What is the hardest language to learn? Is it true its Polish?

Answer 1

Some people do say Polish, but I suspect there is an old Polish joke hidden in there somewhere. Some other people say Chinese or Japanese. Some even say English. The truth is that there is no hardest language to learn. It depends on the person, their environment, their experience, their language skills, and where they come from. For one person, learning English will be easier than Chinese. For another, learning Chinese will be a breeze, but learning French will give them fits. There is no true, single answer to this question.

Answer 2

I've been told by my 7th grade English teacher (back in 96-97) who said English was the hardest language to learn (for ppl who didn't already know it).

It's because of all the crazy spellings, anonyms/synonyms, silent letters, etc.

I've also heard it's a long, and tedious process to learn Japanese or Chinese.

Answer 3

English (especially American Standard) is supposed to be awful, because of the erratic spellings and idioms. (Have you ever tried to explain the reasoning behind "overlook", meaning to miss something, and "look over" to examine closely, to a non-native speaker? And then they ask "what's a 'scenic overlook'?)

But there's an old proverb that "when God wanted to punish the Devil, He made him learn Basque."

If I remember correctly (can't remember source though, sorry), Navaho was chosen as a WWII code language because there were only about 30 non-tribespeople (mostly linguists and missionaries) who were fluent----and none of those were known to be in German, Italian, or Japanese-held territories.

Answer 4

the only thing very hard in Polish is the pronounciation.
the language itself, being Indo-European and Slavic should certainly not be the hardest to learn. (at least not for us, slavic speakers; don't know about other people)

Answer 5

I would think a language like Chinese or Japanese would be harder because it's so different from English. Polish sounds a lot like Russian too me.

Answer 6

I think Latin would be hard to learn since no one speaks it anymore. Any language is easier to learn if you use it regularly. BUT I think this question could be relative to where you are from and what language you are trying to learn.

Answer 7

last I understood english was infact the hardest language to learn.

Answer 8

Mandarin

Answer 9

English since we don't write phonetically.Many countries kid are Reading at 4yrs old the same books as 12yrs old English speaking kids do

Answer 10

For us latin based english (and other european language) speakers it's Arabic - the throat is used a lot more.