A big reason for this is that languages that are related usually share a high number of cognates, or words with a similar appearance and meaning. Data Privacy and Security, The Complete List of Language Difficulty Rankings, Get the complete list of languages ranked by difficulty, Mexican Spanish vs. Spain Spanish: The Must-Know Differences. But the more each language continued to evolve, the more it differed from its initial state. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. . Hindi uses an abugida, which is different from the English alphabet and from hnz, a Chinese script that uses characters to represent entire words and concepts. Once you've got that down, the grammar is not so hard, as long as you know Finnish. It has complex grammar rules, mainly due to numerous noun declensions. Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman played brothers. But, said Arel, the legislation affected education as it essentially eliminates Russian from high schools. Where its most commonly spoken: China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. Because Russian culture dominated the days of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, most Ukrainians can speak Russian. Czech and Polish are often considered the most difficult Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. They probably also get eight hours of sleep every night, never misplace their keys, and hit the gym without fail every morning at 5am, but thats besides the point. Finally, the South Slavic languages are Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian (Serbian and Croatian can be considered as two separate languages or as one language with two different dialects). Around 4,000 Spanish words, including naranja (orange) and taza (cup), are derived from Arabic words. Russia is bombing eastern Ukraine, the population that allegedly [President Vladimir] Putin seeks to defend, he said. From Russia to Poland, you can find people speaking Slavic languages. This is because the grammar rules are highly complex, and you need to memorize many grammatical exceptions and vocabulary words. Russian: 144: 7: Vietnamese: 69: 8: Turkish: 51: 9: Polish: 40: 10: Thai: 21: 11: Serbian: 16: 12: Hebrew: 5: . The Hardest Languages in the World to Learn, The 14 Hardest Words to Pronounce in the English Language, Stop Using These Phrases to Sound Instantly Smarter, 40 Latin Phrases So Genius You'll Sound Like a Master Orator, 7 Common Phrases That You Didn't Know Have Racist Origins, Hungarian is a member of the same small language family. The verb carries the most weight in Turkish. The script is almost entirely phonetic, which means that once you pick up the pronunciation of the letters, you can quickly begin reading fluently. When it comes to the similarities between the Slavic languages, their kinship lies in the fact that they all derive from a common ancestor the Proto-Slavic language. Its writing system is an abjad, which functions very differently from both Chinese characters and the English alphabet because it uses letters to represent consonants but not all vowels, and it uses a cursive script, so letters combine and change forms. A professional translator, she now works as a cultural and language liaison for the Rubizh brigade, a part of the national armed forces engaged in fighting around Bakhmut. Whats the logic there? Albanian's 36-letter alphabet should clue you in that attempting to master this language is going to be a wild ride. The three Slavic language groups are mutually unintelligible. if( 'moc.enilnoefiltseb' !== location.hostname.split('').reverse().join('') ) { They make decisions faster. So, if you have ever considered learning a Slavic language, there are many options to choose from. Youll notice that many of these languages do not use the Latin alphabet. Serious about learning Hungarian? There is nothing natural about the way a language develops, Arel told Al Jazeera. Its going to be a generational change, but its going to happen eventually.. Other languages with non-Latin alphabets, such as Russian and Greek, are also hard for Mandarin speakers. So many of the words sound very similar to each other. 25 Hardest Languages to Learn, Ranked. So, what are the easiest and the hardest Slavic languages to learn for English speakers? The very subtle language features minute changes in sound and context as well. First, it helps you determine how much of a challenge youre up for in your language journey. Spanish is one of the easiest languages to learn, so it's logical why it is the second-largest language worldwide.. Russian also has many words where consonants are grouped together, which makes spelling and pronunciation difficult. However, if youre up for a challenge, these are the 25 hardest languages to learn. First and foremost, the writing system is extremely difficult for English speakers (and anyone else . Now, when she sees or hears Russian propaganda, Tarasiuk baulks. It made people rethink what language they wanted to speak and I started hearing Ukrainian literally everywhere, said Tarasiuk, a front-end designer who had to put her career on hold because of the persistent blackouts caused by Russian attacks. In terms of grammar, a lexical and grammatical similarity exists between Bulgarian and Macedonian. However, theres no way of accurately guessing the gender of the noun. Along with natives and Spanish language learners, there are more than 572 million Spanish speakers worldwide. However, its universally acknowledged that Slavic languages dont belong to the easiest languages to learn, especially for English speakers. According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Spanish belongs to category I by difficulty. Bestlifeonline.com is part of the Dotdash Meredith Publishing Family. Thats because its the most widely spoken one of all Slavic languages. Russia announced similar plans for other regions it controls, though some of the proposals, like introducing the Russian currency rouble in the Kherson region, are in flux. Macedonian is the language spoken in