Discover the 12 Hardest Languages To Learn for English Speakers

26.2K

Learning a new language takes dedication, focus, and lots of practice. For English speakers, some languages may require more practice than others—especially when those languages don’t share letters with the English alphabet.

So what is the hardest language to learn if you speak English, and how long would it take to reach proficiency? Follow our guide to the hardest languages to learn before you embark on a new language challenge.

What makes a language hard to learn?

Languages that don’t share vocabulary, grammar, or alphabets with English are more challenging for English speakers to learn. Additionally, some of the hardest languages to learn have complex tonal systems and pronunciation nuances that make them difficult for anyone to learn—not just English speakers.

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) classifies world languages into categories of language difficulty according to how much time an English learner needs to become proficient in the new language. These categories are:

• Category I: 24-30 weeks (600-750 hours) 
• Category II: 36 weeks (900 hours)
• Category III: 44 weeks (1,100 hours)
• Category IV: 88 weeks (2,200 hours)

It would take under a year (52 weeks) to learn languages in Categories I, II, and III if you study about 25 hours a week. However, Category IV languages would take more than a year and a half to learn with the same weekly commitment, around twice as long to learn as Category III languages.

List of the hardest languages to learn

Which are the hardest languages to learn for English speakers? Below are 12 languages, ranked based on difficulty and similarity to English, along with a sample phrase to help you see the differences.

1. Mandarin

Mandarin Chinese is one the most spoken languages in the world, and one of the most difficult languages for non-native speakers to learn. It’s known as the largest Chinese macrolanguage and has the most native speakers of any other language (nearly 1 billion). 

While English is an Indo-European language, Mandarin is in the Sino-Tibetan language family. It’s listed in Category IV of the FSI rankings. Attributes of Mandarin that make it difficult for English speakers to include:

• Its writing system, Hanzi, a logogram-based writing system in which characters represent entire words
• Five tones that changes the meaning of a word based on the speaker’s pitch (yīnpíng, yángpíng, shàngshēng, qùshēng, and qīngshēng)
• A number of dialects that change pronunciation and grammar rules

Although it can be difficult for beginning speakers, learning Mandarin is very beneficial. Its reputation as the language of business in the 21st century means that anyone involved in international business, law, education, or other industries should understand some level of Mandarin Chinese.

2. Cantonese

Like Mandarin, Cantonese is another Chinese language that’s on the Sinitic branch of the Sino-Tibetan language tree. Cantonese is spoken by more than 75 million people, mainly in Hong Kong and Guangdong, a province in southern China.

Known as one of the hardest languages to learn for non-English speakers, Cantonese is ranked at Category IV by FSI. Many of its traits make it difficult for non-native speakers, including English speakers, such as:

• A writing system that uses standardized Chinese Hanzi, like Mandarin, but with traditional characters rather than simplified characters in informal writing
• Non-English sounds, including glottal stops and the vowel sound “eoi”
• A tonal system with up to nine tones, all of which can change the meaning of a word depending on how they’re pronounced

While Cantonese and Mandarin are both Chinese languages, they’re not mutually intelligible, meaning that a Cantonese speaker can’t easily understand Mandarin (and vice versa). If an English speaker already knew Mandarin, they may be able to use standardized Chinese to write in Cantonese, but speaking and understanding it would take much longer.

3. Arabic

Over 300 million people speak Arabic today, making it one of the most commonly spoken languages in the world. Even though many languages are influenced by Arabic, including Persian, Spanish, and Greek, Arabic joins Mandarin and Cantonese in Category IV as one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers.

Characteristics of Arabic that make it difficult for English speakers include:

• A writing system called an abjad, which lists consonants only and leaves the reader to infer vowel sounds, and is written and read right to left (RTL)
• A grammar system that differs from English (verb comes first, structure changes according to gender, no upper or lowercase letters)
• Very few English loanwords for English speakers to recognize

People who learn Arabic as a second language typically learn Modern Standardized Arabic (MSA), which is closely related to the most common Arabic dialect (Egyptian Arabic). Once you’re proficient in Arabic, other Afro-Asiatic languages like Hebrew will be easier to learn.

