The 5 Hardest Languages For English Speakers to Learn

 

What are the hardest languages in the world? Learning a new language can be hard as many of you may have guessed, Mandarin is considered one of the hardest languages to learn. Today, we would like to talk about top 5 difficult languages to learn.

1.     Mandarin

Mandarin is spoken by over a billion people in the world and the language is indeed very difficult for those that use the Latin writing system. Mandarin has thousands of characters and it has four tones (high, rising, falling-rising and falling) that English doesn’t have. Also as there are many homophones (words with the same sound but different meanings), it is also one of the factor that makes Mandarin super hard to understand.

2.     Arabic

Arabic is known as poetic language. It has over 300 million speakers in the worlds. In Arabic, it is written in four different forms depending on the position of the word. In Arabic grammar, the verb comes before the subject, and in addition to the singular and plural forms, there are also diphthongs. Also, for writing, Arabic is written from right to left, and there is a big barrier to learning because the text does not contain vowels. Not only is it difficult to write, but a feature of spoken Arabic is that some of the sounds (pronunciations) that are spoken do not exist in other languages ​​or are pronounced, including sounds from the back of the throat, and many dialects exist depending on the region of use.

3.     Polish

Polish is the sixth most popular language in the European Union. Polish is among the hardest languages to learn in the world. Polish words are confusing and hard to pronounce for English speakers. Since it has complex grammar system, and additional letters, it is hard to master for people that speak English.

4.     Finnish

Finnish is the official language for Finland and Sweden. It has complex vowel systems and grammar systems. Finnish language system is very different from Latin or English counterparts. Learning Finnish is extremely tough for English speakers.

5.     Korean

Korean, which is spoken by 80 million users, is a monolingual language. Koreans don't feel it, but in Korean, each word form consists of one single morpheme. Grammar of Korean is different from that of English. In Korean, the subject comes first, followed by the object, followed by the action (verb) at the end. In English, the subject is followed by the action, followed by the object. This grammar system makes it difficult for native English speakers to learn Korean.

Hopefully, you enjoyed this list of difficult languages. Languages definitely work differently and form differently.

Need a translation? I’M Translation and ISIS Korea provides professional translation and interpretation services.

How might I’M Translation and ISiS Korea aid translation?

At I’M Translation and ISiS Korea, we can connect you with a professional translators and interpreters. We have over 30+ languages available on our platform and we are flexible and available regardless of the language pair, topic, and time zone. Please visit us at www.imtranslation.com and www.isiskorea.com/eng to request a free translation and interpretation quote. Thank you!