The most difficult language in the world. How to learn foreign languages? Top most difficult languages ​​in the world

Learning languages ​​has long ceased to be fashion trend and has turned into a necessity - today a highly paid job will be given to the applicant who can speak two, three or even four foreign languages. Therefore one of current issues among students and ordinary people - which ones to study.

What is the difference between an easy language and a difficult one?

It is almost impossible to say which languages ​​are the easiest to learn, because speakers of languages ​​of the same group can easily learn each other's language, since they have similar vocabulary and grammar. And, conversely, it will be more difficult for them to learn the language of another group, since it will have many differences. But there are a number of characteristics that make it possible to distinguish easy language from complex:

in complex languages ​​and in easy ones - short;

the more rules a language has, the easier it is to learn and, conversely, the fewer, the more difficult it is;

the more homonyms a language has, the more difficult it is;

languages ​​with Latin or Cyrillic alphabet are easier to learn than those that have their own alphabet;

it is easier to learn the spelling of a language in which all words are written as they are heard;

The fewer dialects a language has, the easier it is to learn.

Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn are those based on the Cyrillic or Latin alphabet with the largest number rules and the smallest number of homonyms.

Language difficulty levels

How ordinary people, and professional linguists wonder what is the easiest language to learn. Research has led to the fact that all the languages ​​of the world were divided into three groups based on complexity parameters.

The easiest foreign language to learn is any language from the Latin and Germanic groups; learning will require from 600 to 750 hours.

Languages ​​of average complexity are Indo-European, Turkic and the study of which will take from 900 to 1100 hours.

The most complex foreign language is any language that has its own alphabet and vocabulary - Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Georgian and other languages. The training will require at least 2200 hours.

Top 6 easy to learn languages

What is the easiest language to learn? As the US State Department notes, this is a language that will require no more than 600 hours to learn. This is exactly how long it will take to speak an unknown language tolerably. Thus, the easiest languages ​​to learn in are the following Indo European languages:

English - due to the lack of gender, cases, and word agreement. In addition, his grammar is simple, verbs change only in the third person, and the words are short. Nice bonus- native speakers easily perceive the speech of those learning their language and are tolerant of language errors, because today a lot of people are learning English. In the UK, USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and some African countries it is official.

French - Some words of this language are similar to English and it is easy to learn as it is one of the most popular languages ​​in the world. In France, Belgium, Switzerland, Canada and some African countries it is the official language.

Italian has a simple pronunciation, no cases, and vocabulary goes back to Latin language. The area of ​​Italian-speaking countries is small - Italy, Vatican City, San Marino, Switzerland and Argentina.

Spanish has simple grammar and spelling, and vocabulary is similar to Italian and English. In terms of the number of speakers, it is not far behind the most popular languages ​​- only 4th place after English, Chinese and Hindi. Distribution area: Spain, Mexico and Argentina.

Portuguese is similar to Spanish, but it is not easy for their speakers to understand each other due to the fact that the first language is a sibilant. The distribution area is African countries, Brazil and Portugal itself.

Esperanto is the easiest language, as you can master it in a month. In terms of similarity, it is close to Spanish. Esperanto is not official in any country, but it may be recognized as official in the European Union.

Which language is suitable for Russian speakers to learn?

It is suitable for a person to study a language that is in the same language group as his native one. For example, it is easy for an Italian to learn Spanish or Portuguese. What is the easiest language to learn for Russians? Since Russian is one of them, it will be easiest to learn Ukrainian, Bulgarian, Czech or any other Slavic language. Of the European ones, the easiest to learn are those whose culture and sound are closest to the student - for example, expressive Italian or Spanish is suitable for temperamental people, and French for romantics. The same applies to languages ​​of the 3rd complexity group. This is explained by the lack of similarity with the native language, so learning them will require the same amount of time and effort.

Instructions

In terms of proximity, the most difficult language in the world can be called Basque, which does not belong to any language group. IN Basque language 24 cases, and it is considered the oldest in Europe. This language uses suffixes, infixes and prefixes to form new words. Here, to indicate connections between words, we use case endings. The Basque language is very a complex system designations of subject, indirect and direct object. Today, approximately 700,000 people speak and write Basque.

