Russian. This is a question you can resolve with some degree of certainty when talking about a single language. They studied in the Soviet Union, in Russian-speaking schools, completed university in the Russian language and now we are all transitioning to Ukrainian. Russian is a Slavic language, the 7 th most spoken language in the world by the total number of speakers, which, unfortunately, does not make the task of learning Russian much easier Russian is widely believed to be one of the most difficult languages to learn. It takes approximately 24-30 weeks (600-750 hours of practice) to reach professional working proficiency in these languages. Syllabaries: These use symbols to represent syllables. Phonetically English is quite remote from Russian, and features insane amount of vowels, along with fricatives and aspirated consona. An Austronesian language, Tagalog features a complicated grammar and sentence structure that make it hard to learn. Even the easiest languages typically take a few hundred hours of practice to become proficient, while harder languages can take thousands of hours. Expect to spend around 1,100 hours in class to attain speaking and reading proficiency, according to the FSI. There are three different genders for nouns and various grammar rules unfamiliar to English speakers. Chinese , Cantonese, Japanese, Korean, and Arabic are some of the most difficult languages to learn. Polish. Terms & Conditions | There are 30 letters in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet. There are a lot of sounds that simply aren't present in the English language and require a lot of practice to master. 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. Arabic. And a lot of the letters look surprisingly similar. It's not for the faint of heart. And while mastering a German accent can be tricky, most speakers will understand what youre saying through the missteps. document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', function() { I just dont see any other way. New: Lesson 17 - The 100 Most Used Words In Russian - The 100 most used words in Russian with a huge number of examples. As with learning Russian, becoming fluent will depend highly on the learner. Seems that every person I know in #Ukraine has stopped speaking Russian. We would like to show you a description here but the site won't allow us. She said many soldiers she works with who spoke Russian before the invasion are continuing to do so. So, what are the origins of the Slavic languages, and what are they? Meanwhile, written Danish has three more vowels than the English alphabet: , and . 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. 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. Agreements | 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. Because Macedonian doesnt have a complex case system like other Slavic languages, its considered one of the easiest Slavic languages to learn. Whats more, the Macedonian verb system is slightly different from other Slavic languages, as it doesnt use the infinitive form of verbs. Arabic may be on the list of most difficult languages to learn, but you can still learn new words in Arabic easily with Drops. In Gaelic, though, verbs go at the beginning of a sentence, so Gaelic sentences are structured verb-subject-object (Threw I the ball). 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. Most experts believe that to become truly fluent in Russian that is thinking and speaking in Russian requires 7-10 years of study. Factors such as grammar rules, syntax, vocabulary, and pronunciation can make some languages more difficult to learn than others. Country with the greatest number of speakers: Egypt. Mandarin is tough to learn because its a tonal language and uses a logographic script, hnz. One example is Thai. Arabic only has three cases nominative, genitive, and accusative while Finnish has a staggering 15 cases. One example is the Japanese writing system hiragana. 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. Its something they tried to tell me shouldnt exist; they wanted to suppress it but couldnt.. But it's certainly a big challenge. 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. Finnish. Polish is closely related to Czech and to Slovak. 2023 Galvanized Media. 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. Shutterstock/VPales. Where its most commonly spoken: Bulgaria. The verb carries the most weight in Turkish. The phrase I speak Spanish would be yo hablo Espaol, while you speak Spanish would be tu hablas Espaol.. You can work at your own pace, or generate a custom plan based on your goals to meet the timeline you have in mind. Most Slavic languages implement an extensive system of cases in which the endings of nouns (declination), adjectives, and prepositions change depending on the case. In contrast to English, Czech is a synthetic language. For instance, lina means "linen" in Estonian, but linna means city., Where its most commonly spoken: Turkey, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Greece. You can see this illustrated with some simple sentences centered around the Finnish word for house, talo.. 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. 3) The Russian language does not have articles, so you cannot make mistakes there. These languages, which include Vietnamese and Mandarin, require correct pronunciation and inflection to create meaning for each word. 