This is a very subjective question, because the answer will be influenced by the person
asking the question.
The first thing to consider is the native language of the person making the enquiry.
If the person is English-speaking then the general consensus is that they will find it
easier to pick up Germanic languages that have similar writing systems, grammatical
rules and overlapping vocabulary.
That being said there are some other factors that make a language more complex to learn.
Tonal languages such as Chinese have different words, that sound the same to a foreign ear
but in fact mean different things.
Japanese for example has numerous characters that have to be learned before being able
to write. It also has three independent writing systems, each with a different alphabet.
Some languages have very complex rules when it comes to grammar and sentence structure.
For example, Hungarian boasts somewhere between 18 to 35 grammatical cases
depending on what is including in the list.
Some languages are spoken in a way that make it difficult for new learners to master the
pronunciation of words in that language.
For example the clicking consonants of the languages in Southern Africa may take a lot
of practice for the average European to pick up.
The American foreign service institute categorises languages into four levels of difficulty based
on the hours it takes for a person to achieve speaking, reading and writing proficiency.
The categorisation assumes that the person’s native language is English and that they are
learning the foreign language full-time.
The more difficult languages include Arabic, Japanese and Chinese which all take an average
of 88 weeks to learn, which is 1.69 years.
The languages that take less time to learn include the Germanic and Romance languages.
These take an average of about 23-24 weeks to learn, which is about 6 months.
But whatever the level of difficulty, all languages can be learned and there are several
techniques that can make language acquisition easier.
Studies have shown that the most common 100 words
in any language accounts for about 50% of all spoken communication. The most common
1,000 words accounts for 80% of all spoken communication and the most common 3,000 words
accounts for 99% of communication.
So focussing on learning key vocabulary, i.e. the most common 100 words is an effective
way to quickly start communicating in the chosen foreign language.
Studying a language with intensity and committing
to investing a significant amount of time over a period of months will trump an hourly
class each week over a period of years.
Studying a foreign language abroad is considered
one of the best methods of language learning as it forces the learner into numerous conversations
with native speakers, thus speeding up the learning process.
But if the learner can’t drop everything and move abroad then the next best thing is
to find a native speaker who will give them an opportunity to engage in regular conversation.
Moving abroad speeds up language acquisition
because the learner has to learn the language in order to go about their daily business.
They not only want to learn the language, they need to learn the language.
Having a compelling reason to learn a foreign language strengthens the motivation to learn.
When learning a language there will be a lot of things that will be missed and a lot of
mistakes that will be made in conversation.
The learner needs to learn to be comfortable with ambiguity and their own mistakes.
The focus should be on trying to understand the gist of the conversation taking place and
over time ambiguity and mistakes will be ironed out.
Focusing too much on knowing everything and speaking perfectly can be detrimental to the
learning process.
A good way to learn a language is to enjoy cultural material within that language.
It’s important to choose material of an appropriate difficulty level, so for beginners
it’s better to watch children’s cartoons or dubbed versions of sitcoms that they are
already familiar with.
Using all of the previous techniques have been proven to significantly speed up learning
a foreign language.
And that concludes my video into which is the hardest language to learn and how to speed
up language acquisition.
As always I hope you enjoyed this video and please subscribe to LondonCityGirl for more
interesting and educational videos from me.