Scientists from the American Institute of Foreign Languages ​​have created a unique list of the most difficult languages ​​to learn (for native English speakers). The most difficult languages ​​for them were: Bengali, Burmese, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, Finnish, Hebrew, Hungarian, Czech, Khmer, Lao, Nepali, Polish, Thai, Tamil, Vietnamese, Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Japanese And.

In terms of writing, the most difficult languages ​​are Chinese, Korean and Japanese. For example, the newest Chinese language, compiled in 1994, contains 85,568 characters. In Japan, children go to school for 12 years. To successfully pass the exam, a Japanese student must learn 1850 characters.

Russian is considered one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world, but it will be quite accessible for a Serb, Pole or Ukrainian to learn, but for a Turk or Japanese, Russian will seem very difficult.

The number of languages ​​spoken by the peoples of Dagestan cannot be accurately counted. The Tabasaran language was included in the Guinness Book of Records as containing the most a large number of cases - from 44 to 52. The Tabasaran language has 54 and 10 parts of speech.

The Eskimo language also became a record holder. There are 63 present tense forms. Native speakers of the Eskimo language think very figuratively. For example, the word “Internet” is expressed by the unpronounceable term “ikiaqqivik,” which literally means “travel through layers.”

Israeli scientists conducted an interesting experiment among speakers of Hebrew, Arabic and English. The results turned out to be very interesting. Native speakers of Hebrew and English were able to easily read words using only one hemisphere of the brain independently of the other. Native speakers actively used both hemispheres of the brain simultaneously when reading. Scientists' conclusion: when reading Arabic writing, the work of the cognitive systems of the brain is activated. So, if you want to develop your mind, then studying Arabic.

Video on the topic

note

Oddly enough, Chinese grammar is one of the simplest in the world.

Sources:

• Which language is the most difficult - the eternal battles of linguists
• 10 most difficult languages

Tip 2: Which language is the most difficult and which is the easiest to learn?

Studying foreign languages ​​opens up new career prospects, gives you the opportunity to watch films and read books in the original, understand the meaning of songs, and simply trains your memory. However, not all languages ​​are learned with equal ease - among them there are some that are very simple and those that are extremely difficult to learn.

One of the most difficult languages ​​is Chinese. Each word is indicated in it a separate character, having learned which, you will still have no idea how to pronounce it. Another challenge is the huge number of homophones - words that are pronounced the same, but are spelled differently and mean different concepts. The tonal system in Chinese also does not make things easier for the learner. In addition to the general intonation of the sentence, each syllable is also pronounced with a different tonality, which determines the meaning of the word.

The Japanese language is not much inferior to Chinese in its complexity. Knowing the symbols also does not give an idea of ​​their pronunciation. Japanese has three writing systems: kanji, which uses Chinese characters, hiragana, which is used to write grammatical particles and suffixes, and katakana, which represents loanwords.

It is estimated that students learning Japanese spend three times as much time studying as those learning English or French.

Arabic also poses a lot of difficulties. Vowels are not used when writing, but consonants have four spelling options depending on their position in the word. Nouns and verbs have to be studied in singular, dual and plural. The nouns themselves have three cases and two genders, and the verb in a sentence is placed before the predicate.

The dialects of Arabic are also of greater complexity, as they can vary as much as modern European languages ​​differ from each other.

The easiest languages

Despite the fact that in English language there are a lot of nuances (for example, words are often read differently from how they are written, and a lot of verbs are conjugated incorrectly), and it has simple grammar. Besides, in Everyday life people often encounter English in songs, films, brands and products on supermarket shelves. Getting to know this language better will not be so difficult.

Spanish is also quite easy to learn. The pronunciation is very similar to English, however, unlike the language of the UK and the USA, in Spanish the spelling of words coincides with their pronunciation. The sentence structure in this language is also easy to learn.