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. 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 longest word in Hungarian, megszentsgtelenthetetlensgeskedseitekrt, means for your [plural] continued behavior as if you could not be desecrated in English. Arabic is a complex language with rich grammar and syntax. A language tends to come out politically as the language of modernity. 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. 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. Belonging to the Finno-Ugric family, Estonian is a unique language that can be a challenge to learn. Its one of the official languages of the European Union, spoken by over 40 million people, mainly in Poland. For most people, language learning is deeply fulfilling, fun, and a bit challenging. 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. 4. While Russian is not that hard for some speakers in Eastern Europe, it appears challenging for English speakers. And the alphabet's a breeze, assuming you can read Russian. Its going to be a generational change, but its going to happen eventually.. To help you understand what you're getting into, we've compiled this list of the hardest languages to learn. Where its most commonly spoken: Republic of Serbia, Bosnia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo. See what you can accomplish in just one lesson at www.rosettastone.com! Finally, theres Finnish, which has a broad reputation for being a difficult language to learn. Ferlain, who asked Al Jazeera to use her callsign, speaks Ukrainian as her first language. if( navigator.sendBeacon ) { Some friends in Central Asia are also trying to avoid it. But the more each language continued to evolve, the more it differed from its initial state. In fact, the further the languages are classified from each other, the fewer similarities they have. It also has a complicated verb conjugation system, which can be pretty confusing for English speakers. The term hard language refers to their complexity. Estonian is packed with a whopping 14 noun cases. Tarasuik disagrees, but says Russia has unintentionally reversed decades of Russification. In addition, Croatia is a small country with different dialects, making it difficult to grasp just one of them if youre trying to immerse yourself in the language while there. All adverbs and adjectives must have the same gender. To begin with, the Slavic languages derive from the Proto-Slavic language - their immediate parent language. Like a pack of wolves or a tank of gas, books in Mandarin requires the word bn to indicate a unit of five books. On the other hand, tvrtek means Thursday, and mastering the way each of those sounds works together is going to take you a while. They also have a relatively easy noun system. 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. On the one hand, each letter only has one pronunciation ever. It made people rethink what language they wanted to speak and I started hearing Ukrainian literally everywhere, said Tarasiuk, a front-end designer who had to put her career on hold because of the persistent blackouts caused by Russian attacks. In Polish, words are loaded with consonants which makes them difficult to spell and pronounce, for example, szczcie means "happiness" and bezwzgldny means "ruthless.". } 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. xhr.send(payload); Youll need to learn an entirely new alphabet, and memorize their corresponding letter sounds. 6. Easiest languages for English speakers - closely-related languages like Romance language (French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, Galician, Catalan), and other languages with historical influence in English (Afrikaans, Danish, Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian). Conversely, languages that are completely unrelated to your language will be more challenging and take longer to master. Also, Arabic has several sounds that must be pronounced back in the throat, sounds that dont occur in spoken Mandarin. 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 ). In Korean, its subject, object, verb, unlike in English, which is subject, verb, object. Have you ever wondered how hard MANDARIN is to learn? Credit: Greek Reporter. Alphabets: These use letters to represent a languages phonemes, which are both consonants and vowels. Another doozy is the 17 different cases for numbers, meaning there are 17 different ways to say one number. English is taught in Chinese schools, so most Mandarin speakers are familiar with English and the Latin script that makes up the English alphabet. 