4. Japanese

Even though English uses many Japanese loanwords in everyday speech, including ramen, sushi, and futon, Japanese is a challenging language for English speakers to master. It’s a Category IV language spoken by more than 127 million people, and is the official language of Japan.

A few reasons why Japanese is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers include:

• Its grammar structure: Japanese is an agglutinative language, meaning that words rely on affixes rather than word order to change meaning.
• Three writing systems to master: Hiragana and Katakana to represent sound and grammar, and kanji (Chinese characters) to represent main words
• A hierarchy of politeness and manners (Japanese honorifics) built into Japanese vocabulary and grammar

For anyone who wants to learn Japanese, speaking to someone who is fluent can help you understand more about the language. Rosetta Stone tutoring introduces learners to fluent Japanese speakers, helping you learn your new language more quickly.

5. Korean

The final Category IV language is Korean, which belongs to the Koreanic language family. Like Japanese, Korean is an agglutinative language that changes word meaning based on affixes, rather than word order in a sentence. More than 75 million people speak Korean in South Korea and North Korea, with several million Korean speakers also living in China and the United States.

When learning Korean, English speakers may have a hard time with:

• Korean’s seven levels of formality, with a different set of verb endings for each one
• The complex Hangul alphabet (written top to bottom and left to right), unlike English letters that are written sequentially
• Verbal distinctions and subtleties that are difficult for English speakers to pronounce or perceive when listening

Once you’ve learned Korean, it may be easier for you to pick up Japanese. The grammar structure of these languages is similar enough to carry over after learning one. 

6. Armenian

Even though both English and Armenian are Indo-European languages, Armenian is a Category III hard language to learn for English speakers. It’s an Indo-European isolate, meaning that Armenian is on its own branch of the Indo-European language tree, and is not similar to many existing languages. 

Other elements of Armenian that make it difficult to learn include:

• Its distinct alphabet that no other languages use (31 consonants, 7 vowels)
• Ejective sounds to pronounce consonant clusters, which don’t exist in English or other Indo-European languages
• Two main dialects that differ strongly from each other: Eastern Armenian (spoken in Armenia) and Western Armenian (spoken in present-day eastern Türkiye and the Armenian diaspora around the world)

Many linguists believe that of all the world languages, Armenian is most closely related to Greek. Armenian includes many Greek loanwords and lexical cognates, and the Armenian alphabet was modeled after the Greek alphabet. However, these languages are still so different that speakers of one language can’t easily understand the other.

7. Hindi

Hindi is mainly spoken in India, where both Hindi and English are official languages. But despite India’s history as a British colony, Hindi is one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. This Category III language is on the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European language tree, like Punjabi and Bengali, and is spoken by over half a billion people.

Some elements of Hindi that make it difficult for English speakers to learn include:

• Retroflex consonants (both aspirated and unaspirated) that don’t exist in English
• A grammar structure that places words in a different order from English
• Use of the Devanagari script that uses the abugida writing system with consonant-vowel units instead of individual letters

Modern Standard Hindi (MSH) is what you study when you begin to learn Hindi. If you know other languages influenced by Sanskrit, including Marathi or Bengali, Hindi may not be as difficult to learn.

8. Bulgarian

Like other Slavic languages, Bulgarian is considered a hard language for English speakers to learn. Over 5 million people speak Bulgarian in Bulgaria and surrounding regions, including Ukraine and Greece. A former country in the Soviet Union, Bulgaria was heavily influenced by Russia in the 20th century, as was the language of Bulgarian.

English learners find many Slavic languages difficult to learn. Reasons why Bulgarian may prove especially difficult include:

• Its use of a Cyrillic alphabet, similar to Russian
• A complex, gender-based grammar system with a lexical stress that isn’t always indicated in the word
• Not much overlap with English vocabulary

Because Bulgarian and Macedonian are closely related, learning one can lead to a simpler understanding of the other. Macedonian Cyrillic is similar to Bulgarian Cyrillic, and the two languages are considered highly mutually intelligible.

