Learning a new language can be difficult, but it isn’t always your fault. Every student learns differently and that each language is different as well.
For English speakers, certain languages can be particularly difficult to learn. These are the seven hardest languages to learn for an English speaker.
Regardless of whether you enjoy a challenge, are curious about foreign languages, or simply don’t want to learn the most difficult ones.
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What are the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn?
Which language is the most difficult to learn? Many factors determine how well you learn a language, but your native tongue is one of them.
Because Spanish and Italian are so close to English, they are easier to learn than other languages that are more distant. There are no cognates, i.e. words that have similar derivations, such as those stemming from Latin for two languages from different roots.
For English speakers, a language is difficult to learn due to its phonetics, specifically sound and intonation, as well as its alphabets, characters, and writing style. If we add complicated grammar and expressions with a lot of cases, the challenge would seem impossible.
List of Hardest Languages to Learn
1 – Chinese
Many Westerners and English speakers view Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, as synonymous with “Chinese.”. English natives often struggle with Mandarin, despite its widespread use.
The writing system has thousands of intricate and complex characters, which makes it difficult to comprehend. There is a lot to learn even with simplified Chinese. As your pronunciation determines to mean, four main tones and a neutral tone make speaking difficult. China’s most popular dialect is Mandarin. Mandarin has three tones, while Cantonese has eight, making it the hardest language to learn.
2 – Arabic
Chinese and Arabic both rank among the world’s top five languages. If you are a native English speaker, you will also find that they are challenging to acquire.
Many vowels are not Latin in the alphabet, making it indistinguishable from many dialects, found in a variety of countries and regions. Those who are not familiar with Arabic will note that it is also written right to left.
The sounds in Arabic are unique, and its grammar is very challenging with verbs appearing before subjects. The Chinese language is on top in the list of most difficult languages to learn, and everyone knows that.
3 – Japanese
In Japan, three distinct alphabets are used for writing. For words in foreign languages, Katakana is used, whereas Hiragana is used for Japanese.
Chinese characters are incorporated into Kanji, so you’re also learning Chinese. It appears that the grammar is simple until you reach the particles.
There are no equivalents in English for these parts of speech. The vocabulary of English speakers can also be challenging, depending on dialect, region, or circumstance, social status or even gender may influence word choice.
4 – Hungarian
There are three cases in English. The Hungarian language has 18 case suffixes. Even that number conveys the degree of difficulty of learning the language, but it gets worse: the language’s 14 vowels will make speaking a nightmare for English speakers.
It will be impossible to combine these words into even a single sentence. It is also packed with idioms and cultural references, which will leave beginners feeling out of the loop for some time.
5 – Korean
Despite its clear genealogical relationship to Korean, linguists consider it to be a language isolate. The unique nature of the language itself is a hindrance to acquiring Korean as a speaker of English.
In Korean, words are tacked on, and they become complex as the word order is altered. But in English, there is no such concept. Chinese or Japanese, learning the alphabet is simpler.
There are a lot of rules in the game, so mispronunciation can quickly lead to misunderstandings.
6 – Finnish
It would surprise you to find out how complex Finnish grammar is if you were to think the language’s alphabet and pronunciation are similar to English.
Due to this, it includes a list of the hardest languages to learn. The Finns are amused by the fact that English only has three cases in their language, nouns can take 15 different forms.
Also know how many letters are in the alphabet.