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. There are also Bulgarian speakers in some of the neighboring countries. Take a look at the word suka. If you emphasize the first syllable ("SU-ka"), then youre saying "vomit." In Spanish, for example, verbs are conjugated differently depending on the sentences subject. Russian: 144: 7: Vietnamese: 69: 8: Turkish: 51: 9: Polish: 40: 10: Thai: 21: 11: Serbian: 16: 12: Hebrew: 5: . Over time, the Proto-Slavic language separated into three branches: East Slavic, West Slavic, and South Slavic. Strengthening your reading and writing skills in that language, then, takes far less time. Much of Macedonian vocabulary is similar to Serbian and Bulgarian, and it uses a Cyrillic alphabet, just like Bulgarian. So, you might be able to get by in Jordan, but have a hard time in Kuwait. Bestlifeonline.com is part of the Dotdash Meredith Publishing Family. All of our peers in this apartment complex, they are all above 60. Having originated in the Philippine islands, Tagalog is the first language of most Filipinos. And pronunciation requires some practice because there are sounds that don't have an equivalent in English. Each language has a different level of correlation with other languages, even in the same group. After that are 50 merely "hard" Category-3 languages, including Czech, Hindi, Russian, and Thai. Gender plays a big part as well. Hungarian is an agglutinative language. It's highly similar to Slovak - Czech and Slovak are mutually intelligible - and slightly similar to Polish. Maddie is an education writer at IXL, a sister brand of Rosetta Stone. This means that, rather than containing individual prepositions, prefixes and suffixes are added onto words. 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. Russian. The way theyre used directs the meaning of the world as well. 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). The Russian language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, which can be challenging for English speakers to learn. A lot of the sounds in the language are difficult for English speakers to master, and the grammar is packed with irregular verbs. Pronunciation is also tricky because word stress varies based on context, and you cant rely on a few simple rules to learn proper Russian pronunciation. Words can also be very long, and deciphering how to pronounce them can defy intuition. All Rights Reserved. Where its most commonly spoken: Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Poland, Kazakhstan, Russian can be difficult for English speakers due to the confusing pronunciation. 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. Abjads: These generally use letters to represent only consonants, while vowels are absent and must be inferred by the reader. Another intriguing yet foreign concept to many English speakers, for instance, is the emphasis on respectful speech. The Foreign Service Institute is a reliable industry expert here. } else { 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 . Moreover, each language has its own letters that have developed to denote particular phonetic phenomena. 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. We researched the top 5 most widely spoken non-English languages to see which languages are the hardest for their speakers to learn. The letter b sounds like v, and the letter h sounds like n.. 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. It doesnt bother with the difference between I was running, I had been running, etc. But even though they know the language, the challenge lies in changing their inner machinations, the way they think, the Zahalskyys said. First, it helps you determine how much of a challenge youre up for in your language journey. The Hardest Languages in the World to Learn, The 14 Hardest Words to Pronounce in the English Language, Stop Using These Phrases to Sound Instantly Smarter, 40 Latin Phrases So Genius You'll Sound Like a Master Orator, 7 Common Phrases That You Didn't Know Have Racist Origins, Hungarian is a member of the same small language family. Croatian has seven cases, while English only has three. It uses VSO (verb, subject, object) word order, which can be tricky for most. Farsi also reads from right to left. This is because native speakers can offer valuable insights on the nuances of the language, including slang and idiomatic expressions. Todd Bridges and Gary Coleman played brothers. 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). What if youre starting from one of the other thousands of languages on Earth, though? Ukrainian was enshrined as the only national language in the constitution in 1991, the year Ukraine became independent, but the law was not enforced nor did it change daily life. 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. Arabic is a language most Mandarin speakers will find challenging. Among the most challenging aspects of learning Japanese is the writing system, which contains tens of thousands of characters referred to as kanji.. 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. Arabics writing system has several features that can confuse learners, including leaving out most vowels, writing from right to left, and letters changing shape depending on their position in a word. Most of the cities that have been reduced to rubble, such as Mariupol, Severodonetsk, Mykolaiv and Bakhmut, were largely Russian-speaking, Arel said. Whenever you think of Slavic languages, the first language that comes to your mind is probably Russian. Mandarin is one of the few languages ranked as the most difficult to learn for English speakers by the Foreign Service Institute. Thus, Russian . These languages also have grammar rules that are absent from Mandarin, including noun cases, noun gender, and verb tenses. } ); 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. From Russia to Poland, you can find people speaking Slavic languages.
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