9. Turkish

Mainly spoken in the country of Türkiye, Turkish is an agglutinative language that adds meaning to individual words rather than adding words to a sentence. It belongs to the Altaic language family and is structurally related to Uralic languages, such as Korean and Japanese, as well as Mongolian and Kazakh.

Distinguishing details of the Turkish language might make it difficult for English speakers to learn, such as:

• Vowel harmony not present in English or other Indo-European languages
• A grammar system that includes no gender (unlike English pronouns he and she)
• Sentence structure that doesn’t require a subject to be complete

Once you begin to learn Turkish, you’ll find that its grammar system is quite regular and not difficult to follow. However, that level may take many weeks for English speakers to reach, as Turkish is a Category III language in the FSI rankings.

10. Persian

Persian is strongly influenced by Arabic, spoken in neighboring Middle Eastern countries. However, Persian and Arabic are in different language families, making Persian a linguistically interesting crossover between the Afro-Asiatic language family and the Indo-European languages. Persian also splits into three main dialects: Farsi (spoken in Iran), Dari (spoken in Afghanistan), and Tajik (spoken in Tajikistan).

These factors make it difficult for English speakers to learn Persian, even though Persian and English are both Indo-European languages. Additional traits of Persian that make it one of the hardest languages to learn include:

• Its use of the cursive Perso-Arabic script, which is written right to left
• Many unique words not found in other languages that are difficult to translate into English
• Sounds that are difficult for English speakers to say 

When English speakers study Persian, they typically learn Farsi, which has become the standardized version of Persian. Most dialects of Persian are mutually intelligible, so learning Farsi should enable you to generally understand Dari and Tajik as well.

11. Russian

Russian can be tricky for English speakers to master. Like Bulgarian, Russian is a Category III language in the FSI rankings, and it’s on the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. You’ll hear traces of Russian in most Eastern European languages, and even in English itself, as in the words mammoth and tundra.

But learning Russian itself takes more time for English speakers than other languages, mainly because:

• Russian words are highly inflected and dependent on word endings.
• It uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which doesn’t share letters with the Latin alphabet.
• The grammar system is gender-based, so speakers need to memorize the assigned gender to each noun.

The benefit of learning Russian is that it opens the door to learning many other languages. Ukrainian and Belarusian in particular are closely related to Russian, with Russian and Belarusian being nearly mutually intelligible.

12. Vietnamese

Vietnamese is spoken by over 85 million people who primarily live in Vietnam, where Vietnamese is the official language. It’s part of the Austroasiatic language family and has strong influences from Cantonese and French vocabulary due to its history under Chinese and French rule.

Even though Vietnamese uses the Latin alphabet like English, it’s considered a hard language for English speakers to learn because:

• Like Mandarin and Cantonese, Vietnamese is a tonal language with six different tones that change the meaning of a word.
• Its pronunciation patterns are unpredictable for new learners.
• Most Vietnamese words are short, making word order important to learn.

If you know a little French and/or Cantonese, learning Vietnamese may not be as difficult for you. And if you think English grammar rules are tricky, you may even prefer Vietnamese, as it has no verb ending conjugation at all.

What languages are easy for English speakers to learn?

Some languages are similar enough to English that they’re easy to learn for most English speakers. Category I Germanic languages, including Dutch and Norwegian, use Latin-based alphabets like English and have similar vocabularies and grammatical structures. Frisian, another Germanic language, is very close to English.

Many Romance languages are also considered Category I languages. Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Romanian would only take English learners around 24-36 weeks to learn.

Learning a new language is rewarding

When you already speak a Germanic language like English, learning a language from a completely different language family may be a challenge. But like every learning journey, picking up a new language—even one of the above hardest languages to learn—is worth the time it takes to master, whether that’s 400 hours or 2,200 hours. Find out how Rosetta Stone works to start your language adventure today!