For a Russian-speaking person, learning other languages ​​will not be very difficult. Slavic group, and the closer they are to their native language, the easier the training will be. You can learn Ukrainian and Belarusian the fastest; Bulgarian and Czech are somewhat more difficult. Polish language is not considered simple - it has seven cases, and the grammar is replete with exceptions to the rules.

In the world by different estimates, there are between 2000 and 6000 languages.

How do you know which one is the most difficult? By what criteria is this determined?

Firstly, it is believed that it is very important which language is a person’s native language. And it will be easier for him to learn similar languages. For example, it will be easier for a Pole to learn Russian than, for example, Turkish.

They also look at the complexity of the language's grammar. This is a very important indicator for determining which language is the most difficult.

The most complex of the most common, according to linguists, are Chinese, Japanese and Korean. Interestingly, the human brain perceives Chinese and Arabic differently from other languages. Speakers of these languages ​​use both hemispheres of the brain when writing and reading, while speakers of other languages ​​use only one hemisphere in this case. Here we can conclude that learning these languages ​​will help greatly develop the brain.

Which languages ​​are considered the most difficult to learn?

In Arabic, for example, in addition to writing from right to left, pronunciation is difficult, there is no logic in writing plural, many letters have four different meanings.

The Chinese language is difficult, firstly because you need to remember a huge number of characters. To read more or less, you need to know at least 3000. And in total there are more than 50,000 of them in the language. Tonal pronunciation system. That is, if you pronounce it without the necessary intonation, you may get a completely different meaning. Plus, the hieroglyph does not give an understanding of how the word should be pronounced.

Japanese is a completely confusing language. Firstly, the writing in it differs from pronunciation, secondly, there are three writing systems, and thirdly, you need to learn a huge number of hieroglyphs.

Hungarian is considered a very difficult language. It has 35 cases, many vowels, many suffixes. And his pronunciation is quite difficult.

The Estonian language has 12 cases and many different exceptions to the rules.

The Polish language is also quite difficult. You need to watch your pronunciation, otherwise they may not understand you.

The Icelandic language has many archaic forms that you will have to memorize.

There are also many less common languages, which are also very difficult to learn, which need to be mentioned.



For example, Eskimo (63 present tense forms), Chippewa (the language of the North American Chippewa Indians, the language contains about 6000 verbal forms), Haida (the language of the Haida people living in the Northwest North America, there are 70 prefixes in the language), Tabasaran (one of the languages ​​of the inhabitants of Dagestan). These languages ​​are included in the Guinness Book of Records for their complexity.



There are also such complex languages: Tuyuca (language of the eastern Amazon), Navajo (speaking bilingually, there are no published articles on the language's grammar), Basque (possibly the oldest language in Europe), Czech, Finnish, Laotian, Nepali, Modern Hebrew, Russian , Serbo-Croatian, Sinhala, Thai, Tamil, Turkish, Vietnamese.

The easiest languages ​​in the world

And the simplest are: Danish, Dutch, French, Haitian, Creole, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish. True, this is data from American researchers. And they most correctly show the ease of learning a particular language for English-speaking students.

By the way, interesting thing, English is not at all considered the easiest language in the world. It has quite a lot of exceptions, specific pronunciation, etc. There is an opinion that it became international by accident.

Have you just started learning a foreign language and have already encountered incredible difficulties?

Can't wade through the thorns of German, English or French grammar, phonetics and vocabulary without tears? Chin up! Be glad that you are not faced with the task of conquering one of the most difficult languages ​​in the world.

Russian – fifth place

Foreigners compare the study of the “great and mighty” to a nightmare. Even the Russian alphabet puts people in a state of panic. Many letters in Cyrillic look the same as in Latin, but sound completely different. The purpose of “b” and “b” is a sealed secret. But most often the stumbling block is “Y” and “Y”. Pronouncing these sounds is real torture for the uninitiated.

Words also raise questions. The most difficult ones to learn are homonyms. Although they are written the same, they have different meanings. Synonyms also do not stand aside - the verb “to go” alone has about 50 identical concepts! And the consonance of some words and changes in stress can distort the meaning of the phrase and cause an awkward situation.

