoken languages, with about 260 million native speakers (almost half a billion people). Hindi is a phonetic language, which means it is spelt exactly how it sounds.
For many of the same reasons as Arabic, Hindi is a difficult language to learn for English speakers. Despite being one of the most difficult languages in the world for English speakers, Hindi has many words in common with Arabic, therefore those who already know Arabic will have an advantage in terms of vocabulary!
Apart from that, Hindi has several difficult variations in grammar, pronunciation, and writing. There's a new alphabet to learn, some sounds to practice, and some difficult grammar to master. While some Hindi students prefer to utilize the Latin alphabet, the Devanagari script really aids in pronunciation after letters have been learned.
There are certain dialects of the language that allow for the use of the Latin alphabet. Once a learner gets a grip of the fundamental Hindi characters, the Devanagari script is suggested for better comprehension and pronunciation of words.
Devanagari, the script used to write Hindi, is said to be exceptionally difficult to master. To make matters even more complex, the written version of Hindi lacks certain phonetic markings that would indicate how to pronounce words to a non-native speaker — yet Hindi is a very subtle language, where slight changes in sound and context may completely change the meaning of a word.
12. Hungarian
The official language of Hungary, this language is a European Union language that is spoken by 13 million native speakers in Hungary's communities. Slovakia, Ukraine, Serbia, and Romania also speak it. This makes Hungarian one of the most difficult languages to learn for native English speakers.
Due to its intricate rules, it is regarded as one of the most difficult languages to learn. Hungarian belongs to the same tiny language family as Finnish, thus its vocabulary will be unfamiliar to the ordinary English speaker. Because of the small number of speakers and their geographical location, this language might be difficult to master.
Hungarian, like Finnish, is a member of the Uralic language family, which is distinct from Indo-European languages. To put it another way, that's not the way English speakers typically construct words or phrases. Try Hungarian if you don't mind Russian or Czech. If you want to be challenged, Hungarian has a lot of fun complexities.
It's also a vowel-harmony language, which means that an extra vowel is occasionally inserted at the end of a word to make it sound correct. It also contains 18 cases and 14 vowels, making it difficult to express things correctly. Idioms are also used more frequently in Hungarian than in other languages.
First, it's agglutinative with a 44-letter word, which means that prefixes and suffixes are added to words instead of distinct prepositions. This means that a single, very lengthy verb can represent a large portion of a phrase. The number of cases in Hungarian, like the tones in Cantonese, is debatable — 18, 21, or even 26 have all been mentioned.
What is certain, however, is that Hungarian grammar is among the most perplexing in Europe. As a result, even if you comprehend every word in a phrase, you may still have no clue what it means. There are just three verb tenses in this language: past, present, and future, which will be familiar to many English speakers.
To begin with, Hungarian has a reputation for having difficult grammar. Hungarian grammar is, in essence, what kills English speakers. This is why learning Hungarian is difficult. Hungarian has 26 distinct cases because its grammatical rules are the hardest to master.
In addition, Hungarian contains 14 distinct vowels (compared to English's five) and a feature called vowel harmony, which is also present in Korean and Turkish and involves adding suffixes to phrases to maintain the sounds in harmony.
In Hungarian, suffixes determine tense and possession rather than word order, as is the case in other European languages. Depending on the term, this rule adds 2-3 suffixes to Hungarian. Furthermore, the cultural aspects of Hungarian make it more difficult to learn. These cultural connotations, similar to Japanese, make learning this language in isolation much more difficult.
13. Icelandic
This Indo-European language comes from the North Germanic region. After the colonization of the Americas, it was heavily affected by Danish and Swedish languages. It resembles the ancient Norwegian language in many ways. It resembles German and Dutch in some ways.
This charming Nordic language is spoken by around 330,000 people in Iceland. Icelandic is included on this list, but not because it is a difficult language to learn. I must emphasize that it has some complexity, but in terms of challenges, it is similar to any other language.
The problem arises when it comes to understanding the language. For English speakers, it is usually cited as one of the most difficult languages to learn. Since the eleventh century, this language has evolved in a secluded environment.
As a result, Icelandic has become one of the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers. It doesn't help because there are less than 400,000 native speakers with whom to study and practice, as well as limited resources. This adds to the challenge.
Since Iceland was founded in the ninth and eleventh centuries, the language has remained essentially unaltered, and instead of adopting foreign words for new concepts, Icelandic prefers to coin new words or give new meaning to existing ones.
