In addition, the grammar is filled with exceptions to the rule that you'll have to remember. This is the result of it being an agglutinative language, in which prefixes and suffixes are attached to words to determine meaning and direction. - instead, Russians affix endings and use inflection to indicate the same kinds of tenses and action. Privacy Policy | Russian. Russian. 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. It consists of some extinct languages, including Thracian, Illyrian and Dacian, while also featuring some grammar rules and vocabulary from Greek and Latin. Albanian nouns have both a case and a number, requiring the learner to memorize each noun. By Theo Ioannou. In contrast to English, Czech is a synthetic language. 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. The two languages are also similar enough to English that the hardest languages for English speakers tend to be the hardest for Spanish and French speakers as well. Youll need to learn an entirely new alphabet, and memorize their corresponding letter sounds. This list of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn comes from data gathered by the US State Department. Standard Chinese - 'Mandarin' - is often cited as the most difficult language for English speakers to learn. If you're looking for official statistics, the Defense Language Institute (where they teach members of the CIA foreign languages) has organized languages into four categories, the 1st Category being the easiest, and the 4th Category being the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. 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.. Gabe Wood is a writer for Rosetta Stone and other websites in the IXL family of brands. But the more each language continued to evolve, the more it differed from its initial state. Some friends in Central Asia are also trying to avoid it. Mandarins four distinct tones give the same word ma four very different meanings. One example is French. Seems that every person I know in #Ukraine has stopped speaking Russian. Benefits of Chatting with Native Spanish Speakers. The transition to Ukrainian began for some in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and led forces into the Donbas region, which borders Russia. For English speakers, an additional concern is the three gendered nouns. 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. Whats more, its important to notice that Slavic languages use not one but two main alphabets - Latin and Cyrillic. if( navigator.sendBeacon ) { 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). So, how long does it take to master it? Where its most commonly spoken: China, Taiwan, Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore. All adverbs and adjectives must have the same gender. 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. In contrast to the similarities between the Romance languages listed above, German and Mandarintwo languages of different families with entirely unique writing systemscouldnt be more linguistically distant. One word is capable of 10 different translations as a result. Credit: Greek Reporter. There is nothing natural about the way a language develops, Arel told Al Jazeera. 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. Brilliant planning there, mate. If youre up for a challenge, these are the 25 hardest languages to learn. 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. Its just too much for the brain activity to keep on fighting and changing the way you think, so those people have made up their minds to change the way they speak only after the war.. This makes them especially hard to learn for English speakers. 2023 Galvanized Media. In English, its acceptable to say that you bought five books. A Finno-Ugric language, Finnish features a complicated verb conjugation, case system, consonant gradation and clitics. The main phonetic similarity between all Slavic languages is the presence of phonemic palatalization, known as softening. Despite having what is considered the most logical system of writing in the world with an alphabet consisting of just 24 symbols, 10 of which are vowels and 14 consonants the language remains a challenge to learn. It takes time, discipline, and a well of motivation that youll need to refill. Learn how to pronounce these everyday words that don't always sound the way they're spelled. So many of the words sound very similar to each other. And pronunciation requires some practice because there are sounds that don't have an equivalent in English. Very different! 6. The three Slavic language groups are mutually unintelligible. Schlittschuhlaufen. 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. Forget carpe diem. Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. Modern Greek is maybe the easiest language to learn that uses a different alphabet. Also, Arabic has several sounds that must be pronounced back in the throat, sounds that dont occur in spoken Mandarin. . In Spanish, its la flor, and in Italian, its il fiore. Coincidence? The largest group within the Slavic family, by the number of speakers, are the East Slavic languages. Great job defending the Russian language and Russian speakers, Putin! Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. To begin with, the Slavic languages derive from the Proto-Slavic language - their immediate parent language. Being able to judge how hard a language will be to learn aids you in a few ways. The main problem lies in the writing system. For example uenik, translates to male student. Some individual letters prove tricky as well. Born in 1960 in what was then the Soviet Union, Zahalskyy hails from the largely Russian-speaking Ukrainian city of Kherson. A very serious shift has occurred in the consciousness of many people, said Zahalskyy, a landlord who used to own a pharmacy business. You can see this illustrated with some simple sentences centered around the Finnish word for house, talo.. Its something they tried to tell me shouldnt exist; they wanted to suppress it but couldnt.. Number of native speakers: 221 million. 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. One example is the Chinese writing system hnz. And because there are no characters, its harder to visualize them for memorization purposes. brzcze. And in the territories Moscow has occupied since 2014, it has swiftly moved to restore the primacy of Russian culture and language. No matter the difficulty level of your new language, Rosetta Stone makes learning easy, effective, and fun. If youre from Poland and grew up speaking Polish, though, Russian likely wouldnt be as difficult for you because it has more in common with your native language. Now, when she sees or hears Russian propaganda, Tarasiuk baulks. There are a number of ways that a language can differ from your own. Despite being the most widely spoken native language in the world, Mandarin Chinese tops the list of the toughest languages to learn. For many, switching from Russian to the Ukrainian language is an act of resistance as the war continues to devastate lives and cities. The phrase I speak Spanish would be yo hablo Espaol, while you speak Spanish would be tu hablas Espaol.. Part of what makes it one of the easiest Slavic languages to learn for English speakers is its simple vocabulary, which makes it pretty simple to speak and comprehend. Mandarin and Japanese are liable to give Hindi speakers a lot of trouble, in large part because they both involve learning completely new systems of writing. Or Navajo? She said many soldiers she works with who spoke Russian before the invasion are continuing to do so. How to Say Hello in Spanish: Casual and Ser vs. Estar: The Definitive Guide to Learning How to Order Food in French (with Example Conversations), Say a Heartfelt I Love You in 25 Languages, How to Say Hello in Spanish: Casual and Formal Greetings. Articulation can prove a challenge as well, due to the exorbitant consonant clusters. For English speakers, Russian is arguably more difficult than German. The languages youll find in the second category are moderately challenging. Mandarin is tough to learn because its a tonal language and uses a logographic script, hnz. Thats because their grammatical structure is slightly less complex than in other Slavic languages, mainly because they dont use cases. 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. They also have a relatively easy noun system. In 2022, the entire country witnessed the war and all the crimes the Russians committed. Its okay to not be that person. In this category, it usually takes 88 weeks or 2200 hours to reach S-3/R-3 proficiency. Someone who speaks German, someone who speaks Farsi, and someone who speaks Vietnamese will likely have massive differences in what languages they find easy or hard to pick up, because the native languages theyre starting with are so dissimilar from one another. Moreover, each language has its own letters that have developed to denote particular phonetic phenomena. According to the first census conducted in Ukraine in 2001, about 14.3 million Ukrainian people, or 29 percent of the population, spoke Russian as a first language. Because Macedonian doesnt have a complex case system like other Slavic languages, its considered one of the easiest Slavic languages to learn. While practicing with language learning apps is useful, chatting with Spanish native speakers is crucial if you want to improve your language skills. A part of the Slavic language group, Croatian is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. Tackling a language that requires you to learn a ton of new words, rules, sounds, and symbols wont be easy, but it can be a rewarding hobby. Where its most commonly spoken: Thailand. Where its most commonly spoken: Philippines. Polish is closely related to Czech and to Slovak. Polish. What if youre starting from one of the other thousands of languages on Earth, though? For one, Russian has six grammatical cases whereas German only has four. The Hardest Languages To Learn For English Speakers. It goes without saying that the more time you spend practicing something, the better you will become at it. It takes approximately 44 weeks (1100 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Even then, it's very likely that you will make mistakes in pronunciation and word order. Have you ever wondered how hard MANDARIN is to learn? Arabic only has three cases nominative, genitive, and accusative while Finnish has a staggering 15 cases. The language is packed with mouthfuls of consonants, making individual words total tongue twisters. The most often sounds like the E in women, and to the O in rope. The has no exact equivalent in most English accents. Spanish, French, and Italian are all descendants of Latin and have many similarities. Language difficulty rankings exist so you can set the fluency goal posts at a realistic distance. Russian also has many words where consonants are grouped together, which makes spelling and pronunciation difficult. The way