Having mastered the kaleidoscope of letters and words, the unfortunate ones find themselves in the wonderful world of 6 cases, 2 conjugations and 3 declensions. Keeping all the rules in your head is already a feat, but mastering the exceptions deserves a medal.

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Hungarian – fourth place

The grammar of the Hungarian language is almost inaccessible to mere mortals. It is fraught with unpleasant surprises:

• 25 cases (in some sources - 18);
• The presence of 6 tense verb forms, including the imperative mood for the first person.
• Unusual morphology. What Russian speakers express with prepositions, Hungarians attach to words with case endings.
• The gender of a noun is determined only by the meaning of the sentence or the word itself.

The Magyar alphabet consists of 40 letters (14 vowels and 26 consonants). Difficult moment for Russians - a feature of the pronunciation of symbols. So, “S” is read as “Ш”, “GY” - as “Дь”, “A” - as something between the Russian “О” and “А”.

Linguistics is also insidious. It’s hard not to faint when you see the word “megszentsеgtelenнthetetlensеgeskedеseitekеrt” in the text, which translates roughly as “in connection with your desire to maintain an impeccable reputation.”

Japanese – third place

The samurai language is a severe test for foreigners. Even the Japanese learn the rules native speech difficult: 10 out of 12 school years children spend struggling with intricate kanji (hieroglyphs) and two alphabets that have their own alphabet. What can we say about those who grew up far from mysterious calligraphic signs!

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The good news is that Japanese morphology is simple and has a clear structure. Nouns and adjectives do not change, and verb forms are easy to learn. Bad news- an abundance of grammatical synonyms: methods of expressing time, conditions and reasons indistinguishable to the European ear.

A separate topic is the famous Japanese politeness. The polite inhabitants of the land of the rising sun use 50 types of greetings. For representatives different ages, social status And financial situation a separate, carefully selected style of speech is provided. One wrong word and you will find yourself on the list of notorious rude people.

Learning foreign languages ​​is an important, exciting, but difficult activity. Nevertheless, some people turn it into a hobby, practically “collecting” the mastered foreign languages. Why do they do this, what difficulties accompany this process, as well as what is the rating of the most problematic and sophisticated languages ​​of the world - you will learn all this from the article.

Why do people love to learn languages?

It would seem that this is such a difficult, time-consuming activity that requires enormous motivation and concentration. Why do people voluntarily agree to learn a foreign language, and more than one, and often do it with pleasure? And there are those who do not stop at one or two languages, but increase the number of languages ​​mastered to four, five or more. What is so exciting and necessary about this?

In general, the motives that motivate people to learn languages ​​can be divided into two categories:

• for pleasure;
• to achieve the goal.

The first group includes a passion for foreign languages ​​as a hobby, as well as the purposeful study of the culture of another country. Knowing the language, you can better understand the mentality of the people, their values ​​and humor.

The second group includes the study of foreign languages ​​for the purpose of emigration, improvement professional status, communication and travel.

In general, we can say that people learn other languages ​​for pleasure and benefit. Now let's talk about the difficulties that accompany this activity.

What is the difficulty of learning foreign languages?

For each case, the difficulties will be different. Let's list the most significant ones.

1.There is a big difference between your native language and a foreign one. So each person has their own hardest languages ​​to learn. For example, most Dutch people find it easier to learn German or English than Russian or Serbian. Not to mention the languages ​​of the peoples of Africa or Oceania. By the way, speakers of Slavic languages ​​will have no less problems with the latter. But the reason is still the same - significant differences

2.Lack of a unified grammar. For example, it will not be easy for a native English speaker to master cases, conjugations and other forms in German, French, Estonian, Russian, etc. The difficulty of learning a language is also affected by the presence of exceptions and variations in it, which make it difficult to understand the general logic of the language.

