Language learning is fascinating and comes with its own set of difficulties. It may be easier to learn some languages due to their similarities to our native language, while learning other languages can feel like climbing a mountain! People often ask: What is the most difficult language to learn? The answer tends to be, it depends on your first language, your learning environment, and your exposure.

However, as is always the case, there are certain languages that linguists and learners agree are particularly difficult to learn. Let’s not only answer this question, but also examine some other related questions people may ask.

What Is Generally Considered the Hardest Language to Learn?

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) has done research on what learning is and is not difficult for English speakers, and has categorized and ranked languages by their difficulty to learn based on the typical time it takes to become conversationally fluent, along with other factors. The hardest languages to learn according to the FSI, are, Chinese (Mandarin), Arabic, Japanese and Korean.

• Mandarin Chinese: Thousands of characters, tonal pronunciation and completely different grammar system.
• Arabic: Very complicated script in orientation written from right to left, different dialects, and complex grammar rules.
• Japanese: Three systems of writing (hiragana, katakana and kanji), cultural context attached to the language, and many formal honorifics.
• Korean: Hangul (the alphabet) is logical, but in terms of grammar and sentence structure, all rules are very dissimilar to English.
• Sanskrit (not officially ranked by FSI but comparable in difficulty): Extremely complex grammar with eight cases, three numbers, and three genders, long compound word formations, precise pronunciation with retroflex sounds, and limited opportunities for conversational practice since it is mostly classical/liturgical.

These languages usually require upwards of 2,000+ hours of study compared to the 600–750 hours found in similar languages to English, like Spanish or French.

Why Do Some Languages Seem More Difficult Than Others?

Some languages can seem more difficult for any number of reasons, such as:

• Alphabet and writing system (new symbols or scripts).
• Pronunciation and tones (for example Mandarin, or Vietnamese).
• Grammar and structure of sentences (free word order and a variety of inflections as in Finnish or Hungarian).
• Similar vocabulary (languages further away from English, like Dutch or Spanish tend to feel simpler).
• Contexts of use (different levels of formality and politeness).

To summarize, the further away a language is from your native tongue then the more difficult you are likely to experience it.

Is English a Hard Language to Learn for Others?

Yes, many non-native speakers will tell you that English is very complicated. While it is true that English does not have tones or genders for nouns, it does have:

• An abundance of irregular verbs (go → went; eat → ate).
• An unexplainable number of ‘rules’ for spelling and pronunciation (though → tough → cough).
• A huge breadth of vocabulary from its Latin, French, and Germanic roots.

Therefore, while English may seem ‘easy’ to us, for others it may be just as difficult and frustrating as Mandarin might seem to an English speaker.

Which Languages are Written Differently?

• Russian uses Cyrillic which is fairly easy to learn in a matter of weeks but often feels more unfamiliar.
• In Mandarin and Japanese, learning several thousand characters could be an obstacle to reading, say, the front page of a newspaper.
• In Arabic, there are letters that are contextually determined. The form taken by a letter (its shape) can vary depending on its position in a word.

Fully learned/rencji the writing systems cannot be mastered simply by memorizing letters in lists but through ongoing practice which is what makes them take a bit longer.

Can Motivation and Environment Make a Hard Language Easier?

Interestingly with English (and other European languages, a first language) it is not impossible.

Languages like Spanish, French, Italian, Dutch, and Norwegian, have become easier for English speakers to learn because of:

• a ton of shared vocabulary.
• the structural rules of grammar are similarly coin-operated.
• the processes of pronunciation tend to be regular.

To explain, Spanish has a phonetic (or predictable) way of being pronounced and Dutch grammar even feels to many English speakers almost intuitive!

Do Some People Have a Natural Talent for Learning Languages?

Of course! A motivated student can get find their teacher in a place target language is spoken, significantly faster than if learning through a textbook lens. For instance:

• Exposure/Focus helps with learning from time to time accent lessons, listening comprehension.
• Practice Minds come up with vocabulary organically.
• Culture context makes the grammar rules seem less abstract.

So, while Japanese may seem daunting for most, someone who is excited to learn Japanese possibly from years watching Anime, interest in culture going to Japan for business learning possibilities, would likely be more ready to learn to master Japanese quickly.

Conclusion

So, what is the hardest language to learn? It largely depends on your starting position. For an English speaker, Mandarin, Japanese, Arabic, and Korean will be the hardest to learn followed by Tagalog and languages with similar structures. But hard does not equal impossible – it equals time, patience, and commitment.

The reality is motivation is the magic ingredient. If you are interested in a culture and interested in its media, and have a future career aspiration that includes the language, even the hardest language can feel like an awesome journey!

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