Icelanders also coin new words to describe new inventions and items that arrive on the island nation, implying that learning the language correctly requires being on the ground. In order to learn it properly, you must be present in the country.
Because of the long words and new sounds, which can be voiced or voiceless, Icelandic has a reputation for being difficult to pronounce. It's difficult to speak because of the long words and letters with a wide range of sounds.
This language does have a unique noun system, with four cases, three genders, and two sets of numbers with different moods — the only way to comprehend Icelandic is to understand the context of the message. In terms of spelling and word order, Icelandic is a complicated language.
You might even stumble upon some cognates. It also has unique grammar as a result of its geographic isolation, which allowed it to keep old rules and forms. The rules are consistent once you get the idea of Icelandic, but it takes some time to learn.
Even though Icelandic is not among the most difficult languages on this list, it is nonetheless a tough language to master. All of this makes learning a big task.
14. Indonesian
The Indonesian language has long been the commercial language across the Indonesian archipelago. It is regarded as one of the world's most commonly spoken languages. Indonesia has the world's fourth-highest population density.
15. Japanese
Japanese is the native language of Japan and is spoken by more than 130 million people worldwide, making it the ninth most spoken language on the planet. Japan's national language is spoken mostly in Japan, but also internationally and on certain Pacific islands.
It's also worth noting that Japanese is among the third most popular languages on the internet, meaning that Japanese speakers are only outnumbered by English and Mandarin speakers.
To top it off, Japanese has surpassed English as the world's fastest spoken language! Japanese, which is among the top 25 most difficult languages to learn, is easier to speak than Mandarin, but why is it on this list? Although Japanese is not a tonal language, it is one of the most difficult to master.
It is a part of the Japonic language family, and due to its close connection to Chinese, it is regarded as one of the most difficult languages in the world. Japanese is another difficult language for individuals who grew up learning English, Spanish, or French, but it may be simple for those who are fluent in East Asian languages.
For native English speakers, a variety of Asian languages provide a challenge. In many respects, learning Japanese isn't as difficult for English speakers as it is for many other languages. Speaking Japanese is highly useful for business opportunities in many sectors, as Japan has one of the world's greatest economies.
Learning the language can also open doors to the intriguing Japanese culture and help you communicate effectively with native speakers. However, there is some good news for English speakers who are studying Japanese: pronunciation. Because it is not a tonal language, it is actually easier to learn than Mandarin.
Fortunately, Japanese has very few sounds, and virtually all of them are already available in English. This makes it easy for English speakers to imitate, pronounce, and comprehend the language when listening. However, because the language has a rhythm, you must listen to real speech to learn how to speak it effectively.
You'll notice that Japanese borrows a lot of terms from English and other Romance languages. It's not tonal, and most of the language is straightforward to take up in the big scheme of things. However, studies reveal that Japanese is the single language that takes the most time to master for English speakers. Why?
Because of its sentence structure, thousands of kanji characters, and dozens of dialects, Japanese is a difficult language to learn. Before learning to write in Japanese, you'll need to master a variety of alphabets. There are hundreds of alphabets and characters in these writing systems, which an English speaker may find challenging to master.
To become even moderately literate in Japanese, a student must remember a large number of Kanji, or individual characters. The writing system is another stumbling block to learning Japanese. For many English speakers, the Japanese writing system is also difficult to understand.
Japanese texts can be written in either a Western manner (horizontal rows from top to bottom of the page) or a traditional Japanese style (vertical rows from top to bottom of the page) (vertical columns from the right to the left side of the page).
Both of these styles are still in use today. While Japanese appears to be easier to learn than Mandarin, it contains three distinct writing systems: hiragana, katakana, and kanji, each with its own alphabet. Hiragana, Katakana, and Kanji (thousands of Chinese characters) (two "alphabets" of syllables made up of 46 characters each and referred to as Kana).
If you know Katakana and Hiragana, they are the two most important Japanese alphabets. Kanji, on the other hand, is famously difficult to learn since it is a character-based system that requires you to memorize how words are written. Because Japan is a polite culture, it's also necessary to respect authoritative persons by using hierarchical forms.
How long does it take to become proficient? According to the FSI research, a native English speaker takes approximately 88 weeks (one year and over eight months) of rigorous study to acquire Japanese on average. This equates to approximately 2,200 hours of study time.
