Russian. While Russian is not that hard for some speakers in Eastern Europe, it appears challenging for English speakers. Russian is the most spoken native language in Europe and the 8th most-spoken language in the world. Forget carpe diem. And in the territories Moscow has occupied since 2014, it has swiftly moved to restore the primacy of Russian culture and language. Nouns have 15 different cases, while in English, they have only three: subjective, objective, possessive. Arabic . 3) The Russian language does not have articles, so you cannot make mistakes there. 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. 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. Each language has its own distinct set of these rules. 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. It took me a while to start speaking naturally without feeling any pressure.. The transition to Ukrainian began for some in 2014, when Moscow annexed Crimea and led forces into the Donbas region, which borders Russia. 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. 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. Russian grammar and phonetics would sound more familiar to you, and some Polish and Russian vocabulary is related. 2023 Galvanized Media. The language is also known for having very confusing conjugations. Additionally, some languages such as Mandarin, Thai, and Punjabi are tonal languages, where tone and pronunciation work together to communicate meaning. Thai is a tonal language. Mandarin is tough to learn because its a tonal language and uses a logographic script, hnz. Belonging to the Finno-Ugric family, Estonian is a unique language that can be a challenge to learn. In terms of grammar, a lexical and grammatical similarity exists between Bulgarian and Macedonian. 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. 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. Boasting a whopping 300 million speakers, Russian is one of the more popular languages globally. Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. These are "super-hard languages" that are "exceptionally difficult for native English speakers" to learn, including Arabic, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Korean. 25 Hardest Languages to Learn, Ranked. 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. The takeaway here is that the farther your native language is from the language youre learning, the more challenging you may find your new language. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, not everyone who spoke Russian was ethnically Russian; for some Ukrainians and other minority populations such as the Crimean Tatars, Russian was also the first language. Learning a language is a marathon, not a sprint. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { There's a tongue-in-cheek book titled "Learn Greek in 25 years," but you'll be surprised at how . Abjads: These generally use letters to represent only consonants, while vowels are absent and must be inferred by the reader. Brilliant planning there, mate. Whether for gaining a deeper cultural understanding of a country or for the simple necessity of co-existing and even performing business, multilingual speakers put themselves at the forefront of new possibilities. Thats because their grammatical structure is slightly less complex than in other Slavic languages, mainly because they dont use cases. Most English speakers have cited the language as the hardest language to learn in the world. We would say "I put the pizza in THE oven". A part of the Slavic language group, Croatian is considered one of the most difficult languages to learn. For more on the Czech language, see this comparison of Czech with Russian and German. By the way, if you guessed that Dutch, Swedish, German, and Danish are part of the same language family, youre right! In contrast to English, Czech is a synthetic language. The Cyrillic alphabet that Russian uses can be especially confusing for Chinese learners because it has letters that look similar to English letters, but are pronounced completely differently. 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. 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. 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. Bestlifeonline.com is part of the Dotdash Meredith Publishing Family. Chinese (Mandarin) The hardest language for English speakers to learn is Mandarin Chinese. Official forms such as those in doctors offices, particularly in Russian-speaking areas, largely came in both Russian and Ukrainian. Some friends in Central Asia are also trying to avoid it. One example is Thai. Although many like Tarasiuk might shudder when they hear Russian, a sense of understanding often prevails. Here's a look at the top 10 hardest languages to learn: Pronunciation makes Danish one of the most difficult languages to learn. 3. For example: Unusual grammar, difficult pronunciation, and six different tones make Vietnamese a challenge for English speakers. 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. Human speech as a whole uses over 800 phonemes, which are the individual sounds that act as the building blocks of spoken language. Czech and Polish are often considered the most difficult Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. if( navigator.sendBeacon ) { It is easy to make errors in pronunciation and spelling when learning this language. This can be done by adding a prefix or suffix or modifying the word. Language difficulty rankings exist so you can set the fluency goal posts at a realistic distance. This means that, rather than containing individual prepositions, prefixes and suffixes are added onto words. Then you better be ready to study. It means that, in Czech, different grammatical aspects are condensed into one word by changing its structure. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. The languages youll find in the second category are moderately challenging. Yeah. February 8, 2022. Whats more, its important to notice that Slavic languages use not one but two main alphabets - Latin and Cyrillic. First, it helps you determine how much of a challenge youre up for in your language journey. Most Slavic languages implement an extensive system of cases in which the endings of nouns (declination), adjectives, and prepositions change depending on the case. Where its most commonly spoken: Iran, Afghanistan. After the events of 2014, some eastern students moved to Kyiv and started learning the Ukrainian language, because they did not want to associate with anything Russian, any more, said Tarasiuk, who met several Donbas natives at university. A language tends to come out politically as the language of modernity. To be able to read and write, you have to learn thousands of characters. 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. However, it remains one of the most challenging languages to learn due to its unique alphabet and script that differ from many western languages. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian belong to this group. The Japanese writing system actually has three different scripts to learn (two are syllabaries and one is a logographic script, similar to Chinese characters). In addition, the grammar is filled with exceptions to the rule that you'll have to remember. Turkish is an agglutinative language, which means, in crude terms, that complex words are formed by tacking stuff on without changing the previous stuff at all. So, verbs are usually given in the first person of the singular form. Russian also has many words where consonants are grouped together, which makes spelling and pronunciation difficult. Ferlain, who asked Al Jazeera to use her callsign, speaks Ukrainian as her first language. Phonetically, there are more than 20 vowel sounds in the Danish language. There are a number of ways that a language can differ from your own. Unlike other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has no case system. What Level Of Difficulty Is Mandarin. They also have a relatively easy noun system. There is nothing natural about the way a language develops, Arel told Al Jazeera. This is because native speakers can offer valuable insights on the nuances of the language, including slang and idiomatic expressions. For English speakers, an additional concern is the three gendered nouns. Czech and Polish are often considered the most difficult Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. And for the English words you're still getting wrong, check out The 14 Hardest Words to Pronounce in the English Language. Great job defending the Russian language and Russian speakers, Putin! Many linguists consider Slavic languages to be the most challenging languages to learn for native English speakers. It takes time, discipline, and a well of motivation that youll need to refill. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. To help you understand what you're getting into, we've compiled this list of the hardest languages to learn. Editor's note: You can use our free language tool to make your own vocabulary lists, and record your own phrases. Grammar is the system that defines how words are formed and put together into sentences. They make decisions faster. 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. brzcze. Because Russian culture dominated the days of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, most Ukrainians can speak Russian. 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. Its also ranked as one of the easier languages to master, as youll see in the list below. , Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) April 4, 2022. Despite being the most widely spoken native language in the world, Mandarin Chinese tops the list of the toughest languages to learn. And if you're serious about learning Chinese, you'll have to tackle Chinese characters. In English, its acceptable to say that you bought five books. Russian speakers could also request Russian versions of other documents, such as marriage certificates. Easier, too, to keep your eye on the prizeyour personal language goalsat all times. Chinese speakers around the world: 1.2 billion native speakers . Meanwhile, the written version of Hindi, which is written in Devanagari script, lacks certain phonetic markings that would help learners better comprehend how to pronounce words. The Bulgarian writing system uses a Cyrillic alphabet, similar to the Russian alphabet but with some distinct differences. The Foreign Service Institute includes time estimates alongside their difficulty rankings, but its important to note that everyones language goals are different. All of our peers in this apartment complex, they are all above 60. As it happens, I disagree. Georgian has its own writing system that no other language uses. In terms of grammar, Russian is more complex than English. 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. No matter the difficulty level of your new language, Rosetta Stone makes learning easy, effective, and fun. 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. Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which can be tough for English speakers to learn. Where its most commonly spoken: North Korea, South Korea. For example, if youre a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, Russian would probably be a tricky language for you to learn. A Korean speaker learning Arabic, for example, might have a hard time with the letter , which sounds like an h that is pronounced using the throat. And yet, that one word is mind-blowingly long. These languages also have grammar rules that are absent from Mandarin, including noun cases, noun gender, and verb tenses. If youre looking for ease of learning, finding a language with familiar or easy-to-master grammar rules can help you tone down the language difficulty level. And a lot of the letters look surprisingly similar. There's a reason "it's Greek to me" is a common idiom for expressing confusion, after all. Although Slavic languages are similar in terms of grammar, vocabulary, and phonetics, they are all entirely different from English. Japanese. When it comes to pronunciation, the real difficulty factor comes into play for tonal languages. So, how long does it take to master it? Whats more, the Macedonian verb system is slightly different from other Slavic languages, as it doesnt use the infinitive form of verbs. There are plenty of resources that can tell you the hardest languages to learn if you speak English. Here are the features that the Slavic languages have in common: The general and common grammatical features of all Slavic languages are primarily inflectional morphology with multiple morphemes. Being able to judge how hard a language will be to learn aids you in a few ways. Arabic features 28 script letters, is written from right to left and excludes most vowels in words. This is unfortunate since Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. xhr.open('POST', 'https://www.google-analytics.com/collect', true); It has Dutch at its core but it is also intertwined with other dialects and indigenous languages from Africa. The Macedonian language lost the traditional (Slavic) grammatical cases during its development, and it became an analytic language. These are the most difficult to learn, as new learners will find that learning through listening is much more accessible than learning through text (though Pinyin is changing the way learners approach the language). One example is French. According to Arel, any identification with Russian culture, including the Russian language, is untenable right now. How to Order Food in French (with Example 102 Essential Spanish Phrases for Traveling. Russian is the most spoken native language in Europe and the 8th most-spoken language in the world. As with learning Russian, becoming fluent will depend highly on the learner. Bulgarian is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Bulgaria. A lot of the sounds in the language are difficult for English speakers to master, and the grammar is packed with irregular verbs. Try it today at www.rosettastone.com. Were grouping Spanish and French (which are the worlds fourth and fifth most widely spoken languages, respectively) because they are both Romance languages, and theyre similar enough that both Spanish and French speakers will find the same languages difficult for largely the same reasons. Strengthening your reading and writing skills in that language, then, takes far less time. The Korean language doesnt have an equivalent phoneme. 