Macedonia, which used to be part of the former Yugoslavia. The language also relies more heavily on idioms than other languages, so if you dropped out of the sky with a few select phrases under your belt, you might feel like everyone is speaking in inside jokes or a secret code. What Level Of Difficulty Is Mandarin. Though people familiar with Arabic may find Mandarins grammar rules refreshingly simple, learning tones can be a big stumbling block, and Mandarin characters, called hnz, are completely different from the Arabic abjad. For example uenik, translates to male student. Some individual letters prove tricky as well. The one thing that does make it a little easier is that it is written the way it sounds in the same alphabet as English. Their criteria is largely tied to the average length of time it takes a student to learn a language, which well dive into in the next section. Unusual grammar, difficult pronunciation, and six different tones make Vietnamese a challenge for English speakers. Right now, she teaches, writes, and creates content from the Dominican Republic. For English speakers, Russian is arguably more difficult than German. Learn how to pronounce these everyday words that don't always sound the way they're spelled. English is taught in Chinese schools, so most Mandarin speakers are familiar with English and the Latin script that makes up the English alphabet. Knowing how high a barrier youre up against will help you not get discouraged when you run into obstacles, as well as savor the progress you make. Whenever you think of Slavic languages, the first language that comes to your mind is probably Russian. It's helpful if you speak another Slavic language, but otherwise, it's going to be a challenge. Have you ever wondered how hard MANDARIN is to learn? Czech also has seven cases to learn, with each masculine, feminine and neutral. Another difficult language is Russian. Its the last thing an eager language learner wants to hear, but its also incredibly valuable, making it easier to stay motivated and disciplined. How to Order Food in French (with Example 102 Essential Spanish Phrases for Traveling. 1. Known as keigo, how you say a word depends on the formality of a situation. Moreover, each language has its own letters that have developed to denote particular phonetic phenomena. Thats why knowing the difficulty level of a language in relation to your native tongue can be useful. It goes without saying that the more time you spend practicing something, the better you will become at it. Even more intimidating is that each of these cases has plural forms to consider! If you want to become proficient in a language, youll eventually need to learn whatever system of writing the language uses. With four cases and three genders assigned to their words, as well as many letters unfamiliar to English speakers, Icelandic is no walk in the park to learn. It also has a different word order; In Hindi, like Japanese, the word order of basic sentences is subject-object-verb, but in Mandarin its subject-verb-object. Logographic systems: These use characters to represent entire words or concepts. Bulgarian is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Bulgaria. Part of the Austroasiatic language family, Vietnamese can also be difficult to speak due to its foreign pronunciations to English speakers. There are 30 letters in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet. On the flip side, you may be looking for a language thats as easy to learn as possible, and being able to judge which languages are most similar to your own will help you find one. For example, if youre a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, Russian would probably be a tricky language for you to learn. Its one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken by over 40 million people, mainly in Poland. A major reason why is that Finnish has so many different noun cases and verb conjugations that can shape words depending on their context. This list of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn comes from data gathered by the US State Department. In terms of learning to read, Korean has a relatively straightforward alphabet that doesn't take too long to learn, unlike the characters used in Chinese and Japanese writing systems, so you can start sounding out words pretty quickly. The grammar is also loaded with exceptions that require a ton of practice. Official forms such as those in doctors offices, particularly in Russian-speaking areas, largely came in both Russian and Ukrainian. The language also has a large number of regional dialects and the pronunciation can be particularly difficult for non-native speakers to master. Being able to judge how hard a language will be to learn aids you in a few ways. Languages that dont use a Latin script, though, tend to give Mandarin speakers the most trouble. One example is Thai. Among the most challenging aspects of learning Japanese is the writing system, which contains tens of thousands of characters referred to as kanji.. For instance, in Italian, sentences are structured subject-verb-object (such as I threw the ball). Even a lot of authors that wrote their books in Russian or singers or poets that wrote in Russian have decided to stop spreading the language of the aggressor, added Ferlain. February 8, 2022. One of the most intriguing aspects is that emphasis can completely change the meaning of certain words. But even though they know the language, the challenge lies in changing their inner machinations, the way they think, the Zahalskyys said. Polish. There are a number of ways that a language can differ from your own. So, verbs are usually given in the first person of the singular form. You know that friend you have that speaks three languages fluentlyeffortlessly even? Words can also be very long, and deciphering how to pronounce them can defy intuition. If you emphasize the second ("su-KA"), then you have "vinegar." The pronunciation is what will get you. For instance, while the language is made up of Latin letters, many letters sound entirely different. So, if you learn a certain dialect, there's a chance you might not be able to understand the locals from another region. 