theyre used directs the meaning of the world as well. So, if you learn a certain dialect, there's a chance you might not be able to understand the locals from another region. The script is almost entirely phonetic, which means that once you pick up the pronunciation of the letters, you can quickly begin reading fluently. They are very closely related to English, so many of the same grammar rules and similar vocabulary apply. And while mastering a German accent can be tricky, most speakers will understand what youre saying through the missteps. Where its most commonly spoken: Bulgaria. Around 4,000 Spanish words, including naranja (orange) and taza (cup), are derived from Arabic words. Where its most commonly spoken: India, Fiji, Pakistan. Get ready to put in some serious study time if you're looking to master one of these. You need about 3,000 to . One example is the Japanese writing system hiragana. It has six declension cases, which dont exist in English and can be challenging for English speakers to comprehend. Without a doubt, Finnish is one of the most difficult languages for English speakers. Even the easiest languages typically take a few hundred hours of practice to become proficient, while harder languages can take thousands of hours. This is one of the giveaways that a person's native language is Slavic. Grammar is the system that defines how words are formed and put together into sentences. Towards the end of 2022, Ukrainian forces wrested back the city of Kherson, while most of the rest of the region remained in Russian hands. Yeah. Top 20 Most Difficult Languages to Learn. For instance, the letter is similar to SH (shampoo, shower, shop). Mexican Spanish vs. Spain Spanish: The Must-Know Differences. The closer a language is related to yours, the easier it will be to learn. When it comes to pronunciation, the real difficulty factor comes into play for tonal languages. Its also ranked as one of the easier languages to master, as youll see in the list below. Where its most commonly spoken: Iran, Afghanistan. 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. Many examples! Georgian has its own writing system that no other language uses. Arabic features 28 script letters, is written from right to left and excludes most vowels in words. However, there are some definite roadblocks to becoming fluent in Russian, among them being that spelling isn't always straightforward, it's full of vowel sounds unfamiliar to the average English speaker, and it requires learning an entirely new alphabet to master. 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. Where its most commonly spoken: Hungary, Romania, Slovakia. For example: And if you're serious about learning Chinese, you'll have to tackle Chinese characters. Afrikaans is a beautiful language that is surprisingly easy to learn for native English speakers. It is pretty foreign to English speakers, but if you speak Japanese, Korean, or Finnish (which are all also on this list), you won't have such a hard time grasping it. On the other hand, Polish doesnt distinguish as many tenses as English does - theres only past, present, and future combined with a perfective and imperfective verb aspect. 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. Russian. First of all, there are many resources available online to learn Russian, and its also taught in many languages schools. If your goals align more with a Level 1 or 2 proficiency, you may be able to learn a language even faster. Bestlifeonline.com is part of the Dotdash Meredith Publishing Family. They think faster in Russian language, she said. And for words you should cut out of your vocabulary right this second, check out Stop Using These Phrases to Sound Instantly Smarter. It uses VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be tricky for most. 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. Its one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken by over 40 million people, mainly in Poland. Russian is the most widely spoken Slavic language, with 155 million native Russian speakers. As an example of cognates, here are the words for a smile in different Romance languages: Cognates can make a language feel familiar. Karolina Assi is an English and Polish teacher on iTalki.com. Furthermore, it requires learning the Greek alphabet, which is not a requirement for the majority of European languages. Strengthening your reading and writing skills in that language, then, takes far less time. Though German is in the same family as English, its nuanced pronunciation gives it a higher difficulty level than other Germanic languages. For instance, Arabic has complex grammar and a different alphabet . Chinese speakers around the world: 1.2 billion native speakers . On the other hand, tvrtek means Thursday, and mastering the way each of those sounds works together is going to take you a while. } 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. Thats mainly due to their complex grammatical structure and difficult pronunciation. Japanese requires a large amount of study to learn because its writing system includes three different scripts, and the language includes different vocabulary and grammatical forms to use based on social context. These languages, which include Vietnamese and Mandarin, require correct pronunciation and inflection to create meaning for each word. Everyone kept speaking Russian, everyone kept watching Russian television, except probably for the Western regions of Ukraine, Zahalskyy told Al Jazeera.