For English speakers, the notion of a language that pays special regard to honours, titles, and etiquette might be difficult to grasp. The language changes depending on the politeness level, and each level has its own set of norms and expressions.
It adds a whole new degree of difficulty to learning and memorizing the grammar, in addition to knowing the cultural standards for when to employ each level of polite discourse. Fortunately, there are few irregular verbs in Japanese, and the word order necessary is quite consistent, but the vast number of nouns that might serve as adjectives or adverbs can be difficult for English speakers to comprehend.
16. Korean
The official languages of North and South Korea are Korean and English. With its growing international influence, it appears to be a wonderful time to study a language that is spoken by over 80 million people worldwide.
It is an isolated language, meaning it does not belong to any language family, which makes it extremely difficult to learn. Korean is on our list of most difficult languages because, while it is not the most difficult, it is the most difficult due to its unique word order, complicated grammatical rules, alphabets, sentence structure, and pronunciation.
Japanese speakers, on the other hand, are usually not concerned with this. Because of several important grammar and pronunciation restrictions, Korean is one of the most difficult languages for native English speakers to learn. Memorizing 24 letters and their perfect pronunciation takes commitment and regular practice.
It may be easier for learners to read and write Korean than it is to speak it. For many speakers of other languages, Korean grammar and sentence structure may appear difficult to understand. Furthermore, this language has a certain word order.
For starters, those who are new to Korean may notice that the sentence form is unfamiliar to them. When describing an action in Korean, for example, the subject comes first, followed by the object, and lastly the action. You start with the topic and conclude with the adjective when describing anything.
Aside from the differences in sentences, speaking, and syntactic patterns, beginners to Korean struggle with the alphabet, which is largely inspired by Chinese. Its alphabet is called ‘hangul,' and the language previously utilized Chinese characters. The Korean alphabet, known as hangul, is simple to master.
It may have a unique script, but it is actually one of the most efficient writing systems ever developed. It takes only a few hours to master and makes reading and writing Korean very simple. Unfortunately, this language will not help you in any other way. If you try to learn it, you may expect difficult grammar, unusual sentence structures, and a language highly affected by the culture of the nation.
It's a challenging language to learn since the honorifics are complicated, the script is foreign, and there are two separate numerical systems. In terms of learning to read, unlike the letters used in Chinese and Japanese writing systems, Korean has a very simple alphabet that takes little time to master, so you can start sounding out words fast.
The good news is that Korean isn't tonal, which is a plus, and Hangul, the major alphabet, is quite simple to learn. Unfortunately, Korean is an agglutinative language (prefixes and suffixes replace prepositions, making some words unreasonably long).
Speaking, on the other hand, is a whole new can of worms, due to grammar that is fundamentally different from English and difficult-to-master rules for pronunciation. There are seven different speech levels in Korean, which native speakers switch between depending on the formality.
While it takes an English student around 26 weeks to acquire proficiency in Spanish or French, it takes roughly 65 weeks to establish a functional proficiency in Korean, Chinese, Japanese, or Arabic, according to The Defense Language Institute's catalogues.
In addition, you'll have to be careful what you say to your superiors. Korean, like Japanese, has a lot of endings to express respect for authority, which means you'll have to learn more verb endings.
17. Pashto
It is also known as Pashtu or Afghani and is the official language of Afghanistan as well as a Pakistani regional language. The language is spoken by around 60 million people all over the world. It is a member of the Indo Iranian or Indo European families.
The writing is in the Naskh script, which is an Arabic script. It is divided into two dialects: southern and northern, or soft and harsh dialects. The language is taught in primary and secondary schools, although it is Dari, Afghanistan's co-official language, that is taught at universities.
18. Persian
Persian is an Indo-European language that belongs to the Indo-Iranian branch. It's mostly spoken in Afghanistan and Iran, but it's also spoken in Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and other Persian-influenced nations. The language is spoken by around 110 million people globally.
Farsi and Dari are the two types or forms of the language. Between Persian and English, there are a few helpful cognates. Many Persian words have been incorporated into the English language and are often used. Because Persian has had such a strong impact on the English language, English-speaking students may recognize some of the words.
Persian, on the other hand, is one of the most difficult languages to learn due to its writing style. The most challenging aspect of the language is writing it. Persian has four additional letters added to the Arabic script. It may also be difficult for students to write from left to right.
While not as difficult as Arabic, the Persian script lacks letter case (thus no caps), connects words, and contains several repetitive letters. Finally, Persian grammar, which includes a huge number of prefixes and suffixes added to words, can be difficult to comprehend.