3. For example, , , , , , , , and are all different letters that you might have a hard time distinguishing between if you're new to the game. Linguistic distance is a measure of how related one language is to another language. But to translate that same statement into Mandarin, youll need a measure word. Generally, students require around 88 weeks of full-time study to reach proficiency in these languages. comparison of Czech with Russian and German, The grammar, pronunciation, and general structure of a language, The alphabet (as mentioned in the article, some Slavic languages use the Cyliric alphabet, which means more things to learn). In addition, Croatia is a small country with different dialects, making it difficult to grasp just one of them if youre trying to immerse yourself in the language while there. Where its most commonly spoken: Iran, Afghanistan. Arabic speakers find Russian grammar complicated because it has a large number of unfamiliar rules and a ton of exceptions to those rules. It is also the most geographically widespread language. In 2022, the entire country witnessed the war and all the crimes the Russians committed. Farsi also reads from right to left. Most Slavic languages implement an extensive system of cases in which the endings of nouns (declination), adjectives, and prepositions change depending on the case. Hungarian is a member of the same small language family as Finnish, so the average English speaker won't be finding much familiarity in its vocabulary. Abugidas: These generally use letters to represent consonant-vowel combinations. The time estimates here reflect how long it would take the average person to reach a Level 3 proficiency level, which is pretty fluent by most standards. Finnish has a reputation for being a tricky language to learn, and with good reason. In terms of grammar, the main feature that makes this language easier to learn than other Slavic languages is the lack of noun cases. Hungarian. Korean and Arabic may not be as hard, but theyre still challenging. Most major writing systems generally fit into one of these categories: The easiest writing systems you can learn are ones of the same type and that use the same letters or characters as your native language, while the hardest writing systems to learn are different types altogether. In addition, the grammar is filled with exceptions to the rule that you'll have to remember. Russian can only be taught as a first language in primary school, and thats it, he said. Mandarin is tough to learn because its a tonal language and uses a logographic script, hnz. We would say "I put the pizza in THE oven". Country with the greatest number of speakers: Egypt. Here's a look at the top 10 hardest languages to learn: Learning a new language is a rewarding experience, but some languages are harder to master than others. Where individual Slavic languages border with each other, these boundaries are usually blurred there are broad stripes of transitional dialects and areas of the intermingling of phenomena characteristic of both neighboring languages (for example, in Czech and Slovak). A Finno-Ugric language, Finnish features a complicated verb conjugation, case system, consonant gradation and clitics. It also has 18 cases and 14 vowels, which makes saying things right particularly difficult. Russian is the most spoken native language in Europe and the 8th most-spoken language in the world. Dark red (Category V*): On the map, this category only includes Japanese. Navajo is hard enough to figure out that code talkers in World War II used the language to develop a code for communicating that the Germans wouldn't be able to track. - instead, Russians affix endings and use inflection to indicate the same kinds of tenses and action. xhr.send(payload); The Japanese writing system actually has three different scripts to learn (two are syllabaries and one is a logographic script, similar to Chinese characters). The Greek language is very difficult for English speakers to learn, but the effort required to learn the language is worth it. The alphabet has a staggering 44 consonants and 32 vowels. It's beautiful and valuable when you travel to that side of the world. Chinese. Greek. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { You can see this illustrated with some simple sentences centered around the Finnish word for house, talo.. The Foreign Service Institute classifies most Slavic languages as Category IV languages - which means that they require 44 weeks or 1100 hours of study to reach conversational level. Privacy Policy | The term "Slavic" is a catch-all adjective for all languages in the group, and it is typically used to describe anything common to all or most Slavic languages. English is taught in Chinese schools, so most Mandarin speakers are familiar with English and the Latin script that makes up the English alphabet. Trying to learn a language that uses different grammar rules could mean retraining your brain to think of words and sentences in brand new ways. Brilliant planning there, mate. Having originated in the Philippine islands, Tagalog is the first language of most Filipinos. Alphabets: These use letters to represent a languages phonemes, which are both consonants and vowels. It also has a complicated verb conjugation system, which can be pretty confusing for English speakers. At first, we thought we needed to know our national language, but with the start of this full-scale war, the feeling changed from I have to to I want to, Zahalskyy told Al Jazeera by phone. In terms of grammar, Russian is more complex than English. Often, one word in Hungarian equals a whole sentence. But he doubts the measure is too divisive because parents in the eastern and southern Ukrainian regions want to send their kids to Ukrainian school anyway. Beginning language learners may want to start with an easier language, such as Spanish, German or Italian. Pronouncing