For English terms you need to finally perfect, here are 23 Words You Need to Stop Mispronouncing. For many, switching from Russian to the Ukrainian language is an act of resistance as the war continues to devastate lives and cities. The Foreign Service Institute includes time estimates alongside their difficulty rankings, but its important to note that everyones language goals are different. Includes lists of 100 common names. Although not easy at all, Bulgarian and Macedonian are often considered the easiest Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. Where its most commonly spoken: Philippines. Its writing system is an abjad, which functions very differently from both Chinese characters and the English alphabet because it uses letters to represent consonants but not all vowels, and it uses a cursive script, so letters combine and change forms. 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. Russian: 144: 7: Vietnamese: 69: 8: Turkish: 51: 9: Polish: 40: 10: Thai: 21: 11: Serbian: 16: 12: Hebrew: 5: . They'll be very aware if there's no shade. For example: For instance, the letter is similar to SH (shampoo, shower, shop). However, theres no way of accurately guessing the gender of the noun. Boasting a whopping 300 million speakers, Russian is one of the more popular languages globally. By Theo Ioannou. Syllabaries: These use symbols to represent syllables. The oldest living Indo-European language, Greek is an ancient language thats filled with complications for learners. Standard Chinese - 'Mandarin' - is often cited as the most difficult language for English speakers to learn. Another intriguing yet foreign concept to many English speakers, for instance, is the emphasis on respectful speech. 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. The longest word in Hungarian, megszentsgtelenthetetlensgeskedseitekrt, means for your [plural] continued behavior as if you could not be desecrated in English. Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. 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. Czech and Polish are often considered the most difficult Slavic languages to learn for English speakers. 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. Get the most out of this nighttime activity. Finally, theres Finnish, which has a broad reputation for being a difficult language to learn. Mandarin is tough to learn because its a tonal language and uses a logographic script, hnz. Does she think the Russian language will eventually disappear in Ukraine? Also known as Persian, this Indo-European language is chock full of words English speakers can recognize, thanks to many English words originating from Farsi. It's helpful if you speak another Slavic language, but otherwise, it's going to be a challenge. Strengthening your reading and writing skills in that language, then, takes far less time. There are some shared cognates such as ' ja ' which means ' yes ' and ' veld ' which means ' field '. For English sayings you didn't realize were offensive, check out 7 Common Phrases That You Didn't Know Have Racist Origins. Mandarin Chinese. Russian grammar and phonetics would sound more familiar to you, and some Polish and Russian vocabulary is related. It's incredibly helpful for learning pronunciation, and can enable you to read some written . Because Macedonian doesnt have a complex case system like other Slavic languages, its considered one of the easiest Slavic languages to learn. German and English belong to the same Germanic language family, so their linguistic closeness wins out. 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). The pronunciation is what will get you. First of all, there are many resources available online to learn Russian, and its also taught in many languages schools. One example is the Japanese writing system hiragana. Mandarin, by contrast, has little to no inflection. Hnz is hard enough that it's typical for Mandarin learners to learn a different writing system first, called pinyin. In terms of grammar, Russian is more complex than English. Plus, it doesnt even take that long to get used to the new alphabet, as its pretty straightforward! But the fun doesn't stop there. Learning a language is a marathon, not a sprint. The script is almost entirely phonetic, which means that once you pick up the pronunciation of the letters, you can quickly begin reading fluently. Natasha has been taking Ukrainian courses online. New: Lesson 18 - Russian Homes and Apartments - Learn all the words needed around the house. Logographic systems: These use characters to represent entire words or concepts. Moreover, each language has its own letters that have developed to denote particular phonetic phenomena. The languages youll find in the second category are moderately challenging. Or what abou. Now, when she sees or hears Russian propaganda, Tarasiuk baulks. It takes time, discipline, and a well of motivation that youll need to refill. 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. var xhr = new XMLHttpRequest(); If you're looking for official statistics, the Defense Language Institute (where they teach members of the CIA foreign languages) has organized languages into four categories, the 1st Category being the easiest, and the 4th Category being the hardest languages to learn for English speakers. Haitian Creole. Knowing language difficulty will also help you come up with a realistic timeline for learning. So, if you learn a certain dialect, there's a chance you might not be able to understand the locals from another region. And while mastering a German accent can be tricky, most speakers will understand what youre saying through the missteps. Moscow paints Kyivs language policies as oppressive as Russian officials claim they are liberating Russian speakers from the Ukrainian project. Being able to judge how hard a language will be to learn aids you in a few ways. Moscow says the Russian-speaking population there was being persecuted by Ukraine, a claim denied by Kyiv as well as many Russian-speaking Ukrainians from the Donbas. And yet, that one word is mind-blowingly long. Grammatically, verbs often come before the subject, while there are many dual forms of words in addition to the singular and plural forms. It is always a state project.. New: Lesson 17 - The 100 Most Used Words In Russian - The 100 most used words in Russian with a huge number of examples. 