which language is hardest to learn?

Question

vietnamese, mandarin, or japanese? I would think vietnamese would be the easiest of those three.

I'm an English speaking American btw, if you didn't assume already.

yes I know english is for God's sake. Which of those three is hardest to learn.

Answer 1

Let's forget the writing systems for the moment. Everyone thinks that writing is the most important thing in learning a new language. I've got news for you--it isn't. If you actually want to be able to communicate, then grammar and pronounciation are by far the most important things.

Japanese is going to be the hardest to master in terms of grammar. Vietnamese and Chinese are much more like English--they form sentences without many suffixes on words. They rely on word order like English does. Verb tenses and aspects are formed with separate words, in some ways similar to the way that English uses auxiliaries to form aspects. Much of the tense marking in Vietnamese and Chinese is actually just done by placing a time adverb in the sentence, "Tomorrow I go home", "Yesterday I go home", etc. This will make the grammar of these languages much easier to master. Japanese does most of its tense/aspect and case marking work with suffixes on nouns and verbs.

In terms of pronounciation, Vietnamese and Chinese are going to be more difficult because of the tones. Japanese has a very straightforward sound system without tones.

In terms of the writing systems, Vietnamese will be easier since it uses the Roman alphabet modified for the Vietnamese sound system. You already know the Roman alphabet. Chinese uses an ideosyllabic writing system where each syllable has a separate character based dually upon its sound and its meaning. It is rather complex. Japanese uses a selection of old Chinese characters along with two separate syllabaries--the katagana and the hiragana.

So......

Depending on what is most important to you--speaking or reading and writing--there are different answers to your question.

Answer 2

In my opinion, Vietnamese would be easier out of those three. Chinese and Japanese are wonderful languages but they are harder since you're an English speaking American :) Vietnamese language doesn't have characters like other two. Unless you want to learn the old Vietnamese language where they simples and characters :) The Vietnamese language that they have today is only like 400 years old. It was phonetically altered by a bunch of collegues of Alexander de Rhodes 17th century (French)..if I remember my history correctly :) But if you're an average student and you interact with vietnamese, it would take you about 6-8 months to get by. Good luck :)

Answer 3

Mandarin I would think. I know Vietnamese and Japanese people and after a while I can understand a bit of their language. Vietnamese has some difficult vocalizations for an American to master however.

Answer 4

English

Answer 5

I consider korean queen approximately the letters, it is truthfully very effortless to be trained to learn/write the alphabet, there are some thing like 24 letters handiest... MUCH less complicated than chinese language/jap for my part =) I've been taking korean for mixed four yrs and in case you've studied different languages then you have already got a leg up. on account that you mentioned you might have studied french and dutch then no less than you are no longer going into it with out a language history and no longer information that wow there are different languages except english!!! =) examine nearby group faculties round you and even korean cultural facilities (that is wherein I'm taking it now) and simply do a little introductory guides and spot the way you adore it. even examine out a few library books or language aids. I've given you the hyperlink to the cultural core in LA in case you are living local. well good fortune!

Answer 6

mandarin and japanese are equally hard.
Japanese is easier to speak since there isnt as many tones as mandarin but mandarin is easier to write because japanese has four different ways of writing.

So I guess it evens out between those two??

But yes, vietnamese is the easiest out of the three.

Answer 7

Mandarin, because of all the symbols/glyphs. I read somewhere that there are approximately 40,000 different ones, and it must be very confusing to differentiate between ones that are similar. Mandarin is the third most spoken language in America, after English and Spanish.

Answer 8

Mandarin is easy to learn though. As you practice a lot, you can speak it well (even you cannot write it). Mandarin has much less grammar rule than English.

I will consider Arabian as the hardest language to learn.

Answer 9

I've learned French and German, and in every foreign language class, I have noticed that each teacher has said the English is actually the hardest language to learn.

My trilingual friend is Italian and just moved here 5 years ago, and she agrees that english was the hardest for her to learn.

I guess its just hard to understand why your own language is so hard to learn when that's all you know.

Answer 10

Mandarin, hands down!