Hello everyone or should I say 大家好 or مرحبا بالجميع!
If you do a simple search on google about the most difficult languages in the world
the result would be mandarin chinese Right after that it will be Arabic
which are considered to be 2 of the most difficult languages in the world
FSI puts these languages in Category V Languages which takes around 88 weeks and 2200 class
hours to master it
But is that really the case?
As someone who has been learning
the Arabic language for years I can speak in both Fusha
the MSA (modern standard Arabic ) and the Syrian dialect.
Additionally I am a native Chinese speaker with significant
experience in teaching Mandarin to foreigners.
I will go into detail today about the most difficult aspects of each language
I will do a thorough comparison based on the most important 6 skills of every language
And at the end of the video, I will tell you my own personal and honest opinion about which
language you should learn
and I’ll tell you which language I think it's easier to learn.
So, let's get into the video!
Attention!
Most of the online results are based on the assumption that your mother tongue is English
The truth is the difficulty of a language depends on your
mother tongue
and how far apart the two languages are If your mother tongue is Japanese
you may not face the same challenges learning Mandarin as an English speaker would
as you are already familiar with many Hanzi characters
Similarly, if you speak Farsi or Turkish and are looking to learn Arabic
it may not be as difficult as you think because there is a lot of common vocabulary
Pronunciation is the foundation of language learning
When it comes to Chinese language you should pay attention to 2 things：
pronunciation and tones as they’re not the same thing
Chinese pronunciation generally speaking isn’t difficult especially with the help of pinyin
On the other hand
the tone or pitch of a word can change its meaning completely
for example, the syllable 八 means eight
拔 pull out 把 to put
爸 the father
Even the fourth tone BA can be associated with different characters that have different
meanings
such as 罢 (strike)
霸 (tyrant) and 坝 (dam)
This can create confusion within a word.
For example
老师 (lǎoshī) means teacher while 老是 (lǎoshì) means always
and 老实 (lǎoshí) means honest.
they are not the same， guys
Sometimes words with opposite meanings are distinguished only by tone.
For example, in Chinese 买 măi is pronounced
with a falling-then-rising tone 卖 mài is pronounced with a falling tone
The first one means “to buy” while the second means “to sell”.
The pronunciation of basic sounds in Chinese is easy
but noticing the tones takes time and practice.
Luckily, the pinyin writing system,
which uses Latin letters, can clearly show you the tones for each word
In contrast, Arabic is written phonetically meaning each word is spelled exactly as it
sounds.
This eliminates the need to learn correct intonation,
as all syllables are equally stressed.
However, Arabic has many similar sounds,
such as ح/ه, خ/غ, ض/د, ق/ك which can make pronunciation a bit tricky
for
those who speak Latin or Indo-European languages for chinese speaker as well
So, in conclusion they are both difficult in different ways.
Speaking Chinese can be challenging but it depends on a few things.
How much have you practised?
The more you practice,
the easier it becomes to speak.
Of course, there are different dialects
I speak 4 different Chinese dialects For example, "吃饭" in mandarin
which means "to eat."
sik6 faan6 in cantonese qi fan
in Guiliu dialect genshou in Zhuang dialect actually, it’s not a dialect it's a language
of an ethnic minority called Zhuang Since China has a variety of dialects
most people begin by learning Putonghua mandarin, which is the common tongue that
is understood by most Chinese people.
At school, we study in Putonghua
and I speak Putonghua with my Chinese friends from different regions.
With Putonghua you can easily communicate with people from
all over the country
so there's no need to worry.
Mandarin is more than enough!
Now, Arabic is a whole different story.
It's what we call a language continuum
which means that there are many dialects spoken throughout a vast area.
While people from neighboring regions can understand each other
the dialects become less and less mutually comprehensible the further you travel.
So, if you learn one dialect of Arabic like Moroccan Arabic for instance
it might be hard to communicate with someone who speaks a different dialect
like one from Syria.
for example if you want to
say I want to eat an apple in Fusha we say
in Syrian dialect we say in Egyptian dialect we say
But don't worry!
All Arabic speakers can understand and speak fusha
which is also used in formal settings and education.
However, the main difference is that Chinese people primarily use
Putonghua in our daily and professional lives as well as on most Chinese social media platforms
which is not the case with how people use Fusha in Arabic.
From my personal experience after learning Fusha
I had to also learn the Egyptian and Syrian dialects to communicate with
people naturally and understand what's going on in social media.
However, even with knowledge of these dialects it is still not enough when people speak in
other dialects.
If you want me to make a video
about different Arabic dialects write a comment please.
Learning to write Chinese characters can be one of the most challenging parts of studying
Mandarin.
If you search on the internet you will feel overwhelmed by the
sheer number of characters but don't be discouraged
Around 4000 characters only 4000 characters are enough to
get you to a C2 level.
that`s not too much!
They will cover to 99% of the daily language use.
Highly educated people know about 8000 characters
I don´t even know how much Chinese characters I know!
