Which do you think are the easiest, and most difficult languages to learn for an outsider?

Question

I'm a native English speaker, and found Hebrew and Arabic the hardest, Malay and modern Greek the easiest

Answer 1

"Scotish" - I can't understand a word of what they say.

Answer 2

With English as my native language and a background in Linguistics to work from:

I found Mandarin Chinese the hardest because of the dialectical differences and nuances as well as the numerous tones, although Navajo is a pretty close second and Finnish is pretty difficult to.

I believe that French is the easiest for English speakers, although Spanish is a close second with very few grammar and alphabet issues to memorize.



However, I think it is also based on your language background. My Chinese students think it is easier to learn German than English, and even easier to learn Japanese.

They believe English is the hardest language to learn.

Answer 3

Spanish is reputed to be quite easy to learn. I have also found Norwegian not too bad.

It is tough to learn good Russian because the grammar is so demanding for a native English speaker. One of the toughest I have come across is Korean because not only is a hard language but the culture is difficult to penetrate for a Westerner as well. But any tonal language such as Mandarin and Thai are pretty tough.

Answer 4

that is between chinese language jap or Russian. nevertheless Arabic and Hebrew aint common by utilising any skill the two. exceptionally a lot any language that makes use of symbols as its skill of speaking is problematical. Plus no longer all symbols could stay an analogous in some languages. reckoning on the context they could substitute. calls for smarts yay! playstation what Taivo says approximately english is genuine. Im a spanish interior of sight speaker and english has its problems like all different language. besides the incontrovertible fact that it is not problematical to evaluation :) besides the incontrovertible fact that each physique could have a distinctive concept of what perplexing is. It basically relies upon on the guy :)

Answer 5

The easiest for me were Spanish and French, mainly because neither has many irregular verbs and once you learn basic conjugation of verbs and remember your Latin root words, they're pretty much easy to grasp. I think if you can master French and Spanish, you can easily go on to pick up Italian--mainly because of the Latin-based roots.
The hardest would probably have to be Mandarin Chinese and actually English. English is hard because of irregular verbs, homophones and synonyms....so many rules and pronunciations.

Answer 6

Turkish and Finnish are supposedly the most difficult. Arabic must be right up there, since the government couldn't find any fluent translators after 9/11.

Answer 7

I totally agree with u that arabic is really difficult,I myself study this language,plus speak 6 other languages.
I think also Armenian is difficult to pronounce for foreigners,I'm native Armenian :)
I would say that the most difficult grammar for me was french.

Answer 8

Chinese! when you say something like "I'll have numbers 23, 42, and 39 to take out" You always need to look up and check what you have ordered. Fortunatelt there is always a translation leaflet, usually called a menu, lying around!

Answer 9

I have studied Japanese and have to say that it is quite ok to learn.
I have to agree with you on Arabic, because of all the different sounds and the letters changing depending on where in the word they are. Also the dialects are so different.

Answer 10

Try Irish Gaelic.

Glac bog an saol agus glacfaidh an saol bog tú
Is milis dá ól é ach is searbh dá íoc é.

Answer 11

Ha ! I would say Russian is the toughest to learn... many many declensions... Spanish is much easier, I've learnt it in school, but at the time I was so lazy...