25 Hardest Languages to Learn, Ranked. 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, Languages that use the same Latin alphabet youll find in English, Languages that have their own unique alphabets, Languages based on unique writing systems. For now, lets take a look at the individual components of each language that affect difficulty levels: In French, the flower translates to la fleur. Expect to spend around 1,100 hours in class to attain speaking and reading proficiency, according to the FSI. One of the most intriguing aspects is that emphasis can completely change the meaning of certain words. For example, if youre a Brazilian who speaks Portuguese, Russian would probably be a tricky language for you to learn. Although both Bulgarian and Macedonian have been recognized Category IV languages in terms of difficulty for English speakers, they are relatively easy to learn compared to other Slavic languages. It also has 18 cases and 14 vowels, which makes saying things right particularly difficult. But once you do, you can pronounce almost all Russian words quite accurately. On the other hand, Polish doesnt distinguish as many tenses as English does - theres only past, present, and future combined with a perfective and imperfective verb aspect. The Japanese writing system actually has three different scripts to learn (two are syllabaries and one is a logographic script, similar to Chinese characters). Abugidas: These generally use letters to represent consonant-vowel combinations. The Foreign Service Institute classifies most Slavic languages as Category IV languages - which means that they require 44 weeks or 1100 hours of study to reach conversational level. Meanwhile, written Danish has three more vowels than the English alphabet: , and . Polish is undoubtedly one of the hardest languages to learn for English speakers due to its complex grammar and pronunciation. Karolina Assi is an English and Polish teacher on iTalki.com. Spanish, French, and Italian are all descendants of Latin and have many similarities. It has six tonal variations that are determined by diacritics. Then you better be ready to study. xhr.send(payload); Great job defending the Russian language and Russian speakers, Putin! Arabic only has three cases nominative, genitive, and accusative while Finnish has a staggering 15 cases. Albanian nouns have both a case and a number, requiring the learner to memorize each noun. 3. Most Ukrainians can speak Russian and many speak what has been labelled Surzhyk a blend of Russian and Ukrainian so measuring who speaks what is challenging. Furthermore, Thai has its own script with 44 consonants, 18 vowels and six diphthongs to memorize. In Korean, its subject, object, verb, unlike in English, which is subject, verb, object. There's a reason "it's Greek to me" is a common idiom for expressing confusion, after all. The sentence structure is also very different from English. Despite being the most widely spoken native language in the world, Mandarin Chinese tops the list of the toughest languages to learn. It has six declension cases, which dont exist in English and can be challenging for English speakers to comprehend. Learn how to pronounce these everyday words that don't always sound the way they're spelled. Unlike most European languages, which belong to the Indo-European language family, Hungarian is a Uralic language. Korean uses an alphabet, but unlike Spanish or French, its letters combine to form syllabic blocks. 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. Although the Czech language uses the Latin alphabet and its words are pronounced the way they are written, its one of the most difficult Slavic languages to learn. Many examples! The default vowel sound of those letters is changed by using a secondary symbol. >> Dive right in: Get the complete list of languages ranked by difficulty. Where its most commonly spoken: India, Fiji, Pakistan. Factors such as grammar rules, syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation can make some languages more difficult to learn than others. Russian, Ukrainian, and Belorussian belong to this group. It takes approximately 36 weeks (900 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. And if you're serious about learning Chinese, you'll have to tackle Chinese characters. Where individual Slavic languages border with each other, these boundaries are usually blurred there are broad stripes of transitional dialects and areas of the intermingling of phenomena characteristic of both neighboring languages (for example, in Czech and Slovak). comparison of Czech with Russian and German, The grammar, pronunciation, and general structure of a language, The alphabet (as mentioned in the article, some Slavic languages use the Cyliric alphabet, which means more things to learn). 