The world is diverse and so are the languages. Out of thousands of languages that are spoken around the world, some of them can be extremely difficult to learn. Learning a new language is already very difficult and when the language itself is tough, the task becomes even more daunting. Out of a plethora of languages, Mandarin is considered the toughest, but it is not the list. In fact, it has many contenders. Here, in this blog, we will be looking at 10 such languages that are toughest to learn.
The Most Difficult Languages in the World
| List of toughest languages |
| Mandarin |
| Japanese |
| Polish |
| Arabic |
| Telugu |
| Korean |
| Finnish |
| Russian |
| Turkish |
| Vietnamese |
Mandarin
Having over a billion speakers all around the world, Mandarin can prove to be one of the toughest languages to learn. Belonging mainly to the Country of China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore, it mainly consists of Chinese characters, therefore, it is extremely difficult to learn for those whose native language is based on the Latin writing system. It is the fact that Chinese is a language that includes homophones and idioms and aphorisms which is taken from the course of its long history. Mandarin is a tonal language having thousands of characters and a peculiar writing style. Mandarin, a form of Chinese language, consists of four different tones i.e. flat, rising, falling then rising and falling. As it is not a phonetic language, it is extremely difficult to learn and write the words. Based on all such points, one can call Mandarin a very difficult language. What proves this point is the fact that looking for Chinese words in a dictionary is considered no less than a skill in China. The dialects of Mandarin are equally tough. Some of the dialects of the Mandarin language spoken in the country of China are mentioned here-
Xiang, Min, Wu, Gan, and Kejia or Hakka.
Japanese
As the name of the language itself suggests, Japanese is the official language of Japan. What makes Japanese complex is its sentence structure, kanji characters (kanji is the script) and a number of dialects. The interesting part about this language is that to learn Japanese, you also need to learn Japanese culture. This language can be really difficult for those who have grown up speaking English, French and Spanish but can be somewhat easier for those who know the East Asian languages. Another Asian language in the top three, Japanese grammar can be tricky as it only has two tenses, past and non-past (which is both present and future). A fun fact about this language is that it has no plurals.
Polish
Considered one of the toughest languages, Polish is the 6th most loved language in the European Union. What determines the difficulty level of this language is that its words are difficult to pronounce for English speakers. Though it is based on Latin script, it has a complex grammar system and different letters. Polish belongs to the Slavic branch of languages, consisting of 10 vowels and 35 consonants (i.e. it has a simple vowel system and a complex consonantal system). Moreover, it is heavily dependent on consonants. Because of its difficulty, not many people opt for Polish which opens up a number of opportunities to those who master it.
Arabic
With more than 300 million speakers around the world, Arabic is the 6th official language of the UN and is spoken largely in the Middle East (Saudi, Yemen etc. ) and Africa. Known as the queen of poetic languages, it can be very difficult to learn as it has a huge vocabulary, right to left Rd style, almost no vowels and difficult pronunciations. It’s the official language in 22 sovereign states and has over 25 distinct dialects, meaning that the Arabic spoken in Egypt is different from that spoken in Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates, and can sometimes feel like a different language altogether. Arabic is written in script in which no capital letter is used due to its distinct cursive format. Fun fact- the word camel has 200 synonyms in Arabic Language.
Telugu
Known as the Italian of the East, Telugu is spoken by more than 75 million people out of which maximum are from India. It is the native language of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It can be very difficult to learn for those who have no knowledge of Sanskrit or any other Dravidian language. What makes this language difficult is the pronunciation of words and the script. The best way to understand and learn this language is through Telugu songs and movies.
Korean
The trickiest of all, Korean is the official language of South and North Korea. Spoken by 75 million people, Korean has complex grammar rules, difficult pronunciations, sentence structure and it’s own alphabets, contributing in making it a difficult language. The Korean language uses a specific order of words that means this language is unlike all other languages. With so many K-pop fans around the world, Korean language has a huge fan base who wish to learn the language, but, it is not an easy task.
Finnish
Finnish is the official language of European countries like Finland and Sweden and has more than 5 million speakers. This language has a complex set of grammar rules and vowel system. Though it’s script is Latin, it is very different from the Latin and German language making it extremely difficult to master. The language consists of nouns along with fifteen different cases. Finnish belongs to the Finno-Ugric language, so it does not include any impact of Latin or German language.
Russian
Having more than 277 million speakers, Russian has very different grammar rules and pronunciations. Even if one learns this language, there are still chances of mispronunciations. Based on this, Russian can be considered a tough language to learn. The Cyrillic alphabet consists of 5 vowel sounds and 37 consonant sounds. It is written in uppercase, lowercase or Cyrillic cursive. Talking about the Russian language, it has been the official language of countries such as Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. Most of the consonant in the Russian language has a hard or soft tone which is a distinct feature.
Turkish
Having Latin as it’s script, Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is also spoken in Greece and Bulgaria. What makes this language difficult is its grammar and pronunciation of words. The best part of it is that it is a phonetic language and has Latin alphabets which makes it somewhat easier to grasp.
You will be surprised to know that about 80 to 90 million people in the world speak Turkish. The modern Turkish language consists of Turkic vocabulary. Besides Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece; Northern Cyprus also has Turkish as their national language.
Vietnamese
Another tricky language, Vietnamese is the official language of Vietnam and is the minority language of Czech Republic. Though somewhat similar to the western script, what makes this language difficult is its system of consonants and vowels. In this language, the words with the same tone have different meanings, which is not an easy task to understand. Moreover, its syllables are tricky to grasp.
These were some of the toughest and trickiest languages to learn. However, dedication and will to learn can make anything easy. So, whatever language you are willing to learn, dedicate yourself to it completely and surely, you will succeed.