19. Polish
Polish is one of the most difficult languages to learn. With 46 million speakers and recognized as a minority language in countries such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, Ukraine, and Lithuania, it is the sixth most popular language in the European Union. It is a Slavic language, comparable to Russian, Czech, Serbian, and others, and is considered one of the most difficult in the world.
Furthermore, knowing Polish as a second language places you in an exclusive group, especially given Poland's growing prominence as a major European economy. Learning this language can lead to a variety of options, including travel and study in Poland!
It's not easy to learn the language, but it's not as difficult as it used to be. Even so, you still have to contend with a gender system that is overly complicated. In comparison to the Finno-Ugric languages on the list (Finnish, Hungarian, and Estonian), the seven cases in Polish don't appear to be that difficult.
What will catch you off guard is the pronunciation. Many sounds are simply absent from the English language and need a great deal of work to grasp. For English speakers, Polish vocabulary might be complex and difficult to pronounce.
Polish is a Slavic language, but it utilizes the Latin script, which is good news for English speakers. Other characteristics, however, make it one of the most difficult languages to learn. The Polish language's complexity may be divided into two categories. First and foremost, the pronunciation.
The other is that Polish grammar is extremely difficult, with seven different gender-affected grammatical cases and seventeen different cases for numbers. Yes, there are seventeen distinct ways to pronounce 'ten.'
However, compared to English, this language has comparable alphabets and fewer sounds, especially for vowels, and there are only three verb tenses in Polish: present, past, and future. Despite using the Latin alphabet, the language includes several extra letters, a sophisticated grammar freestyle system, and a heavy reliance on consonants.
Consonants are frequent in Polish. Polish can be difficult for English speakers in several areas, such as spelling and grammar. To begin, Polish contains nine extra letters – ą, ć, ę, ł, ń, ó, ś, ź and ż – which can be challenging to get right.
Words are loaded with consonants, making them difficult to spell and pronounce. Polish, like English, isn't very consistent with phonetics, therefore the same sound can be written in a variety of ways.
20. Russian
With approximately 150 million speakers in Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and across the world, Russian is one of the most widely spoken European languages. Because of the complicated case and gender system, various grammatical rules, and unique writing system, learning Russian is quite an adventure.
When learning this language, it’s easy to make mistakes in pronunciation and spelling. For all those who wish to travel to Russia and learn about its history and culture, learning Russian is a great language to learn! The Foreign Service Institute rates Russian as a four-out-of-five difficulty language, so it's not as difficult as the other languages on this list.
However, there are several significant obstacles to becoming fluent in Russian, including the fact that spelling is not always easy, it has vowel sounds that are unknown to the average English speaker, and it requires mastering a completely new alphabet. The grammar is the most challenging part.
The Cyrillic alphabet is used to write Russian, and it is made up of letters that are both familiar and foreign to us. However, speakers should be aware that while certain Cyrillic characters resemble Latin letters, they have a distinct sound.
The cases, on the other hand, are the most difficult to overcome. Words are grouped into ‘cases' based on their function in the sentence. There are six in Russian, and you only need to know three to tell the time.
You'll be well on your way to mastering this rich and very useful language after you master these – along with some unusual grammar (for English speakers). Russian isn't quite as challenging as Polish in terms of grammar, but it's close. There are seven cases in Polish and six in Russian.
Russian, like Polish, has a number of consonants grouped together, making spelling and pronunciation difficult. Despite its difficulties, learning Russian could be worthwhile. It's a highly political and culturally relevant language that may lead to a variety of job and leisure possibilities.
21. Tagalog
Tagalog is an Austronesian language that is spoken by about a quarter of the people of the Philippines. It is difficult to master due to its syntax and unusual sentence structure.
22. Thai
The Thai language, sometimes known as Siamese or Central Thai, is Thailand's official national language. Thai is a tonal and analytic language with a complicated written alphabet and markers. Grammar rules are similar to English, however the most essential and hardest aspects for new speakers to grasp are sounds and the speaker’s tone.
When learning Thai, it's not the grammar that will hold you back; it's the writing and pronunciation, which includes five tones and long and short vowel sounds. For individuals who are used to the Latin alphabet, the alphabet will be a challenge.
There are 44 consonants and 32 vowels in the alphabet. It is, however, written in its own script, unlike Vietnamese. Thai writing is particularly difficult. The large number of letters isn't the issue (there are 44 consonants and 15 vowel symbols).