When writing Chinese characters there’s a specific order for the strokes and a lot
of details,
even Chinese people can get it wrong sometimes, for example look at these characters
They may look the same but when the upper stroke is longer than the
lower stroke it has a completely different meaning
When it comes to Arabic The Arabic alphabet contains 28 letters,
all representing consonants Arabic is written from right to left in a
cursive style
that means, when writing a word the letters are joined together in a flowing manner
The Arabic alphabet does not use upper or lowercase letters as in the Latin alphabet.
However, the shape of each letter changes depending on its position in a word
initial, medial, and final the letter can be writing differently
depending on the location in the words But it’s not hard to memorize either.
It only took me one week to learn and get used to it!
So, in conclusion, Chinese writing is definitely more difficult than Arabic.
When it comes to Chinese Reading can be easier than writing since it's
a visual language.
You can identify a high amount of vocabulary visually than you can write.
Additionally, the key to cracking the reading code lies in the radicals.
There are around 200 radicals which are common components in Chinese writing.
Each one of them can guide you to
the meanings of a character.
For example, the radical 氵 stands for water
and can be found in characters like 河 (river) and 洗 (wash).
Similarly, the radical 火 stands for fire/burning and can be found in words
such as 灯 (lamp) and 烧 (burn).
So, Chinese is not as random as it might seem.
Reading in Arabic can be a bit more complicated and harder than in other languages
but it's not that difficult.
The Arabic alphabet changes
shape slightly when written and sometimes the pronunciation changes
depending on the location of the letter.
actually this is the most difficult part
Additionally, diacritics can change the meaning or grammar of a word
so you need to know the inflection and derivation rules to correctly pronounce a written word.
This can take some time since Arabic morphology is quite rich and complex.
East Asian languages are generally considered to have simpler grammar compared to inflected
languages such as Spanish or German.
They don't have gender and verb conjugation
and in Chinese, there are no verb tenses or plural endings.
However, some East Asian languages, including Chinese, use classifiers,
In Chinese, grammar is mainly conveyed through word order,
sentence structure, and function words.
Therefore, while East Asian languages
may lack some features of inflected languages they have their own unique grammatical systems
that require attention and understanding.
Look at these examples and notice how the
verb chi which means to eat stays the same: you don’t have to conjugate it
I eat an apple.
I ate an apple.
we just add “le”
I will eat an apple.we just add “jiang” Meanwhile in Arabic you would say:
I eat an apple "أنا آكُلُ التفاحةَ."
I ate an apple أنا أكلْتُ التفاحة
I will eat an apple سوف اكُلُ تفاحة Arabic grammar is indeed considered
one of the most complex in the world but it is also highly logical once understood.
In the Middle East Arabic grammar is often referred
to as the "sea of grammar" due to its vastness.
Arabic is a gendered language and has dual and
plural forms of speech.
Words in Arabic are made up of root consonants and vowels.
To change the meaning, you need to
place the vowels following a set of patterns.
Verb conjugation, word order, gender, dual,
and plural forms all have their own rules as well.
I am struggling guys
For example, if you speak about a woman it’s different than a man, and speaking
to two women or two men is also different than speaking to a whole group of women or
men.
It also depends if the group has one gender, or mixed.
Past, present and future all require specific conjugations of verbs.
The majority of masculine plural nouns are irregular.
The same word is conjugated differently depending on whether it’s the subject
of the sentence, the object of a preposition, or the object of a verb
A word also changes in pronunciation depending on whether or not it’s definite or Indefinite.
To make plurals in Arabic, the same consonants are taken,
and the vowels are rearranged.
For instance, "door" is "baab," and "doors" is "abwab."
what is abwaab!
Each noun in Arabic has its unique plural form
and there is no uniform way of pluralizing nouns in Arabic.
In Mandarin,and most of the time there's no plural at all for example door is "men"
and "doors" is "men."
100 doors they are still “men”
So, as we wrap up.
Every language has its own set of difficulties
and the level of difficulty can vary depending on various factors.
But, remember, it's a subjective matter and depends on how motivated you are
and how much effort you're willing to put in.
Learning both Mandarin and Arabic can be rewarding
in both intellectual and professional aspects.
They both offer a glimpse into rich cultures and civilizations,
and they can connect you with people from different backgrounds.
Plus, knowing these languages can also open up a world of job opportunities.
I know plenty of foreigners who have achieved amazing careers by being fluent
in Mandarin or Arabic.
But here's the thing,
no language is hard to learn.
It just takes time and effort to master it.
With the right approach and mindset, anyone can learn a new language.
And, if you want to learn more about how to start learning a new language by yourself
check out my other videos where I guide you through the process step-by-step.
Also, I'll be posting more detailed videos about learning Mandarin and Arabic in the
coming weeks.
So, if you liked this video, please hit the like button and support me.
And don't forget to subscribe and turn on notifications so you don't
miss out on any new videos.
I'll see you all in the next one!
Bye！