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. The main problem lies in the writing system. Mandarin, for example, has a logosyllabic writing system in which characters match distinct syllables in each word. 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. The three Slavic language groups are mutually unintelligible. Karolina Assi is an English and Polish teacher on iTalki.com. if( 'moc.enilnoefiltseb' !== location.hostname.split('').reverse().join('') ) { It goes without saying that the more time you spend practicing something, the better you will become at it. Mandarin is one of the few languages ranked as the most difficult to learn for English speakers by the Foreign Service Institute. 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. What's New at RussianLessons.Net. Take a look at the word suka. If you emphasize the first syllable ("SU-ka"), then youre saying "vomit." The grammar is also loaded with exceptions that require a ton of practice. Now, when she sees or hears Russian propaganda, Tarasiuk baulks. The script is almost entirely phonetic, which means that once you pick up the pronunciation of the letters, you can quickly begin reading fluently. Compared to the Finno-Ugric languages on the list (Finnish, Hungarian, Estonian), the seven cases you have to contend with in Polish don't seem too intimidating. The alphabet has a staggering 44 consonants and 32 vowels. 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. For instance, the letter is similar to SH (shampoo, shower, shop). The longest word in Hungarian, megszentsgtelenthetetlensgeskedseitekrt, means for your [plural] continued behavior as if you could not be desecrated in English. 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. Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. All adverbs and adjectives must have the same gender. For English terms you need to finally perfect, here are 23 Words You Need to Stop Mispronouncing. Polish pronunciation can be a doozy for learners. Russian is the most widely spoken Slavic language, with 155 million native Russian speakers. Russian. Where its most commonly spoken: Thailand. Its something they tried to tell me shouldnt exist; they wanted to suppress it but couldnt.. In Spanish, for example, verbs are conjugated differently depending on the sentences subject. 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. Data Privacy and Security. In order to become fully proficient in any Slavic language, you need to invest years of study. We'll start by looking at the characteristics of Slavic languages, then we'll look at: Slavic languages are spoken by nearly 300 million people around the world and cover a vast geographical area. I knew Ukrainian well but the hardest thing was to stop thinking in Russian. But once you do, you can pronounce almost all Russian words quite accurately. Hardly. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. The main phonetic similarity between all Slavic languages is the presence of phonemic palatalization, known as softening. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Even more intimidating is that each of these cases has plural forms to consider! These languages take up to 600 hours to master. Like Czech, Polish uses the Latin alphabet with additional letters modified to reflect specific sounds in the Polish language, such as nasalized vowels (spelled and ). However, its universally acknowledged that Slavic languages dont belong to the easiest languages to learn, especially for English speakers. Because youre already familiar with the alphabet, you have an understanding of characters and most letter sounds. Albanian differs from any other language, even that of its Indo-European classification. This makes them especially hard to learn for English speakers. It's frequently listed as one of the more difficult languages to learn for English speakers. New: Russian Names - Learn the history of Russian names. Russian is one of the most famous European languages with over 150 million speakers across the world. It's beautiful and valuable when you travel to that side of the world. It became a symbol of our resistance against Russian aggression, said Viktoriia Tarasuik, a 25-year-old born and raised in Kyiv, who grew up speaking Russian and has also made the linguistic shift. First, vowels are not included when writing. Syllabaries: These use symbols to represent syllables. 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. Do Not Sell My Information | Serious about learning Hungarian? 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. The Icelandic language remains one of the hardest languages to learn, which makes sense considering the language hasnt changed since it settled in the ninth and 10th centuries. The Greek language is very difficult for English speakers to learn, but the effort required to learn the language is worth it. 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. This list of the most difficult languages for English speakers to learn comes from data gathered by the US State Department. Top 20 Most Difficult Languages to Learn. Thats because Czech is a highly complex language. There are three different genders for nouns and various grammar rules unfamiliar to English speakers. Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman played brothers. For instance, in Italian, sentences are structured subject-verb-object (such as I threw the ball). If youre up for a challenge, these are the 25 hardest languages to learn. And pronunciation requires some practice because there are sounds that don't have an equivalent in English. Whats more, Polish words often contain many consonants in a row, which makes them hard to pronounce for English speakers (and non-Slavic speakers in general). 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. According to the Foreign Service Institute (FSI), Spanish belongs to category I by difficulty. Dont let their place on this list deter you from diving right in, thoughweve built courses to help you learn quickly and effectively! Modern Greek is maybe the easiest language to learn that uses a different alphabet. 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. Or Navajo? In this post, well take a look at the easiest and hardest languages to learn, the factors that determine language difficulty, and a complete ranking of the worlds most widely spoken languagesincluding how long it takes to learn each language. This is just one example of unique grammar rules that dont exist in other languages. 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.