3.Selected aspects: pronunciation, writing. For example, if the oral side of the Chinese language is not difficult to master, then you will have to tinker with the written side, namely, learn a huge number of hieroglyphs. The same can be said about the Japanese language, where there are three forms of writing, as well as various speech clichés, similar in meaning, but used in different situations. The English language, despite the simplicity of its grammatical structure, has complicated reading rules with many exceptions.

A few words about the great and mighty

Almost all of us have heard this maxim: “The Russian language is the most difficult.” And we, as schoolchildren, were proud that he was our family. But is it true that Russian is the most difficult language to learn?

As can be understood from the above, the complexity depends on a number of circumstances, among which the most prominent are the individual characteristics of the student. In other words, the Russian language is difficult to master for those people whose native language differs significantly in grammatical structure, pronunciation and writing.

The most difficult of the European and Slavic

The languages ​​of the peoples of the Earth are so different from each other and have their own characteristics that it is possible to determine the most complex language in the world only within one or another large group. Another important factor is the individuality of the student - his abilities and native language.

Thus, among the European and Slavic languages ​​the most difficult are considered to be:

• Estonian, Polish, Hungarian, Icelandic - in terms of grammar;
• Greek, Russian - in terms of graphics and spelling.
• English, Polish, Hungarian, Georgian - in terms of pronunciation.

The most difficult of the Eastern and Asian

If your native language is Slavic or European, then you will experience the most difficulties in learning Arabic, Turkish, Chinese, Sanskrit, Hindi, Japanese, and Korean. And all because their writing, pronunciation or grammatical structure are significantly different from the one to which other peoples are accustomed.

Arabic may not be the most difficult language in the world, but it has nevertheless been found that its writing requires more effort than reading Latin, Cyrillic, or even hieroglyphs. And the large number of hieroglyphic icons - 87 thousand - is the main obstacle to learning Chinese. The other languages ​​listed are characterized by difficulties in pronunciation and large quantity grammatical classes: genders, cases, persons, conjugations, tense forms, etc.

Rating of the most difficult languages

As you can already understand, compiling such a list is not an easy task. After all, the difficulty of learning a particular language for a foreigner lies in what language this person has as his native language, as well as what languages ​​he already speaks and what his individual abilities are.

1. The most difficult language in the world is Basque, spoken by people living in southwestern France and northern Spain. It is characterized by an extremely complex grammatical structure and low prevalence, which made it possible to use the Basque language for encryption during the Second World War.

2. Tuyuca is the language of the small peoples of Brazil and Colombia. Its grammatical structure is quite complex, and the same can be said about spelling.

3. The Eskimo language has 252 noun endings, as well as 63 present tense forms of verbs. This is quite enough to make you suffer from studying it.

4. Language African tribe Suaya has no genders, verbs or nouns, but its grammar contains 15 forms of past and future tenses. In the vocabulary you can find 108 different words to indicate yellow color, but none for water.

5. The language of the Nivkhs (a small people living on Northern Sakhalin) is notable for its special counting system, which changes depending on what items are being counted. There are a total of 26 methods that anyone who decides to learn this rare language will have to master.

6. The Chippewa Indian Tribe boasts a native language containing 6,000 verb forms - a world record.

7. The Abaza language (belongs to the languages ​​of the peoples of the Caucasus, is one of the official languages ​​in Karachay-Cherkessia) is distinguished by such complex phonetics that it is almost impossible for a person for whom it is not native to master it.

What's the best way to learn any language?

Even the most difficult language in the world can be mastered if you approach this process purposefully and consciously. Create a lesson plan that includes goals for the day, week, month, and then follow it. It will take a lot of patience and constant practice.

In the case of common European and Slavic languages, watching videos with foreign subtitles helps a lot: this way you will not only hear pronunciation samples, but also learn to understand speech. Another valuable source when learning languages ​​is communication in them.

Conclusion

Surely you have already realized that there is no one answer to the question of which foreign language is the most difficult. Each has its own nuances: be it pronunciation, graphic system, rules of grammar and spelling, lexical features, and so on. Whether a language is complex or simple - the answer often lies in the personality of the person studying it.