|
 |
Most difficult languages | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| brumblebee Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 6861 days ago 206 posts - 212 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Portuguese | Message 1 of 96 13 June 2006 at 1:46pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I guess that you could kind of call this a poll:
Which 10 languages are the most difficult for English speakers to learn? I would say (no particular order) Mandarin Japanese Korean Finnish Hungarian Georgian Arabic Khmer Mongolian Basque Honorable mention: Estonian Edited by brumblebee on 13 June 2006 at 1:46pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 jeff_lindqvist Diglot Moderator SwedenRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6995 days ago 4250 posts - 5711 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Mandarin, Esperanto, Irish, French Personal Language Map | Message 2 of 96 13 June 2006 at 3:59pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I did some web searches (instead of making assumptions) and found the article Mandarin Chinese is Easy for English Speakers:
(...)Mike Wright, after acquiring Spanish and German in high school and college, and after learning Mandarin in 1963, Japanese in 1967, and Arabic in 1973 in the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, states that "Mandarin is the easiest by far." It is "pretty easy for native English speakers, while Japanese is one of the most difficult".(...) Another article by Mike Wright himself - Chinese Mandarin is Easy. And another article about accents and language learning - Why Do Some People Have an Accent?. Of course this is all individual depending on "ability", previous experience of language learning in general, familiarity with languages from the same family et.c. I see that you only list languages that aren't Indo-European, and you probably have a couple of thousands of other non-Indo-European languages which are just as difficult... 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7242 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 3 of 96 13 June 2006 at 4:21pm | IP Logged | ||
|
The toughest language to learn is the one that you are currently studying.
16 persons have voted this message useful | |||
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6980 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 96 13 June 2006 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||
That phrase actually deserves to be printed up and hung prominently on the wall of your study to be looked at and pondered on every day ! It is also the easiest though. Edited by Hencke on 13 June 2006 at 5:58pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| sirgregory Diglot Newbie United States Joined 6827 days ago 35 posts - 38 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: French | Message 5 of 96 13 June 2006 at 7:05pm | IP Logged | ||
|
It's interesting that that Mike Wright guy says Japanese is the hardest. I actually lived on a military base in Japan as a kid. My dad, who speaks Japanese, told me the grammar was very simple, but that the cultural elements of the language are wicked. He told that it's considered too abrupt to answer things simply with "Yes" and "No." I have even heard some stories of diplomatic problems arising from U.S. interpreters' not understanding the roundabout responses. The Japanese will say things like "Your proposal is appreciated and I shall consider it" when they mean "No." This really isn't surprising as languages tend to get more complicated in more isolated countries. My dad also said it helps to have a sense a humor about. Also, the Japanese are very kind and polite. They'll never be rude to you in my experience.
I was glad to read that Mandarin is easy; I only hope that it's true. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lady_skywalker Triglot Senior Member Netherlands aspiringpolyglotblog Joined 6976 days ago 909 posts - 942 votes Speaks: Spanish, English*, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, French, Dutch, Italian | Message 6 of 96 13 June 2006 at 8:44pm | IP Logged | ||
|
I think the difficulty of languages depends on what your native language is and how much exposure to languages you've had. All of the languages mentioned in the original post are non-Indo-European so those would naturally be the hardest for native English speakers. Grammars are often very different, there is usually little transparency as far as vocabulary goes and, in some cases, there are very different sounds to master. I could imagine that a consonant heavy language like Georgian or Chechen would be a challenge to speakers of, say, Italian or Finnish. And then there are the tonal languages...
The easier languages would usually be those which are closely related to languages you already know (although I'm sure there are exceptions). Once you have Italian under your belt, Spanish would not seem quite so daunting and vice versa. Likewise, speakers of the Turkic languages would be able to cope with Japanese and Korean grammar as there are common elements (eg. the verbs go at the end of sentences). Personally, I always feel the hardest language is the one you're forced to do and have zero interest in! ^_^ 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6854 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 7 of 96 13 June 2006 at 10:55pm | IP Logged | ||
|
Presumably the list applies to monolingual English speakers learning their
first foreign language. Too much depends on the learner's skills and temperament. Mandarin will indeed be hard for someone who's tone-deaf, but for most, it should actually be quite easy. Japanese, grammatically, isn't terribly hard (I'm sure Estonian's more difficult). However, as Sirgregory notes, the way Japanese expresses things is completely different from a Westerner's expectations. You need patience and a willingness to understand why things are said a certain way. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| maxb Diglot Senior Member Sweden Joined 7269 days ago 536 posts - 589 votes 7 sounds Speaks: Swedish*, English Studies: Mandarin | Message 8 of 96 14 June 2006 at 2:55am | IP Logged | ||
I find it intersting that the above article seems to regard foreign accent as purely a problem with sounds. Usually the most obvious sign of foreign accent is that the intonation is wrong. 1 person has voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2025 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