However, some sounds have several letters. And you'll have to keep track of which one is used in each word. There are also some complicated spelling rules concerning tones. The fact that vowels might occur before, after, above, or below the consonant is another factor to consider.
23. Turkish
With over 75 million native speakers, Turkish is a very popular language. It's native to Turkey, but it's also found in countries like Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Greece. Because of its pronunciation, grammar, and listening aspects, this language is difficult and time-consuming for non-native English speakers.
There are certain advantages, such as the usage of Latin alphabets and the fact that it is a phonetic language. Learning Turkish has one advantage: there are no genders or articles in the language. Turkish is difficult to learn since it has more than 30 verb tenses and six noun cases.
Many words will also take on suffixes to alter their meaning, which can be confusing for beginners. Despite the fact that Turkish uses Latin characters, pronunciation can sometimes be difficult for English speakers. In Turkish, the use of vowels might change throughout a conversation, depending on the context that the speaker is attempting to convey.
It's difficult for English speakers to understand, but if you speak Japanese, Korean, or Finnish (all of which are on this list), you won't have as much trouble. A huge number of unfamiliar vocabulary terms, many of which are of Arabic origin, contribute to the difficulty of learning one of the most difficult languages.
The good news for Turkish learners is that, in comparison to other languages, there are few grammatical exceptions, spelling is simple to grasp, and it's a fun approach to study an uncommon agglutinative language.
24. Urdu
This language, also known as Modern Standard Urdu, is usually associated with Muslims in Hindustan. Urdu is also the country of Pakistan's official national language and lingua franca. It is one of India's 22 scheduled languages, and it is mutually intelligible with Standard Hindi. In regards to syntax and basic structure, it is also identical to Hindi.
25. Vietnamese
Vietnamese, the native and official language of Vietnam, with a population of 95 million people, is another difficult language to master. It’s one of Asia's most difficult languages because it bears no resemblance to Western languages. Vietnamese is easily the most difficult language on our list for English speakers.
It’s written in Chinese characters and is influenced by Latin. Vietnamese is challenging for English speakers because of its unusual syntax, difficult pronunciation, and six distinct tones. Vietnamese is a tonal language with several dialects; its consonant, vowel, and syllable structure is also difficult to interpret.
It has six tones (two of which are extremely difficult), a large number of vowel sounds, and some sounds that are not found in English, as opposed to Mandarin only having four tones and Cantonese six. Northern Vietnamese differs significantly from southern Vietnamese, which adds to the difficulties.
One advantage is that modern Vietnamese is written using a Latin-based alphabet. There are, however, a slew of additional accents and tone marks to contend with. How long does it take to become fluent in Vietnamese? According to the Foreign Service Institute, you should expect to spend about 1,100 hours to gain speaking and reading proficiency.
Learning a Language Can Actually Be Enjoyable
Languages Can Be Fun To Learn
Languages are important in our ability to communicate and share information with one another. The ability to speak more than one language is increasingly regarded as an important skill as the world becomes smaller and we have more opportunities to travel and experience other cultures.
Don't be put off by the language's difficulties. Learning some of the world's most difficult languages is challenging, but once you do, you'll be astonished at the range of options that become available to you. Choose one language to begin practicing now, and you will not be disappointed.
5 Tips To Speed Up Your Language Learning
It's critical to start your language learning by asking yourself why you want to learn this language. Depending on whether you want to travel and talk with people, converse in depth with a native speaker, or read literature in that language, your language objectives will be different. This is what will keep you going through the ups and downs of the language learning process.
Once you've figured out your why, follow these steps to accelerate your language learning:
Set language goals: Make a firm commitment to yourself to practice or study the language on a regular basis. What are your daily goals? What are your weekly goals? It's up to you to determine what's best. Even five minutes each day might help you remember the language.
Concentrate on the most important tasks: Don't waste time learning that rare past perfect tense if you're not going to utilize it. Instead, the ideal approach to learn a language is to follow the popular 80-20 rule, which claims that 20% of your efforts generate 80% of your achievements. To put it another way, go after the low-hanging fruit. Practice key skills including common vocabulary, useful verb tenses, and everyday phrases.
Get a language partner or teacher: It's pointless to study a language if you can't communicate in it. To obtain one-on-one time with a native speaker, find a language partner or hire a teacher. The more real-life communication experience you can get, the better. Of course, a language instructor can help you learn faster by using effective techniques. However, if you're in a hurry, a language partner can assist.
