Top 10 Difficult Languages to Learn

Top 10 Difficult Languages to Learn

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We didn’t catch that? Can we hear it again? Okay, one more time. That’s better. Welcome to WatchMojo.com and today we’re counting down our picks for the Top 10 Difficult Languages to Learn. For this list, we’ve rummaged through the world’s languages and have selected those we deem the hardest to master. We’ve excluded English because if you’re watching this you’ve probably got a handle on it... but then there’s the comments section so…

Can you imagine what pop culture would be without all our favorite, famous Hungarians? Probably exactly the same. “Houdini” aside, there’s a pretty large disconnect between the English and Hungarian speaking worlds, most likely because Hungarian is just so damn difficult tolearn. It has some of the strangest grammar rules in the world, which includes 14 vowels, and 18 language cases – or up to 35 if you consider the cases that apply to prepositions. This is massive compared to English, which has zero language cases. Hungarian is also expressive, relying heavily on idioms. Perhaps hardest to grasp, Hungarian sentence structure is completely different to most languages, with suffixes indicating tense, not word order.

This language, at least to English-speaking ears, is a bit of an unusual one. Referring to a collection of indigenous languages that consist of clicking patterns of consonants and phonemes, Khoisan is only a verbal language, not a written one. Khoisan languages have the most consonants in the world, and as such rely heavily on manipulation of sound. With most of these languages lacking a written record, you haveto learn them by immersing yourself in the incredibly small populations that speak it.

The trouble most learners have with Korean is with its relatability. It is a language isolate, meaning that it lacks any common ancestors or genealogical links with other languages. In short, the Korean language is only native to South and North Korea, which, when totaled, make up a relatively small portion of the planet. Couple the rarity of the language with a wholly self-contained, unique alphabet system - and you have a pretty steep learning curve. Things only get trickier as Korean opposes classic language structure, confusing learners. Sentence structure is equally troubling. Action sentences place the subject first, then the object, and finally the verb or action.

As a language, Icelandic is rife with conundrums. On the one hand, the language is out of sync with modern times in that it steadfastly refuses to encompass loanwords or words from other languages to explain new terms, items, or concepts. Instead, these new concepts are bestowed with a brand new word. Otherwise, however, Icelandic remains mostly unchanged since its conception centuries ago - and still abides by its unique sentence and letter structures established way back when. Good luck finding a tutor though, as less than 400,000 people speak Icelandic today.

While most have probably heard of this language, it’s still entirely possible to not know what it is. Sanskrit is the primary sacred language of Hinduism, and is a philosophical language of Buddhism, Sikhism and Jainism. It’s also one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, which means it’s represented in the Indian Constitution. Those who try to learn this classical language struggle because of its incredibly unique grammar rules. For example, Sanskrit includes three gender nouns: masculine, feminine and neuter, and has eight cases. On top of that, Sanskrit requires a very high inflection. Bottom line, this one’s hard.

Here’s why Finnish is so hard. The trouble lies in translation. Finnish grammar rules are, well, frankly crazy to English-speakers – in both structure and pronunciation. It takes a lot to translate from English, and even when that’s done the end product probably won’t work. That’s because the language is so colloquial and expressive that native language speakers don’t always rely on the rules. They do what they want and it makes sense - to them at least.

#4: Japanese

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This is a language that requires immense preparation and intense studying before you can accomplish the slightest success. To be able towrite Japanese somewhat adequately, learners must first master thousands of characters. Most of those characters have multiple pronunciations and meanings, which are then made more difficult when considering the rules of how those characters can be combined. The Japanese writing system has several components – hiragana, katakana, and kanji – and rules change depending on the use of scripts. Once you’ve figured all this out, you can finally put yourself through the hardship of speaking Japanese. There are not short cuts with this one.

Most English speakers would describe Arabic as unlike anything they’ve ever seen before. Most words vary between four different forms, depending on placement. Short vowels are not part of the Arabic alphabet. Words derive from base roots and to accommodate grammar and structure. There are many different dialects that vary so much that often two forms of Arabic are completely foreign to one another. Let’s also remember that Arabic has several sounds that aren’t found in English, so luck and hard work are definitely required to teach your vocal chords to imitate them.

As a comedy accent, Russian seems fairly easy to mimic. But to actually learn and respect the language, that’s a whole new ball game. The written language uses the Cyrillic alphabet, meaning it is far different from the alphabet English speakers know. Like Arabic, Russian is comprised of sounds that are very different than those known to English speakers, and mastering them takes years of practice. Additionally, Russia’s history of cool-to-strained relations with the western world mean finding help can be harder than you might think. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Hebrew Dutch Welsh Greek

It would be unfair to ignore the wide reach that Chinese, as a general language, has had on many of the world’s difficult languages. With that in mind, we’re including Mandarin and Cantonese under this Chinese umbrella. Both are tonal languages, with Mandarin using four tones and one neutral tone and Cantonese using six or more. Chinese languages are also chock full of homophones, idioms and proverbs, so even knowing the language may not mean you understand it. The Chinese character system is pretty much endless, meaning learning is an ongoing process. Flat out, there is no end in sight when learning Chinese, so press on or give up. Do you agree with our list? Which language do you think is the hardest to learn? For more interesting Top 10s published daily, be sure tosubscribe to WatchMojo.com.