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. It's highly similar to Slovak - Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible - and slightly similar to Polish. Editor's note: You can use our free language tool to make your own vocabulary lists, and record your own phrases. To be able to read and write, you have to learn thousands of characters. The Russian language is the official language of Russia and is ranked 3rd among the hardest languages to learn. Experts say these things bring unlucky energy. Albanian's 36-letter alphabet should clue you in that attempting to master this language is going to be a wild ride. If you think picking up a little French or Spanish in your spare time is difficult, then you should know the kind of work you're getting into learning some other languages from around the world. Having originated in the Philippine islands, Tagalog is the first language of most Filipinos. There is nothing natural about the way a language develops, Arel told Al Jazeera. However, when you consider all non-English speakers together, there isnt just one answer. Generally speaking, difference equals difficulty when it comes to learning a new language. Over time, the Proto-Slavic language separated into three branches: East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic. 4. Towards the end of 2022, Ukrainian forces wrested back the city of Kherson, while most of the rest of the region remained in Russian hands. The alphabet is made of very elaborate characters; the language is tonal; there are lots of idioms, and the ability to speak the language doesn't help you read it. From Chinese sentence structure to memorizing foreign symbols, this language demands the most out of beginners. In 2022, the entire country witnessed the war and all the crimes the Russians committed. But, said Arel, the legislation affected education as it essentially eliminates Russian from high schools. If you want to become proficient in a language, youll eventually need to learn whatever system of writing the language uses. Arabic . The way theyre used directs the meaning of the world as well. Where its most commonly spoken: Iran, Afghanistan. But even though they know the language, the challenge lies in changing their inner machinations, the way they think, the Zahalskyys said. It is easy to make errors in pronunciation and spelling when learning this language. When it comes to the similarities between the Slavic languages, their kinship lies in the fact that they all derive from a common ancestor the Proto-Slavic language. The language features five tones, some of which are not found in the English language. These endings are used to express the same things propositions do in English. This is unfortunate since Mandarin is the most widely spoken language in the world. , Matthew Kupfer (@Matthew_Kupfer) April 4, 2022. Its synthetic nature gives rise to a complex system of declension and conjugation. A language tends to come out politically as the language of modernity. That's mainly due to their complex . Brilliant planning there, mate. In addition, the grammar is filled with exceptions to the rule that you'll have to remember. Part of what makes it one of the easiest Slavic languages to learn for English speakers is its simple vocabulary, which makes it pretty simple to speak and comprehend. Russian. 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. If youre from Poland and grew up speaking Polish, though, Russian likely wouldnt be as difficult for you because it has more in common with your native language. There are also various sounds made in the language that dont exist in many other languages. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { There are three different genders for nouns and various grammar rules unfamiliar to English speakers. These are the HARDEST LANGUAGES to learn ranked by the time it takes to be FLUENT in them! If you have ever heard a Russian person speak English, you might have spotted this mistake: "I put the pizza in oven". To begin with, the Slavic languages derive from the Proto-Slavic language - their immediate parent language. As an example of cognates, here are the words for a smile in different Romance languages: Cognates can make a language feel familiar. Most English speakers have cited the language as the hardest language to learn in the world. But again, those interviewed by Al Jazeera said there were few strict rules. } The pronunciation is also pretty challenging for native English speakers. When it comes to pronunciation, the real difficulty factor comes into play for tonal languages. Russian. Its also ranked as one of the easier languages to master, as youll see in the list below. In contrast to English, Czech is a synthetic language. Maybe its PTSD, but we react negatively to the media in Russian, she said. The ability to speak multiple languages puts you steps ahead of singular speakers. Whenever you think of Slavic languages, the first language that comes to your mind is probably Russian. 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. Navajo is hard enough to figure out that code talkers in World War II used the language to develop a code for communicating that the Germans wouldn't be able to track. Bulgarian uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which can be tough for English speakers to learn. This means that you just have to memorize the nouns with their corresponding gender. Czech also has seven cases to learn, with each masculine, feminine and neutral. Russian is one of the most famous European languages with over 150 million speakers across the world. It's not for the faint of heart. For most people, language learning is deeply fulfilling, fun, and a bit challenging. 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. It takes approximately 24-30 weeks (600-750 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Agreements | Learning Russian is quite an experience because of the intricate case and gender system, different grammatical rules and novel writing system. 