Czech words is a nightmare for English speakers. It has 7 declension cases for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. Mandarin is one of the few languages ranked as the most difficult to learn for English speakers by the Foreign Service Institute. The ability to speak multiple languages puts you steps ahead of singular speakers. For instance, lina means "linen" in Estonian, but linna means city., Where its most commonly spoken: Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece. 4. Russian is the most widely spoken Slavic language, with 155 million native Russian speakers. Its also ranked as one of the easier languages to master, as youll see in the list below. Mandarin, for example, has a logosyllabic writing system in which characters match distinct syllables in each word. In fact, the further the languages are classified from each other, the fewer similarities they have. What's New at RussianLessons.Net. While practicing with language learning apps is useful, chatting with Spanish native speakers is crucial if you want to improve your language skills. It is always a state project.. Most experts believe that to become truly fluent in Russian that is thinking and speaking in Russian requires 7-10 years of study. The largest group within the Slavic family, by the number of speakers, are the East Slavic languages. Despite being the most widely spoken native language in the world, Mandarin Chinese tops the list of the toughest languages to learn. It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. The term hard language refers to their complexity. Russian is rated a two of three in difficulty by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which ranks languages based on how long it would take the average native English speaker to learn it, so it's not as difficult as some of the other languages on this list. The sentence structure is also very different from English. For this reason, it is worth learning all Slavic languages - each of them is unique. However, when you consider all non-English speakers together, there isnt just one answer. And switching to Ukrainian is one way to fight back. The verb conjugations can be intimidating, too, with many more variants and combinations to comprehend than other Slavic languages. Phonetically English is quite remote from Russian, and features insane amount of vowels, along with fricatives and aspirated consona. Russian is one of the most famous European languages with over 150 million speakers across the world. If youre up for a challenge, these are the 25 hardest languages to learn. And its hard for them, but they understand the significance of their choice., Al Jazeera Centre for Public Liberties & Human Rights. It isn't the grammar that will bog you down when you're trying to learn Thai, it's the writing and the pronunciation, which has five different tones and long and short vowel sounds. The first obstacle to learning Japanese is the writing system, which will provide you no clues unless you also speak Chinese. It takes time, discipline, and a well of motivation that youll need to refill. And because its placed at the very end of the sentence, you cant understand the meaning of whats being said until the sentence is finished. Polish is undoubtedly one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers due to its complex grammar and pronunciation. Belonging to the Finno-Ugric family, Estonian is a unique language that can be a challenge to learn. Forget carpe diem. In 2019, Kyiv adopted a law to guarantee Ukrainian as a state language, which required Ukrainian to be used in most aspects of public life. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Abjads: These generally use letters to represent only consonants, while vowels are absent and must be inferred by the reader. She said many soldiers she works with who spoke Russian before the invasion are continuing to do so. After hearing their stories, I decided to stop speaking Russian too.. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. Arabic is a complex language with rich grammar and syntax. With Russian, they used the expression back then [in the Soviet Union] of [it being the] language that opens perspectives of life, or a language of perspectives., So the project of making Ukrainian the state language, which began with independence, was the project of making Ukrainian relevant.. Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which can be tough for English speakers to learn. Mandarin Chinese. Albanian differs from any other language, even that of its Indo-European classification. The language is also known for having very confusing conjugations. Why it's hard: Despite 221 million native speakers that you can potentially learn from, Arabic is still one of the hardest languages to learn. Try it today at www.rosettastone.com. Russian is rated a two of three in difficulty by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), which ranks languages based on how long it would take the average native English speaker to learn it, so it's not as difficult as some of the other languages on this list. Russian is a Slavic language, the 7 th most spoken language in the world by the total number of speakers, which, unfortunately, does not make the task of learning Russian much easier Russian is widely believed to be one of the most difficult languages to learn. Estimated to be spoken by over 10 million people, Czech is the official language of the Czech Republic. If you were to go to Lviv right now [considered the heart of the Ukrainian-speaking part of the country] and walk into a caf there and start speaking in Russian, the waiter or waitress will change to speaking with you in Russian, Zahalskyy said. Although Slavic languages are similar in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and phonetics, they are all entirely different from English. Terms & Conditions | But once you do, you can pronounce almost all Russian words quite accurately. The transition to Ukrainian began for some in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and