Make a recording of yourself speaking: Learning how to SPEAK a language may be the most difficult aspect of the process. However, there are several helpful tools that might help. It's simple to capture and transmit audio of oneself these days, thanks to programs like WhatsApp. Send an audio message to a friend or family member every day to keep the language fresh in your mind. If you don't have somebody to record you, you may just record yourself and analyze what went well and what didn't. It's all about practice!
Listen to music, read books, watch TV shows, watch movies, listen to the radio, and read newspapers: Make an effort to learn about the culture of the language you're studying. You'll learn important terminology and get more comfortable with natural wording. Music and movies may also be inspiring! To help you learn more effectively, try to listen to things without subtitles at least once.
Learning a language might be difficult, but it can also be rewarding. Learning another language will enhance your life regardless of the language you select - easy, challenging, or somewhere in between.
Conclusion
The Takeaway
Well there you have it. As far as I'm concerned, these are the twenty-five most hardest languages for an English speaker to learn.
While learning a language has its ups and downs, these can be particularly challenging – but that doesn't mean they're impossible to master for those willing to put in the effort.
The bottom line is that the most difficult languages to learn for English speakers are determined by a variety of criteria, not just one. The number of speakers, linguistic origins, similarity to English, and other factors all contribute to how difficult it will be to learn.
What matters isn't which language is the most difficult to learn - it all comes down to how motivated you are to learn, how you'll cope with obstacles, and who you'll turn to for assistance, just like learning any other language.
Every language will have its own set of difficulties, but it will also have its own set of rewards, experiences, and feeling accomplished. Remember that whatever language you choose to study, your time will be well spent.
You Can Do It!
By now, all of you native English speakers and ambitious language learners must be thinking to yourselves, "Why should I even bother learning a difficult language if it has been proven to take so long to learn?" Once again, it's critical to remember that every learner is different.
No matter how close or dissimilar the language is to English, what is challenging for one student may be remarkably easy for another. Any language is within your reach given some time, available resources, and—most importantly—motivation, and the more difficult a language appears to be, the more satisfying it will be to have studied it. So, how do you feel about taking on the challenge?
Pimsleur is a fantastic place to start if you want to experience how enjoyable language study can be for you.
All of these languages have no relation to the English language, making them the top 25 most difficult to learn. If you wish to learn any of these languages, Pimsleur is a good place to start. You may be perfect for becoming a translator or interpreter if you take on the task of mastering any one of these languages.
There is no such thing as a difficult language! It’s just a question of studying the grammar, memorizing the rules, and spending some time listening and speaking a new language to get the feel of it. You can still become fluent and/or multilingual with a little familiarity and effort.
There are a slew of other challenging languages out there. When you learn a new language, you’re actually utilizing your brain in a new and distinct way. You'll even learn about a different culture.
Learning a new language as an adult may be difficult and will need a significant amount of time, goal-setting, and persistence. So, are you ready to give your brain a workout by learning a new language? Well there you have it - you just learned the top 25 hardest languages to learn for English speakers.
Let’s quickly recap the highlights:
You learned that Mandarin Chinese is one of the hardest languages to learn.
You found out that many of the languages on this list you choose to learn gives you a major advantage for potential high-paying job opportunities.
You discovered how Pimsleur makes it easier than ever to get started learning how to speak a foreign language.
If you’re not certain which difficult language to choose from, even on this list, then take my free quiz so that you can get started. So, your next step is easy - take action on what you just learned. Because the sooner you do, the sooner you’ll start enjoying learning a difficult language!
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Question:
So, here’s the question: Now it’s your turn. What are the hardest languages to learn in your mind? Are you currently learning a difficult language? And if so, what language are you learning and what challenges have you come across? Let us know in the comments section down below!
P.S. I want to hear from you today. No for real, get out from behind that keyboard and tell us more about yourself! Use the comment section down below and introduce yourself.
Hey, I’m Mara.
I am the founder and blogger of Sololingual helping anyone at any age, from any place, who wants to learn a new language. You can learn how to reach fluency in your chosen language fast, fun and easily studying a short amount each day and spending very little money using different language learning techniques, programs and resources at your disposal. Fluency isn't difficult to achieve. In fact, it’s easy when you find a solid method that walks you through every step of the way, and believing in yourself so that you can achieve your goal at becoming fluent in any language.
