The Easiest And Most Difficult Languages To Learn
Have you ever wondered what the easiest or most difficult languages to learn are? Or what are the hardest languages to learn for English speakers? For those looking to study and understand a second or third language, this is an important question.
Some people may think that English is a hard language to learn. However, there are many other languages which are by far much more difficult to understand and be fluent in. Below, are the easiest and most difficult languages to learn. They are ranked by category and the weeks or hours it may take for a person to achieve language proficiency.
Keep in mind that although there are some estimated hours or weeks that it may take someone to learn the language, they can vary. That’s because every person is different when it comes to learning something. There’s also the motivation factor, how much resources are available to you and how much time you spend learning. In addition, if the language you want to pick up is closer to your native language, that can make a difference as well.
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Easy Languages To Learn – Category 1.
The following languages are the easiest because they are closely related to the English language.
It is estimated that these languages all take anywhere from 23 to 24 weeks to learn or about 575 to 600 hours of studying or class.
Dutch – Netherlands – Nederlands – Estimated 21.7 million native speakers.
Spanish – Espanol – Spain, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela, Dominican Republic, Panama, Ecuador – Estimated 329 million native speakers.
French – Francais – France – Estimated 67.8 million native speakers.
Portuguese – Portugues – Portugal – Estimated 178 million native speakers.
Italian – Italiano – Italy – Estimated 61.7 million native speakers.
Swedish – Svenska – Sweden – Estimated 8.3 million native speakers.
Afrikaans – Afrikaans – South Africa – Estimated 4.9 million native speakers.
Romanian – Romana – Romania – Estimated 23.4 million native speakers.
Norwegian – Norsk – Norway – Estimated 4.6 million native speakers.
Medium Languages To Learn – Category 2.
These languages have a substantial amount of differences to the English language.
It is estimated that these languages all take anywhere from 42 to 44 weeks to learn or about 1,000 to 1,100 hours of studying or class.
Serbian – Cpnckn – Serbia – Estimated 16.4 million native speakers.
German – Deutsch – Germany – Estimated 90 million native speakers.
Thai – Tai-Kadai – Thailand – Estimated 20.4 million native speakers.
Hindi – Hindu – India – Estimated 182 million native speakers.
Greek – Eaanvika – Greece – Estimated 13.1 million native speakers.
Russian – Pyccknn – Russia – Estimated 144 million native speakers.
Polish – Polski – Poland – Estimated 40 million native speakers.
Finnish – Suomi – Finland – Estimated 5 million native speakers.
Turkish – Turkce – Turkey – Estimated 50.8 million native speakers.
Hebrew – Israel – Estimated 5.3 million native speakers.
Vietnamese – Tieng Viet – Vietnam – Estimated 68.6 million native speakers.
Difficult Languages To Learn – Category 3.
These languages almost nothing in common with the English language and because of that, they are the most difficult to learn for native English speakers.
It is estimated that these languages all take anywhere from 82 to 88 weeks to learn (1.69 years) or about 2,100 to 2,200 hours of studying or class.
One of the reasons these languages are so much more harder to learn is that they mostly use symbols. They also use fewer vowels – Arabic – and all require memorization of thousands of characters.
Japanese – Japan – Estimated 122 million native of speakers.
Korean – South Korea – Estimated 66.3 million native speakers.
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Arabic – Egypt – Estimated 221 million native speakers.
Chinese – China – Estimated 1.2 billion native speakers.