led forces into the Donbas region, which borders Russia. A very serious shift has occurred in the consciousness of many people, said Zahalskyy, a landlord who used to own a pharmacy business. As an English speaker, youll encounter three types of writing systems: Languages that fall in the first category are often the easiest languages to learn. Also, some of its letters are tricky to pronounce, and Korean has its own version of honorific speech that requires specific forms of words depending on social context. In the wars early days, their apartment block was hit twice by artillery fire from the nearby town of Bucha, where Russians are accused of many atrocities. These languages take up to 600 hours to master. All of our peers in this apartment complex, they are all above 60. Meanwhile, case endings are added to word stems as suffixes. Some of these pronunciations, such as the Russian letter which requires the speaker to make a rolling r sound, dont exist in Mandarin. But Ukrainian society more broadly, Ferlain said, is making the switch just to pay respect for the nation. However, learning them can be more difficult since there are very scarce learning resources available for Bulgarian and Macedonian online. In this category, it usually takes 88 weeks or 2200 hours to reach S-3/R-3 proficiency. To see languages that are closely related, we recommend diving into the world of language families, or groups of languages that all share the same mother language. But again, those interviewed by Al Jazeera said there were few strict rules. Credit: Greek Reporter. All adverbs and adjectives must have the same gender. Unlike other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has no case system. } Although not easy at all, Bulgarian and Macedonian are often considered the easiest Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. A lot of the sounds in the language are difficult for English speakers to master, and the grammar is packed with irregular verbs. Certainly, the most intriguing, yet difficult, aspect of learning Georgian is that it has its own writing system, and many of the letters used look incredibly similar. Strengthening your reading and writing skills in that language, then, takes far less time. Articulation can prove a challenge as well, due to the exorbitant consonant clusters. These endings are used to express the same things propositions do in English. Knowing how to read it doesn't even particularly help learn how to write it. Estonian is packed with a whopping 14 noun cases. To listen to more examples of Polish pronunciation, refer to the audio recordings provided in the following articles: When it comes to grammar, Polish is quite complex. If you have ever heard a Russian person speak English, you might have spotted this mistake: "I put the pizza in oven". In March, the New Voice of Ukraine reported that in the occupied city of Mariupol, Russian-installed authorities were suppressing the Ukrainian language in schools. The best time to start learning a language is today. And in the territories Moscow has occupied since 2014, it has swiftly moved to restore the primacy of Russian culture and language. By the way, if you guessed that Dutch, Swedish, German, and Danish are part of the same language family, youre right! Although both Bulgarian and Macedonian have been recognized Category IV languages in terms of difficulty for English speakers, they are relatively easy to learn compared to other Slavic languages. All Rights Reserved. Nouns have 15 different cases, while in English, they have only three: subjective, objective, possessive. Between Japanese and Mandarin, Mandarin presents more of a challenge because its a tonal language, which means the pronunciation and tonal inflection of a word can change its meaning. Whats more, its important to notice that Slavic languages use not one but two main alphabets - Latin and Cyrillic. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Haitian Creole. See for instance this, Whether you already speak or are familiar with any other Slavic language, Availability of learning resources online. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian belong to this group. Moscow paints Kyivs language policies as oppressive as Russian officials claim they are liberating Russian speakers from the Ukrainian project. Some friends in Central Asia are also trying to avoid it. Pronunciation makes Danish one of the most difficult languages to learn. >> Dive right in: Get the complete list of languages ranked by difficulty. This makes Russian actually far easier to learn than many have been led to believe! To help you understand what you're getting into, we've compiled this list of the hardest languages to learn. Pinyin is a phonetic alphabet for Mandarin, and is much easier to grasp since it uses the same letters as English's alphabet. Even if you manage to overcome all of that, it is also a language with many, many dialects that vary widely. How to Order Food in French (with Example 102 Essential Spanish Phrases for Traveling. The most obvious impediment to learning Greek is the alphabet. if( navigator.sendBeacon ) { brzcze. They'll be very aware if there's no shade. She is a polyglot and a digital nomad. Where its most commonly spoken: Thailand. Arabic. This list captures languages spoken by the majority of the worlds population. Most of the cities that have been reduced to rubble, such as Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Mykolaiv and Bakhmut, were largely Russian-speaking, Arel said. var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); There are also various sounds made in the language that dont exist in many other languages. One example is French. 2023 Galvanized Media. If you think picking up a little French or Spanish in your spare time is difficult, then you should know the kind of work you're getting into learning some other languages from around the world. Phonetically, there are more than 20 vowel sounds in the Danish language.
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