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. Much of Macedonian vocabulary is similar to Serbian and Bulgarian, and it uses a Cyrillic alphabet, just like Bulgarian. Maddie is an education writer at IXL, a sister brand of Rosetta Stone. For more on the Czech language, see this comparison of Czech with Russian and German. Great job defending the Russian language and Russian speakers, Putin! On the flip side, you may be looking for a language thats as easy to learn as possible, and being able to judge which languages are most similar to your own will help you find one. And because there are no characters, its harder to visualize them for memorization purposes. Bulgarian is a South Slavic language spoken mainly in Bulgaria. The Slavic languages have many words in common, although some of the similarities can be confusing. Unusual grammar, difficult pronunciation, and six different tones make Vietnamese a challenge for English speakers. Certainly, the most intriguing, yet difficult, aspect of learning Georgian is that it has its own writing system, and many of the letters used look incredibly similar. A lot of the sounds in the language are difficult for English speakers to master, and the grammar is packed with irregular verbs. The phrase I speak Spanish would be yo hablo Espaol, while you speak Spanish would be tu hablas Espaol.. Farsi also reads from right to left. The most obvious impediment to learning Greek is the alphabet. Dont let their place on this list deter you from diving right in, thoughweve built courses to help you learn quickly and effectively! Its one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken by over 40 million people, mainly in Poland. This is one of the giveaways that a person's native language is Slavic. Unlike other Slavic languages, Bulgarian has no case system. You need about 3,000 to . On the one hand, each letter only has one pronunciation ever. It took me a while to start speaking naturally without feeling any pressure.. You can see this illustrated with some simple sentences centered around the Finnish word for house, talo.. 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). Category II Languages. It also has a complicated verb conjugation system, which can be pretty confusing for English speakers. Where its most commonly spoken: Bulgaria. Forget carpe diem. For instance, while the language is made up of Latin letters, many letters sound entirely different. Dark red (Category V*): On the map, this category only includes Japanese. The grammar seems like it's very simple, but Japanese also uses particles, which are markers for parts of speech that do not have an English equivalent. Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman played brothers. Just as learning Arabic is hard for Mandarin speakers, learning Mandarin is hard for Arabic speakers. Other troops might keep speaking Russian to keep a grasp on the language of the enemy, especially if they are working in reconnaissance, Ferlain said. For example, , , , , , , , and are all different letters that you might have a hard time distinguishing between if you're new to the game. Seems that every person I know in #Ukraine has stopped speaking Russian. Because Russian culture dominated the days of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, most Ukrainians can speak Russian. Slavic languages make a distinction between three main grammatical genders (male, female, neuter), as well as the division of verbs into perfective and imperfective. I just dont see any other way. Arabic features 28 script letters, is written from right to left and excludes most vowels in words. Belonging to the Finno-Ugric family, Estonian is a unique language that can be a challenge to learn. For example uenik, translates to male student. Some individual letters prove tricky as well. The language is in the Finno-Urgic language family, so it doesn't have any Latin or German influence to help you guess what something means. It has 7 declension cases for nouns, adjectives, and pronouns. With similar pronunciation and grammar to other salvia languages, the thing that makes learning Russian so difficult is the Cyrillic alphabet which is notably employed throughout eastern Europe and central Asia. There are a number of ways that a language can differ from your own. The closer a language is related to yours, the easier it will be to learn. Declension in Czech is its own special nightmare, but you won't even need to worry about that until you get past the seemingly insurmountable hurdle that is pronouncing the words correctly. 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. By the way, if you guessed that Dutch, Swedish, German, and Danish are part of the same language family, youre right! Despite the fact that Greek roots are found throughout the English language, Greek is among the hardest languages for English speakers to learn, according to . Part of the Austroasiatic language family, Vietnamese can also be difficult to speak due to its foreign pronunciations to English speakers. Polish is another language that can give English speakers a hard time, with spelling and grammar causing the biggest problems for learners. 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. Also, some of its letters are tricky to pronounce, and Korean has its own version of honorific speech that requires specific forms of words depending on social context. What Is the Hardest Language to Learn for Non-English Speakers? if( 'moc.enilnoefiltseb' !== location.hostname.split('').reverse().join('') ) { Or Navajo? Around 4,000 Spanish words, including naranja (orange) and taza (cup), are derived from Arabic words. 3) The Russian language does not have articles, so you cannot make mistakes there. 500 Hours Need to learn complete Swedish. There are 30 letters in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet. See what you can accomplish in just one lesson at www.rosettastone.com! The archaic language is made up of extremely long words, while the specific syllables are pronounced entirely differently from typical English syllables. They are very closely related to English, so many of the same grammar rules and similar vocabulary apply. One example is Arabic. Albanian differs from any other language, even that of its Indo-European classification. 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. Russian. Maria Stambler, a Russia-American bilingual speaker, who used to teach English, explained: "Words and phrases like `Tina Turner' and `happy birthday' are hard to pronounce because Russians . While Russian is not that hard for some speakers in Eastern Europe, it appears challenging for English speakers.
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